Egypt : The People :: essays research papers

Egypt : The People Roughly 32,500,000 individuals live in Egypt. Laborer ranchers called fellahin make up more than 60 percent of the populace. However, under 4 percent of Egypt's territory is reasonable for cultivating. Prior to the pioneers of the 1952 transformation presented land change, under 2 percent of the landowners possessed portion of the land accessible for cultivating. The vast majority of the fellahin were occupants or possessed very little homesteads. A man who possessed 3 to 5 sections of land was viewed as wealthy. Presently nobody is allowed to possess in excess of 50 sections of land, and the normal Egyptian ranch is for the most part a lot littler than that. Â Â Â Â Â An Egyptian rancher's primary instruments are the tool, a straightforward furrow, and the sakia, or waterwheel. The fellah, his significant other, and their youngsters all work together in the fields. The dismal daily practice of their lives is mitigated uniquely on a barely any events the gathering supplication in the mosques on Fridays, strict galas, and family occasions, for example, weddings or the circumcisions of little fellows. Â Â Â Â Â A rancher's most important belonging is the water bison, dairy animals, or bull that encourages him with the overwhelming homestead work. The water wild ox or bull draws the furrow, turns the waterwheel, and pulls the nowraj. The nowraj is a wooden stage mounted on four or five iron circles. The honed edges of the plates squash the stalks of wheat with the goal that the grain can be isolated from the refuse. The water wild ox or dairy animals likewise supplies the fellah's family with milk and with calves that can be sold. All the time the fellah imparts his home to his creatures. This is unsanitary, however it is the rancher's favored method of securing them. The robbery of a creature could mean monetary disaster for the poor fellah. Â Â Â Â Â The fellah wears a free, long cotton robe called a gallabiyea, free cotton pants, and a fleece top, which he makes himself. For unique occasions he makes a turban by collapsing a white scarf around the top. Level, yellow shoes complete the fellah's outfit. Â Â Â Â Â The fellah, the spouse of the fellah, wears dresses with long sleeves and trailing ruffles and a dark shroud, which she now and then uses to cover her face. On showcase days and other unique events the ladies wear studs, accessories, wristbands, and anklets. These decorations are generally made of dots, silver, glass, copper, or gold. They make a lovely melodic sound as the fellah strolls along the dusty paths of the town. Â Â Â Â Â Most of Egypt's fellahin live in the towns along the Nile. The towns perpetually look dark on the grounds that the houses are whitewashed distinctly for significant occasions suck as weddings.

Academic English Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Scholastic English - Essay Example The various zones of acknowledgment that originated from the kid work development have demonstrated that there are no conditions in which youngster work is a satisfactory reason. Since it moves against the child’s regular physical and mental turn of events, it is a burden to the youngster to be compelled to move into a work circumstance and to not have the necessities of a kid that is developing in the public arena. There are a few organizations that think that its adequate to utilize kid work, explicitly due to the encompassing conditions and economy. For most, this prompts an alternate degree of fortification that gives the economy progressively fabricated products. All the more significantly, grown-ups that aren’t ready to work can permit their kids to work in specific situations to help the family and the requirements that are a piece of the family unit. The principle motivation behind why youngster work is ceaselessly utilized is to assist a family with moving out of neediness and to better the conditions where the family is living in. All the more significantly, a few nations have set up jobs with kids that depend explicitly on jobs that the youngsters should hold. Conventional goals of the women’s job in the public arena, ramifications of what the youngster is to do after they have experienced school and instructive factors all impact the choice of the family to move a kid i nto the work power rather than helping them to experience the additional tutoring that is required for the improvement of their intellectual turn of events (Siddiqi, Patrinos, 2004). The few purposes for kid work venture into the requirement for endurance which is delineated by the family and those that are in the general condition. In numerous nations, the idea of tutoring and psychological improvement is considered as auxiliary and isn’t as appropriate to the monetary needs that are inside the family unit. The customary job of the family unit sees the part of youngster work as one that is normal and which is a piece of the childhood of a kid.

