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Infrared thermography is a cost-effective non-destructive evaluation technique that plays a critical role in extracting information about defects in cultural heritage such as works of art. However, in-depth studies on the internal structure of contemporary artworks using infrared thermography remain lacking, and therefore, a deep convolutional autoencoder thermography (DCAT) data analysis method is proposed for defect detection of contemporary artworks. In the proposed method, original data are enhanced by convolution to reduce the noise and inhomogeneous background in the original thermal images; subsequently, a deep autoencoder is used to extract nonlinear features from the enhanced thermographic data, and the results of the hidden layer are visualised. These visualised images highlight information regarding the internal structure and defects of the artwork. The case study on a handmade replica of Picasso's 'La Bouteille de Suze', reproduced exactly as the original, has shown that DCAT significantly improved the accuracy of defect detection when compared with that of commonly used methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic changed people’s lives and resulted in tremendous pain, loss and suffering. The Rio Grande Valley (RGV), in the state of Texas in the U.S., was one of the regions with the highest number of infections and deaths during the pandemic. However, individuals’ bereavement in the RGV is rarely addressed. In this qualitative study, a snowball sample of 47 individuals who had lost their loved ones during the years 2020–2021 were interviewed and invited to engage in an art activity. The findings revealed four themes: peculiar funeral, grieving confusion, loved ones’ memories, and connection to self and the lost one through art. Results indicate that the collective aspect of the funeral was disrupted during the pandemic and created emotional numbness and denial. The intensity of grieving did not decrease with time. The participants mainly relied on their family support and rarely sought professional help. A culturally adapted intervention is needed to address long-term bereavement in this community. Analysis of the art activities indicated that all participants had a feeling of peace and relief afterward, especially male participants who had difficulty expressing their emotions. The participants reported that the artwork positively affected their grievances and that the process was satisfying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This pilot project explores how young children's self-identity with a focus on respecting difference might be nurtured through Community of Enquiry (CoE), in the tradition of Philosophy for Children (P4C) using artwork in a gallery space. In valuing diversity, respecting difference is key. A group of four- and five-year-old children who expressed an interest in participating was involved along with researchers who appreciated the underpinning philosophy of P4C and the open nature of artwork. We used an interpretivist analysis within a framework of signs associated with developing a self-identity, which emerged from the literature alongside our ongoing observations and collaborative analysis. Vignettes are used to present the findings and prompt discussion. This pilot study will be useful for future research into supporting children by creating a space and the conditions where self-identity can be nurtured and difference can be respected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to show that any account of how artworks lie must acknowledge (I) that artworks can lie at different levels of their content—what I call 'surface' and 'deep'—and (II) that, for an artwork to lie at a given level, a norm of truthful communication such as Grice's Maxim of Quality must apply to it. A corollary is that it's harder than you might think for artworks to lie: Quality is not automatically 'switched on' during our engagement with art. However, I show how a work's curation and genre-membership can 'switch on' Quality, allowing artworks to lie at different levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the attention drawn to the plastic crisis by the media and environmental campaigns, much of the practice around single-use plastic has remained unchanged. It appears that, although many know the correct position to assume regarding the issue, the 'talk' does not necessarily translate into action. This incongruity can be explained with reference to Heidegger's theory on the everydayness of discourse which suggests that a lack of authenticity underlies our everyday interactions and that what is needed is a different kind of encounter with the world. In the light of this we consider Ranciere's theory on the potential of a political artwork to disrupt the everyday and prompt a different response. Within the framework of these theories, this paper discusses a performance artwork protesting plastic pollution – namely 12 Plastic Monsters by Luke Rudman - as an alternative strategy to prompt a fresh engagement with the issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participation in a classroom-based study provided Grade 4 students with multiple opportunities to develop their visual meaning-making skills and competences, as well as their aesthetic understanding of and critical thinking about multimodal ensembles. Intentionally-designed instruction during the multifaceted research included a variety of activities focused on a selection of elements of visual art and design. Student participants read and discussed, and wrote about picturebooks during Language Arts, Science and Social Studies. The Rabbits, a picturebook that has been interpreted as a powerful and unsettling allegory of colonization, industrializaiton, and ecological destruction, was one selection of literature