British contemporary art Essay Example for Free

British contemporary art Essay British contemporary art is the art that developed in the late 20th century and early 21st century in Britain. It was this time when there came a kind of rejection for ‘modern art’ and the force and dynamism of ‘abstract expressionism’ reduced. At the end of 1950s loose movements of early contemporary art developed ‘Pop art’ that emerged formerly in England and started with the exhibition of ‘This Is Tomorrow’. The sixties art scene saw David Hockney, Peter Blake and Richard Hamilton during this time. Pop art’ can be characterized by descriptions of common places that were placed in new artistic ontexts, optical flickering of the international pop art movement were seen in the paintings of some artists and various other varieties in the work of numerous artists were appreciated. The styles that were diminished were put under the umbrella term of ‘postmodernism’. The development of new historicism, ironic and detached, which generated a number of artistic â€Å"neonism†, marked the commencement of a new era in art. The Young British Artists movement in 1990s with the version of conceptual art that featured installations often achieved international recognition. Many new artists simultaneously tirred up and challenged history of art and gave a new definition to art that it is any work of art is an entity, which in itself is self-sufficient. The new art seemed to be sometimes detached with social consciousness and concentrated on issue driven themes and minorities like gay, feminism etc. Another trend that is being seen in numerous works of art is the concept driven by the use of photography and language as the substance. Further contemporary art movement includes digital art, which was initiated in 1970s but became prevalent with the beginning of 21st century. The digital artists make use of software and sophisticated computers along with video equipments and create an extremely different work of art. Damien Hirst, internationally renowned and leader of â€Å"Young British Artists† dominated the art world in Britain especially during 1990s. The central theme of Hirst’s work is ‘death’ and his famous work was a series of dead animals preserved in formaldehyde. â€Å"The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living† is a tiger shark dipped in formaldehyde in a vitrine and is of 14-feet, the sale of which made him world’s second highest expensive living artist. He is well known for his ‘spin paintings’ and ‘spot paintings’. When considering international presentation his first major one was â€Å"Mother and Child Divided† in which a cow and a calf is cut into pieces and displayed in a series of split vitrines. Damien Hirst is considered as the second most famous living British artist after David Hockney. He was born in 1965 in Bristol and was brought up by his mother and stepfather. Before going to college he did a basic course in Leeds School of Art and then moved to London in 1986 and graduated in 1989 at Goldsmith College in BA Fine Art course. During his student life he held an exhibition â€Å"Freeze† in Docklands warehouse for which he himself conceived the idea, organized it as well as promoted it too. This exhibition commenced his career along with many other young British artists. In this Mishra 3 show several of Damien’s art pieces were exhibited along with the works of his 16 fellow students of Goldsmith College. It can be said that this self-promoting exhibition gave way to starting â€Å"Young British Artists† movement. Ex-Thatcher ad-man, Charles Saatchi got impressed by his works and displayed some of his works in the first â€Å"Charles Saatchi’s Young British Artists† show. Saatchi even bought â€Å"A Thousand Years†, a piece of Damien in 1990 and since then he has created a lot of pieces and has been admired by collectors as well as curators and his works are considered extraordinarily provocative. In 1991, he filled an art gallery with live tropical butterflies and presented an installation named â€Å"In and Out of Love†. â€Å"The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Minds of Someone Living†, a piece that made him the second highest expensive living artist, was commissioned for about US$32,000 in 1992. This made Damien a media icon and since then media and public both started to mitate, praise and also criticize him. The Young British Artists of Damien’s generation is completely different from their preceding generation and are well known for their entrepreneurial spirit, independence and media savvy. Most of them are self-promoters and get sponsored privately. They did not depend on government agencies to discover their talent and then present them as was done earlier but instead they displayed their talent with the help of private sponsors who readily organized exhibitions for them. Hirst tried to develop exploration of mortality as the central theme of his artworks and extended it with humor, ynamism, novelty and enthusiasm. His â€Å"The Natural History† series, which is quite well known among his admirers, included dead animals presented, as momento mori as an irony on natural history. This series disclose the contemplation of his approach and the work of art has a visual power which is not possible to be described in words. Without having the experience of the series one cannot imagine or envisage it. If Hirst’s productions were to be categorized, it would be done in three types and they are paintings, the glass tank pieces and cabinet sculptures. Considering his paintings hat are divided into spot paintings and spin paintings. Spot paintings can be described as those paintings that are randomly organized and the canvases are color-spotted and their titles refer to pharmaceutical chemicals. Spin paintings are individually created with the help of centrifugal force and is literary done on a spinning table. His glass tank sculptures include dead animals or animals cut into pieces like cows, shark or sheep that are kept in formaldehyde perched in death. Hirst’s cabinet sculptures include collection