Getting Media Attention Using HARO

Getting Media Attention Using HARO © Shutterstock.com | MSSAIn this article, I will cover 1) an introduction to HARO, 2) the importance of media attention, and 3) getting media attention using HARO.INTRODUCTIONWhat is HARO?As you would know, HARO is an acronym for Help A Reporter Out. It is a publicity service that was founded in 2008 to help journalists, writers and bloggers put questions to and receive information from a large audience in a short period of time in order to add more perspectives to news.HARO helps its users to target the right audiences, get opinions, and generate publicity. It is a free social media tool that has, over the years, provided media mentions and has become an indispensable tool for both reporters and sources alike. On a daily basis, HARO connects over 45,000 reporters and 475,000 news sources.Short history of HAROHelp A Reporter Out was started by public relations expert, Peter Shankman in 2008. Initially started as a Facebook group to connect sources with reporters, HARO quickly grew i nto a serious business and soon it had reached its user limit on the social networking site. So, Shankman shifted the platform out from Facebook and created the present platform of HARO an email list.The immense initial popularity of HARO brought it into the public eye. HARO was acquired by Vocus in 2010, and it remained under it until 2014, when Vocus itself was bought by a Chicago-based private equity company called GTCR. With a current turnover of more than $1 million per year and at least 100,000 members in the network, HAROs idea of free and accessible press has by now very much become a reality.Over the years, HARO has helped both reporters looking for a story or people to interview and small startups and enterprises that are looking for free press. HARO is especially useful for people looking for material in the fields of business and marketing, healthcare and medicine, technology, lifestyle and fitness, sports, travel, and government.THE IMPORTANCE OF MEDIA ATTENTIONWhy it is important to be in the spotlightOf course, you understand the importance of being in the spotlight, most so when you are a startup or a small business owner. Any good publicity is always very desirable for your business prospects. Lets discuss some of the main objectives of publicity.Spread your message to as wide an audience as possible: When you start your own business, you have tons of information that you need to get across to your audience. The various forms of media like radio, television, Newspapers and, of course, the internet, and social media can help you a great deal in getting your message to as wide an audience as possible.Target the right audience: Whats even more important than targeting a large audience is targeting the right kind of audience. By correctly picking your medium of publicity, you can make sure that your message is reaching the right audience. For example, if you deal in real estate, it would be worthwhile to get featured in a newspaper or a tabloid t hat focuses on real estate. Focussing on the right audience creates engagement. Remember, its not enough to just get coverage. With proper engagement, your product or service begets the right kind of conversation in the circles of influence. This conversation is vital for the media image of your business.Get free (and positive) publicity for your company: If you have a small business, chances are high that your advertising budget is tight. In such circumstances, news media coverage is a big advantage. Since news coverage is free, proper exposure to such media channels will not only help your event or news get free media hype but will also boost your business. In order to receive exposure to news media, you will need to form genial relations with the media and be prepared to meet correspondents and give interviews.Establish legitimacy and enhance reputation of your company: When you get covered in the media, you are also gaining credibility by way of familiarity with the thousands of consumers who learn about you. When people read about your business as a news article rather than as a paid advertisement, they subconsciously place a lot more weight into what they read. To the human mind, something that has made it to the news is always important and legitimate.Create and change public opinions: The media is omnipotent as far as creating and changing public opinions about topics is concerned. Positive media attention guarantees you a favourable public opinion regarding your business. In the same way, a lot of damage can be caused by negative publicity in the media. So, the best thing to do is to try and convince news media to portray you positively and at the same time, be prepared for any media crisis that is likely to hit your business.How to get into the spotlightBuild relationships in advance.  Building relationships is an all-embracing and time-consuming task. To build an amicable rapport with the media, you will need to make preparations in advance. A cleve r step is to make your presence felt in social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You will need to keep track of popular hashtags in your sphere of operation, connect with reporters, not only via social media sites, but also personally, and compliment them on any of their articles that you liked. You can go further and create blog posts about such articles and provide backlinks to them in your post. You would do well to look out for reporters that have a national readership, while also keeping an eye out for smaller publications that have more targeted readerships. Sending these smaller publications your press releases should guarantee publication. Also, primitive as it may sound, the radio is still a wonderful medium of mass communication; so it would definitely be worthwhile to communicate and form a rapport with radio hosts.Make a smooth sales pitch.  Remember, when you are corresponding with a reporter, you are selling communication to him. You need to treat hi m like a client always be affirmative about giving out interviews, whether in person or on the phone, and offer suggestions and follow-ups whenever possible. Also, it would be great if you are able to offer the reporter an even deal by introducing them to experts in your know that they might like to meet. Whenever possible, share with them content on topics within your domain of expertise, along with photographs.Do your homework before you run to the media.  When you have a story to share with the media, make sure to prepare in advance a short description of the story. Include all associated people in the story. Also, make sure that you are empathetic about the reporters perspective of your story and take steps to ensure that it comes across as interesting to him. It is always a great idea to host events, however small, and invite reporters to take part and avail the opportunity of collecting news and photographs. You can even shoot videos and post them on easily-accessible sites l ike YouTube and share links with media.Bait media correspondents.  Lets face it, most reporters are attracted to sensationalism and hype. You can take advantage of that by hosting conspicuous events like contests, fundraising drives, anniversaries, new/unique product launches, and the like. If possible, frame your event to be in tune with a local or national issue. For example, if one of the current national issues under debate is internet security and you are selling internet security software, make it a point to make your sales pitch based on the issue. Apart from hosting events, you can use other forms of media-baiting as well, such as publishing and distributing free e-books and circulating interesting facts and trivia based on your business.GETTING MEDIA ATTENTION USING HAROSetting up HAROThe first thing to setting up HARO is signing up its completely free. Signing up will immediately provide you with access to numerous emails, based on your area of interest. The second step i s to scan your emails daily to look out for any opportunities coming your way. When you come across an email that matches your interest or level of expertise, you can send in an email back with your comments. Responding appropriately to emails can get you an audience with a reporter who is looking to interview someone like you.Why HARO is your best friend for effective PRHARO helps you establish and position yourself as an expert: You can be the best in your business. But without publicity, what good is your expertise? HARO brings to you email requests that pertain to your field of expertise and lets you respond to them, thus building your credibility. Being seen as an expert in a field sets you apart from the crowd. Also, if you are a small business owner offering a unique product or service, HARO helps you publicize as well. What is most important is that HARO gets you quoted as a source, and the more you get quoted, the more are your chances of being used as a source by people.HA RO helps you