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In general,this manuscript critiques the contemporary dynamisms of the formation/deformation of the cultural sphere under the increased mobilisations of globalization.In particular,it inspects the symphysis [SYMPHYSIS] between 'tourism' and 'culture',where the latter stands as an immense portmanteau phenomenon embracing many different things (under the vicissitudes of globalisation/glocalisation) across the protean realms of race, gender,entertainment, consumerism, meaning-making, et cetera.Critiquing Jamal and Robinson's recent attempt at panoramic coverage of the geography of tourism/tourism studies), it argues that tourism is regularly implicated in cultural practices relating to power-exercises in/across society. Then, in synthesising Bauman’s vision of contemporary society as that moving from seemingly well-ordered stabilities to a geographic realm where change is the-only-permanence and uncertainty the-onlycertainty, the manuscript generates five lead propositions calling for 'plural knowability',viz.,for a deeper/richer palette-of-imagination on the teeming multiplicities and throbbing provisionalities of culture as it emerges/unfolds or otherwise gets recast under the destabilising 'nomadic logics' of our time. In viewing culture as a vehicle of both 'impermanence' and 'seduction nowadays, the paper notes how in so many places and spaces, individuals are less inclined to be engaged locally/regionally/nationally as culture —partly through the volatile iterability of travel/tourism — has become an ever-widening polylogue.

O presente artigo analisa o romance - O Delfim – do escritor português, José Cardoso Pires, a partir de Paulo Freire, considerando os conceitos: autoritarismo, esperança, situação-limite e inédito-viável. O cruzamento entre literatura, filosofia e educação tem possibilitado uma maior compreensão das relações sociais e conflitivas da sociedade, ampliando assim, o espectro de análise e de reflexões. No romance analisado, os moradores de Gafeira - aldeia ficcional em que a história é ambientada - vivem em um estado inerte, sonolento, de tempo imóvel e, até mesmo, opressivo. A ocorrência de um crime, muda os rumos da história e altera a ordem das relações sociais. Estabelecendo uma metáfora com a lagartixa, o escritor/narrador mostra a impermanência daquilo que parecia consolidado, ou seja, as relações de poder estabelecidas entre a aristocracia e o campesinato se desfazem. Operando com as categorias freirianas: consciência ingênua, opressor/oprimido, e com diversos aspectos abordados no romance, evidencia-se que a organização coletiva e a conscientização dos “desocupados” permitem a superação da condição de oprimidos. A criação da Cooperativa dos Noventa e Oito, é exemplo um concreto disso. O texto demonstra que as obras de Pires e Freire, mesmo com linguagens distintas, experiências diferentes e realidades distantes, elucidam formas de opressão e estruturas de poder, desvelam as máculas, as violências e os abusos por parte das elites.&nbsp, Este artículo tiene como objetivo reflexionar sobre el trabajo pedagógico desarrollado en la ludoteca de un Espacio de Acogida vinculado a un hospital, que atiende a niños que son víctimas del acidente con perdida del cuero cabelludo, en el estado del Pará, en el período de 2018-2019, con un enfoque en el lúdico. Las preguntas orientadoras del estúdio son: ¿ Por qué jugar en el ambiente hospitalario? ¿A qué contribuye jugar a la formación de los niños en el ambiente hospitalario? Se trata de una acción pedagógica desarrollada por un núcleo de educación universitária popular, cuyo referente es Paulo Freire. Para compreender el desempeño pedagógico en la ludoteca, se llevó a cabo investigación bibliográfica, observación en loco, análisis de lãs prácticas desarrolladas y conversaciones informales com profesionales y usuários del espacio. Se concluye que el juego como actividad lúdica, permite subvertir y hacer aflorar los sentimientos presentes em la vida de los niños e permite superar el dolor, la angustia y los miedos que genera la enfermedad y la hospitalización prolongada de los niños em tratamiento de salud., This article objectifies analyzing the pedagogical work developed in the toy library of a welcoming space linked to a hospital, which attend children victims of scalping accident in Pará State, in the period of 2018-2019, focusing on the ludicity. The guiding questions of the studying are: why to play in the hospital environment? How does playing contribute to the training of children in the hospital environment? It treats of Pedagogical action developed by a group of popular university education whose reference is Paulo Freire. To comprehend the pedagogical acting in the toy library, it carried out bibliographic research, observation in loco, analyzing of developed practices and informal conversations with the professionals and space users. It concludes that playing as ludic activity possibilities subverting and outcropping feelings presents in the children’s life and making the pain overcoming of anguish and fear generated by the disease and prolonged hospitalization of children in health treatment.

Literary works give expression to universal themes through settings, subjects, and techniques that are culturally tied. This article reviews generic conventions involving point of view, protagonist, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution that typify Western short stories in order to examine how varying patterns can illuminate cultural contrasts between Thailand and the West. Widely known stories by Katherine Mansfield and Amy Tan serve to exemplify the conventional Western pattern and its versatility and to provide a basis for discovering alternative patterns that characterize numerous contemporary Thai short stories. An analysis of stories by S.E.A. Write award winners Phaitoon Thanya, Anchan, and Ussiri Thammachot through the comparative lens of Western conventions reveals how divergent narrative techniques involving point of view and plot elucidate and corroborate divergent expressions regarding the nature of identity. Narrative patterns in these Thai short stories help produce diffusions of identity that reflect a collectivist ethos and an acceptance of uncertainty and impermanence, while adherence to the Western formula reinforces a core belief in the permanence and persistence of the individual ego over time.

