Idol Curiosity: Andy Warhol and the Art of Secular Iconography

Abstract

This article examines issues at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality and celebrity in contemporary society. Taking Andy Warhol and Marilyn Monroe as its focus, it considers the fate of the modern-day icon. In particular, it assesses the importance of whiteness and blondness in the construction of Western iconography, and the influence of Warhol's Catholic faith upon his work.     

Islam and the Environment: theory and practice

The paper discusses some aspects of the industrialisation effects on the natural environment in the Middle East in general. While Islam as a religion has a deep sense of respect and consideration for the natural environment (Izzi Dien, 1990), the current status quo in Muslim countries is not noticeably different to that in the rest of the world. The paper submits that this is because industrial culture has overtaken traditional culture leading to the prevalence of materialistic values over the intrinsic.

The paper maintains that Islam provides a paradigm solution for many forms of environmental degradation, including that of water distribution. The proposal does not preclude other, non‐Islamic, regional states from a fair share of water, nor does it deny that international law is the main arbitrator in resolving disputes. However the paper underlines Islam's role as an important potential ground for settling disputes from which international law may proceed. The examples discussed are only models and the author acknowledges that other cities such as Beirut, Baghdad, Teheran, and Jerusalem also warrant study.     

Mind and the Environment

Intuitively, an object is something that coheres internally and is largely independent of its environment. But what is the environment? Viewed at one scale, it surrounds and separates objects and differentiates them. Viewed at another scale, it is itself a collection of objects surrounded by (more) environment. At all scales, we describe the world in terms of objects in an environment. I examine the nature of the environment and its role in mediating the object-subject relation. This dedicated analysis of the environment provides a new perspective on the notion of objectivity.     

Finding Their Place: Women and the Environment for Worship

Abstract

The history of the intersection between women and their worship-spaces is both simple and complex. This article begins to identify ways in which women have responded to restrictions on them in liturgical space and how they have interpreted that space. This task poses serious methodological challenges, identified here, and raises questions about ways in which women have found a place in and around church buildings during a history characterized by their restriction and exclusion. Using a variety of primary and secondary sources, women's action through patronage, fundraising and benefaction, in disobedience and disorder, is explored, together with ways in which women have exercised the natural authority of their religious gifts and experience, when their temporal authority wis limited and indeed have reinterpreted the meaning of the term ‘liturgical space’.     

Social Affordances and Interaction II: Autism and the Affordances of the Human Environment

The interaction between informational support or task constraints and functional motor performance was explored using kinematic profiles of the arms and hands of 40 participants with and without multiple sclerosis (MS). Three functional tasks were performed under three conditions: impoverished (i.e., participants mimed the tasks), partial (i.e., participants mimed the tasks with a limited array of the objects normally used), and natural (i.e., participants performed the actual tasks). Results indicated that each of the three conditions elicited unique kinematic profiles. Movement time, maximum displacement, and velocity variability were significantly different among each of the three conditions. An ecological interpretation suggested that functional performance emerged from the interaction of the task demands of each condition and of the action capabilities of the participants. Participants with and without MS responded to the three conditions in similar ways, except that those with MS performed the tasks more slowly. We speculated that the slower performance was a function of the reduced and inconsistent action capabilities of the participants with MS.     

Organizational Learning: The Role of the Physical Environment

This paper examines the role of the physical environment in facilitating organizational learning. Semi-structured interviews related to learning and experiences of physical environment were conducted in two organizations in India. Workspaces were studied using non-participant observation. Cognitive maps of the layouts were created and movements in the workspaces mapped. Content analysis was performed on interview responses, and space syntax analysis was used to analyse maps of the workspaces. Findings suggest that knowledge in organizations is transformed through dialogue and discussion. Relationships, supportive leadership, culture, organizational strategy, and physical environment were found to play a key role in facilitating this process. The physical environment afforded co-presence, movement, and encounter. These features were found to contribute to interaction that facilitated dialogue, and thereby transformation of knowledge. This paper highlights the importance of physical design and provides areas of concrete intervention, allowing for facilitation of learning based on the physical dimension of the learning context.     

Ethics and the Extraterrestrial Environment

ABSTRACT After a brief review of environmental ethics this paper examines how terrestrial environmental values can be developed into policies to protect extraterrestrial environments. Shallow environmentalism, deep environmentalism and the libertarian extension of rights are compared and then applied to the environmental protection of extraterrestrial bodies. Some scientific background is given. The planet Mars is used as a test case from which an ethical argument emerges for the protection of environments beyond Earth. The argument is based on the necessity to recognise the intrinsic value of all living species and natural environments. At present, the treatment of extraterrestrial environments by makers of space policy is ethically undernourished. This paper explains why such an attitude endangers those environments and calls for the policy-makers to incorporate non-anthropocentric ethics into extraterrestrial environmental policy.     

Validity of the Sheltered Care Environment Scale: conceptual and methodological issues

The Sheltered Care Environment Scale (SCES) was developed primarily to measure social climate as an attribute of a setting. As such, the SCES was designed to maximize differences between facilities and minimize differences among individuals within a setting. However, Smith and Whitbourne (1990) assessed the validity of the SCES as a measure of individual differences in perceptions of a shared environment. Moreover, they redefined the content coverage of 2 of the SCES subscales (Independence and Physical Comfort), to encompass attributes the SCES is not intended to measure. In general, preliminary evidence indicates that the SCES subscales provide reasonably reliable and valid indices of the social climate of group residential facilities.     

The Chemical and Biological Warfare Environment: Psychological Responses and Social Supports in a High-Stress Environment

In order to better understand psychological responses to high-stress environments and the contributions of social supports to mediating the effects of this stress, we conducted a preliminary investigation of a health care delivery team in a simulated chemical and biological warfare (CBW) environment. Our data suggest that state anxiety prior to the exercise, perceived social support from family and friends, and active training stand out as predictors of psychological outcome, even after trait and pre-exercise psychological variables are considered. Interventions directed at state anxiety and active training may offer mechanisms to decrease the psychological distress of the high-stress environment. Future research should examine variables which are amenable to intervention to determine if they are causally related to health outcome in high-stress environments.     

环境美学的发展及其新近问题

环境美学的出场,既与审美对于环境的关注之应用相关,又同当代艺术拓展自身而走向环境有关。正如我们的艺术概念已经被拓展一样,我们对环境的理解因而也得到了拓展,从“被拓展的环境感”到“环境经验”都由此凸显了出来。作为一个相对较新的概念,“鉴赏环境”的观念也拓展了环境的意义,关于自然的关学亦必须被考虑在其中。此外,环境美学与自然关学、环境关学与应用美学、环境美学与环境伦理学、艺术与环境这四大关系,已构成了当前研究的重要问题。环境美学更广阔的未来正在逐步地展现出来,这是因为,“环境价值”在人类生活当中居于核心地位。     

家庭环境、父母监控、自我控制与青少年犯罪

采用问卷法考察了少管所、工读学校和普通中学740名青少年的违法犯罪行为.据严重违法犯罪行为得分将被试分为3组:无、中等和严重.三组青少年在家庭环境、父母监控和自我控制上差异显著:严重违法犯罪行为组父母离异比例高,父母受教育水平低;家庭氛围的矛盾性得分高,亲密度、情感表达和道德观等维度得分低;父母监控水平低;自我控制能力低.路径分析发现,低自我控制是预测青少年违法犯罪行为的重要个体因素,它对家庭氛围有显著的中介作用,但对其他变量的中介作用不显著.