get backlinks: There are more advantages to being quoted as a source. Since HARO is widely used by bloggers and other social media users, chances are that when you are quoted as a source, these bloggers, and social media users will create backlinks to your website. Getting backlinked will boost your websites chances of being pulled up in search engine searches, thus maximizing the number of visitors to your website.HARO brings in the best contacts: HARO connects you to some of the best bloggers and journalists around the world. When you are used as a source, you can make the most of that opportunity by providing interesting and helpful insights. Being a helpful source will increase your chances of making great contacts that will turn to you recurrently for more insights.HARO is spam-free: HARO is a 100% spam-free. HARO hides the email addresses of reporters, and so it becomes impossible for spammers to get access to those. This has increased peoples confidence in HARO a nd has led to increased participation. However, there is a possibility that HARO emails themselves may be incorrectly routed to the spam folder by your email client. This can be averted by pushing HARO emails off the spam folder and into the inbox.HARO allows a high level of personalization and relevancy: HARO allows you to select what emails you receive without having to browse through emails that are irrelevant to you. HARO emails are highly industry-specific and only contain inquiries pertaining to your field of expertise.Tracking results is simple with HARO: Since HARO uses a web-based protocol, it significantly reduces email volume, thus making it far simpler to track results. HARO keeps track of your entire activities, so it is possible for you to see at a glance all the reporters you have contacted thus far. If you are a journalist, HARO can be immensely simple to use because it allows you to store your favourite sources on the site. HARO also helps you in your learning curve by providing you feedback on your pitches and correcting you when you send a wrong pitch to a reporter. With this kind of personalization tools and ease of account management, HARO makes sure that you will be using it effortlessly.How to effectively use HARO for media coverage mileageGetting organized: Certain subtle methods of organization go a long way in getting you your much-deserved media attention via HARO. A great tip is to organize all important mails separately along with their corresponding email addresses, preferably in a document on your local hard drive. By doing this, you wont have to browse through the HARO emails time and again to search for a query. Also, when you are selected as a source for a story, it is probable that you would be asked for high-resolution photographs and write-ups pertaining to that story. Your best bet is to keep those ready whenever feasible.Finding leads: Signing up to your HARO account will ensure that you receive three emails daily. These emails are known as master emails and they contain PR leads, categorized by specific areas of interest, like travel, business, lifestyle technology, etc. This kind of filtering is good enough to provide you all the opportunities you will need to get a media mention.Selecting the right opportunity: While browsing through emails in HARO trying to sort out the relevant ones, it is very important to scan and identify any leads that might look opportune enough. Scanning the index should suffice in locating all the good leads. Also, it is a best practice to delete any email that was unread in the last 12 hours.Researching media outlet: It is important that you run a research into the media outlet in hand to check if it actually serves your interests and is worthwhile to be associated with. Always check to see if the media outlet is a mainstream publication, whether it has a good readership and above all, whether it is really credible. If you feel that it doesnt represent you well, it is b est to reject it and move on. For example, you might specialize in Victorian furniture and antiques, but the query is for Elizabethan and Jacobean furniture. In that case, it is best to move on.Responding to queries:You need not respond to every mail: Even though HARO emails provide high levels of personalization and relevance, there may be many emails you would be getting that you do not need to respond to. When you do come across an email that you would need to respond to, respond and forget about it. If you get a reply back from the reporter, consider that a bonus. There will be many relevant emails soliciting a response from you, but responding is entirely your prerogative. Ideally, one would commit to responding to the best leads.Prioritize a query that applies to you: Whenever you find a query that applies to you, you will need to respond immediately. The deadlines for a response are pretty tight in HARO and people always attempt to be the earliest respondents. It would be esp ecially wise to own a smartphone that has email, because that will enable you to respond to your emails regardless of where you are. Remember that it is enough to draft your response concisely and wait for the reporters mail in case he needs further information. If possible leave your phone number along with your response.Getting media placements through HARO: It is worthwhile to use a template to solicit media placements on HARO by drafting a pitch-perfect response to a query. The draft should primarily contain information about you and explain why you are perfect for the job. Make sure to follow the requirements of the query precisely. Also, never forget to highlight all your strengths. A good way to end a response is to include a call-to-action for the reporter it could be a query from your side, or an offer to provide more information. However, it is of utmost importance while soliciting a media placement that you DO NOT follow up. Reporters are very busy people, and if they di dnt respond to you, it might be because they did not think you were fit for the story. Just move on; you will get many more such opportunities in the future. You just need to keep your eyes open! Last, but not the least, you would do well to set up a Google Alert for your name, so that whenever there is a mention of you in a reporters story, you will automatically get a heads up via a mail to your inbox.Sharing your success: It is important not only to get a media placement via HARO, but also to celebrate and share your success. Remember, many factors contributed to that media placement, but the most important is the reporter that got you placed. Thank him elaborately, in person or via a note. Also share the post on your blog, and through emails and social media connections.

LaPierre vs. Harris Strategies Showdown Essay - 1828 Words

In the tragedy of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, shooter Adam Lanza murdered 20 children and 6 teachers. Some people look at this event as a terrible tragedy because it struck them emotionally that 20 children had died. Others look at this event as a tragedy because it is rare, one of kind freak accident that definitely does not happen every day, or even years. According to nces.ed.gov, the chance of a random shooting to occur at any elementary school in the U.S is 1 in 88,962, and the chance of any elementary school child getting killed is roughly 1 in 23 million. This is less than the chance of hitting a jackpot for an average lottery which is at 1 in 15 million. Wayne LaPierre, who is the National Rifle Association’s vice†¦show more content†¦To maximize the effect of pathos, rather than using bad guys and criminals, LaPierre uses words like â€Å"monsters† and â€Å"predators† to provoke fear. Doing so creates a sense of urgency among his audien ce that something must be done to save these little children and that is exactly what LaPierre aimed for as he later proposes a solution for this problem. LaPierre’s choice of words such as â€Å"monsters† and â€Å"predators† definitely helps to contribute success in his use of pathos as it effectively demonstrates the danger their children faces. However, the reason why his pathos works extraordinarily well is because of the audience, who are made of NRA’s supporters and victims of the Newtown shooting. In other words, the audience basically would have agreed with LaPierre despite what he says as long it is what they want to hear which is putting down the bad guys or the â€Å"monsters† and empathizing for the children. Nonetheless, this strategy will have its flaws when where the audience is less personally involved and is able to read the transcript. In that case, people’s emotions will become harder to manipulate as LaPierre loses the a bility to put his voice in the reader’s head, and so the readers are able to form opinions with their own brains rather than LaPierre telling them what to think. In the end, pathos works wonder for LaPierre when he is able to speak directly to the audience but not so effective when it is being read from a paper.

