GULLIVER'S TRAVELS is often told as a children's tale, but was intended as a gentle satire on the adult world of the early 1700s ... REX WHISTLER illustrated it rarther beautifully ... most but not all of his illustrations follow ...

https://archive.org/details/gulliverstravels0000swif_v2u3/page/n5/mode/2up?view=theater

An album of SNOW PAINTINGS and PRINTS

 

Stanley BADMIN

Stanley SPENCER

Pieter BRUEGEL

Eyvind EARLE

V&A

peter brook

maxfield parrish

ronald lampitt

kaoru yamada

leo piron

... to be continued, as & when ...

A SCRAPBOOK OF THE HUMAN BRAIN ... I read THE PURPOSIVE BRAIN by RAGNAR GRANIT back in the 1970s ... the brain seems to run multiple functions simultaneously of which we aren't properly conscious, until things go wrong ... and I've read other bits and pieces over the years, but I've never consolidated all the stuff I barely understood ... so I'm starting a scrapbook instead of making a scholarly inquiry ...

Wikipedia provides a well structured introduction ... this in itself, if all the useful links were followed, would keep a serious student busy for months

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_brain

What has intrigued me most is the ability of the brain, when temporarily freed from normal constraints, to generate dreams and visual illusions of great beauty.

Over the years, i've valued those experiences just as much as any of the tangible moments that real life has provided.

So, I'll be adding scraps day-by-day ... onwards & upwards boys & girls !

JAMES TURRELL'S TRICK

an experience akin to a fast hallucination is provoked in this apparatus ...

laying flat on your back, you are confined within a white sphere and your entire visual field is exposed to a slow succession of saturated colours, graduating imperceptibly from one colour to another for several minutes

the mind is lulled in your physical isolation

then there is a rapid firing of ( maybe ) ten white strobes in ( maybe ) two seconds

this induces a false perception ... a cascade of fractured shards of prismatic colours that seem to form symmetrical structures within a larger illusory space that throb with energy for a few moments until the mind regains it grasp of reality and you are released from your period of confinement

those shards of colour were entirely illusory, created within your head by a kind of visual shock

https://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/james-turrell-light-reignfall

ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY ... BRAINWAVE STUDY

electroencephalography is used to search for abnormal electrical activity, and also reveals underlying rhythms in the brain's normal and resting states

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroencephalography

BRAIN MAPPING

OLIVER SACKS

wrote THE MAN WHO MISTOOK HIS WIFE FOR A HAT

demonstrating the flimsiness of the mental fabrics we call reason and sanity

whilst emphasising the need for humour and compassion and an open mind

DANIEL KAHNEMAN

wrote THINKING FAST AND SLOW a very long examination of what he'd learned about the pitfulls of INSTINCT & INTUITION when they conflict with reason, and with reasonable caution

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

I picked up this concept from an old Leon Festinger article in Scientific American

My take is ... it is about how we often carry on when things are not right, and about the damage that we then inflict on ourselves

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

... to be continued, as & when ...

THE SCROLL OF EIGHTY SEVEN IMMORTALS

 The “Scroll of Eighty-Seven Immortals” is believed to be a silk line drawing created by Tang-Dynasty artist Wu Daozi (c. AD 680–759). It’s currently housed at the Xu Beihong Memorial Museum in #Beijing. This artwork vanished from history for several centuries before being rediscovered by Xu Beihong (1895–1953) in a foreigner’s home.

Xu Beihong treasured the piece deeply; he carried it with him everywhere. He even stamped it with his personal seal, “Beihong’s Life,” symbolising his strong connection with the painting. Thanks to him, the artwork has been preserved and passed down to future generations.

a glossary of terms ... a passing interest in the art of jeanne mammen led me to this glossary ... i have copied it from an exhibition catalogue ... i've always shied away from discussions of sexual politics because i am too apathetic to want to impose a view on anyone

 

jeanne mammen self 1926

... thought to be a self-portrait of jeanne in the foreground, with her sister

jeanne's most famous image ... she made gay wimmin so properly glamorous 

Exhibition: ‘Femme Fatale: Gaze – Power – Gender’ at the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg

Exhibition dates: 9th Dec 2022 – 10th April 2023

Glossary

Ableism

The term is derived from the English word “able” and denotes discrimination based on physical abilities. People whose bodies are deemed less “able” due to a disability or impairment, are socially and spatially excluded and devalued. An ableist society adopts a ‘healthy’ body as the norm and sees all others as (negative) aberrations. Ableism is, for example, when a person in a wheelchair is dependent on the help of others because buildings aren’t constructed barrier-free. Or when blind students at universities or educational institutions don’t have full access to all teaching materials.

