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The article focuses on surfing to consider the attractiveness of using the sublime to describe experiences and emotions in nature sports. The sublime is shown to be a red herring in scholarship as it fails to account for many of the valuable experiences available to nature sports enthusiasts. The article draws on the work of Genevieve Lloyd to propose that wonder is a more suitable concept that gets to the heart not only of the terror and awe that nature can inspire, but also to the orientation towards our finitude, difference, and the stimulation of growth and practical knowledge that nature sports also inspire (and that are not accounted for in the sublime). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Daniel Brennan's book, "Surfing and the Philosophy of Sport," combines his research in political philosophy with his personal experience as a surfer to explore the philosophical aspects of surfing. The book delves into topics such as the aesthetic qualities of surfing, the distinction between recreational and competitive surfing, the lifestyle aspects of the sport, and the impact of technological advancements on surfing. Brennan also examines the inclusion of surfing in the Olympics and addresses issues of gender and motility in the sport. While the book offers a comprehensive exploration of surfing, there is room for further discussion on topics such as the negative aspects of surf culture and the hybrid nature of surfing in the Olympics. Overall, the book provides valuable insights for researchers and readers interested in the philosophy of sport and surf studies. [Extracted from the article]

For an academic field to remain vital, it is necessary to reflect upon its conceptual foundations and learn from adjacent disciplines. On that note, aesthetics can provide significant insights into advertising. While aesthetic elements have received attention in advertising research, no systematic attempts have been made to provide a comprehensive overview of this literature. The purpose of this conceptual article is to bring different branches of aesthetic theory into advertising studies. Marketers have historically focused on product functionality and often appeal to consumers through explicit messages. This article fills an important gap by delineating and advocating the conceptual foundation of advertising aesthetics as a research area worthy of further attention. In short, we understand advertising aesthetics as the artlike properties of and sensory responses to ads. A review of 309 papers provides the thematic outline of the study. Seven key themes are identified: (1) the nature of advertising aesthetics, (2) advertising creativity, (3) textuality, (4) social aesthetics, (5) cross-cultural differences, (6) the role of media in creating aesthetic opportunities, and (7) aesthetic categories beyond the beautiful and sublime. These themes offer a novel way of exploring contemporary issues in advertising. The article concludes with suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The Philosophy of Mixed Martial Arts: Squaring the Octagons" is an academic book that explores philosophical ideas and concepts related to mixed martial arts (MMA) and combat sports. The book covers a wide range of topics, including the history and nature of MMA, ethical aspects, cognitive and aesthetic aspects, violence and constraints in combat sports, and the gender debate in MMA. The authors come from diverse academic backgrounds and include practitioners and former athletes, providing a range of perspectives. While the book primarily focuses on MMA, it also extends to other martial arts and combat sports. It is a valuable resource for understanding the social and moral issues surrounding MMA and boxing, and it can be used for teaching and research purposes in various disciplines. [Extracted from the article]

Charles Lamb was the author of whimsical "familiar essays" but famously also an East India Company clerk, and the relationship between these two aspects of what might broadly be called his "writing career" is sometimes framed as directly antagonistic, as merely irritating, or even as mutually reinforcing. I argue however that Lamb's own shifting sense of both "engrossing" and "penning" for a living, expressed in his essays and correspondence, was more complex than these dualisms, and that this condition informed deeper tensions that he creatively explored and adapted throughout his career. It is via analyses of Lamb's works within the historical and theoretical context of his office milieu, an approach informed by readings of Jacques Lacan and Bruno Latour, that I argue his creative engagement with inchoate bureaucratic structures provides a concrete basis for considering the aesthetic motifs and philosophical preoccupations typical of Romanticism more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comics have been especially vulnerable to censorship. A history of repression has been well documented in the scholarship and is part of fan lore and culture – so much so, in fact, that the topic risks becoming calcified. This paper argues for a broader examination of free speech and comics, the better to understand how the creation and circulation of texts shapes the medium. Here, Neil Gaiman serves as a valuable case study, a creator who not only advocates for free speech but whose intellectual formation depended upon it. Attending to the liberalising forces of mid-Twentieth Century, the paper illustrates how the availability of texts was essential to the formation of Gaiman's distinct comics aesthetic. Moreover, as Gaiman's case suggests, comics depends on free speech not only to protect creators, but to guarantee access to the materials out of which traditions can be built. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harley Quinn is not only DC's ever-yearning romantic Joker victim – a libidinous, self-centred coarse bumpkin in suspenders, who regularly gets thrashed without mercy – but also an eccentric clown and violent vaude-villain. We argue that the diversity of Harley Quinn's personality as portrayed by different writers and impersonated by cosplay fans is intrinsically connected to the complex and multi-dimensional humour that is associated with the character. Drawing on humour and clown theories, we unpack Harley Quinn's obvious but under-examined humour facets – including her humorous contradictions, meta-humour and clown iconography and routines – with the aim of better understanding her specific comics aesthetics and their humorous momentum both within her fictional worlds and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In ancient China, art has never been a substitute for the category of 'truth' in the sense of Western aestheticism, but a mimic for goodness and beauty. The image in traditional Chinese aesthetics never transcended the idea to the level of Western abstraction, and that