The Industrial Distribution Program At Texas A And M...

It is after a good deal of self-assessment that I have decided to pursue undergraduate studies in the Industrial Distribution program at Texas A and M University. As a statement of purpose for admission into the school, I describe here, my areas of interest, why I chose Texas A and M, and my objectives and career goals. Ever since elementary school, I have been a big fan of engineering. My inspiration came from the likes of Graham Bell and Albert Einstein with the invention of the telephone and the mass-energy equivalence equation, respectively. With the aim to join them in the wall of fame, I participated actively in my science and math classes, and clubs related to the field. As I grew older and had the fortunate chance of working at various retail stores, I began to develop an interest in business and how it worked. It was only a matter of time before this interest was strengthened and I began contemplating whether to major in engineering or business. This unfortunately left me indecisive in my choice of major for a while in college. But after a visit to a Texas A and M prospective student center, I was informed about the Industrial Distribution program and at that moment, I was certain of what I wanted to study. My exposure in the field of engineering can be traced back to my high school days. Not only did I take science classes such as physics, but I was also a member of two engineering clubs which taught numerous material outside the school’s curriculum. With thatShow MoreRelatedMicro Manufacture Essay796 Words   |  4 PagesThis workshop proposal submitted by Texas AM University â€Å"Convergence HTF: From Making to Micro-Manufacture: Reimagining Work Beyond Mass Production† with the objective of discussing the future of manufacturing work by convening a reimagination of the relationship of multiple fields of inquiry from Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, Economics, the Social Sciences, Industrial Engineering and Education. A two-stage strategy is proposed to establishRead MoreHow can Marketing mix model help Manchester United build its global brand?1165 Words   |  5 PagesBernd Helmig is Full Professor, Chair and Head of Department for Business Administration, Public Nonprofit Management at the University of Mannheim (Germany). Besides he acts as Academic Director for Executive Education of Mannheim Business School. 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Dallas, a Texas state, deserves more attention with its dynamic cityscape, recentRead More1234567897581 Words   |  31 PagesAdministration University of Montana Missoula, MT 59812 (406) 243-2920; (406) 243-2086 (fax) Jakki.Mohr@business.umt.edu http://www.business.umt.edu/faculty/mohr/ EDUCATION Ph.D. 1989 University of Wisconsin-Madison Marketing (Emphasis in Organizational Sociology) M.S. 1983 Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado Marketing B.B.A. 1982 Boise State University, Boise, Idaho ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT 2002 to present Professor of Marketing, University of Montana-Missoula Read MoreStatement of Purpose4243 Words   |  17 Pagestrend in the market, where there is a great competition in the economy, every qualified person dreams to pursue his career in the business, since it is one of the areas seeing unprecedent growth. So I appeared for MET and got admission in Punjabi university regional centre for IT and management, Mohali Phase VII. 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ThisRead MoreEssay about Academic Capitalism3332 Words   |  14 Pagesand a free market economy; however, there is a bias in favour for people who happen to have the benefits of arbitrary factors such as a good education or the benefit of coming from an affluent family. Philosopher John Rawls argues, â€Å"The natural distribut ion is neither just nor unjust; nor is it unjust that persons are born into society at some particular position. These are simply natural facts. 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Can Art Change the Way We View the World Free Essays

Can Art Change the Way We View the World? Susan Agee Classics in Philosophy of Art – P346 Gregory Steel Fall 2012 For centuries, art has been interwoven throughout the history of mankind. From primitive carvings on cave walls and ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, to the Sistine Chapel and the Mona Lisa, artistic creations have enthralled the human race. Art may be a window to the creator’s world; it has potential to instill desire in the viewer to do something they have never done, be somewhere they have never been and inspire to fulfill a dream or goal. We will write a custom essay sample on Can Art Change the Way We View the World or any similar topic only for you Order Now Additionally, Art may possibly allow the artist to illustrate their own perception of a place or even attempt to deceive the viewer. However, to truly understand how we see the world we must delve a little deeper than the obvious, which is through our senses, particularly sight. In order to comprehend the world around us, we must first realize that thoughts are based on perception foremost and that those ideas then create a subjective model of the world, constructed from experience, memory, logical inference, and our brain’s ability to map out its own internal representation of our individual surroundings. Therefore, whether it is through visual art, literature, poems, sculpture, photography or cinema, art may very well be able to change the way we see the world, by changing our perception. The first recognizable art dates from at least 38. 000BC in Europe, Africa, and Australia. They are the products of minds as intellectually capable and sophisticated as our modern ones and they were just like us, despite the fact that their society was slightly more primitive than ours. Works of this early period are not simple, as if created by a child, but in fact they are quite complex pieces depicting animals, humans and symbols. Additionally, drawings similar to maps, as well as carvings, portable art and elaborately decorated animal skulls have been found in caves all over the world. In the book The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art by David Lewis-Williams, the author describes these items stating â€Å"many of these pieces bear images of animal, fish, birds and, less commonly, what appear to be human figures as well as complex arrangements of parallel lines, chevrons and notches. These objects d’art as people tend to think of them, were made from bone, mammoth ivory, amber and antler† (Lewis-Williams 2004). Were these ancient artists creating images to simply communicate with others or were they expressing their emotions in the only way they knew how? Although there is no way to tell for certain the artists’ intentions, it is evident that this â€Å"art† played a role in prehistoric society. Still, art has not always had the same meaning as it does today. In fact, in the time of