This paper aims to provide an overview of the concept of masculinity in Japanese society today which is represented by the main character in “Perfect World” film. The concept of masculinity here is limited to the masculinity of the male main character with a disability, considering that people with disabilities are often seen and treated as second-class citizens by the surrounding community. The method used is the semiotic method of Barthes, because it not only provides an interpretation of a sign into language, but also sees signs from the ideological side of a culture. Furthermore, Chafetz's concept of masculinity is also used as a reference for assessing the masculinity of the main character. As a result, it was found that a man with disability can still be said to be masculine, whether in traditional or modern concepts. In addition, it can be said that the impermanence of the concept of masculinity is greatly influenced by time and the supporting society in which the concept was born. Men with disabilities can still be said to be masculine, as long as most of his masculinity assessment points are still fulfilled. On the other hand, a man without physical limitations can be said to be non-masculine if he cannot meet his masculinity assessment points.Keywords: gender, semiotics, masculinity, difabel, Barthes

The dilemma of Sudan is contained in a protracted need for it to identify as either Arab or African with these two classifications being pitted against each other. This adversity has informed the identities of the diverse populations who have inhabited this land, and while attempts have been made to reconcile these complexities they persist and fracture Sudan as a nation. However, this situation is the site of flux and subject to changes wrought by history and the impermanence of events. This article expounds on how the bodies that contain diverse Sudanese identities are in fact experiencing entities that convey how social agents engage with social identifications and how through words and actions they fashion and mold them.

“Impermanence is the essence of everything.” – Pema Chodron Our last editorial, written in February 2020, feels distant. Like many of you reading this right now, we have been searching for ways to ...

Several, independent data analyses demonstrate that neither rural-urban nor urban-rural migrations are as permanent as one normally assumes; return is common within a few years. Return from rural-urban migration is more prevalent among men and the less-well-educated and is strongly associated with rejoining a spouse. Age of return to a rural area is bimodal, peaking around age 20 and among children; no evidence of return upon retirement is apparent. Across countries, more than half return to a district other than their origin. Returned migrants’ rural incomes are greater than those of people who remained at home, both on average and among measurably equivalent groups. Upward mobility in income in towns is affirmed, particularly for the less-well-educated. Seasonal migration is more common among men and the better educated and by individuals, not joint families. Seasonal migration in India as well as step and onward migration elsewhere are not as common as is popularly claimed.

Clay is an effective medium in art therapy insofar as it promotes mindfulness, acceptance, and a keen awareness of impermanence. Specifically, Buddhist-inspired lessons of meditative practi...

'The need to go back to the past' is central to Qiu Zhijie (b. 1969)'s understanding of human agency, and in consequence is central to his artistic endeavour. By 'the past' Qiu means Chinese (immutable) history and identity, based on a sense of impermanence. Chinese philosophy has informed his work from its beginning in the 1990s, as he imagined calligraphic performances, infused his installations and photographs with explicit references to Buddhist sutras and Koan. Since 2000 he has peppered his discourse and curating practices with implicit references to Confucianism (such as the celebration of the master/student relationship, the search for social harmony). Initial works used a mix of western contemporary and Chinese traditional art forms, and were concerned to the cultivation of the self. The latter have become associated with social aims such as diffusing art to the masses, promoting ancient arts and crafts in curated projects that link the artist's individual development with that of the collective. Qiu designates this holistic aim as 'Total art'. Critics explain Qiu's concept of Total art using the Wagnerian concept of Gesamtkunstwerk or of post-structural criticality of history. Others compare Qiu's endeavour to Republican New Confucianism. Still others consider it as part of Chinese literati tradition, in an ahistorical perspective. We want to emphasize rather its relation to Mainland New Confucianist philosophy that emerged since the millennium, which is characterized by a will to use ontological Chinese values to defend a political vision of Confucianism that is both social and authoritarian, essentially Chinese and opened to the world. This explains how Qiu reconciles his view of 'going to the past', with his participation in the Government's sponsored international programmes. We shall question its consequence on Qiu's position as global 'avant-garde'.

Experimenting with forms that lie outside the boundaries of traditional ethnographic research, in this paper I think with Haraway’s (2016) notion of sympoiesis as a platform to reimagine my engagements with place after recently returning home from my pedagogical work as visiting artist-researcher-teacher at a school in Goa, India. I imagine sympoetics as methodological engagement that conceives poetry, not as a purely individual, reflective practice, but rather a co-compositional performance that attends to the polymorphic, often contradictory relations of humans and materials as they are entwined with place. Following the ephemeral movements of India’s red dust, I attend to the intersections of seemingly disparate materials, specifically a child’s pencil and waste materials, and the ways in which they gather meaning together/apart among local/global red dust assemblages. By highlighting and decentering colonial undertones in ethnographic methodology with children and attending closely to anticolonial stories told through my relations with the red dust of India, this paper works to both sit with—and stir up—discomfort, toward more complex, contentious, and responsive accountabilities with place. Using sympoetics to trace the movements and impermanence of red dust, this performance is intentionally partial and aims to situate research in the midst of “not yet” and unknowability.

The influence of visiting Buddhist heritage sites on happiness is the core concern of this article. China’s four sacred Buddhist mountains provided the setting for the study. Sixty semi-structured interviews were conducted to examine the positive effects of Buddhism on visitors. Thematic analysis was first undertaken to understand the Buddhism-induced happiness. In the terms of Buddhism, the visitors’ happiness was related to the law of karma, impermanence and reincarnation. The PERMA model from positive psychology was then utilized as a second interpretive framework, in which positive changes in visitors’ attitudes, behaviours and life were noted. The links between the core values of Buddhism and the PERMA model were then established and portrayed. The study makes a theoretical contribution by connecting the positive psychology constructs and the effects of Buddhism in the tourism context. In addition, this study provides insightful suggestions for local communities to manage religious heritage sites sustainably.

