Installation art of Olafur Eliasson Research Paper

Installation art of Olafur Eliasson - Research Paper Example Art allows artists the freedom to exercise with just any material to express their creativity. In the recent past, artists have taken this freedom to higher unique levels and have been using elemental materials such as humidity, water, air temperature, and light to come up with unique pieces. One such artist is Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson. Olafur Eliasson transforms the perception of reality by inserting massive installations of nature into public spaces as this research study will reveal. To create The Weather Projectin London’s Turbine Hall, he made a large circular disc using multiple monochromatic lamps to create a sun radiating yellow light. Additionally, he created artificial mist in the hall using humidifiers casting a mixture of water and sugar then finished it by covering the ceiling with a large mirror1. The installation comes off as a large sun casting yellow rays into a dense mist. Visitors lie on their back and see themselves as tiny black shadows immersed in an ocean of yellow light. The purpose of the installation is to create an artifice of the sun, allowing visitors to â€Å"engage† closely with nature2. The New York Waterfallsinstallation at the New York harbor is a composition of four gigantic [artificial] waterfalls ranging between 90 to 120 feet high3. Eliasson created the project to allow people in the city to experience and appreciate their relationship with nature of immense nature. The size of the installations, which rise high above eye view creates an enhanced feeling of rare experience that the townsfolk are rare with. In this case, he brought the perception of reality (waterfalls) into a public space (New York City), allowing people to familiarize with the proportion of such occurrences as they are in nature without visitng them4. The Infinite Staircase in Munich, Germany, is yet another of Eliasson’s unique perception of reality in a public space. It

Nativism and Immigration Restriction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Nativism and Immigration Restriction - Essay Example However, the year 1882 would become a turning point in our nation's history with the passage of the federal Chinese Exclusion Act that prohibited immigration based on race and ethnicity. The next four decades would continue to affect the country's perception of immigration and would culminate with the passage of the National Origins Act in 1924. Our national views and policies towards immigration continue to be shaped by the nationalism, fears, and nativism that were spawned in California over a century ago. By the middle of the 19th century the residents of California were openly expressing their resistance to Chinese immigrants and these feelings were being exhibited through worker demonstrations and violent outrages. Advocates of the open door policy clashed with anti-immigrant forces over immigration policy for one of the first times in our nation's history. The working men in California had begun to believe that the immigrant Chinese were taking jobs from them and suppressing wages. By 1876, the Chinese were working in gold mines, manufacturing, and in agriculture. A New York Times article of the era contends that, "In all these vocations, as a rule, they [the Chinese] work for lower wages than are usually paid to white men."1 The outward displays of discrimination against the Chinese workers would often force them out of the white dominated workplace and into lower paid occupations. Because there was a shortage of women in California at this time the Chinese men often turned to be coming domestic servants, cooks, housekeepers, or laundry attendants.2 This forced the Chinese workers into the lower wage positions and fulfilled the perception that they were willing to work for less money. The Chinese were also the subject of intense racism in the press and in the public debates over the employment issue. These emotions prompted the federal government to consider passing the Chinese Exclusion Act, which would ban Chinese immigration and prevent Chinese workers from attaining citizenship. A newspaper of the era argued that the white worker should "be excused if he is impatient with the competition of a laborer who lives on the cheapest food, lives in a dry goods box, has no more interest in the State than a bird of the air, and returns to his own land as soon as he accumulates a little money."3 Though these were the prevailing attitudes toward the Chinese, there was a small oppositional viewpoint. As the Chinese Exclusion Act was being debated nationally, the merchants and businessmen warned of taking such extreme action aimed at a single country and race. Their interest was in increasing trade with China that was just beginning to open up to American products. The merc hants warned, "The Chinese government would be perfectly justified in retaliating upon us, if we commit such a base act of international treachery as that contemplated by this act."4 The issue that had begun as a labor dispute in California had risen to the level of a national debate as Congress considered the Act. In the emotionally charged political debate, the voice of reason and truth was often obscured by the polarization of emotions. Professor Wells Williams of Yale College, a leading Social Scientist of the period, published a paper in 1879 after studying Chinese immigrati