the philosophers Plato, Socrates and Aristotle the idea of art was related to the Latin word ars, which means craft or specialized form. These individuals based their views of art on the notion that the artist must be trained for his craft and each had differing, yet very similar ideas about art and its place in society. For instance, Socrates believed that paintings and poems â€Å"stand triply removed from the real; that is, there are two realms of existence more real than art objects, the Forms themselves and the things of daily life. The basis for this view is the assumption that the goal of art is the imitation of mundane reality† (Wartenberg, 13). Our brain has developed a way of viewing the world over millions of years of evolution that enables us to succeed and survive. Natural selection has tuned our brains so that we may navigate, manipulate, and meaningfully differentiate our environment and the objects contained in it. So what we see in our minds is a functional model of the physical world, which closely approximates it but is not identical to it; certainly not in the way we are in the habit of assuming. But still this traditional skepticism about perceptual experience has often created questions as to whether we can know that things are as we experience them as being, or if the visual world is a grand illusion. To illustrate this idea that perceptual experience may be different than what is real, consider the optical illusion. Artists such as Charles Allan Gilbert and M. C. Escher were masters of the craft of illusion in art. For example, in 1892 Charles Allan Gilbert drew a picture that he called â€Å"All is Vanity†. This piece of artwork is an ambiguous optical illusion using a skull, which has been the object of many pieces of this type, where we see more than one thing in the picture. If we view the overall image, we see a human skull. When we focus on the details of the picture, we see a woman ooking in her vanity mirror. If we look at a close-up, cropped image of â€Å"All is Vanity†, we don’t see the skull we just see details of a woman sitting at her dressing table. However, if we expand our view, even without seeing the entire image, once we know we’re going to see a skull, we can’t help but see it. Also, when we look at the picture from a distan ce, because of all the black surrounding it, once the details of the woman get distorted we still only see a skull. Additionally, M. C. Escher used his expertise in mathematics to create his optical illusions in art. He was fascinated with tessellations, which are arrangements of closed shapes that completely cover the plane without overlapping and without leaving gaps. Typically, the shapes making up a tessellation are polygons or similar regular shapes, such as the square tiles often used on floors. Escher, however, was fascinated by every kind of tessellation – regular and irregular – and took special delight in what he called â€Å"metamorphoses,† in which the shapes changed and interacted with each other, and sometimes even broke free of the plane itself. The regular solids, known as polyhedra, held a special fascination for Escher. He made them the subject of many of his works and included them as secondary elements in a great many more. In the woodcut â€Å"Four Regular Solids† Escher has intersected all but one of the Platonic solids in such a way that their symmetries are aligned, and he has made them translucent so that each is discernible through the others. Additionally, among the most important of Escher’s works from a mathematical point of view are those dealing with the nature of space. In the book â€Å"The Magic of M. C. Escher† J. I. Locher states â€Å" this unique interplay between insight and limitation, between possible and impossible worlds has given Escher’s body of work a wholly personal presence in the panorama of visual arts† (J. I. Locher 2000). His woodcut â€Å"Circle Limit III† is a good place to review these works, for it exemplifies the artist’s concern with the dimensionality of space, and with the mind’s ability to discern three-dimensionality in a two-dimensional representation and Escher often exploited this latter feature to achieve astonishing visual effects. To get a sense of what this space is like, one can imagine that he or she is actually in the picture itself. Walking from the center of the picture towards its edge, he/she would shrink just as the fishes in the picture do, so that to actually reach the edge one would have to walk a distance that, to the individual, seems infinite. Indeed, being inside this hyperbolic space, it would not be immediately obvious that anything was unusual about it – after all, one has to walk an infinite distance to get to the edge of ordinary Euclidean space too. However, if one is observant enough, he/she might begin to notice some odd things, such as that all similar triangles were the same size, and that no straight-sided figure we could draw would have four right angles; that is, this space doesn’t have any squares or rectangles. In addition to ambiguous and mathematical illusions, there is a process known as anamorphosis. There are two types of anamorphosis: perspective or oblique and Mirror, or catoptric. It requires the viewer to use special devices or occupy a specific vantage point to recreate the image. While some of these works of art are more advanced than others, one thing remains constant; the perception of depth in a two-dimensional illustration. With mirror anamorphosis, a conical or cylindrical mirror is placed on the drawing or painting to transform a flat distorted image into a three dimensional picture that can be viewed from many angles. The deformed image is painted on a plane surface surrounding the mirror. By looking uniquely into the mirror, the image appears as it should in natural form. Just as Escher and Gilbert were masters in creating works of illusion with their drawings, so too are the artists that give life to their renditions of this type. Salvador Dali was among many other artists of his time to have been intrigued with this form of art and utilized this technique in many of his paintings. Modern day artists of this sort use sidewalks, underpasses, buildings and pavement as their canvases. This type of art is referred to as â€Å"3D art† and it has been seen everywhere from London to New York. How to cite Can Art Change the Way We View the World, Essay examples

The Evolution of the Language of Cinema free essay sample