is because the artistic expression bore a social synthesis, rather than metaphysical, between human beings, reality, and the world. However, the Ming Dynasty introduces a Dionysian discourse that challenges the Apollonian tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1970s and 1980s, several Asian governments, including those of Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Korea, and Taiwan, enacted varying measures to proscribe long hair on men. Singapore's government was no exception in this regard, barring even longhaired global male celebrities from entry. Adopting a social semiotic perspective, this article traces the vicissitudes of the male hairscape in Singapore from the colonial period to contemporary times, with a view to uncovering its differential indexical meanings. It argues that the stigmatization of long hair was part of a moral-aesthetic regimen of hair hygiene that fashioned shorthaired men as poster boys of a young, disciplined, and aspirational nation, while longhaired men were discursively constructed as a bad influence and the archnemesis of a desired work culture and social life. Men's hair, then, was not an innocuous sign with an organic meaning, but a loaded signifier for a cultural ethos tied to shifting social imperatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With massive coffee sales comes a detrimental environmental impact due to high disposable cup usage. This study examined how Starbucks portable cup design and environmental concerns shape green purchase intention by extending the TPB model. Structural analysis revealed that aesthetics, symbolism, functionality, and environmental concerns influenced consumer attitudes, contributing to purchase intention alongside perceived behavioral control and subjective norms within the TPB framework. Multigroup analysis found that symbolism has a stronger impact on females' attitudes, while functionality has a stronger impact on males' attitudes. Additionally, attitude mediated the effects of design and environmental concerns on green purchase intention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This text reviews a science play that has emerged from a collaboration between performing artists and scientists based in Lund, Sweden. It argues that the play, titled The Right Way, can productively be understood as 'science metatheater'. Thus, it belongs to a genre which knowingly and self-ironically brings the viewer's attention to the staged nature of the theater performance. As such, science metatheater moves beyond placing 'science on stage'. Instead, it seeks to place science theater itself on stage. By doing so, it front-stages the challenges of 'Sci-Arts' collaborations between scientists and artists, in which competing concerns – aesthetic, epistemological and communicational – may come into conflict with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the inner conflicts experienced by composers who survived the atomic bombing, as reflected in their musical works associated with Hiroshima. Approximately 30 years after the bombing, both Masaru Kawasaki and Masayuki Takenishi completed pieces related to their severe experiences. By exploring these pieces—Kawasaki' Prayer Music No. 1 'Dirge' and Takenishi's Aishō I, II—it becomes apparent that the process of articulating their catastrophic experiences, including extended periods of silence, serve as significant tokens of trauma and memory. These works differ from other studies of musical representation of trauma as they encapsulate unique dual aspects: guilt and duty. The feelings of guilt and responsibility, as conceptualised by Robert J. Lifton's idea of 'imprinted death' among Hiroshima survivors, are reflected in their compositions. This dual burden, including the professional duty to convey their experiences as musical testimonies for future generations, distinguishes their work from other narrative activities expected in post-war Japanese society. Engaging with these musical witnesses, which are imbued with the imprinted deaths of numerous individuals, including Kawasaki and Takenishi, introduces another layer of conflict between aesthetic appreciation and the ethical and historical dimensions for me. This tension profoundly influences my perspective as a musical researcher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As visual cultures scholars have argued, visual expression and aesthetic artifacts largely comprise the modern world. This includes the production of the school as an institution. A critical approach to education therefore must reinscribe students with the ability to see what educational processes attempt to hide and to construct an understanding of the real for themselves. To illustrate this argument, we explore the production of visuality within data science education as one example of how the visual manifests within schools. In response, we propose a visual literacy informed approach to engaging students with data, one that expands beyond contemporary forms of critical data literacy by involving an ontological critique of educational aestheticization. To ground this work, we examine the role of visuality and aesthetics within the implementation of co-designed arts-infused data science projects in four US middle schools. In analyzing interviews with teachers and students, we uncover a series of tensions that reveal the ongoing influence of school visualities alongside the potential for student generated images to amplify their right to look. We therefore argue that critical pedagogies must not only involve reading and critiquing aesthetic artifacts but also engage students in a critique of visuality itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses an episode in twentieth-century Soviet-Armenian literature — select works depicting Stalin's labour camps. Reflecting on the works of the Soviet-Armenian writers Gurgen Mahari, Mkrtich Armen, and Vache Sargsyan, it explores camp experience within the context of Soviet state policies. Responding to the policies of Khrushchev's Thaw during the 1950s-1960s, these writers felt they had a 'moral' duty to write the 'objective' truth about Stalin's labour camps, thus encountering the difficulties of representing personal experience artistically. Armen and Mahari, in some of their stories written in the late 1950s, and Sargsyan, in his three-volume novel Akeghdama, written in the 1960s, tried to abstract their lived camp experience to represent it as universal. The writers employed the device of writing about their experience in third person and ended up trapped by their own device. They created a world in which objective conditions and people's lives were separated and opposed to each other. By polarising the terrible conditions of forced life and the good character of the inmates, the writers were unintentionally becoming part of Stalin's political agenda of the 1930s, which simplified the relationship between the individual