Installation art of Olafur Eliasson Research Paper

Installation art of Olafur Eliasson - Research Paper Example Art allows artists the freedom to exercise with just any material to express their creativity. In the recent past, artists have taken this freedom to higher unique levels and have been using elemental materials such as humidity, water, air temperature, and light to come up with unique pieces. One such artist is Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson. Olafur Eliasson transforms the perception of reality by inserting massive installations of nature into public spaces as this research study will reveal. To create The Weather Projectin London’s Turbine Hall, he made a large circular disc using multiple monochromatic lamps to create a sun radiating yellow light. Additionally, he created artificial mist in the hall using humidifiers casting a mixture of water and sugar then finished it by covering the ceiling with a large mirror1. The installation comes off as a large sun casting yellow rays into a dense mist. Visitors lie on their back and see themselves as tiny black shadows immersed in an ocean of yellow light. The purpose of the installation is to create an artifice of the sun, allowing visitors to â€Å"engage† closely with nature2. The New York Waterfallsinstallation at the New York harbor is a composition of four gigantic [artificial] waterfalls ranging between 90 to 120 feet high3. Eliasson created the project to allow people in the city to experience and appreciate their relationship with nature of immense nature. The size of the installations, which rise high above eye view creates an enhanced feeling of rare experience that the townsfolk are rare with. In this case, he brought the perception of reality (waterfalls) into a public space (New York City), allowing people to familiarize with the proportion of such occurrences as they are in nature without visitng them4. The Infinite Staircase in Munich, Germany, is yet another of Eliasson’s unique perception of reality in a public space. It

Psychometric Testing Business Proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Psychometric Testing Business Proposal - Essay Example It will rationalise the arguments for seeking an external experienced provider in order to advise and action that implementation. To create awareness amongst branch, regional and national management of the necessity to improve retention levels of existing telephone sales operatives within the organisation. To introduce new methods at the recruitment stage in order to achieve this. Typically this indicates that with a drop-out rate of approximately 3 new staff a month, HFC is losing on average  £1,944 each year just from the loss of newly recruited CAM staff leaving the company after just one month of employment. If applied and monitored successfully the implementation of psychometric testing could be used more widely across other departments within the organisation to ensure greater levels of high performance amongst staff, in addition to overall long term improvements in staff satisfaction. A number of companies have been identified and researched with a view to obtaining the best approach to this methodology and an ability to advise accordingly in terms of the principal objectives of this proposal. It is estimated that an assessment of all the identified specialists in psychometric testing will be presented and the successful tender agreed upon by July 2008. With a new strategic approach to the recruitment process enforced by August 2008. The current questioning system employed by HFC relies on 24 questions which have a numeric scoring system. This does not allow for any thorough quantative or qualitative data to be recorded or investigated for accurate results specific to the candidate. It is clear that this present system affords updating to inform a more accurate interpretation of the candidates commitment, knowledge and realistic expectations prior to being considered for employment. The scope of this proposal is to make a case for