Brian Cherney’s pedagogical and compositional philosophy is examined from the perspective of transcendent intention. Both in teaching composition and in his own works, Cherney emphasizes technique, attention to details, a convincing formal architecture, and the power of music to give expression to fundamental human emotions and experiences. Drawing upon the philosopher Henri Bergson’s concepts about the “nature of creative consciousness,” the author finds striking parallels between Bergson’s ideas and Cherney’s music. Analytical observations on Cherney’s String Trio are tied to the composer’s pedagogical approach, which profoundly influenced the author both as a composer and as a teacher. Cherney’s String Trio confronts the listener with a work in which the spiritual expression of a universal impermanence is manifested in the music itself in various ways that are illuminated and discussed using specific musical examples., L’auteur examine la philosophie pédagogique et compositionnelle de Brian Cherney du point de vue de l’intention transcendante. Tant dans son enseignement de la composition que dans ses propres oeuvres, Cherney insiste sur la technique, le souci du détail, une architecture formelle convaincante et le pouvoir de la musique d’exprimer les émotions et expériences humaines fondamentales. S’inspirant des concepts liés à la « nature du conscient créatif » du philosophe Henri Bergson, l’auteur constate des parallèles frappants entre les idées de Bergson et la musique de Cherney. Il lie des observations analytiques sur le String Trio de Cherney à l’approche pédagogique du compositeur, qui a profondément influencé l’auteur comme compositeur et comme enseignant. Le String Trio de Cherney présente à l’auditeur une oeuvre dans laquelle l’expression spirituelle d’une impermanence universelle se manifeste dans la musique elle-même de diverses façons qui sont illustrées et explorées au moyen d’exemples musicaux précis.

This paper will discuss two installation pieces created for acetate vinyl and multiple turntables. The two works Wow&Flutter and Collision should be considered as spatially immersive, generative, and interactive sound sculptured objects that investigate degrading surface material and remediation as the basis for a structural composition. The turntable has been regarded as a legacy technology but has recently seen a resurgence even among emerging technologies such as ‘XR’ ‘Network Art’ and ‘Live Coding’. This paper will discuss how the turntable is itself a dialogic key between mediation and materiality of sound. It’s tactile and kinaesthetic nature invite interactivity in a very unique and singular manner. Firstly, I will address correlational aspects by developing the conceptual and aesthetic context in an effort to delineate and explain the term Sound Art before addressing the affordances of the creative use of the turntable. I will then explore how prominent artists conflated this medium’s initial purpose and telos before going on to discuss the concept of Repetition as Aesthetic. This will be followed by an in-depth commentary of the use of acetate material in terms of investigating real-time recursive disintegration of analogue sound recording on this soft and malleable material. Intermediality and reappropriation of sonic material will also be discussed in relation to the compositional approach with a particular emphasis on Plunderphonics.

This chapter explores the impact of material encounters, the enduring nature of body-site connections and the significance of human-material intra-actions between ageing bodies and ageing sites. Reflecting on practice-led case study example, the discussion considers how material entities weave their way into the material ‘make-up’ of others and how human-non-human material intra-actions resonate over time. The manifestation of these connections and their application through site-based dance performance and site-based body practice is explored in relation to two specific examples in which human-non-human material intra-actions featured in particular ways. Towards the latter part of this chapter, ideas of weathering, erosion, impermanence and endurance infuse the reflections on practical site dance interventions from which a paradoxical notion of ‘enduring impermanence’ is set in motion arising from reflections on ageing body and ageing site intra-actions.

This chapter demonstrates how poetry entwines epistemological concerns related to uncertainty with affective reactions to possibilities and impossibilities inherent in the search for meaning in a pessimistic context. Poets such as Louise Ackermann write in the wake of the refusal of transcendence and the disappointment of both knowledge and ignorance. Poets portray the end of the world; Leconte de Lisle and Jules Laforgue allow us an imaginative leap into an otherwise unobservable Archimedean perspective on a peaceful extinction of suffering that allows a degree of comfort stemming from the impermanence of existence. What emerges is a “creative destruction” akin to Hannah Arendt’s characterization of thought as a manifestation of the “two in one” of consciousness. As Laforgue and Emile Verhaeren portray, this split self allows for simultaneous tragedy and comedy, forging an imaginative space where laughter and tears coexist.

Craft is changing, along with ritual and tradition, all rapidly losing value in a globalized world. In India, the essential metaphor and symbolism within ancient creative practices are being lost, while remnants of crafts continue almost solely as commodity. Decolonizing the field of art therapy includes acknowledging the complexity and benefit of nature-based traditional and indigenous arts, based in themes of impermanence, humility, gratitude, a holistic sense of well-being while fostering reconnection to meaning, storytelling and authentic self-expression. Rooted in Indian psychology, an integral evaluation of kolam (rice flour drawings) and mehndi (natural temporary tattoos) through the body, mind, heart and spirit, informs adaptation of these traditional art forms for art therapy sessions in south India. The implications of cultural appropriation, appreciation and adaptation are part of a range of ethical considerations in this type of cross-cultural work, which requires research and thoughtful communication of the history and origin of each art form. By studying the integral impact and essence of each practice through the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual levels, traditional crafts can be sensitively adapted within art therapy practice to help restore relationships to our common, indigenous and healing roots.