of bottles of pills or surgical tools that are on highly arranged shelves. Damien Hirst was very quick in sharing his ideas and interest areas and very easily conveyed his message. His pieces of art were most simple but at the same time had complex ideas knitted along. Along with his paintings he expanded ‘hobby’-art technique that tried to attract audience towards the beauty and extreme energy of haphazard paintings. Hirst’s piece of art in which a single fish is suspended in formaldehyde was admired as a symbol of advanced art and people came to know that how ordinary things placed in an artistic manner could attract and look beautiful. Some of Hirst’s pieces of art ike â€Å"Alone Yet Together† which included a cabinet that held 100 small fishes in small tanks of formaldehyde and â€Å"Loss of Memory is Worse than Death† which included a steel cage that contained several vitrines with surgical mask, syringe and gloves were auctioned but failed to sell. Damien puts the blame on media that it makes the public believe the flawed explanations from art critics and public get misguided and believe in them without even actually viewing the artwork. Damien is of the opinion that people understand as well as appreciate artwork even if they don’t possess an art degree because nyone has the basic knowledge of visual background, which makes them understand complex advertisements too. It is only because people are not exposed to artworks frequently they are unable to express or appreciate it. Damien now insists that his spin paintings should be provided with spinning equipment on the wall so that there is no confusion about the upper side of the painting. As far his spot paintings are concerned they have become an icon of Hirst’s artwork. Usually it is seen that Damien’s work have recurring themes in a different way and one of is themes is â€Å" cigarettes† and the best example is his piece of work, â€Å"Party Time†. Damien considers smoking as a â€Å"theoretical suicide† and he stated, â€Å"The concept of a slow suicide through smoking is a really great idea, a powerful thing to do†. One more theme that is seen quite common in Hirst’s art is medical equipment and he had been infatuated and he wants people to believe in art just as they believe in medicine. The flood of ideas and images that Damien’s artwork creates leaves admirers of art amazed, fascinated and also threatened. One of the themes in Damien’s paintings is ‘emptiness’ like in ‘He Tried to Internalize Everything’ and ‘The Acquired Inability to Escape’ he displays a small cage like structure in which objects like desk, chair and other things usually needed for human interaction are seen covered with glass but there is human presence lacking. The feeling or intension of the artists behind these works can only be experienced and there is no question of solving any problem in this piece of art. Since the things are inside a glass cage the feeling seems to be suffocating and frustrating. Damien has fascination for glass because even though it is solid and dangerous it is transparent. It allows anyone to see everything but you cannot touch anything kept inside it. Damien’s lots of tank pieces are with animals in formaldehyde where they cannot go through any natural process and he finds it quite difficult to preserve them completely. He believes that the idea behind any creation is more important than the actual piece that has been used for the purpose. He wants his creative pieces to last till his lifetime and he is not much bothered about them after it. These animals are most famous among his works and at the same time they have been quite controversial too. He was awarded the Turner Prize for ‘Mother and Child, Divided’ and Damien says, â€Å"I want people feel like burgers. I chose a cow because it was banal. It’s just nothing. It doesn’t mean anything. What is the difference between a cow and a burger? Not a lot†¦ I want people to look at cows and feel ‘Oh My God’, so then in turn, it makes them feel like burgers†. Damien wants to make people look at ordinary things in a different way and he believes that they are frightening. He wants people to question because one thing that is useful in one way can be just opposite the other and this change of function is what makes things frightening. He says that the same is with art. He has received many letters in which people have protested, threatened or laid moral objections to the use of animals in Damien’s artwork. But Damien himself is very sympathetic about animals and most of his animals are bought from slaughterhouses or have died their natural death. Damien had quite a lot of problem convincing concerned authority his pieces of art were to be considered art and not food, as he was not allowed to take his artwork for an exhibition in United States. Again in August 1995 Damien was banned to exhibit his artwork â€Å"Two Fucking, Two Watching† which included dead cows fucking without formaldehyde. The objection was that the methane gas would explode the glass and would probably prompt vomiting among the visitors. Damien’s art installation that got changed into restaurant, which was followed to sale very shortly, is just an example that Damien is simply interested in art rather than conventional media. He is a versatile artist and his art include paintings, video, sculptures and every other media in between them. He has also designed cover art for albums, directed a music video and even was part of an art and film exhibition in 1996 at the  Hayward Gallery with his short film â€Å"Hanging Around†. He included many of his pop star friends from London to provide music for this film. In 1998 he became a part of a pop group and recorded two singles. Damien has also worked on quite a few side projects. Damien’s work has been admired and exhibited in Britain, the USA, Korea, Australia and many other countries in Europe. His works are included in public museums and galleries as well as in lots of private collections too. He lives with his sons Connor and Cassius and his girlfriend Maia Norman in Devon and works at his home.

