Friday, February 28, 2020

Sensory Cultures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Sensory Cultures - Essay Example Embodiment of sensory orientation means one understands who they are, what they are doing, and where they are doing it (Yack et al 34). David Howes discusses sensory culture in the context of architecture, considering how urban planners and architects use in-sounds and in-scents in sensory ethnography, sensory history, and sensory geography. The architecture of the senses, which is the study of sensorium’s cultural construction in diverse places and times, helps in inspiring sensory architecture (Howes 45). He contends that, in recent years, architectural theorization for and of the senses has gained prominence because of increased interest in sensory architecture and the social significance of the material world’s sensory qualities. Sensing in sensory architecture involves a combination of meaning and stimulation, as well as signification and sensation. He gives an example of the CAVE technology that enhances comprehension of signification and sensation, contending tha t it needs an ethnographer to comprehend meaning and stimulation. This technology occludes some sensory roles in architectural experience, while it also improves the role of kinesthesia over texture, as well as that of sight over smell (Howes 46). This, in turn, serves in the perpetuation of particular social and sensory hierarchies. According to David Howes, the new sensory urban anthropology, which emphasizes the discernment of perceptive politics and meaning, plays a vital role in the advancement of sensory architecture. Sensory ethnography, through its role in foregrounding senses as experience mediators, as well as exploring the manner in which various people use their senses, in culturally and strategically conditioned ways, on the urban environment, enables architects to enhance polysensoriality and to design in ways that are stimulating and sensuously fitting (Howes 46). Constance Classen, on her part, introduces sensory culture as a historical and cultural formation. By exa mining the various meanings that are associated with different sensory sensations and faculties in various cultures, there is a cornucopia of sensory symbolism. It is possible to link sight to witchcraft and reason, while taste could be utilized as a metaphor that denotes sexual experience or aesthetic discrimination (Classen 402). In addition, the sensory faculty of odor could signify social exclusion, political power, sin, or sanctity. As a collection, these sensory values and meanings make up the various sensory models that societies espouse. In this way, a specific society makes sense of their environment, and the world at large. In addition, they translate sensory concepts, as well as perceptions, into a specific view of the world. Classen theorizes sensory orientation embodiment by contending that smell, taste, hearing, touch, and sight are means of cultural value transmission, as well as the apprehension of physical phenomena (Classen 402). According to her, perception of sen ses can be learnt through imbuing them with cultural significance in

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

One flew over the cuckoo's nest by Ken Kesey Annotated Bibliography

One flew over the cuckoo's nest by Ken Kesey - Annotated Bibliography Example The significance of the book in American literature is that it is a metaphor for society – the dehumanizing force of administrative and medical power is likened to mechanical â€Å"Combine† which is a huge machinery of oppression. Normal human behaviours are suppressed and the machinery of power is challenged by the tragic hero McMurphy. In the end he is lobotomized and finally killed by the narrator. It sounds like a horror story and it has very serious themes, but there is a lot of humor in the dialogue and in the quirky character of McMurphy. This book contains a short but fascinating discussion of the character of Nurse Ratched, the Big Nurse. Using Freudian and Jungian psychological concepts, Aguiar shows how McMurphy sets himself up to fight a huge battle with a typical â€Å"ball-cutter†, which reveals his fear of the castrating female. This is then described as an archetypal mother hatred scenario, and Aguiar suggests that all of the male patients in the asylum see Nurse Ratched as a mother figure, and they apparently masochistically project their fear of their own mothers onto her. The target of McMurphy’s rebellion is not just the authority that Nurse Ratched holds, but also her actual femininity, and this is made clear when McMurphy attacks her and exposes her large breasts. Aguiar explores a Jungian analysis of this act in terms of the Oedipus complex, but somehow this analysis is unconvincing. After all Nurse Ratched triumphs over McMurphy in the end, and it could be argued that she is as much a v ictim of the oppressive system as he is. This book pursues a very strong feminist line, but in Kesey’s novel it finds more questions than answers, throwing up a number of intriguing theories, none of which address the mixed male/female/machine persona that is Nurse Ratched, or the decidedly positive view that the young McMurphy formed of women and heterosexual love. This book examines issues around the religious nature of the