With the present paper I study and translate a discourse in the Ekottarika-?gama preserved in Chinese of which no parallel in other discourse collections is known. This situation relates to the wider issue of what significance to accord to the absence of parallels from the viewpoint of the early Buddhist oral transmission. The main topic of the discourse itself is perception of impermanence, which is of central importance in the early Buddhist scheme of the path for cultivating liberating insight. A description of the results of such practice in this Ekottarika-?gama discourse has a somewhat ambivalent formulation that suggests a possible relation to the notion of rebirth in the Pure Abodes, suddh?v?sa. This notion, attested in a P?li discourse, in turn might have provided a precedent for the aspiration, prominent in later Buddhist traditions, to be reborn in the Pure Land.

In De Arquitectura, Vitruvius lists three interrelated Latin terms – firmitas (strength or structural stability), utilitas (functionality or appropriate spatial accommodation), and venustas (beauty or attractive appearance), as being the basis of good architecture. Regarding firmitas, he implies that a good architect needs to choose the best and most solid materials, regardless of their cost. Yet, perhaps dismissing Vitruvius's advice, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, most Postmodern architects went on to erect buildings that often looked more like stage sets than anything strong and durable.Postmodern designers applied colour, pattern, and ornament to buildings, transferring ordinary and everyday popular imagery, forms, and material into high culture. By rejecting modern design and aesthetics, they also dismissed the building techniques and materials used by their predecessors. As explained by experts from the Portland-based architecture firm Peter Meijer Architect, PC (PMA), ‘there is an inherent impermanence of the original materials based on a default decision making process that limited a building's longevity to a twenty-five year life-cycle’ for Postmodern architecture. In other words, Postmodern buildings were often built as ephemeral constructions, for which longevity was not an absolute value.

This article approaches Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide from the perspective of Buddhist philosophy. It argues that the Buddhist notions of impermanence (anicca), non-self (anattā) and conditionality (iddappaccayatā) are evident in the novel’s portrayal of the physical reality of the Sundarbans. These principles are also at work in the novel’s representation of the social realm of ideologies, identities and human interactions. As Western environmentalism, to which the female protagonist is attached, is subject to the law of conditionality, the novel critiques the blind attempt to impose the Western ideology of wilderness preservation upon marginalized locals in India and highlights other forms of environmental ideologies. The novel also depicts the interaction between those from the metropolitan center with locals which transcends the postcolonial framework of power struggles and which is instead based on a shared sense of humanity, emphasizing specific conditions that give rise to the interactions. Moreover, the article discusses how the Sundarbans and various factors in the protagonists’ lives and interactions with the locals play a crucial role in prompting them to realize the slipperiness of what they perceive as their identities. Finally, the narrative in the novel itself orchestrates the workings of the law of conditionality and impermanence, trying to inculcate an attitude of non-attachment. As an embodiment of the afore-mentioned Buddhist concepts, The Hungry Tide serves as an expedient means to disrupt one’s tendency to cling to certain views or perceptions of reality and to offer an alternative approach to human interactions which entails open-minded tolerance of difference.

Visible-Induced Luminescence (VIL) has become a widely accessible investigation tool to identify and image the presence of Egyptian blue on in situ wall paintings. Portable microscopy has similarly entered mainstream usage to examine painted surfaces in archaeological settings. A project to investigate the extremely scant remains of decoration of the 7th c. BC Kushite chapel of Osiris Neb-ankh/Pa-wesheb-iad on the north side of Karnak temple demonstrated the effective use of these low-tech, non-invasive procedures. In order to better understand the nature of the highly deteriorated painting, an interdisciplinary approach was adopted that combined these intensely practical in-situ investigations with a process of comparative evaluation and deduction, drawing on expertise from the fields of painting technology and Egyptology. Beyond expected confirmation of the widespread use of Egyptian blue as a pure color, the skilful and selective admixture of this pigment with yellow and white pigments was detected. This appears to have been used to enhance painted subject matter of particular symbolic importance. The study was the basis for recognising a conspicuous absence of green in the decoration, determining where green was once present, and – by evaluating factors of pigment impermanence versus durability – helping to define the likely nature of the missing pigment. Definitive pigment identification was not always possible, nor was it a primary aim, although the evaluative process employed is also the most efficient way of identifying analytical procedures that might still be required. Even without identification, the findings made in relation to the missing green were highly significant, providing important evidence of a technological shift in the use of greens in Late Period wall paintings, which parallels similar developments found on other Egyptian artefacts. A low-tech, iterative approach to painting investigation therefore has great validity.