and the building of socialism, defining it as an act of honour, glory, valour, and heroism. Mahari revised his approach in the mid-1960s; turning himself into a protagonist and portraying exilic life as an endless chain of compulsions and accidents, he showed in a series of works how an exile could survive the forced conditions by transcending them through imagination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the most exteriorized architectural elements, façades are significant features of the urban image and important contributors to the aesthetic and other urban experiences. However, discussions on the subject have lost relevance in academic and professional circles following arguments about physical determinism, façadism, beautification, and aestheticisation practices. Reflecting on the multiple contributions of façades to contemporary urban life, this article re-engages with the debate on façade design and the aesthetic and other urban experiences it affords from a political perspective to interrogate the impact of individualistic design practices in an era dominated by capitalist place-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis article sheds light on how visual images—particularly non-photographic artwork—can shape international incidents between states. It employs an interpretive framework based on aesthetic theory and strategic narrative to examine the 2020 diplomatic spat between Australia and China over an illustration titled Peace Force by Chinese digital artist Wuheqilin. Peace Force, which depicts an Australian soldier murdering an Afghan child in reference to the Brereton Report, elicited uncharacteristically angry responses from the Australian government. We argue that Australia’s strong response to Peace Force was more than a mere deflection strategy, but instead a collective emotional response by Australian elites to a visually-conveyed narrative threat to Australia’s national identity. Australia’s counter-narrative strategy was not only to contest the Chinese visual narrative’s political message but also the aesthetic essence of the image itself, including the non-photographic visual medium. Based on this case, we suggest that strategic narratives involving political artwork contain both ‘political’ and ‘aesthetic’ layers with equal importance. In addition to providing a detailed account of a particularly notorious incident in Australia-China relations, this article contributes to the broader visual politics and strategic narrative agendas in international relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My goal in this paper is to argue that some cases of autobiographical remembering can be, and sometimes are, experienced aesthetically. Building on a Deweyan approach to the nature of aesthetic experiences, I show how Dewey conceived of aesthetic experiences as having a cumulative and progressive structure—I call experiences with such structure Deweyan experiences—and how that structure is replicated in some cases of autobiographical remembering in virtue of their having narrative structure. I also discuss the relationship between remembering and other forms of narrative thinking and argue that not only it is easier for remembering to be experienced aesthetically, but also that only remembering can have the cumulative and progressive structure that characterizes Deweyan experiences. I conclude by showing how the Deweyan approach allows us to conceive of the aesthetic value of remembering in terms of the pleasurable or hedonic character of Deweyan experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractProsocial behaviour is crucial in human relationships, enhancing the well-being of both the helper and the recipient. Using rewards to encourage prosocial behaviour can be effective, but may influence reasoning and negatively affect follow-up prosocial behaviour. The salience of the reward for the initial helping behaviour could explain the mixed findings in prior literature. Using a 2 (Aesthetic Upgrade, No Aesthetic Upgrade) × 2 (Functional Upgrade, No Functional Upgrade) online experimental study design (N = 170), this research investigates the impact of reward salience within a videogame on follow-up prosocial behaviour (donation to charity). Findings indicate that although reward salience was successfully manipulated, it did not have a statistically significant relationship with reasoning or behaviour. Notably, strategic reasoning for in-game helping was negatively associated with charitable donations. These results emphasise the importance of understanding how people perceive their prosocial actions to better predict future prosocial engagement, with implications for future research and games designed for social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wellness industry has emerged as a multi-trillion-dollar global industry and the online hashtag #Wellness trend, with over 68 million posts on Instagram, is growing in popularity every day. We analyzed 373 posts from the hashtag #Wellness to explore how wellness is represented and mobilized on Instagram. Using reflexive thematic analysis and drawing from critical feminist theorizing on biopedagogies and healthism, we generated five themes: (infinite) wellness project of the self, aesthetic ideal = wellness expert, wellness labour, just choose wellness, and infinitely consuming wellness. We observed wellness being predominantly represented by imagery of a young, lean, white, able-bodied, affluent woman. Wellness was also discursively promoted as ostensibly easy to achieve through relentless effort, discipline, and consumption. We found #Wellness on Instagram to be another source of biopedagogies, or expert instructions for living, reproducing healthism, the thought that health is an individual responsibility, and reifying Western aesthetic idealization of bodies as conflated with health and well-being. Our findings highlight how sociocultural ideologies, including neoliberalism, biopedagogies, and healthism, have intense command and insidious pervasion into the current wellness and media culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the production and distribution of Chinese trade ceramics from AD 800 to 1900 to understand how these ceramic products became global commodities and how their production and exchange in the Western Indian Ocean evolved. Through a comparative examination of 15 well-identified product types of Chinese ceramics from 216 sites in the Western Indian Ocean, their production kilns, market circulations, and trading quantities have been identified and statistically analysed. The results suggest that the global status of Chinese ceramics in trade from China to the Western Indian Ocean depended on quality, aesthetics, utility, and the ability to navigate challenges such as logistics, production, and market barriers, highlighting the significance of market-adaptive designs in achieving global commodity