THE HEROIC AND THE BANAL: CONSUMING SOVIET MOVIES IN PRE-SOCIALIST CHINA, 1920S–1940S

Abstract

Soviet cinema as part of the socialist cultural landscape in Maoist China has been well recognized and extensively researched. This article looks at the earlier exhibition history of Soviet movies in pre-socialist China (from the 1920s to 1940s). It demonstrates that the early Chinese consumption and reception of this film culture involved two intertwined attitudes. On the one hand, Soviet movies were greeted as a much-needed Hero in the Chinese nationalist and anti-imperialist discourses. On the other hand, the exhibition of Soviet movies operated commercially, and commercial sectors promoted the popular appeal of these movies to fulfill the carnal desire of spectators. By examining film reviews, advertisements, and censorship reports, this article explores the ways in which the Hero image and the banal side of the Hero were constructed in the pre-socialist milieu of China.     

Visual rehumanisation: torture and terror in In the Name of the Father and Fifty Dead Men Walking

This article explores the use of torture by both state and non-state actors during the Northern Irish Troubles as visualised in two films, Jim Sheridan’s In the Name of the Father (1998) and Kari Skogland’s Fifty Dead Men Walking (2009). Using the concept of “acknowledgement” as developed by Stanley Cohen, this article argues that the visualisation of torture not only draws the issue out from the shadows, but challenges the dehumanisation process which can facilitate passive acceptance of the use of torture where there exists a threat to the integrity of the political and moral community.     

Gallery Districts of Barcelona: The Strategic Play of Art Dealers

This article focuses on Barcelona's art market to explore the underlying factors behind the clustering of art dealers in several of the city's districts. Drawing upon quantitative and qualitative data, the article analyzes how such clustering reveals a strategic action in the sense attributed to it by Crozier and Friedberg (1981 Crozier, Michel and Friedberg, Erhard. 1981. L’acteur et le système, Paris: Éditions du Seuil.  [Google Scholar]). Gallery districts are not a reflection of structural factors (economic, urban development-related, or social) but are the result of a combination of strategic choices—either individual or collective—which explain the permanence of leading gallery districts or the emergence of new ones.     

National Treasure: Implicit Protections of Cultural Property in the United States

Despite the international prevalence of cultural export controls, the United States has not adopted explicit measures for that purpose. Whereas many culture-rich nations have found it necessary to implement explicit export controls to stem an exodus of prominent works of culture, U.S. common law and national policy, by relying on traditional concepts of property ownership rights and charity, have achieved similar effects without placing undue limits on international trade. In this article, I posit that any change in the current approach and toward explicit export control would be inimical to the U.S. self-interest and the developmental direction of the relevant legal policy.     

Modernist art in the service of Nazi culture: Baldur von Schirach and the Junge Kunst im Deutschen Reich exhibition

ABSTRACT

Maertz's essay offers a history of a modernist art exhibition that opened in Vienna's Künstlerhaus under the patronage of Baldur von Schirach, the Führer's personal representative in that city, the second largest in Nazi Germany. The significance of the 1943 Junge Kunst im Deutschen Reich (New Art in the German Reich) exhibition lies in its assertion of a modernist variant of ‘official’ National Socialist art that clashes with the orthodox aesthetic system typically associated with the Third Reich.     

扩大的权利与扩大的义务——数字艺术行为哲学论要

数字艺术是一种基于人工智能技术创生的新型艺术形态,其本质在于双重互动不确定性机制.在该机制的作用下,数字艺术行为秩序较之原子艺术行为秩序发生了重大而深远的变化.首先,数字艺术开拓出一种人人享有的创作权和传播权,消解了原子艺术秩序中的艺术创作特权和传播特权,数字艺术创作权利的本质是一种艺术发表权.其次,通过艺术发表权,数字艺术衍生出一种原子艺术秩序没有的艺术接触权,接触权也是一种普遍的、平等的、人人共享的艺术权利.另外,数字艺术还抑制了主权者的艺术监管权力.数字艺术上述扩大的权利也相应为数字艺术主体衍生出同等数量的艺术义务.相对于原子艺术秩序中的那些义务,数字艺术义务的履行即尊重各项数字艺术权利的行使、避免生产传播有损于社会大众身心健康的艺术作品在当下人工智能社会遭遇到了巨大的挑战.     

The realism debate and the politics of modern art in early postwar Japan

This article examines the realism debate (riarizumu ronsō) that took place between 1946 and 1950 as a forum in which ideas on artistic form, the role of the artist in society, and the social relevance of art come into focus in a way that allows us to see how questions such as Japan's modernity, the recent experience of fascism, and the challenges of rebuilding culture during the early cold war were taken up by leading cultural figures in the field of the visual arts. Occurring alongside discussions of how the art world could be reformed to avoid the failures of fascism, the debate served as an occasion to re-examine the history of modern art in Europe and Japan and to consider the question of artistic representation in a way that opened the most fundamental question of art's relationship to the world and promised to begin the process of envisioning it anew. The debate involved three camps which I label social realism (represented by Hayashi Fumio and Nagai Kiyoshi), modernist realism (Hijikata Tei’ichi), and avant-garde realism (Uemura Takachiyo, Okamoto Tarō, and Hanada Kiyoteru). While assessing their points of agreement and disagreement, I argue that the debate set the stage for debates in the 1950s and beyond.     

Optimized Development of Sebaceous Fingermarks on Nonporous Substrates with Conformal Columnar Thin Films

A form of physical vapor deposition, called the conformal‐evaporated‐film‐by‐rotation (CEFR) method, was optimized for the conformal deposition of columnar thin films (CTFs) on sebaceous fingermarks. Relying on the surface topology of the fingermark, the CTF development technique is different from traditional development techniques. After the optimization of the development conditions, the CTF development technique was found to be superior to traditional development methods on several nonporous substrates: the smooth side of Scotch^® Multitask, Gorilla^®, and Scotch^® Duct tapes; clear and black soft plastics; stained and sealed walnut and cherry woods; partial bloody fingermarks on stainless steel; and discharged cartridge casings. It was equally as good as other development techniques on other substrates, but worse on a few. The optimization study is expected to assist in designing a mobile CEFR apparatus capable of on‐scene development of fingermarks.     

陕西省广播影视监管中心全面综合建设简论

我国广播影视正处于模拟与数字、传统媒体与新兴媒体并存发展的关键时期,"三网"融合已在积极推进之中。"十二五"期间,我省建设架构合理、配置合理、功能完善、安全可靠的安全播出调度指挥监测网系统,把模拟的、数字的、卫星的、地面的、以及手机电视监测、移动监测、数字电影机监测等监测内容相涵盖,从科学性、功能性、实用性、未来发展等多方面出发,满足全省广播电视监测监管实际工作的需要,实现对广播电影电视及互联网播出技术和播出内容的全面监管是省监测中心面临的紧迫任务。     

论创先争优与提高领导艺术

创先争优活动从更高境界赋予"领导艺术"以新意义、新内涵,并为领导艺术上台阶开辟了广阔路径。领导干部应以创先争优活动为载体,在严格按要求创造性地开展活动中,与时俱进地提高领导艺术。