Since 2005, Nene Humphrey has been artist-in-residence at Joseph LeDoux's laboratory at the Center for Neural Science at New York University (NYU). As neurosciendsts at this lab have been trying to untangle the synaptic relations that underlie emotion, Humphrey has been hard at work entangling lines, wire threads, and wool fibers in order to render neural communication perceptible. Through her drawing and sculptural practice, she has sought to make sense of incommensurable experiences such as pain or loss. While engaging in interdisciplinary inquiries, Humphrey found observing neural connections under the microscope intriguing, yet insufficient for grasping the dynamic qualities of experience and its deep, longterm imprint on the psyche. Hence, she has transitioned from focusing primarily on drawing the dense texture of neural fibers to enacting multimedia performances that convey the transformations undergone by synaptic relations over the course of time. Humphrey's art practice has pivoted around several major poles of interest, including questions concerning the precariousness of matter, the fragility of memory, and the significant role of tactility in our interaction with the world. Hence, it should come as no surprise that she challenged neuroscientists at the NYU lab to take part in a somewhat atypical mode of inquiry into the materiality of the brain. She asked them to use Plasticine to model the shape of the amygdala--the widely acknowledged center of emotion located in the temporal lobe. This modest act may appear inconsequential, but it actually serves as a key reminder of the visceral materiality of the brain at a time when most neuroscientists focus extensively on mapping mental activity based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology. Through such material exchanges of knowledge, Humphrey tries to get one step closer to understanding how experiences take shape in the embodied mind. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Starting with the early stages of her artistic career in the 1970s, Humphrey was fascinated with creating material representations of imaginary worlds composed of abstract shapes. Medieval Landscape (1979-81) is a mixed-media installation evocative of a journey to a remote time and place. Fluffy clouds made of cotton and supported by long bamboo stalks guard a seemingly deserted terrain, marked by the presence of an imposing semicircle evocative of the sun and a relatively modest pyramidal shape connotative of the desire for shelter. This perfecdy balanced tableau conveys a sense of mystical order, referencing both a cyclical time of perpetual return and a potentially irretrievable connection to the experience of time of a long past civilization. From an initial interest in conceiving minimalist topologies inspired by her interest in cosmology, Humphrey gradually shifted her attention to an exploration of the complex inner landscape of psychic experience. Her Double Dream series (1989-90) comprises precariously balanced abstract shapes made of plaster and wire that suggest liminal states of mind. This migration from sculptures evocative of the environment to objects reminiscent of the malleable architecture of the human body brings to mind Anish Kapoor's art practice, which underwent a somewhat similar transition from the late 1970s onward. Humphrey's works have an intimate quality because of their relatively small scale and highly plastic materials (e.g., wax, plaster, wire), which showcase the imprint of the human touch. Throughout the 1980s, her sculptural and drawing practice abounded with references to states of bodily entrapment. Compressed plaster spheres, wiggling wires streaming out of small ovoid shapes, slighdy irregular geometric forms on the verge of collapse or growth--all these elements alluded to physical and psychic change. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Over the past two decades, Humphrey's works have focused on pain and loss as part of a persistent exploration of the role of impermanence in human existence. …

Author(s): Rubio, Fernando Dominguez; Wharton, Glenn | Abstract: Impermanence and fragility have become the defining conditions of the digital age. Technologies that were ubiquitous barely a decade ago, like floppy disks, now look like archaeological relics. It takes only a few years, if not months, before software environments are replaced by newer versions, often with limited backward compatibility. At the same time, digital technologies rely on hardware that has short life expectancy. The radical obsolescence of this new digital register raises a number of important questions. How are we going to prevent the fragile memories of contemporary digital cultures from receding into oblivion? This essay answers this question by looking at one of the institutions in which the problems associated with digital fragility are most especially felt, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and by exploring the ontological displacements that digital objects are operating at the heart of the museum.

We humans —across time, cultures, and geography— struggle with the awareness of our own mortality. Rather than accept finitude, we embrace ideas of boundlessness and perpetuity, and perceive ourselves as beings in constant motion, as travelers, in life as well as in death. We rely on metaphors of inner and outer journey to express life challenges and opportunities, and envision our deceased to be similarly en route: crossing over, passing on, ascending or descending, and, ultimately —hopefully— transcending to some higher realm. My culminating project explores the relationships between bereavement and journey, mourning and wonder. It is a collection of loosely-linked, non-fiction narratives using motifs of travel and transportation to consider the complex and creative ways in which the living interact with the dead. Managing loss and making peace with impermanence is a timeless and universal human pursuit. Story, art, memory, imagination, and metaphor are tools we can use to help traverse this unmappable terrain. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

In the nineteenth century, the concept of decadence was not solely of aesthetic interest but had a number of scientific applications. Decadence itself is an organic metaphor, extending the natural processes of decline and decay to societies and the arts. Rather than rejecting nature outright, decadent authors readily embraced new scientific theories that changed the way people thought about the natural world. The pessimism of nineteenth-century science stemmed from the brutal world of industrial capitalism in which it was developed. Decadent writers then incorporated both scientific ideas and language into a literary style obsessed with decay and decline. Finally, science returned to decadent literature to pathologize certain modes of artistic expression as yet another sign that certain types of individuals were ‘degenerate’. Three key scientific theories of the nineteenth century underpin the decadent fixation on decline, decay, and degeneration: uniformitarianism, evolution, and the conservation of energy. All three theories identify impermanence in natural structures previously believed to be permanent and stable.