As far as Bazin’s essay â€Å"The Evolution of the Language of Cinema† might be used as a formal test of categorisation—notwithstanding the problematics inherent in his oversimplification of the realist and expressionist methodology—initial viewing of Jules et Jim seems to present a dichotomous structure. Certainly, a number of Bazin’s criteria for realism are met: camera movement; long-takes; composition-in-depth. and deep focus; a certain ambiguity of meaning. Similarly, several of Bazin’s criteria for expressionism also can be found: there is spatial and temporal discontinuity; editing is used for artistic effect; reality is augmented to create a world only vaguely like our own, and so on. The dichotomy though is only apparent. The over-all effect created by Truffaut shows Jules et Jim belonging more comfortably in the expressionistic domain; and, as we shall discover, devices which would normally—at least according to Bazin—deliver the effect of realism are utilised by Truffaut as tools of expressionism. We will write a custom essay sample on The Evolution of the Language of Cinema or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In our analysis of Jules et Jim, rather than examine fleetingly the whole gamut of expressionistic techniques, we shall instead explore in some detail the more important methods, paying particular attention to temporal and spatial distortions, editing and montage, special visual effects, and finally discover the manner in which Bazin’s archetypal techniques of realism—long-takes and composition-in-depth. —are recast. Certainly one of the most striking features of Jules et Jim is temporal distortion. Truffaut utilises this effect by various means and for various purposes. In the first two minutes of the film, time is condensed in two ways: by the third person narrative, which encapsulates the film’s exposition in the most laconic of terms, describing the meeting and developing friendship of Jules and Jim, and also by the selective images which largely avoid redunant description of the aural narrative, but instead seek to interpret and compliment. Accordingly, when the narrator tells us that Jules is a foreigner in Paris; that he wants to go to an art student’s ball; and that Jim gets him a ticket and costume, the image we are offered is a simple one of the two playing dominoes. This image, incidentally, becomes a leitmotif in the film, supporting the theme of friendship and is touchingly varied much later when Jules plays instead with his daughter. Next, the narrator tells us that their friendship grows; the ball takes place; that Jules has tender eyes. The overlaid image though is of Jules and Jim hunting for a costume. It is interesting to note here that Truffaut not only condenses time, as already described, but creates a temporal duality, for the narrator has reached a moment subsequent to the ball, whilst we still watch the two friends costume hunting. This is the first instance of dual time lines, but it is often repeated. Simply stated, the audio narrative—and on other occasions the dialogue of the character—provides a temporal foundation that allows great visual freedom. The expressionistic effect of this temporal condensation and duality combined with the third person narrative is to produce a story book quality, as if we are presented not with real life but with a real story. This quality is underlined by the frequent story telling of the characters’. More precisely, the initial style created by this method has a simplistic quality much like a children’s story: the narration avoids hyperbole and treats exposition as bare-bones plot. Like a child having a story read to him, Truffaut provides us with the filmatic equivalent—though an equivalent which in many ways has greater potential—and we are allowed to look at the pictures, even when the story—narration—has advanced beyond their range. As well as temporal condensing and duality, Truffaut also makes use of temporal displacement. An early example of this occurs when Jules and Jim meet up with the anonymous anarchist’s girlfriend. The sequence begins with the girl running out of the frame to the left. The camera pans and we see her running away in a shot composed with shallow depth of field, with Jules and Jim out of focus in the distance. Another cut, this time bringing us in front of the girl. Again the camera pans, this time as the girl approaches. Another cut brings us in front of Jules and Jim. We begin to see the establishment of a pattern of shots in this sequence: cutting, panning, cutting, moving ahead, panning and so on. The rhythm produced by the combination of camera movement and editing reinforces the temporal rhythm; but when the girl finally links arms with Jules and Jim and they set off running, the next cut not only brings us spatially ahead of the figures, as the rhythm caused us to anticipate, but temporally ahead: the scene has suddenly changed, with buildings becoming a fence and bushes. To reinforce the visual cues regarding the discontiguous time, the thread of causality is now shown to be broken: we now see and hear the three inexplicably laughing. Temporal displacement continues: the next cut shows the three seated in a carriage, though the laughter—on the soundtrack only—from the previous shot continues. Once again, the effect of this temporal tampering is to create a simple story-book world in which only the essentials are included. Truffaut though makes other use of temporal distortion. In the slide viewing scene, for example, when Albert shows Jules and Jim a picture of the bewitching statue, the slow rhythm established by Albert manually changing slides one by one is suddenly broken when we jump rapidly from one slide to the next, with the time taken to change slides cut. The realism of the moment is similarly broken. This disruption shocks us and our suspension of disbelief is briefly forfeit. At once we are aware that this is a film we watch. A work of art. At the same time the film screen—upon which the film art (Jules et Jim) is displayed—presents us with the slide screen—upon which the photographic art (the slide) is displayed—which itself shows a sculpted work of art (the statue). This is an early example of the film’s preoccupation with art and film in particular, which becomes sometimes almost self-reflexive. Another example of this reverie for art which profits from temporal manipulation occurs when Jules shows Jim photographs of his old girl friends. We see the photographs passed, yet the close ups to which we cut show Jim’s hands conspicuous by there absence. Indeed, the pictures are framed entirely in darkness, as works of art which exist in an entirely different temporal and spatial plane. Elsewhere, Truffaut presents old film footage in what seems a glorification of the medium’s ability to immortalise. The art theme aside, the temporal jump we witness with the slide show also serves to underline the importance of the moment. Truffaut, throughout Jules et Jim, uses various techniques—montage, freeze frame, rapid zoom etc. —to draw our attention to significant â€Å"hot spots. † Like a sudden cymbal crash in a romantic musical passage, these techniques demand our attention. Even when Truffaut maintains temporal continuity, we might still witness the unexpected: Certainly there is no lack of causality when Jules and Jim voyage to the Adriatic in search of the statue they saw on the slide. But it is the suddenness of their arrival that takes our breath away: from a close-up of the statue’s lips we cut to Jules and Jim on that far away island. And if this seems an