success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quality of Experience (QoE) for mobile Web browsing is a complex and multidimensional concept. So far, the research community has addressed the influence of QoE perceptual dimensions on QoE and the impact of various influence factors on QoE perceptual dimensions for mobile Web browsing. In this study, we recognize the gap and need to analyze and gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between multiple influence factors and specific constructs of QoE perceptual dimensions. Utilizing a previously collected dataset, our goal is to fill the research gap in terms of investigating the impact of specific influence factors (loading time, aesthetics, number of taps, information quality) on various constructs comprising the user perception of usability, aesthetics, and information quality in the context of mobile Web browsing. A total of 14 research questions are raised: 7 addressing constructs comprising perceived usability (simplicity, effectiveness, quickness, efficiency, comfort, ease of use, organization), 3 addressing constructs comprising perceived aesthetics (perception of mobile Web site aesthetics, pleasance, clarity, systematicness), and 4 addressing constructs comprising perceived information quality (timeliness, clarity, conciseness, structuralism/completeness/spelling-correctness). Results of posed research questions provide indications on the strength and direction of the impact of considered QoE influence factors on the perception of studied constructs. This study contributes to the research community by being the first to address the impact of chosen QoE influence factors on individual constructs comprising QoE perceptual dimensions in the domain of mobile Web browsing, thus extending the knowledge on interplays and relations in this area. Furthermore, it contributes by revealing numerous new paradigms in the context of usability, aesthetics, and quality of information, such as: (i) beautiful and easy to reach is more simple, effective, efficient, and comfortable, (ii) easy to reach is more pleasant and clear, (iii) informative is more pleasant and clear, (iv) beautifully presented information has higher perceived quality, etc. Reported findings can be utilized by various stakeholders (mobile Web site designers, content providers, device designers, network providers) for indirect management of QoE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contemporary urban development discourse, the transformative capacity of public art, particularly murals within placemaking paradigms, is a significant area of interest. This paper explores the dynamic interplay between public art and urban settings, focusing on murals as catalysts for urban revitalization. By fostering local economic growth, community participation, and socio-spatial well-being, murals play a pivotal role in urban transformation. Despite their impact, the contribution of murals in Balkan urban landscapes remains underexplored. To address this gap, the paper examines the power of murals through the ‘Street B’ initiative in Pristina, Kosovo. An evaluative framework is introduced to assess murals’ roles in regeneration and placemaking, affirming their significance in transforming urban spaces. Additionally, the regulation of public spaces and artistic creativity, emphasizing the need for clear guidelines and metrics to integrate public art into urban strategies are addressed. By advancing this dialogue, the research enriches existing literature and underscores the aesthetic and socio-functional value of murals in urban change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the late nineteenth century, Ottoman culture witnessed a concerted effort to develop a national literature on par with modern European literature and culture. This was also the time when Ottoman intellectuals began to develop a systematic approach to literary analysis. Debates on the imitation, translation, and adaptation of Western forms were central to this period. This article examines the evolution of the concept and practice of imitation as part of these debates. This detailed analysis of the theoretical discourse surrounding the concepts of imitation and authenticity contributes to the broader field of literary theory and comparative literature. By introducing the theoretical rigor inherent in Ottoman-Turkish intellectual practice and highlighting its specific conceptual tradition, the article not only bridges the gap of non-Western critical thought in contemporary literary history, but also offers a fresh perspective on the much-debated East–West paradigms and cross-cultural approaches in literary studies and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lionel Lindsay still troubles Australian art history. An illustrator and etcher of undeniable skill, he voiced conservative aesthetics, including his anti-modernist and antisemitic polemic Addled Art of 1942. However, Lindsay was also philo-Arab, as he demonstrated in his 1929 visit to the Maghreb to meet Etienne Nasr’Eddine Dinet, the Islamophile Orientalist whose 1889 Snake Charmer was Lindsay’s favourite painting at the Art Gallery of NSW. During two months in Bou Saada and Kairouan, Lindsay made dozens of watercolours, drawings and meticulous etchings of ‘local character’, studied here as a group for the first time. Drawing on Lindsay’s unpublished diaries, letters and memoirs this article shows that this anti-modernist Anglo-Australian’s ‘Orientalism’ ignored the settlers and chose favourites among the peoples of the Maghreb. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visual landscapes mark location and representation. When considering Argentine Chinatown, its visual markings reflect stereotypic Chinese elements, hybridisation with local culture, and the ‘invasion’ of space. These visuals help locate and ‘authenticate’ the place, thereby legitimising tourists’ gaze. They also provide clues to its past and future direction. Visual landscapes are not only aesthetic place-markers but are also the embodiment of that space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe body speaks. Embodiment has always been the essence of communication in African theatre and ritual. Rituals are the wellspring of interpreting universal features of human behaviour and underpinning the theatrical. Yet theatre makers grapple with showcasing explicit ritual as performance. Ritual remains exquisitely different from theatre, and if moved from its original place and intent, it loses its integrity and purpose. Postdramatic performers have (re)embraced that their bodies can be used as a tool that can “speak” and offer new ways of interpreting ritual aesthetics. Through a methodology of ukuzilanda this article describes the performance as research approach with the emphasis on Postdramatic practices where embodying is celebrated as the main modality conveying messages in performance. This paper discusses the