Architecture and spaces influencing human being to socialize

Architecture and spaces influencing human being to socialize Sociology is the understanding of the human society, which this essay is forcing more towards the sociology among family members. Moving on into studies to explore the various solutions on how things around the context of a family can feed off each other. Things like spatial qualities that will affect the familys social interaction. Exploring into different avenues in the design contexts like the balances between the private and public spaces within a home to solve the issue of bonding and interaction. An in-dept analysis of a few different case studies, local and international will to help understand and broaden the perspective of the various practical techniques on how this few designers explore the spatial quality to prove the point that spatiality do plays a part in the social interaction among family members. Therefore the main objective is to express the point that sociology is the aim and the dream of reviving once more the closeness, warmness and most harmonious type of socia lization bond between family members. The main definition of sociology is a series of development; structure and a functioning of understanding the human society. Therefore from the understanding of the word, looking into the various possibility of the definition, expanding into sub issues that will lead back to sociology. One of them is social problem, problems that occur in society around us no matter being in a big or small society. The reason for this problem to occur is due to the fact that each individual member of a society in this case focusing more into the family circle group, that lives close enough together will have conflicts. It is virtually impossible to avoid having conflicts among close family member who are staying together in the same house. They do not always get along seamlessly as each individual has their own unique character. From this sector it is important to acknowledge that social problems will affect the social interaction within the family society. Hence social interaction is another possibi lity section that will lead back to sociology. The in-depth studies of the importance of social interaction will be illustrated in the next part of this essay. But in the mean time from these two various possible issues in sociology, conclusion can be made that sociology is the aim and the dream of reviving once more the closeness, warmness and most harmonious type of socialization bond between family members. From this conclusion further studies will be made to explore the various solution on how other things around the context of a family can feed off each other. Things like spatial qualities that will affect the familys social interaction. Exploring into different avenues in the design contexts like the balances between the private and public spaces within a home to solve the issue of bonding and interaction. Moving on further into the essay studies will be made on a few different case studies, local and international. These case studies will to help understand and broaden the pe rspective of the various practical techniques on how this few designers explore the spatial quality to prove the point that spatiality do plays a part in the social interaction among family members. Allowing the family to socialize without being intermitted. Theories will be presented to support the study of how spatiality is blend with sociology. Therefore this essay will elaborated the in-depth understanding of a few key points that will help achieve the main objective for a closeness, warmness and harmonious family lifestyle in a home. Sociology The term social interaction refers to particular forms of externalities, in which the actions of the family members affect an individuals preferences. Therefore, the observation of large differences in outcomes is the balance between the interpersonal dynamics and the home environment. It is critical to organize the effectiveness of interaction that happens among the family member. From this many of social interactions exhibit strategic complementarities, which occur when the marginal utility to one person of undertaking an action is increasing with the average amount of the action taken by one family member. Consequently, a change in fundamentals has a direct effect on behavior and an indirect effect of the same sign. The direct effect on behavior will change toward the direct change in fundamentals. Although the family is made up of a group of very like-mindful people, there are still certain ways to control the functionality of the family and the behaviors within them, which make individual family distinguishable from others. In the case the head of the family will of course be the father following with the mother second, as a partner they are to set a good example in their sociality among each other so that the childrens at home will also be influence by their action and behavior, sometime unknowingly. Therefore, the father as the head of the family is the one who keeps order by setting rules and enforcing on them. Hence if a family does not have the sociality quality in their values it will have a chain reaction in their behavior, leading the family to face more sociology problems causing their behavior to influence other society out there being in their working environment or their friends in schools. Social interaction can also seen in the way of which it is an action that will lead up to a reaction. It is not only a one-way traffic but it takes two parties to work holistically together to achieve the successful outcome. There are sustain hierarchy withi n the family society and each family member has his or her societal roles to play. There is some ideal issue that the family should study or know. They should distinguish between the understanding of a correlation of the individual characteristics within the family society, to the influences of the society that occur outside the boundaries of the home allow the family to recognize the key traits that from their own unique family society. Therefore, Bott (1957: 99) argues that the immediate social environment of urban families are best considered, not as the local area in which they live, but rather as the network of actual social relational maintain, regardless of whether these are confined to the local area or run beyond its boundaries. From this argument maintaining an active social interaction within the family help balance a healthy social relationship among individual