unlikely hunt, we should recall the context is a stylised world, a story book world, an expressionistic world where wonderful and strange things do indeed come to pass. To turn now from temporal to spatial distortion: an early example of this takes place when Catherine, Jules and Jim race across the bridge. The main purpose of this scene is character exposition, showing Catherine’s willingness to cheat—she is already cheating her femininity by dressing as a man—in order to attain her goals. When we see the three of them at the beginning of the bridge, bending to a starting position, with Catherine’s subsequent darting ahead of time, there is a sudden cut which reveals the figures now displaced. The race no longer starts at the beginning of the bridge but at least a third of the way down. And so we see a sympathy between the film—the form that Truffaut creates—and the characters in the film: where Catherine cheats in the race by changing the time of the start, the film itself cheats in the race by changing the place of the start. We shall later examine another example of this sympathy of form for content, but it should be noted with this minor example that it produces something which is not limited by realism, for it creates two realities: the one in the film and the other of the film. The next technique we shall examine is editing and montage. Like temporal and spatial distortion, this, according to Bazin, is a fundamental component of expressionism. It should come as no surprise then—at least from the standpoint of this thesis—that it forms an integral part of Jules et Jim. Indeed, it might be said to be the most important—numerically at least— stylistic device in the film. Truffaut make many and varied use of editing and montage. We shall examine first the way in which montage creates a narrative effect similar to, though in the absence of, the third person narrative1. One characteristic example is the dress burning episode. The sequence begins with a long-take, composed in depth, with little activity. Jim moves Catherine’s bicycle and does other bits of business. The pace then is deliberately slow. Catherine takes a pile of letters and says she wishes to burn lies. From the moment the words are blurted, the montage sequence proper begins. In contrast to the plodding long-take, we now cut rapidly from one brief shot to another, constantly changing angles; and in the space of twenty-four seconds we see twenty separate shots. The short shots are hand held, and the additional movement of the camera augments the excitement created by the fast paced montage. But nothing has actually happened. Catherine is still simply setting light to the papers on the floor. It is the montage which, like the now absent narrator, warns us that something will happen. Once the dress is alight, the danger is no longer potential but actual. The short shots continue with rapid pans and tilts, the montage serving now to intensify our impression of danger. But because the danger was first suggested and then maintained by a stylistic device, and since it comes from what must be an omniscient source and portrays a symbolic action—Catherine burning lies—we begin to realise that this montage speaks of a more ominous and far reaching danger than the one we see: the danger Catherine must face when stripped of her protective pretence, when she must finally confront absolute truth which fails to conform to her idealised image. The danger of burning lies then, the narrative of montage tells us, is the danger of absolute truth. Another important example of montage as narrative occurs when Catherine throws herself off the bridge in mock suicide. Again we see rapid cutting, with five shots—this time static—in the space of only two seconds. There is also a brief temporal displacement, as the fourth shot begins prior to the conclusion of the third. Since this sequence comes one third of the way into the film, our fluency in the stylistic language of Jules et Jim has reached a point sufficient to grant immediately comprehension. Perhaps we are unsure of the specifics, but we understand that this is at least a key moment and that foreshadowing is the likely translation. Truffaut also uses similar â€Å"visible† editing as an associative device. The most striking example begins with the slide show, which we examined as an example of temporal discontiguity. The static and rapidly changing front and side shots of the statue in the slide sequence is repeated when Jules and Jim finally study the actual statue. After a peculiar and ominous tilt and extremely rapid zoom into the shower rail above Jules and Jim, we are finally presented with Catherine. The same short takes and rapidly changing front and side shots which describe the statue are again employed here. Besides fashioning a thematic link, the montage here also continues the ominousness begun at the conclusion of the previous shower scene. At this point, and for some time to come, Catherine is clearly defined as an objet d’art. Note also how she presents herself on the patio at the sea-side house, first serious then smiling, as a model in varied poses. This demonstrates another instance of sympathy of form for content: since Catherine presents herself as a model, the film, in sympathy, treats her as one, with each pose held in a freeze frame: each pose rendered a framed picture. Catherine then, as that objet d’art, is to be admired and praised and glorified. It is only when Jules and Jim begin to know her that she becomes a Queen, and must then, in addition, be obeyed. Catherines car tumbling over the broken bridge offers our final example of associative montage. Using an almost identical method: static shots, rapid cuts, varied angles, this scene is linked through montage to the very early episode when Catherine jumped from the Parisian bridge. Because of their great separation in time—though as we have seen, time as a stream of causality is far from overflowing its banks in this world where there seems little physical evidence of the characters ageing—the connection of these two events both in relation to the mise-en-scene and montage makes a final allusion to the â€Å"whirlpool† quality of life. This â€Å"whirlpool† interpretation is, of course, Catherine’s and finds expression in her song which, characteristically, is about herself and which all three men, Jules and Jim and Albert, believe is written from their point of view! The whirlpool analogy suggests an existence which turns and repeats past events in slight variation—a view which the content and form of the film seems to uphold. To sum up: the above examples of what we have called narrative montage in essence allude to aspects of character, future events or information which exists not entirely in the mise-en-scene or dialogue alone, and offers further evidence of the expressionistic tendency of Jules et Jim. Special visual effects are clearly an affirmation of Bazin’s â€Å"faith in the image† of expressionism. One particularly moving example of this occurs at the