featured during a Social Studies unit on European exploration. The content analysis of the students' responses to The Rabbits revealed how the students identified, described, and interpreted Shaun Tan's use of color, visual point of view, and typography as fulfilling multiple, and often simultaneous, meaning-making purposes. The responses provided evidence of student engagement in sophisticated visual analysis and symbolic interpretation that deepened their critical understanding and appreciation of The Rabbits, as well as enhanced their understanding of curriculum. Overall, the findings extend the limited research on how student knowledge about and interpretation of elements of visual art and design in the artwork in picturebooks used for Social Studies pedagogy can simultaneously develop students' visual reading skills, enhance their comprehension of curricular content, and build their higher-order thinking skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is a sense in which technological advancements enhance our experience of the world, there is also a sense in which technology obscures the world. One such instance of technology's ability to (potentially) obscure the world is the way in which makes works of art (I focus on music) so readily accessible. While in many ways the accessibility and democratisation of music offered by digital streaming, for example, is seen to be convenient, we may also notice how this accessibility can efface the significance of the musical work – works that were once only encountered in the concert hall as "works of art" now also function as background music while we drive our cars, or do the dishes, for instance. In this paper, I argue that improvisation, such as that which is demonstrated by improvising musicians, offers us a "way in" to (re)experience music as works of art, qua art, in the age of technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term 'Liebe' and its variants occur over 120 times in Horkheimer's and Adorno's Dialektik der Aufklärung and Adorno's Minima Moralia. The article will examine the function of the concept of 'love' in Adorno's thought, especially in relation to the positioning of the subject and object of love and its relation to Adorno's critique of (masculine) subjectivity. It will furthermore claim that the ideal-typical relationship between lovers serves as a critique of the capitalist 'Tauschprinzip' and thus mirrors the relationship between art object and beholder in Adorno's Aesthetic Theory, proceeding from the same dialectical ground as Adorno's conception of the work of art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his famous "artwork" essay, Walter Benjamin uses the legend of a Chinese painter who disappeared into his own painting as the example par excellence of traditional art reception, performed through "concentration" and individual absorption, as opposed to distraction—the form of reception associated with contemporary mass media such as films. By exploring the historical background of this legend, this essay aims at developing a new perspective of Benjamin's theory of mechanically reproducible art and the decline of aura. Locating the origin of the legend of the Chinese painter in Edo Japan, a period of mass-produced works of art and entertainment, I argue that the aura that Benjamin associates with this legend is, ironically, a result of mechanical reproduction. By appropriating ancient Chinese esthetic principles to justify his method of copying, adapting, and transmitting, Edo print maker and model book author Tachibana Morikuni redefined the concept of reproduction as a way to recreate the "mysterious beauty and spiritual wonder" of the original, a concept that is arguably comparable to Benjamin's "aura." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the introduction for The Alternative Document, a special edition of Studies in Theatre and Performance edited by Angela Bartram. The edition contains essays by Angela Bartram, Emma Cocker and Clare Thornton, Kate Corder, Steve Dutton, Rochelle Haley, Sophie Kromholz, Una Lee, Andrew Pepper and Louise K. Wilson. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many late medieval documents, notably inventories of arms and armour, of Englishmen contain references to 'Scottish swords' and other weapons. What did the compilers of these documents mean when they described a weapon as 'Scottish'? How did such weapons come to be in the possession of these men? This article will attempt to explain this phenomenon drawing on primary documentary sources and surviving material culture from Glasgow Museums' collections and others, as well as artworks from the period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During a classroom-based study conducted in two Grade 4 classrooms, the students were provided with multiple opportunities to develop their visual meaning-making skills and competencies. The eight- and nine-year-old students' participation in the case study research included the reading and discussing of and writing about picturebooks. The intentionally-designed instruction during the study included a variety of activities that focused on a selection of elements of visual art and design in picturebooks. The content analysis of the students' responses to David Wiesner's The Three Pigs revealed how learning about the what, why and how of the mode of image affected their aesthetic understanding of and critical thinking about the picturebook. Discussion of the findings is situated in Sipe's ("Storytime") theoretical model of literary understanding and sociocultural theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that Lagos, a megacity geographically located in southwestern Nigeria, also exists in other places and spaces. Such a global presence is not insignificant for the circumstances that enable it to transcend its