family members. Hence is will also decrease the tension in the interaction of matters in their socialization b ring together a number of elements such as solidarity, commitment, mutuality and trust. By having this healthy social relationship, no boundaries will be generated, allowing them to have the two-way traffic of interaction. Another point that will help maintain this healthy social relationship is the physical spatial environment. Form the research that was made, physical spatial environment do play a part in determining the interaction with social space that will affect the humans social behaviors and the ability of a social individual to influence others. These spatial elements such as the buffer zones between the private and general space, surveillance within the family and shares the common pathways that affect the social interaction in the house. These buffer zones are flexible to change over the physical function such, as it can be a formal social interaction area or an informal one. On the other hand segregation of spaces can also be a part of a family that from this separation they will function better as a whole. There are some activities that individuals will be far more comfortable performing them in their own space. As Schelling [1978] demonstrated that when an individual can chose the location and the presence of these interactions. Results in segregation across spaces may occur, even in situation where the typical individual would be content to live in integrated space, which in this solution are their own individual rooms. Therefore, to my opinion a statement can be made that spatial quality does influence the social behaviors unknowingly. Design Behavior comes to mind as a recurrent theme in our interests, overlapping concerns such as the architecture expression and their complexity of the relationship that capital and generational change. Hence, it is an attempt to understand the patterns and influence of the transformation of behavior over time. Behavior could also be the central to a hypothesis, which is the understanding of the correlations between the human life, nature and the built environment. Each individual building can be viewed as a sentient creature, endowed with their own unique intelligence and a defining set of living characteristics. Analyzing the input from research, physical design does influence social interaction in a static way by some of these factors. Firstly, is the informal social factor, factor that focus on the social dynamic that is the relationship between individuals and individual in groups. Secondly, is the formal social factor, which is the management of communal spaces that allows interaction to occur. Thirdly, the personal factors that is the pro-community and the pro-socializing attitude with similar values and norms. Lastly, the physical design factors, which is the density of proximity. The division of spaces that has a buffering zone between the private and general spaces, the shared pathways is one for the factor that affects social interaction among family members. Another factor is the communal spaces that have the quality and accessibility to allow family member to come together as one to have common activities together with out feeling intimidated. Therefore, how the family members perceive and understand the physical environment can determine the frequency and quality of their social interaction. The psychosocial buffer zone between individuals and the physical environment plays an important role in determining how the interaction unfolds. The social interaction and the layout of space reciprocally influence each other. The plan is the generator that has order and willfulness; it also holds itself the essence of sensation. The mass and surfaces are elements by which architecture manifests itself. Therefore, the mass and surfaces are determined by the plan. The plan is at its basis. As Le Courbusier quote Without plan there can be neither grandeur of aim and expression, nor rhythm, nor mass, nor coherence. Therefore the plan is calls for the most active imagination and the critical discipline too. What determines everything is the plan as the among of interaction the family will achieve or the social problems that the family will face. Therefore, to make a plan is to determine the main objective and fix ideas. Looking at the Schroeder house for inspiration, it is a house that perfectly demonstrates how spaces could help bring family member together to share and have their social interaction bond. It is a house, which have the plan-less idea that has been a very powerful idea in the development of architecture since modernism. The transformable and plan-less idea allows a logical way of working whereby the members are either all having their private spaces of they are all gathered in to one common space. The study of the plan informed us that is can be achieved by simply having partitions, that can be moved in a manner such that the spaces could only make sense when every family member is having the same kind of privacy level. From this way of planning it will increase the social interaction among member in the family, as they are unknowingly focus to work and interact in a common space. The balance between the common spaces that is open incorporates the focus point of the main house. The expression of openness and closeness can also be achieved through the careful alignment of furniture with the help of openings and walls. Furniture acts as a jig, positioning the human body to react, while sharing the same space together. It supports and encourages social interaction by the arrangement in space to remove barriers between family members. It is also good to have the design element such as blurring the boundaries between the human life, nature and the built environment. Case Studies Local Looking all the back into history on the planning of the traditional kampong houses in Singapore, how they are layout as a community to maximum the social interaction among families living there. The kampong were layout in the way where they will have a common areas in which people gathered, mixed around and spend time with each other. Spaces flow into each other freely with few boundaries or obstructions. The kampong with no physical barriers allows a flexibility in accommodate two or more needs of extending when needed, which is not available in our modern housing estate today. Studying in-depth for the interior layout of a kampong enable us to see that the architecture plays with a lot of voids, opening and have an open