Mark Reibstein and Ed Young’s 2008 picture book Wabi Sabi tells the story of a Kyoto cat in search of the meaning of its name. This award-wining children’s book explores identity through the composition of various layers of meaning and complexity in form and structure, suggesting that an understanding of identity cannot be expressed easily through words alone. This paper begins by examining how the use of a range of storytelling modes including collage, photography, drawing, poetry and prose are combined, inviting the implied child reader to become involved in the intermedial qualities of the text, at the same time as they follow the cat in its journey of self-discovery. Focus then turns to the use of natural, textured materials in the artwork of the picture book, analyzed as a reflection of the concept of wabi sabi; a Zen-Taoist philosophy that draws attention to the value and beauty of impermanence and imperfection. This alternative way of thinking about identity proposes that self-knowledge is attained through an encounter with simple, rustic and natural phenomena, as opposed to the industrialized newness and perfection so often idealized in Western civilization. The third section of the paper explores how the text, with its capacity to incorporate both Western and Japanese modes of storytelling, is a form of cultural translation. Not confined to the traditional mode of translation from one language to another, or from source to target text, this picture book, in its use of haiku and Japanese calligraphy, its glossary and its explanation of wabi sabi, invites the reader to consider how translation shares ideas across and between time and cultural context. O livro ilustrado Wabi Sabi (2008), de Mark Reibstein e Ed Young’s, narra a história de um gato de Kyoto em busca do significado de seu nome. Esse premiado livro infantil explora a identidade por meio da composição de várias camadas de significado e complexidade na forma e na estrutura, sugerindo que uma compreensão da identidade não pode ser facilmente expressa apenas por palavras. Este artigo começa por examinar como o uso de uma gama de formas de contar histórias, incluindo colagem fotografia, desenho, poesia e prosa são combinados, convidando o leitor infantil implícito a envolver-se na natureza intermidiática do texto, ao mesmo tempo em que segue o gato em sua jornada de auto-descoberta. Em seguida, o foco se volta para o uso de materiais naturais e texturizados na arte do livro ilustrado, considerados na análise como um reflexo do conceito de wabi sabi: uma filosofia Zen-Taoísta que chama a atenção para o valor e a beleza da impermanência e da imperfeição. Este modo alternativo de pensar a identidade propõe que o auto-conhecimento é alcançado pelo encontro com fenômenos simples, rústicos e naturais, em oposição à novidade e à perfeição industrializada tão frequentemente idealizada na civilização ocidental. A terceira seção do artigo explora como o texto, com sua capacidade para incorporar tanto o modo ocidental quanto o modo japonês de contar histórias, é uma forma de tradução cultural. Sem estar confinado ao modo tradicional de tradução de uma língua para a outra, ou de texto fonte para texto alvo, este livro ilustrado, em seu uso do haiku e da caligrafia japonesa, em seu glossário e em sua explicação do wabi sabi, convida o leitor a considerar como a tradução compartilha ideias através e entre tempos e contextos culturais.

This article reads Soweto poetry in terms of Steve Biko’s Black Consciousness thought. I argue that Soweto poetry develops dialectically. It uses popular cultural theorizations of shared daily experience to formulate black solidarity, while remaining attuned to historical change as the Soweto uprising and the murders of Onkgopotse Tiro and Steve Biko unfold. The implication of Biko’s dialectic is that we need to consider Soweto poetry’s volumes not as settled texts in themselves, but as texts in history whose modes and values are constantly re-formed by the very environment of historical impermanence and political contestation from which they emerge. In line with Biko’s dialectic, I argue that Soweto poetry’s affinity with the wider black diaspora is in keeping with its project of developing a fuller humanity after Apartheid, and that its lasting influence on South African artists and poets is but one sign of its sublation. Biko’s dialectic, I argue, offers South African literary history a way of thinking a genuinely multiracial, transnational canon via a national experience of political conflict and contested cultural value. Moreover, I suggest, the presence of a suppressed women’s poetic tradition after Soweto 1976 means that we ought to complicate Biko’s thought by contemplating the South African literary canon via polythetic, intersecting dialectics. Keywords: Steve Biko, Black Consciousness, dialectic, literary canon, Soweto poetry, Mongane Wally Serote, Oswald Mtshali, Mafika Gwala, Sipho Sepamla

Fostering conservation as a discursive and contextual practice, this essay examines transitional media that necessitate new ways of thinking about continuity. It looks at two examples of artworks with the objective of unraveling the varying modes of their transition. An event score, event-performance, object, and film drawn from the artistic legacies of George Brecht and Nam June Paik illustrate that ideas of permanence and impermanence are linked with an understanding of artworks in time and duration. While conservation reveals itself as an intervention in the temporal dimension of artworks, the theories of duration allow us to better understand the reciprocal relations between materials and meanings. In doing so, these theories acknowledge and attempt to make sense of the performative materiality of these works.

The academic study of Tibetan Buddhism has long emphasized the textual, philological, and monastic, and sometimes tended to ignore, dismiss, or undervalue the everyday practices and beliefs of ordinary people. In this article, I show that traditional folk songs, especially changl&uuml, are windows into the vernacular religion of ethnically Tibetan Himalayans from the Nubri valley of Gorkha District, Nepal. While changl&uuml, literally means &ldquo, beer song&rdquo, and they are often sung while celebrating, they usually have deeply religious subject matter, and function to transmit Buddhist values, reinforce social or religious hierarchies, and to emplace the community in relation to the landscape and to greater Tibet and Nepal. They do this mainly through three different tropes: (1) exhortations to practice and to remember such things as impermanence and death, (2) explications of hierarchy, and (3) employment of spatialized language that evokes the maṇḍala. They also sometimes carry opaque references to vernacular rituals, such as &ldquo, drawing a swastika of grain&rdquo, after storing the harvest. In the song texts translated here, I will point out elements that reproduce a Buddhist worldview, such as references to deities, sacred landscape, and Buddhist values, and argue that they impart vernacular religious knowledge intergenerationally in an implicit, natural, and sonic way, ensuring that younger generations internalize community values organically.