Antisemitism

Hostile attitude toward Jews. It presents in various forms – from prejudice and verbal abuse to violence and murder. The gravest manifestation of antisemitism was German Nazism under Adolf Hitler, when between 1933 and 1945 more than six million Jewish people were murdered.

BIPoC

BIPoC is a political self-designation and short form for Black, Indigenous and People of Color. The short form BIPoC combines the communities referred to but also underlines their different experiences. Because of this, the term is sometimes used as an alternative for the term People of Color, to make Black people and indigenous identities explicitly visible and to emphasise that not all People of Color have the same experiences.

Black

Black is capitalised and is the politically correct and self-chosen term for Black people. The capital B emphasises social-political positioning within a society principally dominated by white people. The term Black is therefore not about biological characteristics but about socio-political affiliations. Black people are diverse and have completely diverse skin tones. As such, the term is more about highlighting the collective experiences that Black people have in this system and to emphasise their ongoing resistance.

Black Culture

The term Black Culture describes Black popular culture which deals mainly with entertainment, pleasure as well as knowledge and which is expressed via aesthetic codes and genres. It represents the identity and politics of Black cultures according to their beliefs, experiences and values. Although Black Culture encompasses all Black people worldwide, US-American Black pop culture is given the most attention.

Cis- and Transgenderism

Cis and trans are Latin words. Trans means “across” or “beyond” and, in relation to gender, refers to a person who does not identify with the sex assigned to them at birth and who experience themselves “beyond” it. Cis is, in a sense, the opposite. It can be translated as “on this side of” and indicates that someone lives within the boundaries of their assigned sex.

Classism

When recipients of state benefits are depicted as unwilling to work and unintelligent, this is an example of classism. Or when a working-class child is laughed at in university for not knowing certain trends or foreign words. Because people are not only discriminated against due to their gender and skin colour, but also because of the social and economic class they were brought up in. The term classism is even older than sexism and racism, the terms often associated with it: it was already in use in the 19th Century. Those who are poor and / or have less education due to a lack of resources are devalued in a classist society and have more difficulty accessing institutions seen as elitist.

Colonialism

Colonialism refers to a process of subjugation: one group of people goes to another group of people and imposes on it its rules, laws, language, customs, or religions in order to exploit it economically and culturally. When we speak of colonialism today, we mostly mean the process which began with the colonisation of the American continent by Europe’s ruling classes from the 15th century onwards and its negative consequences (such as racism, slavery, and exploitation) which can be still felt today.

Discrimination

Discrimination means the use of supposedly unambiguous distinctions to justify and rationalise unequal treatment. As a result of this unequal treatment, the persons discriminated against experience social disadvantages. Discrimination is an extensive system of social relationships, in which the discriminatory distinctions operate. Discrimination can therefore not be understood as a consequence of individual qualities. A by now very well known example for discrimination on a structural level is the Gender Pay Gap. This is the gap between the salaries of men and women as well as non-binary people for equal work. In 2022, women in Germany are still paid 18 percent less in terms of (gross) hourly wage than men.

Drag

The best-known examples are drag queens. A drag queen portrays, in a performative and artistic way, the appearance and behaviour of women, or rather femininity, a drag king the demeanour and outward appearance of men. This play with (exaggerated) femininity or masculinity is hence a show which is independent from the gender of the performer. The most famous drag practice is the embodiment of drag queens. These are often performed by queer men.

Empowerment

Mostly used as self-empowerment, it means to turn a disempowered situation into a more empowered one through certain actions. Often, this is a group process, for example, racially and sexually discriminated people who unite and fight for their cause and thus gain more confidence and, at best, more rights. This process may also take place symbolically, for example when young girls feel “empowered” by the encouraging writings of a feminist.