plan with minimum partition. This self-drawn diagram is my analysis of a kampong house. The house can be broken down into three sectors. First sector acts as a transition space between the open public and private sectors. It is also the sector where the family will entertain their guests. The second sector will be the private area where all the private family activities happen. The living area is a common open area where family members are able to see the movement of each other. Lastly will the kitchen, the reason of having a bridge that separate the living area and the kitchen is because the kitchen is often used by the womans community as a space where they can chat and socialize therefore the bridge is there to set the boundaries for the public. The kitchen is also a semi-private area because there is a second entrance from the back to access to the house. From this analysis, we can see that the layout of a typical kampong house has a clear hierarchy system that segregates the public zone and the private livi ng area. We can adapt a few key points from this study, the hierarchy system and the open plan that they have. Moving on to the study of our modern HDB flats. HDB was first development to replace the kampong living style in February 1960. The reason for doing so was Singapore was facing an acute housing shortage at that period of time. Therefore, the government decided to build HDB units for the low-income group of people. Through the years residences had to adapt to the emphasis of the housing program, the shifted from quantity of housing to quantity of life. Studying the typical interior layout of a modern HDB allows me to understand better why family now a day space lesser social interaction time with each other. The reason is that the spaces within a house layout is clearly defined by solid walls which break the visual connect that is an important part that allows social interaction to happen. The percentage of the common area in the house is always lower than the percentage compared to the individual private space. But however, common corridor does exist in some HDB units but the functio n of it seems to just be a connector to the private spaces rather then a space where family members interact. Is there a problem with the size of the corridors, giving the prescription as just a path for walkway and not a space to interact? Comparing this two local case studies, the traditional kampong house to our modern HDB flats we can see that the quantity of living is different. As for the modern house, we have family members that are all separated from one another by walls, which discourage interaction and by not interacting family member will lose the healthy socialization values. Compared to the traditional kampong layout where they have an open living and common space where visualization are not broken among family members. International Case Studies The project for a brick country house done by Mies Van de Rohe in 1923 demonstrates the idea of using walls to divide the space but does not go as far as to divide them off into rooms. By doing this it suggests spatial divisions by setting up relationship with the site from within. On the other hand, his Barcelona Pavilion of 1929, uses walls as the element to set up views and suggest spaces but they are not dividing the space as the whole pavilion is open-air. Compared to the Schroder House that as built in 1924, by Gerrit Rietvield. Different method has been used to demonstrate the plan-less theory. In this case, all the main services are positioned on the perimeter of the house and next to them are retracted sliding partitions, which can be pulled out to divide the spaces into rooms. Such as the space acquires more possibilities, compared to when the screens are close, there is no one name to label the spaces. However, these walls provide only a certain amount of prescribed flexib ility. If these walls are completely independent of the structure, the moveable walls will become screens, which is essentially furniture. Therefore, western architecture has various ways and method to tackle the issue of social interaction. The freedom within the layout of the interior allows ways to alter to ones needs hence it is adaptable to the engender bonding between the occupants and the building through continuous physical involvement. By doing this the interaction level within the family can be adjustable to the function that is formed at anytime opening up the partition to allow each family member to remain the visual connect that will allow social interaction to happen. Not knowing focusing them to start a conversation as there is isnt any physical wall. Interestingly enough in Japan, the Japanese traditional house takes on an entirely different attitude to spatial division and living pattern. While planned as the same meaning as the Western architecture, walls do not. In a typical Japanese screened house, the rooms other than the service rooms have on one purpose. Within these the functions takes on the meaning of the activity that is performed and their functions can be changeable with the activities. Quoted from Nishihara explanation of the difference of the Western thinking compared to the Japanese thinking is the Western thinks in terms of function and makes his rooms accordingly, whereas the Japanese simply set up zones. In Japan, when it is time for dining, a portable table and food will be brought out; when its working time a writing desk will be taken out; and when it is time for bed, bedding that are typically stored in the cupboard will be unrolled and rolled back to be stored in the morning. Leaving the space to be purpos eless and multi-purpose at once. From these two case studies, we can see the how two different cultures approach the understanding of an open-less plan concept. Here is an illustration of the comparison diagram between the Japanese concept and the western concept. Image taken from, Works Cited Bibliography Work Cited http://www.helium.com/items/629105-family-values-the-importance-of-strong-family-bonds http://www.doccentre.org/docsweb/urban-issues/hawkers/hawkers13.htm http://www.sacred-texts.com/asia/sby/sby02.htm http://www.sageofasheville.com/primary_prevention.html http://www.fashioncentral.pk/living-lifestyle/home-garden/story-25-home-interior-decoration/ http://scienceblogs.com/framing-science/2007/11/au_students_debate_the_interne.php http://www.malaysiasite.nl/kampong.htm http://www.infed.org/community/community.htm http://www.sjsu.edu/people/thomas.leddy/courses/c2/s1/Le_Courbusier.doc