Zen master Dōgen 道元 (1200–1253), the founder of the Sōtō sect in medieval Japan, is often referred to as the leading classical philosopher in Japanese history and one of the foremost exponents of Mahayana Buddhist thought. His essays, sermons and poems on numerous Buddhist topics included in his main text, the Shōbōgenzō 正法眼蔵 (Treasury of the True Dharma-Eye), reflect an approach to religious experience based on a more philosophical analysis of topics such as time and temporality, impermanence and momentariness, the universality of Buddha-nature and naturalism, and the role of language and emotions in the experience of enlightenment, as well as practical matters such as ethics and the precepts or meditation and daily activity, than is generally found in the writings of most thinkers in the Japanese Zen school. The single main element in Dōgen’s unique approach to Buddhist theory and practice is his emphasis on the multiple meanings of “impermanence” (J. mujō 無常) in personal experience and as the basis for Buddhist metaphysics. In particular, he emphasizes the radical impermanence of each and every phenomenon and the need to attain spiritual realization by acknowledging and identifying, rather than resisting or denying, the ephemeral nature of reality. The notion of impermanence or the transiency of all aspects of human and natural existence has always been a fundamental feature of the Buddhist teaching since the sermons of the Buddha dealing with the doctrines of anātman (“non-self”) and anitya (“impermanence”) regarding the insubstantial, selfless nature of things. However, Dōgen repeatedly cautions against any subtle tendency to view ultimate reality––nirvāṇa or the universal “Buddha-nature” (J. busshō 仏性)––as an eternal realm separable from, or independent of, impermanence. Instead, he stresses that a full, unimpeded, and perpetually renewed experience of impermanence and of the unity of “being-time” (J. uji 有時) is the touchstone and framework of every aspect of Buddhist meditative training and spiritual realization. Other key doctrines related to this are the “spontaneous here-and-now manifestation of Zen enlightenment” (J. genjōkōan 現成公案), the “eternal moment of meditation” (J. gyōji no ima 行事の今), the “immediacy of awakening” (J. nikon 而今), and “impermanence-Buddha-nature” (J. mujō-busshō 無常仏性). In addition to looking at Dōgen’s poetic writings on aesthetic experience, later writings on karma and supernaturalism will be briefly examined for their contributions to his philosophical discussions of mystical awareness and the issues of commitment and responsibility involved in authentic religious practice.

In this manuscript we describe a biological system that deals with herpes simplex virus in the context of an in vitro infection in the presence of carrageenan, from a novel point of view by comparing our system to the Ligeti's symphonic poem of 100 metronomes. Metronomes (from ancient Greek μI­τρον-metron, "measure" and νI­μω-nemo, "I manage", "I lead"), as a measuring instrument of “tempo” links us with the viral replication cycle to define, through sound, a metaphorical construction of life (as vibration and movement, impermanence and constant change). The changes detected in viral populations, in time and space, in a similar way to the artistically experienced in Ligeti's symphonic poem enable us a trans disciplinary view, creating networks of cooperation that favor the renewal of the conceptual bases of biology enriching our perception and understanding of the biology and evolution of viruses.

Spiritual tradition in Japan under the influence of philosophy of Buddhism, which mediated the insight about transience of all things and is oriented towards the acceptance of life in all forms, created important aesthetic con-cepts, which are defined by objective character (with a bunch of images, metaphors and styles); and according to subjective criterions they express the appearance of individual feelings, which are linked with mood, state of con-sciousness or atmosphere. Concepts of Japanese aesthetics reflect timeless and always current expression of non-dualistic attitude towards the world, which is based on understanding all things in their essential nature. The art form and aesthetic sensibility point to an important soteriological tendency of the Buddhist philosophy holistic view, which does not allow gaps between human and reality, is the foundation for the highest state of being, nirvāṇa, which is the source of special beauty and leads to liberation from worldly adversities.

Using lipstick as my medium, my work deals with the impermanence of art and beauty. I created the series, "Canʼt You Put on a Little Lipstick?" from an enormous collection of lipsticks I amassed over a number of years. But thatʼs not the whole story… my grand¬mother has always gently urged, " Canʼt you put on a little lipstick?" This repeated suggestion, combined with my lipstick collection, started me thinking about how wearing lipstick contributes to our concepts of beauty. Is everything more beautiful with lipstick? Questions about the endurance of my art emphasize the impermanence my medium and content. Exploring concepts of beauty and graphic expression, I crop subject matter to encourage the viewer to closely think about parts of subjects we do not often consciously examine. Working with a bright palette, I investigate how repurposed material adds to my message. Examples of my work can be viewed at www.thelipstickartist.com.

Documenting performance in the context of practice-based research has become the standard protocol for the assessment of live work in the academy as permanent document and archive. In contrast, the practice of Buddhism recognizes impermanence as the central doctrine governing all conditioned existence. What happens when these two fields are combined? In addressing the dialectic inherent in documenting a field of performance art that relies on its doctrinal foundations to convey principles that video documentation renders redundant, I offer an alternative method of documentation as part of the creative process that keep the work ‘live’ in the mind of the audience upon every subsequent engagement with the archive. Far from being a failure to document, Buddhist performance art demands a new approach to the documentation of performance. The article includes a performance score inspired by my autobiographical performance art work At Sea:1980-2010.

This article discusses the portrayal and usage of Buddhist themes in the classic era Doctor Who television series (1963–1996). Here we map out specific influences of Buddhism on the construction of Doctor Who’s characters, illustrating how popular culture participates in the religious dialogue contained within everyday life. We argue that an interpretive lens informed by an understanding of the interplay of different religious and philosophical influences contributes to a more productive conversation about the nature of the Doctor. A survey of serials that explicitly involve Buddhist settings such as the Jon Perwee era “Planet of the Spiders” is provided. One section of this essay will focus on how writer Christopher Bailey utilized his personal Buddhist beliefs to inform story elements of the Peter Davison era serials “Kinda” and its sequel “Snakedance.” We will then proceed to investigate particular Buddhist conceptions of impermanence, change and temporality, and relate these to the characterization of the Doctor and how his transformations illustrate the instability of identity, serving as a potential contrast to messianic readings of this science fiction television show.