process undertaken to present ritual elements from the South African BaPedi male initiation in an aesthetic performance titled Wela (2021). Wela is a Pedi term which means “to cross-over” – this offers relevance both to the koma ritual it is representing as well as to the presentation of aesthetics of ritual through Postdramatic interpretations. Further, an approach coined as Go-itata embraces the (re)conceptual discussion of ritualised theatre that embraces the elements of embodied commentary, intent, and expressive narrative in the conceptual and staging processes. This paper offers Go-itata ritualised theatre performance modes to explore the (re)conceptual presentation of ritual aesthetics for the stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zhijue直觉 is the Chinese translation of the English word ‘intuition’. These two terms, however, do not hold completely equivalent meanings. Before this translation, traditional Chinese lacked a precise counterpart for the concept, though intuitive thinking has long been integral to Chinese culture. Consequently, Zhijue not only inherits the cultural connotations of the Western term ‘intuition’ but also integrates traditional Chinese intuitive thought. Translating intuition into zhijue goes beyond linguistic conversion—it reflects a cultural hybrid shaped by intercultural collision and fusion. This paper investigates how the concept of intuition, as developed in Croce’s aesthetics, is reinterpreted and adapted by Zhu Guangqian in the modern Chinese aesthetic context, generating new meanings. By tracking the cross-cultural journey of the term ‘intuition’, this study explores the comparative exchange between Western and Chinese ways of thinking and their cultural implications, offering insights into the traveling of concepts across cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores Charles Dickens's public readings and the impact they had on Victorian audiences as documented in newspaper reviews. It delves into how Dickens's verbal artistry and vocal impersonation of characters brought his readings to life, with journalists praising his unique ability to embody characters. The article also discusses the role of journalistic reviews in analyzing and making sense of the effects of Dickens's readings, highlighting the remediation of auditory experiences into enduring literary and cultural productions. Through metaphors of oratory and drama, the article reveals how Dickens's performances were framed as auratic and cathartic, engaging audiences in a unique and immersive storytelling experience. [Extracted from the article]

Objective: To explore diverse stakeholders' perceptions of headgear use in collegiate women's lacrosse. Participants: 189 collegiate women's lacrosse stakeholders (players: n = 87; coaches: n = 71; officials: n = 32). Methods: Participants completed online open-ended qualitative questions surrounding headgear use in the sport. Responses were coded by the research team via inductive reasoning. Results: Stakeholders felt that incorporating headgear use into women's lacrosse would increase aggression and change the nature of the sport. Some felt that headgear was important for injury risk mitigation and invoked a need for research and development. Stakeholders raised the need for coaching and officiating improvement as primary injury prevention measures. Players were concerned about esthetics and performance limitations. Finally, many felt that it should be left to player choice to wear headgear or not. Conclusion: Most stakeholders invoke concerns of risk compensation and changing the nature of the sport of women's lacrosse, and are in favor of headgear remaining optional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although household consumption contributes to climate change, it can be challenging to comprehend the consequences and effects from a personal perspective. In this paper, we explore the design of physical data visualisations to promote sustainable practices within households. We conducted 15 household design workshops involving household members to explore physical designs and envision the potential use of physical artefacts in the home to promote sustainability behaviours using five low to medium-fidelity prototypes. The findings from these workshops highlight the need to balance aesthetics, abstraction, and the presentation of actionable information in the design of physical artefacts. Based on our findings, we identify key design considerations for future design: (1) including all household members in the design process to reflect the collective goals and values of the home, fostering a sense of ownership and engagement, (2) considering child-friendly design in physical artefacts to promote awareness, education, engagement, and sustainable values in children, (3) and considering nature-based visuals to reduce the mental burden of information overload. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We urgently need to understand Alzheimer's disease (AD) stigma among Black adults. Black communities bear a disproportionate burden of AD, and recent advances in early diagnosis using AD biomarkers may affect stigma associated with AD. The goal of our study is to characterize AD stigma within our cohort of self-identified Black participants and test how AD biomarker test results may affect this stigma. Design: We surveyed a sample of 1,150 self-identified Black adults who were randomized to read a vignette describing a fictional person, who was described as either having a positive or negative biomarker test result. After reading the vignette, participants completed the modified Family Stigma in Alzheimer's Disease Scale (FS-ADS). We compared FS-ADS scores between groups defined by age, gender, and United States Census region. We examined interactions between these groupings and AD biomarker test result. Results: Participants over age 65 had lower scores (lower stigma) on all 7 FS-ADS domains compared to those under 65: structural discrimination, negative severity attributions, negative aesthetic attributions, antipathy, support, pity, and social distance. In the biomarker positive condition, worries about structural discrimination were greater than in the biomarker negative condition and statistically similar in the two age groups (DOR, 0.39 [95%CI, 0.22–0.69]). This pattern of results was similar for negative symptom attributions (DOR, 0.51 [95%CI, 0.28–0.90]). Conclusion: While older adults reported less AD stigma than younger adults, AD biomarker testing caused similarly high concerns about structural discrimination and negative severity attributions. Thus, use of AD biomarker diagnosis may increase AD stigma and exacerbate healthcare disparities known to effect AD diagnosis in some Black adults. Advances in AD diagnosis may interact with social and structural factors to differentially affect groups of Black adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: The