Eurocentrism

Eurocentrism means a view of the world that renders European history and so-called European principles as the primary measure of value. The term eurocentrism consequently makes evident global power relations and colonial historical thinking.

Feminism

Feminism is a social movement, which has already undergone several waves with different priorities, for example the achievement of women’s suffrage in the first wave or the legal equality of men and women in the second wave. While in the past many feminists assumed essentialist gender conceptions, meaning a clear distinction between only two genders – female and male – contemporary feminism is more inclusive. Often it no longer speaks of women but uses the term FLINTA*, which encompasses Female, Lesbian, Intersex, Trans and Agender and, with the asterisk, all others who identify as feminine. Earlier feminists had often focused on the concerns of middle-class, white, western women. But as part of an intersectional consideration of feminism, queer, PoC, trans and many more feminist voices have gained influence in recent decades. Initially, feminism was understood as the liberation of women from the patriarchy, but today it ideally refers to engagement for a world in which all forms of oppression, discrimination and exploitation will be abolished.

Gender and sex

Gender describes the social, lived, perceived sex of a person. Gender is an English term, but is also used in German, precisely when it comes to social characteristics and gender identity. Gender is not limited to what is assigned to us at birth on the basis of physical characteristics but rather refers to socially constructed attributes, opportunities and relationships.

Heteronormativity

When at day care little girls and boys, who are friends, are asked if they want one day to marry each other, this is an example of heteronormativity: a worldview in which heterosexuality is seen as the norm, as ‘normal’ and so what is desirable for everyone. A heteronormative society divides people into the binary categories of men and women, values men as more important and tends to be hostile towards queerness.

Hustle-Culture/Grind-Culture

Hustle-Culture/Grind-Culture describes a lifestyle, in which an aspiration to success and high-performance take priority. Long working hours and little rest are seen as the benchmarks of success.

Imperialism

Derived from the Latin word “imperium”, it means to pursue extended political and economic power outside one’s own (national) borders. By means of military or economic strategies, but also with the aid of culture and education, it is attempted to gain control over other countries or regions.

Intersectionality

The term intersectionality was coined in 1989 by lawyer, scholar and civil rights activist Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw. It is about the intersection and interaction of social identities and connected systems of oppression. Intersectionality focuses on the fact that people are often disadvantaged or benefit from several characteristics at once. Social, ethnic background, social and economic status as well as gender can be examples of such interconnected categories. A person may be Black and a woman, hence experiences racism and sexism. A white woman, on the other hand, experiences sexism too but benefits from her white privileges. Intersectional feminism therefore aims to recognise and make visible the multi-layered perspectives of people who experience overlapping forms of oppression.

LGBTQIA*

LGBTQIA* is an English-language collective term for ways of living and loving outside the heterosexual norm, which is now being used around the world. It is short form for Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, Queer, Inter and Asexual. The asterisk stands for further identities that are perhaps not or not completely included therein, to leave no one out.

The male gaze

The male gaze is the concept of the male stare and stands for how systematically male control is applied and functions in our society. The term was coined by the feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey, who in the 1970s, brought attention to the fact that women in films were mostly represented as objects of male heterosexual fantasy.

Misogyny

Misogyny literally means “hatred of women” (from the ancient Greek: “misos” = “hate”, “gyne” = “woman”) and has been prevalent around the globe for thousands of years as a derogatory to murderous attitude towards about 50% of the world’s population.

(Non-) Binarity

If something is binary, it functions like a two-part system: there is always only the one and the other, like the two sides of a coin. Both mutually define each other. A binary gender system assumes that there are only men and women, and that everyone must belong to one of these two categories. Non-Binarity (NB) breaks up this rigid structure. Non-binary people, sometimes also called enbies (from NB), identify neither as man nor woman.

Objectification

Objectification describes the dehumanising treatment of certain people as things, hence as objects. The most common example is sexist objectification by men, who reduce women to sex-objects.