physical locale to operate in the imagination. This article contends that particular artworks centred on the specific urban space - Lagos - but circulating internationally generate meaning between physical places creating a globally imagined Lagos. It does so highlighting work by three Lagosian artists with broad and varied international careers. It analyses Uche Okpa-Iroha’s photographic series Under Bridge Life (2009), Emeka Ogboh and Kristian Kowatsch’s soundwork Oshodi Stock Exchange (2014), and Abraham Oghobase’s photographic series Untitled (2012) for what they reveal about: the movement of people into and about Lagos, the instability that frames Lagosian daily life, the over-crowding of the city, cross-cultural interactions and the formation of networks. Drawing on phenomenological studies of place and Ariella Azoulay’s photographic theories of civil imagination, the essay demonstrates the ways that the pieces considered here offer marked political commentary on the conditions of life in the city itself, and situate Lagos in the larger world, establishing, reaffirming, and reshaping the networks in which we are all entwined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method for the highly precise, long-term documentation of the color of artwork is described. Gaussian analysis of several ultraviolet–visible absorption spectra allowed the generation of a reduced data set of three to seven Gaussian bands. High-resolution absorption spectra were characterized as 21 or fewer numerical data. The spectral approach enables chemical identification independent from the illumination and concentration of the sample. Applications including documentation and authentication are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes three sets of artistic projects through which I have engaged with and imagined indentureship and its aftermath. Generated from my own experiences as a descendant of indentured workers, they suggest questions and tensions that may provide a moment of reflection in the context of the coming centenary anniversary of the indenture system’s end, in 2017. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent discovery on 3 May 2016 of 59 Italian paintings in the facilities of the Pushkin Museum is yet another chapter to the unending story of the art displaced as a result of the Second World War.1Revealed in 1991, the existence of secret deposits of works of art removed from Germany by the Soviet ‘Trophy’ Brigades at the end of Second World War had sparked both amazement and anger. Relief was expressed upon realizing masterpieces the world had thought forever lost had actually been saved; and resentment, for they had been kept hidden for over five decades in the Soviet Union. Germany claims the displaced works of art as its own property, demanding its return. In the meantime, Russia considers the same treasures as compensation for the tremendous destruction inflicted upon Slavic cultural heritage by the Nazis.2The behaviour of both Russia and Germany has proven to be counterproductive in reaching an effective settlement, but it is usually Germany’s case which has received the most support in Western legal literature. This article, in presenting the legal positions of each claimant, shows the limited capacity of international law in providing a mutually satisfying settlement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

People tend to exhibit a leftward bias in posing. Various studies suggest that posing to the left portrays a stronger emotion, whereas posing to the right portrays a more neutral emotion. Religions such as Christianity emphasize the role of strong emotions in religious experience, whereas religions such as Buddhism emphasize the calming of emotions as being important. In the present study, we investigated if the emphasis on emotionality of a religion influences the depiction of their religious figures. Specifically, we coded 484 paintings of Jesus and Buddha from online art databases for whether the deity exhibited a left bias, right bias, or central face presentation. The posing biases were analysed to discover whether paintings of Jesus would more frequently depict a leftward bias than paintings of Buddha. Jesus is more commonly depicted with a leftward bias than Buddha, and Buddha is more commonly depicted with a central face presentation than Jesus. These findings support the idea that the amount of emotionality that is to be conveyed in artwork influences the whether the subject is posed with a leftward bias. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Explicit pedagogy that focuses on visual design and composition principles can affect students' responses to and understanding, interpretation and analysis of images, as well as the creation of their own visual representations. This article considers the why, the what, and the how of teaching various visual elements of art and design to students through the description of two classroom-based studies. Multimodality, social semiotics, visual literacy and sociocultural theory framed the studies described in this article. As well as explaining some of the activities that the students engaged in during the studies, this article features examples of students' written responses to various picturebooks and graphic novels. The students' text-based writing reveals their knowledge, appreciation and interpretation of various visual elements of art and design. The article concludes with a discussion of the need for teachers and researchers to include and value the teaching of visual texts in language and literacy curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nondestructive analytical techniques allow replicate analysis of artwork to be performed without damage. However, these techniques can only provide information about the surface layer of an object. When information regarding the composition of the underlying layers is necessary, a sample must be collected from the artwork. In order to minimize the damage produced, micro-sampling techniques such as laser ablation have been proposed. Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (LA ICP–MS) is a suitable approach but its application to artwork has been focused on metallic, ceramic, and glass objects, with few studies for elemental-stratigraphic analysis of paintings. The objective of this study was to construct a laser ablation ICP–MS system for large artwork without size restriction to evaluate its capabilities for paintings. This study describes a specific optical system and an ablation cell designed for this purpose. The analysis of several paintings of known composition shows that sampling damage is hardly observable in colored layers and that it is less than the damage produced when the samples are taken manually by using a scalpel. The system has a depth resolution from 1 to 2 to 5 to 10 µm, depending on the painting technique, and the information obtained permits discovery of the stratigraphical composition. The ability of LA ICP–MS to determine very thin painting layers in a Renaissance easel painting (favored by the low detection limits of ICP–MS) was also assessed by analyzing a portrait of a member of the Medici Family attributed to Jacopo Pontormo. Results were compared with those obtained by scanning electron microscopy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An effective method for characterizing Chinese lacquer as binding medium in historical artwork has been developed by on-line methylation pyrolysis-gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (pyrolysis GC–MS). The characteristic pyrolytic components of Chinese lacquer were identified in artificially aged pure and pigmented lacquer. Methylation of urushiol (mainly composed of catechol derivatives) was performed by adding tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide to convert phenolic hydroxyl groups into methylated derivatives to improve the resolution of catechol derivatives and urushiol monomers. The mechanism of formation of small molecular components was proposed, and the influence of different mineral pigments (azurite, malachite, ochre, and cinnabar) on the determination of characteristic components was discussed. Aliphatic hydrocarbon components, benzene derivatives, catechol derivatives, and urushiol monomers were proposed as characteristic pyrolytic components. In addition to 3-pentadecene-catechol, 3-pentadecane-catechol, and 3-heptadecene-catechol, 3-pentadecene-phenol was also identified as an urushiol monomer in Chinese lacquer. Four pigments slightly reduced the detection of aliphatic hydrocarbon components, but were unconspicuous for the detection of benzene derivatives. Azurite, malachite, and cinnabar decreased the measurement of urushiol monomers, but ochre significantly increased their relative abundance. The established on-line methylation pyrolysis GC–MS procedure and summarized data were successfully applied to the identification of samples collected from Terra-Cotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Dynasty (221–207 BC), Han Yang Mausoleum of Han Dynasty (206 BC–24 AD), and Dazu Grotto of Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The classroom-based research discussed in this article explored developing elementary students’ visual meaning-making skills and competencies. The study’s instructional unit focused on a selection of visual elements of art and design in picturebooks, graphic novels, and magazines. As well as reading, responding in writing to, and discussing the focus texts, the 8- and 9 year-old children created their own multimodal texts during the research. Focusing specifically on the visual element of typography, this article presents the findings from the analysis of the students’ small group discussions aboutDon’t Read This Book!(J. Lewis and Allwright 2009). Data analysis revealed the students’ genuine appreciation for and interest in the visuality of the verbal language inDon’t Read This Book!, as well as their multifaceted understanding and interpretation of the typography in the picturebook. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Schelling's philosophy of art between 1801 and 1807 can be defined as metaphysics of art. The object of that metaphysics is to deploy the absolute as the being of art and of the arts. Schelling has been criticized on the basis that this metaphysics of art represses the infinite diversity of existing works of art, while overlooking concrete aesthetic experience. Based on Schelling's definition of the 'philosophical construction' of art as an inseparably speculative and historical construction, the aim of this paper is to challenge such assertions. It will show that 'historical construction' has to be understood in a twofold manner: first, as a transcendental history of the absolute's artistic individuation and second, as a cultural history of both the ancient and modern worlds of art. Working within this twofold setting the paper argues that Schelling's systematic approach, while exhibiting a unifying force, still remains open to the otherness of the real. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article considers how contemporary conditions of production have resulted in a reconfiguration of the artwork at the outset of the twenty-first century. It offers a detailed analysis of the entrepreneurial output of Anton Vidokle, artist and co-founder of e-flux, focusing on the video A Crime Against Art (2007) which documents Vidokle's mock trial at the hands of invited ‘artworld agents’. This complex work encapsulates dominant tendencies in recent art, namely the turns towards the social, knowledge production, performative documentary and education. Situating it in relation to Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello's consideration of the evolving structures of capitalism, the article argues that this is an exemplary instance that illustrates how the artwork itself has been radically reformulated. As part-and-parcel of this transformation it frames the recent rise to prominence of the curator and, by extension, the curatorial function so often appropriated by artists, as a symptom of economic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In December 2010 and January 2011, floods devastated 70 towns and displaced 200,000 people in Queensland, Australia. In March 2011, a 9.0 earthquake, tsunami, and radiation devastated Northern Japan, left 20,000 dead or missing, and displaced 430,000 people. Shortly thereafter, Jill Mellick, an Australian and frequent visitor to Japan, dreamt of shredded, faded hangings evocative of kakemono (scrolls), noren (fabric space dividers), shide (paper streamers), kimono, and forms resembling torii (shrine gates marking entry into sacred space). She explored the dream through mixed media. The title, Japan Dreaming, alludes to the Australian Aboriginal Dreaming. As Mellick followed the artwork's evolution, she also recognized resonance with her own recent experiences of life-threatening illnesses and their aftermath. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an introduction to the artist's medium scraperboard, also known as scratchboard. Research into the development of the medium and its constituent materials informed a preliminary evaluation of possible conservation treatments and the re-housing of scraperboard artworks in the collection of The National Archives. The treatment evaluation used visual examination, surface depth, gloss and colour measurements to assess the impact of surface cleaning and consolidation techniques, both individually and in combination, on the surface of scraperboard samples. Results showed that the surface cleaning methods tested were unsuitable, but found that gelatine used with the aerosol generator caused the least changes to the surface of the scraperboard and proved the most successful consolidant of those tested. However, further testing was suggested before its use could be recommended as a treatment. Condition assessments of artworks determined types of damage encountered with scraperboard and assisted identification of risks to the material. Enclosures were created for storage that provided protection and a means of flattening bowed scraperboards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

University lecturers need to help their students to develop ways of being that will allow them to flourish amidst uncertainty. Professional development workshops involving artwork and reflection provide a space where lecturers themselves can hold, examine and develop tolerance for uncertainty. Artwork and exploration of metaphors enable them to reflect on who they are as teachers, and what teaching means to them; two enquiries that are likely to involve some encounters with uncertainty. Two series of art workshops were offered to 11 nurse educators over two periods of three months. The workshops were characterised by exploration of metaphors, which allowed participants to draw on and move beyond naive inquiry. Photographs of their artwork are presented, which demonstrate that participants were enabled to make a restorative space in their workplace, stay with ambiguity and re-embody their thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approximately 75% of young people report being involved in dating relationships by the eighth grade (Centers for Disease Control [CDC], 2005). This indicates a significant need to understand how adolescents conceptualize dating relationships. More specifically, there is minimal literature on how adolescents define healthy and unhealthy relationships. This qualitative study used artwork and photography as stimuli for a focus group, exploring 7 adolescent females' perceptions of healthy and unhealthy aspects of relationships. Implications for practitioners are provided. Professional and cultural implications for practitioners are included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is an examination of the way in which A. S. Byatt and Zakes Mda mix media, incorporating the works of established artists in their fiction as tools to investigate the process of healing after an experience of suffering and grief. The fiction notes the real-life development of the work of the artist even as the works of the artist have a redemptive effect on the lives of the fictitious characters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article acts as an introduction to the other articles in this special edition of the journal devoted to the question: What work does the artwork do? It explores the advantages of this question over the definitional ‘What is art?’ question as a vehicle for debating the roles and purposes of artworks – the work artworks do – for arts practitioners in particular. Given the care needed in the forming of questions (since the work questions do is conditioned by such as implicit/explicit epistemological considerations), it raises as an issue to be considered and attended to, the matter of the work questions do and, the questions the could usefully be posed and debated in relation to art practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reconsiders the relationship between art practice and art theory within a hermeneutic framework. It draws out the work of an artwork from the perspective of aesthetic experience by emphasizing the ‘formative role of conflict’ between the sensuous and the conceptual in the process of bringing its meaning ‘in(to) sight’. In this context the important role of mediation of the artwork through language is being critically looked at. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]