ballet institution is known for its aesthetic and performative standards. In professional dancers' everyday lives, self-improvement and body awareness entwine with striving for artistic excellence. In this context, 'health' has primarily been explored in relation to eating disorders, pain, and injuries. Aim: This paper explores dancers' health practices, namely how they are shaped by the ballet institution and how they relate to broader health discourses. Methodology: A reflexive thematic analysis was conducted upon interviews with nine dancers (each interviewed twice) using a theoretical framework based on the concepts of greedy institutions and biopedagogies. Analyses: Two themes were developed: What it takes to be an 'insider' of the ballet institution and Learning to develop an acute embodied self-awareness. Dancers described ballet as a 'lifestyle' rather than a 'job'; practices of self-care defined by continuous self and body work were framed as necessary to meet the demands of this lifestyle. Participants 'played with' institutional and societal norms, often resisting docile bodies promoted within the ballet institution. Conclusion: Dancers' constructions of health and the art of ballet as not fitting neatly into 'good' nor 'bad' make room to consider the tensions between adopting and resisting dominant health discourses in this institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corley and Lenehan con a gold coin off a servant girl in James Joyce's "Two Gallants" – but how they do so is left unclear. Lenehan's consumption of a plate of peas midway through the story meanwhile appears relatively unmysterious. This article argues however that Lenehan's peas are a key narrative motif: firstly, crystallising the antagonisms that consciously underlie Joyce's emergent modernist style, but also (by way of the evolving connotation of peas through Irish history) actively historicising the social conditions that underlie this aesthetic. Ultimately, it is via the peas' relationship with near-absent figure of the "slavey" herself that we see how Joyce's dialectical aesthetic serves to interrogate the socio-historical position of Corley and Lenehan's Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses Canadian mineral artist Roger H. Mitchell, a professor emeritus at Lakehead University, who combines his passion for geology with art to create digitally-worked abstract artworks using petrological images. Mitchell's art is inspired by his extensive research on rare igneous rocks and his fascination with the textures and colors of minerals observed under cross-polarized light. His artwork, part of the Steinbilder series, showcases the hidden beauty of rocks and minerals through vibrant colors and unique compositions, with some pieces resembling stained-glass windows. Mitchell's work has been exhibited in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and he plans to share his collection on the Almaz Press website. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the 2014 documentary film "Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery," directed by Arne Birkenstock, which explores the elaborate art fraud committed by Wolfgang Beltracchi, a German art forger. Beltracchi and his wife were convicted in 2011 for producing and selling counterfeit paintings attributed to famous artists. The film delves into the legal proceedings, the impact on the art world, and the methods used by Beltracchi to create convincing forgeries. It also raises questions about the value of art, the role of authenticity, and the importance of detachment in art historical knowledge. [Extracted from the article]

In response to globalization of traditional manufacturing and the growing significance of a symbolic economy, fashion cities are now formed by different mixings of material, design/creative and symbolic forms of production. The intersection between these elements is particularly evident in the global fashion cities, which have experienced a profound process of deindustrialization and a shift between manufacturing and symbolic economies. This paper explores London's relationship with fashion through the perspectives of key industry actors. We draw upon 30 semi-structured in-depth interviews undertaken between 2016 and 2018 to explore the interplay between material, creative and symbolic forms of fashion production in the city. Interview material is supported by the analysis of data collected from the Office for National Statistics and the Higher Education Statistics Agency. London's fashion ecosystem is seen as having strong focus on creativity, artistic values and forms of symbolism, which are however regarded as in tension with a viable fashion design industry, an effective business culture and manufacturing system. The paper contributes to the literature on the fashion's positioning in urban economies by shedding light on the interaction between production, creative and symbolic elements in a global creative city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined how seven American undergraduate students leveraged multiple modes to reflect on language, culture, and identity while learning French in a study abroad program. Grounded in the social semiotic framework of multimodality, this qualitative study applied open, axial, and selective coding to analyze students' interviews and digital multimodal compositions (e.g., blogs, vlogs, video reflections, and final projects) from two study abroad courses. Findings revealed how multimodal composing supported students in learning French through metalinguistic practices of rehearsal and repair. Students further problematized cultural stereotypes through multimodal compositions. Additionally, students developed identities as legitimate multilingual multimodal composers by using French and other semiotic modes to create personalized design aesthetics. These findings illustrate the important ways that semiotic modes can interact to develop language, cultural awareness, and identity during study abroad. The study holds implications for teaching and analyzing the inseparability of language and other modes of expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on aesthetics and inspiration perspectives, this study applied fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to investigate the configurations of aesthetic and travel inspiration variables that lead to audience's intention to share SfTV. The study identified six configurations between the four aesthetic value constructs and the two travel inspiration constructs explaining audience's sharing intention, which can be further summarized into four typical modes: 'destination reputation-inspiration', 'presenter physical beauty-inspiration', 'video aesthetics-inspiration' and 'presenter physical beauty-video aesthetics-inspiration'. The study emphasized the key role of travel inspiration, as it always presents as the core condition in each configuration, while