This paper seeks a reengagement with Doris Lessing's classic novel The Golden Notebook in relation to the concept of intermittency outlined in Andrew Gibson's recent theoretical work. Gibson argues that recent continental philosophy has broken with a linear reading of history in favour of the intermittent occurrence of Events: moments of crisis and rupture from which truth, politics, and justice emerge into the actual. Lessing's novel, praised for its honest depiction of women's experience at the dawn of the Sixties, is situated resolutely in a post-war world between Events, a time Gibson would depict as concrete in its non-Evental stasis. However, the vision of history which emerges in the novel is porous, ephemeral, one moment splintered between characters’ contested ideologies and the next fused in bodily interpellation. By returning to this work of considerable historical significance we can also contest Gibson's categorisation of literature as a ‘residue of events’. A paradigmatic rupture in ...

Chapters in the Conclusions Suite overview the evolving argument of the book, represented in the previous ‘Movements’ of the argument’s Symphonic form. Chapter 28’s summary of the Second Movement takes the reader to the depths of our humanity, and its relationship to our world and wider cosmos, as a core platform for exploring human power embedded in our spirituality. That this is the “Kyoto” Manifesto is deeply significant, for Kyoto—the place—is foundation of Japan’s “spiritual heart”, whilst demonstrating in the modern age the human craft and creativity that has evolved over more than a millennium and is represented in many generations of family production. These lessons from Kyoto can instruct our action now. Each of the International Symposia from which the Manifesto was constructed were preceded by an “On-Zen” performance within joint Shinto/Buddhist temple ritual by Stomu Yamash’ta—of sacred music using, as percussion instrument, the unique and sacred ‘sanukite’ stone. This stone was employed in ancient pre-Bronze Age ritual and music because of its extraordinarily large frequency range and vibrant sound. As performances to bring people together in peace, the sanukite stone performances allow us to hear, in Stomu’s words, “the grandeur of memorial vibrancy”, a connection between the energy of nature generated from the Void and the harmony of our humanity. This force and connection is then explored in the Second Movement of the book and validated from the latest advances in cosmic physics and relations to the long-term teachings of Buddhism. In both physics and Buddhism, the ‘Void’ or ‘emptiness’ is the state of impermanence and change but at the same time the heart of energy which generates everything in the real world. Chapter 28 then goes on to demonstrate the implication of these phenomena for social arrangements, specifically in ‘vernacular democracy’ in rural India—a world where equality and diversity can stand together.

This performative lecture explores artistic, social, cultural, and philosophical issues embedded in interdisciplinary dance theater artist Michael Sakamoto's latest solo work, blind spot. Combining film, video, and photography, dance, and theatrical performance, blind spot attempts to tell a story of looking without seeing, yet with sudden, ephemeral flashes of insight. Using his own history and perception-projection as a racialized, “Asian-American” body practicing butoh, an “Asian” form, Michael speaks of self-contradiction, code switching, and embracing both socialized and subjective identity. Inspired by the Buddhist conception of impermanence and ontological questions of embodied truth in media-based art forms, blind spot is rooted in the belief that every moment is an instance of not knowing, simultaneously revealing our fear and desire, making life a circuitous, nonlinear journey of mapping such “blind spots.”From Michael's artist statement on blind spot: The fear of not seeing is the same as that of not knowing. From implosive desire, we give primacy to sight at the cost of vision. Within and without language-delineated, behavioral paradigms, we alternate between embracing our passion/obsession and holding ourselves at arm's length in the third person. Our mediated image—dead to the world but with a life of its own—becomes both bulwark against and support for the tenuous, febrile cord connecting us to heredity and lineage in the ways we both speak and act.

The science–religion divide in the West is well illustrated by the First Vatican Council and the subsequent responses to it. While European colonialism, the religion-science bifurcation, and the view of Progress as unidirectional all contributed to the decimation of boran meditation, a new divide was to wipe it out in its remaining strongholds from the 1970s onwards. To induce transformation, the form of Theravada meditation that as late as the nineteenth century, prior to the rise of Vipassana, dominated much of the Theravada world harnessed techniques found in the other dominant technologies of the time. This chapter examines the example of one such technology, meditation, in one subculture, Theravada Buddhism, within Southeast Asia. A relatively modern meditation practice, Mindfulness (Vipassana) uses the observation of bodily experience and various forms of consciousness to develop a fundamental awareness of the three characteristics of all samsaric existence: unsatisfactoriness (dukkha), lack of an enduring self (anatta) and impermanence (anicca).

Buddhism was transported from the Asian continent to Europe, North America and Australia from the nineteenth century onwards when representatives of colonial powers analysed Buddhist scriptures, art and architecture. The Buddha imparted the Dharma in different ways to different audiences in order that the maximum number of people would be able to absorb its messages at a level congruent with their conditioning, their stage of spiritual development and their aspirations. The Buddha taught that the conditioned reality of life-on-Earth is characterised by the impermanence of all things and the inevitability of suffering for sentient beings as their bodies undergo birthing, ageing, decaying and dying. Most secularists raise no objections to the Buddha's teachings on suffering and morality. The Buddhist view of suffering and its overcoming may be more contentious among Western social workers. Westerners who take up meditation in an educational or health care setting are exposed to a secular version of this practice.