Diabetes The Silent Killer Essay -- essays research papers

The Silent Killer: Diabetes Diabetes is the sixth leading cause of death by disease. It is a chronic disease that has no cure. Therefore it comes to no surprise that this disease has acquired countless number of attentions. Unfortunately, 5.4 million people in the United State are unaware that they have this disease. Until they do, they have already developed life-threatening complications. This may include blindness, kidney diseases, nerves diseases, heart diseases, strokes, and amputations. It is no wonder that diabetes is known as the silent killer. Diabetes is condition where the body does not produce or properly use insulin, which is a type of hormone that converts sugar, starches, and other types of foods into the energy that humans need everyday. It controls the blood sugar level and without it, death is inevitable. There are two major types of diabetes: Type I, and Type II. Type I is where the body does not produce any insulin also known as insulin dependent or immune-medicated diabetes. It is a disease that destroys the cells in the pancreas that produces insulin. Type II, is where the body can’t make enough or properly use insulin, also known as non-insulin dependent. Other specific type of diabetes may have its origin from certain genetic syndromes, surgery, drugs, malnutrition inflection and other illness. The cause of this disease remains a mystery. Genetics, environmental factors, lack of exercise, plays an important role in the cause of diabetes. Diabetes can cause different types of problems depending on which types of diabetes they have. For Type I diabetes, two problems may occur: ketoacidosis, and hyperglycemia. In ketoacidosis, your body produces ketones. This occurs when your blood glucose level increases too high. The productions of ketones have its unpleasant results. Ketones can cause you to vomit, have trouble breathing, become dehydrated, have dry itchy skin, and/or go into a coma. Hyperglycemia is where your blood glucose level is too low. In results, one may feel shaky, tired, hungry, confused or nervous. Lastly, there may be complications for Type I diabetes. Since the levels of glucose are high, it can damage organs. Eyes, kidney, and nerves can be damaged. It may also provoke heart and blood vessels more likely. In Type II diabetes, three types of problems can occur such as high blood glucose, low blood glucose, and complicati... ...with diabetes have blood sugar problems, meal planning for sugar control, and excising is just one method of treatment for diabetes. But sometimes, these treatments are not enough to help out with the problems. The next step is to take medicine. These methods are: oral medicine such as pills or insulin shots. However, people with type 1 diabetes don’t produce any insulin for the glucose to pass into a cell, therefore they can’t take any oral medication and insulin shots are their only way to keep blood sugar levels down. When diabetics signs starts to appear upon an individual, it is imperative that they must seek a physician immediately. If not, one may develop life-threatening complications, which in severe cases, can result in death. The numbers of deaths will only climb even higher, and diabetes will remain its title as the sixth leading cause of death by disease in the United States. As information about diabetes continue to spread out across the nation, more people will be informed and familiar about this serious disease, in result, advance action will take place for care and maintenance. The silent killer title will thus be removed, and diabetes will not remain in the dark.