Orientalism

The term Orientalism exposes how the world has been divided into two parts: on the one side there is the supposedly modern, enlightened West, the ‘Occident’, which sees itself as the centre and protagonist of world events. The ‘Orient’ finds itself on the other side, depicted by the West as ‘backward’ and ‘unmodern’, yet at the same time as ‘exotic’ and ‘sensual’. According to the Palestinian-American literary scholar Edward Said, who published his influential book titled Orientalism in 1978, the ‘Orient’ was invented by Europeans in order to better dominate and exploit these regions.

Othering

With othering, a usually more powerful group, or individual, dissociates itself from another group characterising it as ‘alien’ and ‘different’, thus devaluing it and connoting it negatively. The group higher up in the power structure thus discriminates against the people described as ‘different’ who cannot defend themselves against these attributions.

Patriarchy

Patriarchy is a social system predominantly controlled and shaped by hetero-cis men. This means men determine the gender roles within society. Everything in the patriarchy is geared towards cis-men and they profit highly from such a system. Patriarchal structures are firmly established everywhere in our society. For example, for many in a heterosexual relationship it is still a given that the woman takes parental leave after a pregnancy to take care of the child while the father continues to work. Another example of patriarchal structures: the man is supposed to propose marriage. And after the wedding, the woman takes his name. A man’s power is thus always paramount, though emotions are denied to men. To cry, to be shy or insecure, or to take parental leave after the birth of a child – according to the patriarchy this is not how ‘real’ men behave. In this way men too are restricted by the patriarchy’s toxic masculinity.

People of Color

The term People of Color, PoC for short, is a self-designation and does not describe, like the terms Black and white, any particular skin tones. It is a matter of a position in society and an umbrella term for communities that experience marginalisation due to racism. The experienced racist discriminations vary and are far-reaching. To be asked every day “where are you from?” or be told “but your English is very good” are examples of this, as well as not being invited for a job interview because of one’s name or being threatened or attacked on the train.

Queer

If something is “queer” in English, it is actually peculiar or odd. Since the end of the 19th Century the word has been used derogatively for people who felt sexually attracted to their own gender. From the 1980s, this negative meaning was consciously and provocatively reversed by activists and the term was used positively. Today, many people who do not love heterosexually and / or live cisgendered, describe themselves as queer.

Racism

If people have to endure marginalisation or even violence because of their origin or their appearance, for example because of their skin colour or their religion, that is racism. Racism can take on many forms – for example anti- Muslim, anti-Black, or anti-Asian racism, that particularly targets these groups.

Sexism

Sexism is the discrimination against people because of their sex. “Blonde jokes”, unequal pay for equal work or unwanted wolf-whistles on the street – these are all examples of sexism. Since we still live in patriarchal societies in which men dominate, sexism affects people perceived as female. But men too can be restricted by patriarchal gender stereotypes such as “boys don’t cry” or “men don’t know about babies.”

Stereotyping

Stereotyping is the generalisation of a group of people. In the process, individuals and the differences between them are not considered. Instead, all people in this group are reduced to the same, often negative, characteristics.

Stigmatisation

Stigmatisation is a distinctly negative demarcation from other individuals or groups within a society. This may happen in interpersonal relationships, such as bullying in school, or on a structural level, when for example People of Color repeatedly experience rejection when searching for apartments, or when people with specific therapy experience are denied civil servant status. In this last case, derogatory characteristics are attributed to a mentally ill person by large sections of society, denying them full social acceptance.

White

White is the socio-politically correct description for white people. It is not a biological term, rather a position in society. The terms Black, PoC and BIPoC are capitalised because they are self-chosen terms. The term white, on the other hand, is written in lower case and often in italics. The call for concrete labelling of white, hence white people and white privileges, became louder through antiracist movements. Because being white, from a white perspective, is generally the norm. In this way, being white is often made invisible, while all non-white people are made visible and portrayed as supposedly ‘different’.

White Supremacy

White Supremacy is the ideology that white people, and all their ideas, actions and opinions are superior to those of BIPoC. White Supremacy is a self-sustaining system in that it marginalises People of Color though colonialism, exploitation and repression and so guarantees white people a continuous position of power.

plastic policemen in tibet ...

sometimes they make do with something more substantial ...

more will come, as & when ...