obvious substitution can be found with aesthetic value factors. This study provided new insights of the relationship between configuration effects of aesthetic value and inspiration and audience intention to share SfTV, which can be applied in industry practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ocean Vuong’s epistolary novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is distinguished by its highly sensory, descriptive, and fragmented linguistic style, coupled with an anachronic, multi-line narrative strategy. These stylistic elements exemplify salient modernist aesthetics, particularly resonating with the tenets of the Imagist movement. Through the presentation of fleeting images and juxtaposed scenes across temporal and spatial boundaries, Vuong’s fiction delineates the narrator’s transient, synesthetic recollections which merge into a dynamic flow of conscious duration, constituting a notable queer racial formalist work. Moreover, Vuong’s richly sensory and affective portrayal facilitates an embodied engagement with external spaces, unraveling the complex layers of the protagonist’s Asian American queer identity. By integrating a corporeal perspective into the aesthetic process of receiving and composing, Vuong reconfigures the traditionally passive bottom role toward a more dynamic and inclusive queer performance, thus challenging the entrenched heteronormative constructions that comply with Western imperialist and masculinist discourses. Beyond empowering the “abject” bottom, Vuong’s novel also posits a shared vulnerability inherent in queer bodies, envisioning a side path for the minoritarian groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of Catholic Titles on figurative paintings depicting violence were studied using both explicit and implicit measures. When paintings were described as Catholic, they were significantly rated as more beautiful and interesting, and less violent than when they were described as Non-Catholic. Therefore, demonstrating that Catholic themes associated with these artworks overshadow their violent content. This was demonstrated via hedonic ratings. Thus, suggesting an aestheticisation of violent imagery when connected to Catholic themes. Implicit responses, assessed using the Implicit Association Test, showed faster responses when Violent Catholic Paintings were associated Positive Adjectives and slower responses were associated when violent Non-Catholic Paintings were associated with Negative Adjectives. These implicit responses confirm previous explicit results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its importance, few validated scales exist to measure aesthetics in HCI. One notable exception, the Visual Aesthetics of Websites Inventory (VisAWI), has never been validated in English. Furthermore, the VisAWI contains negatively formulated items, which adversely impact the psychometric quality of survey scales. Consequently, this paper's aim was the development of a positive-item version of the VisAWI, the VisAWI-pos, as a viable alternative to the original scale. Positive alternatives for the negative items of the VisAWI scale were developed and evaluated in a first study (N = 41). Afterward, a pre-registered second study (N = 966) was conducted to validate the VisAWI-pos. In addition, the VisAWI's English version was formally validated for the first time. Results showed that the English VisAWI has comparable psychometric qualities to validated versions in other languages. Furthermore, the VisAWI-pos provided matching results to the original VisAWI while exhibiting equal or improved psychometric quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractVirtual art galleries represent a rapidly growing and potentially unique context for art engagement, but little is known about the psychological nature of these experiences. To better characterize virtual art gallery visits, we quantified a set of in-depth behaviors related to art viewing, navigation, and intensive art engagement in a virtual gallery. Data included coordinate position and gaze proxy data, recorded from 264 unconstrained participant visits to a virtual gallery that contained 24 diverse artworks curated throughout 3 rooms. Nine classified visit behaviors—related to the overall visit, navigation, art viewing, and deep engagement—were used in a latent class analysis as indicators for estimating possible visitor engagement classes. The analysis resulted in a 4-class model which classified visitors as disengaged, typical, engaged, and revisitors. Finally, we examined how each class differed in terms of their art knowledge, personality, and other individual differences. Significant differences were found for several variables, including aesthetic fluency, openness to experience, extraversion, age, and nausea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper engages in a dialogue with José Medina’s work on epistemic activism, adding the notion of ‘aesth-ethic activism’ to highlight the role aesthetics play in epistemic forms of resistance. Drawing from María Lugones’s concept of ‘transgressive hearing’ and my work on ‘grammars of listening’, the paper proposes that ‘radical listening’, in dialogue with Medina’s ‘radical testimony’, requires not only rendering voices audible but subverting the very criteria that govern audibility. Aesthetic resistance is seen as essential for this task. Through an analysis of the artwork Fósil Acústico by Colombian artists Santiago Reyes Villaveces and Daniel Villegas Vélez as ‘aesth-ethic activism’, the paper shows how art can create ‘epistemic frictions’ that challenge our sensibilities and open up liminal sites for complex communication across different epistemic systems. The installation, I show, calls for lingering in the ‘friction’ that makes meaning possible, while allowing sense to circulate in ways that resist signification. Ultimately, in dialogue with Medina and Lugones’s work, and inspired by Sylvia Wynter’s conception of aesthetics, the paper proposes rethinking the epistemic as grounded in the aesthetic and aesthetics as a deciphering practice of epistemic resistance that can make dominant codes of perception ‘consciously alterable’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contained in the South Asian collection at the Royal Ontario Museum, the 'courtesan album' is an unpublished personal compilation of 146 photographic portraits of mostly North Indian courtesans that were taken at Indian studios between 1860 and 1910. It commands an affective engagement from the viewer in a page-after-page accumulation of its sitters—the courtesans, celebrated reverentially as entertainers. In this article, I mobilise my scholarly orientations as a dance ethnographer and historian to ask how the album can be read as a performance. I propose 'shauqeen viewing' as an affective mode of spectatorship in which the viewer is drawn into the album and impassioned in the process. Shauq theorises the continuities with what lingers affectively from courtesan entertainment into the present day. It enables the shauqeen viewer to mingle or convene affectively with the courtesan both in a kathak performance and in engaging with the album. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars who mention the turn to Aristotelian virtue ethics in the Mid-Twentieth Century tend to cite G. E. M. Anscombe's famous 'complaint', and sometimes Alasdair MacIntyre's After Virtue. It is less usual to write of Roger Scruton. Placed in the context of Bernard Williams and John Casey's works – at the intersection of moral philosophy and the philosophy of the emotions – Scruton's theory of the imagination is shown to concern the rationality of moral attitudes. In short, it concerns virtue ethics. Of broader interest, following Scruton's arguments, his aesthetics may be conceived as concerning stores of moral knowledge; this is by virtue of the sensuous conditioning of the thought-content of moral judgement. The centrality of imitation to Aristotelian ethics, in other words, finds its concomitant in the object of imitation as the artwork. It is my view that Scruton's work, Art and Imagination (his PhD thesis of 1973), is an attempt to provide a framework for the judgement involved in virtue ethics, concerning both intentionality and object. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Facial gender-affirming surgery (FGAS), one of many transition-related surgeries (TRSs), "feminizes" the faces of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) patients undergoing transition. However, it is difficult to demonstrate the medical necessity of FGAS in terms of postoperative quality of life (QoL) outcomes due to a lack of standardized assessment tools. Thus, FGAS remains largely unsubsidized in North America. Methods: A systematic review of online databases was conducted according to PRISMA guidelines. Screening and quality assessment was conducted by two independent blinded reviewers (KJ and GR). For statistical analysis, data from different Likert-scale-like questionnaires were extracted and coalesced into three-point scales on a data table of seven QoL domains; "Pre-" and "Postoperative femininity," "Psychological satisfaction," "Social Integration and Functioning," "Aesthetic Satisfaction," "Physical Health," and "Satisfaction with Surgical Results." Results: From 2000 to 2022, 1837 patients and 3886 procedures from 19 studies were included. Weighted averages across all QoL domains reflected statistically significant improvement compared to neutral following FGAS (p < 0.001). Three studies used the same questionnaire, which showed that out of all eight questions regarding facial appearance, FGAS patients most strongly agreed the surgery was important to their ability to live as a woman (mean = 4.56/5, n = 137). Secondary outcomes showed the most common complications were hardware palpability (3.45%, n = 145) and aberrant scarring (2.17%, n = 423) with an overall revision rate of 2.17% (n = 423). The most common procedure was fronto-orbital remodeling. Conclusion: FGAS significantly improves QoL with minimal risk to life and supports the literature in defining FGAS as a medically necessary procedure comparable to other TRSs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does the work of art mediate the recognitions we give one another in a rights-based order when that order cannot guarantee the rights it promises? What does an account of the open-ended, norm-mediating, performative and socio-aesthetic complexity of the work of art offer this 'After Rights?' inquiry? In addressing these questions, I draw on the insights of Jacques Ranciere, Fiona Jenkins, Jean Luc Nancy, Judith Butler, and Sylviya Lechner and Mervyn Frost to argue that the work of art, as a creative and interpretive aesthetic locus, ethically constitutes its practitioners (artists and audiences) as participants in an open-ended norm-mediating risk relation. The argument is that the work of art is an encounter-event practice for performing our commonality beyond power, violence, hierarchy, reason, and rights – even as that work also lends itself, as a beside-rights practice, to the mediation of hidden and discriminatory rights-abusing practices and norms. I do so via a consideration of the work of South African artists which mediate and contest misogynistic, heteronormative and racist discriminations beside and beyond the rights guarantees of the 1996 South African Constitution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonhuman interests are today routinely articulated in a register of 'rights'. 'Rights of nature' and 'animal rights' have expanded the vernacular of liberal rights beyond the human subject, thereby arguably entering the realm of 'post-human rights'. For such rights to be enforced, however, they must be recognised within a legal order and mediated by human subjects speaking on behalf of nonhuman 'right-holders'. This article focuses on the modes of representation and subjectification of nonhumans – whether natural entities, animals, or ecosystems – that underpin this reconfiguration. While granting rights to nonhumans de-centres the human figure at the heart of liberal legal orders, it remains focused on the category of the subject. Taking on the questions of the symposium on 'After Rights? Politics, Ethics, Aesthetics', I argue that granting rights to nonhumans might well enable a move beyond or 'after human rights', but not 'after human rights'. To think the possibility of an 'after rights', I turn to practices of sociality as articulated in works of critical Black studies that refuse the category of the subject as such. What emerges are modes of living in escape from violent subjections to racialised, colonial, and liberal inscriptions of worlding through 'rights', whether humans or nonhumans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the Czech-born philosopher Vilém Flusser's notion of telematic society, arguing that it implies a media-theoretical revision of Friedrich Schiller's project for an aesthetic model of civic education, according to which aesthetic effectivity is reconsidered in light of a history of media based on a technological alternation of images and texts. After a brief overview of Schiller's aesthetic letters, it examines the ways in which Flusser repositions and expands upon Schiller's vision of an aesthetic education (most importantly, the aesthetic condition or middle disposition), highlighting the role that Flusser assigns to the evolution of codes inherent in the most important cultural and media techniques, namely, images, texts, and technical images. It then shows how this modification results in a forecasting of a telematic model of aesthetic education, before concluding by addressing the prospects of such a model in a post-digital world of automated media bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]