American Political Science :: Politics Government Essays

American Political Science In politics as in political science and legal scholarship, the world sometimes seems to be divided into those who think that for the sake of efficiency as well as justice markets must be free from regulation by morals and those who believe that, considerations of efficiency notwithstanding, justice demands that morals govern markets. In his instructive and admirably balanced new book, Cass Sunstein contends that, for all concerned, this is a bad way for the world to be divided. Sunstein sets out to show the superiority of a third view: markets and morals exercise a reciprocal influence on each other, and a respectable political science and a responsible jurisprudence must grasp the complicated relationship between them. In support of his thesis, Sunstein examines a remarkable range of ideas and issues: the ambiguity of preferences; the need to devise empirical measures of human well-being to solve problems of adjudication and public policy that arise in the modern welfare state; the complex origins, the pervasive influence, and the political regulation of social norms; why markets alone cannot put an end to discrimination; free speech issues raised by the Internet; constitution making in Eastern Europe; the relation among property rights, democracy, and constitutionalism; neglected consequences and complicated trade-offs in the regulation of the environment and health; and the project of using the legal system to democratize America. In making his case, Sun stein is conscientious about introducing qualifications to his claims, drawing out problems of implementation inhering in his reforms, and identifying dangers associated with his programs, though occasionally he blurs the distinction between openly acknowledging a difficulty and responding to it by scaling back his theoretical ambitions or revising his political programs. The two crucial and connected points, to which Sunstein returns again and again, are that markets are complex institutions and that morals are an irreducible element of social and political life. It is not exactly that there is no such thing as a free market or that morals are everywhere, but that free markets cannot be understood in isolation from beliefs and practices, especially beliefs about what is just and good for human beings and practices that prepare or prevent one from participating effectively in commercial, democratic society. Moreover, because they depend on and are partly constituted by law, free markets are not only more complex but also less autonomous than they sometimes appear. For example, the law of property provides rules of entitlement and the law of contract establishes rules of transfer.

Alexander Calder Essay -- essays research papers

Alexander Calder was one of the most innovative and original American artists of the twentieth century. In 1926, Calder arrived in Paris and devoted himself to a project called the Circus that occupied him for over five years. This contains characters and animals made out of wire, scraps of cloth, wood, cork, labels, bits of scrap metal and pieces of rubber. Calder transported his little theater in suitcases and performed it for his friends. During his performances, Calder invented ways to simulate the flight of birds: â€Å"These are little bits of white paper, with a hole and slight weight on each one, which flutter down several variously coiled thin steel wires which I jiggle so that they flutter down like doves†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Alexander Calder, An Autobiography with Pictures [New York: Pantheon, 1966], p.92) The Circus is the laboratory of Calder’s work; in it he experimented with new formulas and techniques. "By 1930," sculptor historian Wayne Craven has writte n, Calder's "Circus had become one of the real successes of the art world of Montparnasse, as well as among the Paris intellectuals. Jean Cocteau, Fernand Leger, Joan Miro, Piet Mondrian, Jean Arp... and others were captivated by it, whereas none of them paid much attention to Calder's wood carvings. Such encouragement undoubtedly led him to try more serious experiments in wire sculptures." During this same period he developed wire figures such as Josephine Baker, The Negress, and the Portrait of Edgar Varese, w... Alexander Calder Essay -- essays research papers Alexander Calder was one of the most innovative and original American artists of the twentieth century. In 1926, Calder arrived in Paris and devoted himself to a project called the Circus that occupied him for over five years. This contains characters and animals made out of wire, scraps of cloth, wood, cork, labels, bits of scrap metal and pieces of rubber. Calder transported his little theater in suitcases and performed it for his friends. During his performances, Calder invented ways to simulate the flight of birds: â€Å"These are little bits of white paper, with a hole and slight weight on each one, which flutter down several variously coiled thin steel wires which I jiggle so that they flutter down like doves†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Alexander Calder, An Autobiography with Pictures [New York: Pantheon, 1966], p.92) The Circus is the laboratory of Calder’s work; in it he experimented with new formulas and techniques. "By 1930," sculptor historian Wayne Craven has writte n, Calder's "Circus had become one of the real successes of the art world of Montparnasse, as well as among the Paris intellectuals. Jean Cocteau, Fernand Leger, Joan Miro, Piet Mondrian, Jean Arp... and others were captivated by it, whereas none of them paid much attention to Calder's wood carvings. Such encouragement undoubtedly led him to try more serious experiments in wire sculptures." During this same period he developed wire figures such as Josephine Baker, The Negress, and the Portrait of Edgar Varese, w...