Jane Loevinger and Her Theory of Ego Development Essay

Human development is a fascinating subject. Psychologists have long studied the recurrent patterns of how humans develop physically, emotionally, and psychologically. If psychologists can find patters, then they can begin to predict behavior and understand how and why people behave the way they do. Many theories have been put forth to try to explain some of the consistencies people go through as they develop. Jane Loevinger is one of those developmental theorists. Her theory of ego development has been a significant contribution to the psychological world. Loevinger was born in 1918. She grew up in Minnesota as the daughter of a lawyer and homemaker. Her home was comfortable, but not full of a lot of love. After finishing her undergraduate and master’s degree at the University of Minnesota, she ended up at the University of California. There she was a research assistant for Erik Erikson. She learned a great deal during this time about her own thoughts and beliefs about psychology (www. webster. edu). In 1943 she finished her PhD dissertation on the construction and evaluation of tests of ability. Her critique of test reliability made her no friends in the psychometric world, and publications refused to publish her work. She ended up paying for the publication herself. After finishing her dissertation, Loevinger quit working full time to have her two children. During this time she felt the guilt and pressure all moms feel. Working moms feel guilty for all the time they spend away from their children, and stay-at-home moms feel guilty for not doing anything professionally. She also felt discriminated against because of her gender. After working in unfulfilling part-time jobs, Loevinger finally decided to get back to research. She was one of the first psychologists to focus her testing on the demographic of women. She began working with a small group of women, and eventually designed the Sentence Completion Test (SCT) which consists of thirty-four open-ended questions that measures ego development. This test led her to develop her theory of ego development, which states that a person’s ego development follows nine typical phases (psychology-health. today. com). Loevinger’s theory of personality asserts that as people grow, they begin to internalize social rules, become less impulsive, and mature in their decision-making processes. The first stage of development is the infancy stage. This is the very beginning of development and ego. The infant does not know how to do anything but cry when it needs something. No thoughts are about anything other than the self. The impulsive stage is similar; when a young child wants something, they want it now. They are starting to understand consequences at this stage, so there is some awareness of others. The self-protected stage is when children first exhibits self control. They understand rewards and consequences, and are very motivated by them. The next stage, the conformist stage, is when conforming to the group of peers in paramount. There is no identity outside the group, and the disapproval of others is a major problem. Behaviors are judged by what happened, not by the intentions behind them. Finally, in the self-aware stage, there begins to be a bit of maturity. This is when people begin to become individuals. There is more to life than the group, and an inner sense of self is emerging. The conscientious stage takes those ideas even further. Here the person has goals and ideals, a sense of responsibility, and feels guilt not only about breaking a rule, but because of the thought of hurting others. Motives are taken into account as well as actions. During the individualistic stage, there develops a greater tolerance of other people, as well as an awareness of inner conflict. During this stage, the person will pull away from the group toward a more individual identity. People in the autonomous stage show a great deal of maturity. They worry about their needs verses the duties of their lives, they want self-fulfillment, and they can understand more than one point of view. Finally, the integrated stage is reached when a person fully understands their own identity. She is self-actualizing, and can understand behavior motives and intentions of others as well as herself. While not all people will be able to reach this last stage of integration, Loevinger shows a road map of how to get there. I feel her developmental theory is meaningful today, because people still have inner struggles throughout the course of their lives. When I think about all of my friends and family, I can see which stage they are each in. Loevinger contributed a theory that definitely stands the test of time and is relevant to people today. I can also look back over my life and see that some decisions I made were direct results of the stage I was in at the time. I feel like I am always trying to improve myself on the inside, and be a good person on the outside, so I feel I am in the conscientious stage. I know some of my friends who are still in the conformist stage, and this is probably a source for much of our conflict. I cannot understand why they are so concerned with what others think about them, but it might be simply because they have no matured past that stage yet. I think most young adults fall somewhere between the conformist and self-aware stages. That is why so many young adults get into trouble; they follow the group and try drugs or things they would not ordinarily try on their own. The group mentality can be very problematic, and the power it has over young adults is scary. Loevinger contributed a theory of ego development that has made a significant impact on how we understand why we act the way we do. Her stages of development represent specific time frames of life and the decisions that many people make during those times. Her theory is relevant today and still has valid implications for anyone studying human development. References Women’s intellectual contributions to the study of mind and society. Retrieved May 17, 2009, from http://www. webster. edu/~woolflm/loevinger. html Writer 44. Jane Loevinger’s theory of ego development. Retrieved May 17, 2009 from http://psychology-health. today. com/2009/03/01/jane-loevingers-theory-of-ego-development/

Lean Production Toyota s Secret Weapon - 969 Words

In their book The Story of Lean Production – Toyota’s Secret Weapon in the Global Car Wars That is Revolutionizing World Industry, published in 2007, James P. Womack, Daniel T. Jones, and Daniel Roos generally introduce and discuss about three industrial manufacturing methods from the very first approach to the most current one, which are craft production, mass production, and lean production respectively. Basically, their main points are focusing on lean production and its development as well as related issues. Chapter 1: The Industry of Industries in Transition. They look through the history of the automobile manufacturing by spelling out Henry Ford and Alfred Sloan, who left behind the old-fashioned type of production, craft production, and began a new age of the world manufacture with mass production. Also, they mention about Eiji Toyoda and Taiichi Ohno, who initially started the conception, â€Å"lean production†, which, nowadays, has been seeking by manufacturers of all kinds of industries on over the world. In addition, the writers provide a quick view in the comparison among craft production, mass production, and lean production in which they point out the drawbacks of craft production, the obstacles of mass production, and the advantages of lean production. The authors emphasize that no lean manufacturer has ever reached the ideal target of lean production, but they will continuously attempt to gain the perfections of lean production. This section, additionally,Show MoreRela tedThe Story Of Lean Production : Toyota s Secret Weapon951 Words   |  4 PagesBook Summary In the book â€Å"The Story of Lean Production – Toyota’s Secret Weapon in the Global Car Wars That is Revolutionizing World Industry†, published in 2007, James P. Womack, Daniel T. 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