garden party when Catherine is first introduced. After some interesting shots of feet which describe the sexual motivations of Jim: â€Å"Jim’s foot stayed near Catherines. She moved hers away first†; and the more heart centred nature of Jules: â€Å"Jules was happy and moved his feet away†; the picture fades to black with the exception of a rectangular frame which isolate Jules and Catherine. This continues the art and photographic glorification theme, but more particularly is a foreshadowing of their marriage. A very similar effect is created when Jules and Jim look out of the cabin window into the night. â€Å"Listen to that mole cricket. It’s like a mole,† Jules comments. The night scene then fades entirely to black. The next shot fills only the top right corner of the screen—the rest remaining black. It shows the hill on which Jules lives. The darkness with light at one end suggests a tunnel-like view. The juxtaposition of the shot and the previous comment suggests a mole tunnel. The house on the hill becomes a mole hill. The implication then is that Jules has burrowed his way into seclusion and security—and away from the light and excitement and danger which Catherine craves. 2 Other interpretations are possible—and indeed likely; the point is that from such stylistic devices comes the ambiguity of Jules et Jim, not from Bazin’s composition-in-depth. We have, of course, examined only a few of the expressionistic techniques and examples which fill Jules et Jim like a myriad of brush strokes on canvas. We turn now though to the long-take and composition-in-depth, traditionally the devices of realism. Firstly, the greatest number of long-takes and the most important compositions in depth occur, notably, as the film developes. This fact alone is enough to suggest that their purpose is something other than affecting realism. Even if we borrow an interpretation that agrees such scenes do lend realism, the question remains: how real a world is it that displays only sparodic reality? It seems clear that their purpose is not so much for realism per se, but to create a number of effects: to demonstrate a harmony with the almost pastoral scenes; to provide a change in mood and tone, for the film slips ever more into a sombre, pensive, meditative and tragic state; as a sypathetic response to the character with special emphasis on their situations. When Jules and Catherine and Jim are reunited in the cabin after the war, we see a number of longish takes composed in depth, sometimes intercut with shot and reverse shots. The effect, despite the occasional cuts, is of smoothly passing time. But the realism of temporal continuity and spatial depth is used not as an end in itself, but as a means of intensifying and demonstrating the discomfort they now feel together. The dialogue itself confirms this as they make strained small talk about time. After so many short-takes, the long-take now has the effect of time slowed down, with every awkward moment stretched out and made more awkward. Further, Jules and Jim have changed. Jules no longer smokes; Jim does. Jules takes a drink; Jim does not. Jules has a new interest in biology; Jules does not. Most of all, Jules has a wife . . . Just as temporal continuity becomes an expressionistic device here, enhancing reality in sympathy with emotions of the characters, rather than simply displaying it, so too does the spatial realism. Its realistic effect is indeed manifest, but Truffaut, by executing rapid pans from one character to another, intensifies their individual dialogues. Thus, when Jules says, â€Å"So you won the war, you louse,† the subsequent rapid pan to Jim emphasises the chasm that now separates them. Their opposition, though the war is over, to some degree remains still. When Jim pointedly responds, â€Å"Yes, but I’d rather have won this,† we pan again rapidly to Jules and his daughter and then to Catherine. Also, the triangle, already graphically displayed at the sea-side house when they each stand at the sun drenched windows, is again graphically drawn, though here in a less concrete medium: the triangle is etched in three-dimensional space by the rapid movement of the camera. It is the speed of the movement that not only serves to demonstrate their distance from each other, but also to draw our attention to that movement and thus make the line it draws graphically clear. In another episode at the cabin, a sequence of long-takes provides a number of interesting effects, least of which is realism. It begins with Catherine endlessly listing wines. At the same time Jules talks about a shell falling down steps. Catherine rises, moves to the door and says, â€Å"Catch me. † Jim obeys. None of these events, besides Jim’s compliance, have any causal rapport. The fact that this all occurs in a long-take underlines the breakdown in causality, the strangeness of it all, for nothing clearly can have been cut. After the pointless chase, another long-take begins. It adds to the tranquillity of the night and the sombreness of the darkness. After almost three minutes there is a cut: a break. The break occurs because Catherine was both literally and metaphorically left behind. During her walk with Jim she has paused while he continued. The spatial distance is an expression of temporal distance: she has reached a happy moment in the history she recounts and is briefly lost in the pleasant moment of the past. It is the moment when â€Å"Jules wrote wonderful love letters. † The break between Catherine and Jim and between Catherine and the present—Jules—is made concrete by the break in the long-take. There is no other purpose, for as they come together and the walk in the present continues, the long-take is resumed. As we have seen then, not only is the overall effect of Jules et Jim expressionistic, but most of the specific devices are intended to maintain that effect. Truffaut’s aim in Jules et Jim is not so much Bazin’s much aclaimed true to life realism, which exhorts the banishment of such dainty devices as symbolism and the metaphors created by montage, but an expressionism redolent of literature which extols such devices. He creates a world distorted by personal emotion, using the language of image in the quintessential terms of expressionism: to express feelings rather than to represent stark reality. He creates a simplified, stylised world by temporal manipulation; directs our interpretation by the subtle subtext of narrative and associative montage; makes delicate points by special visual effects. But above all he treats the characters and situations of Jules et Jim with a sympathy which is demonstrated in the relationship between form and content. Sources Cited Truffaut, Francois Jules et Jim 1962 Notes: 1 By referring to montage as narrative I mean any additional message, inference or even association which his imbued in the montage itself. I realise that this interpretation stretches credulity to the breaking point. In its defence I can only mention that it did not actually break and still remains in one piece.