This PhD “Film by Practice” sets out to question and explore the nature of film poetry. The poetry of the cinematic image is described by the filmmaker Jean Epstein as the “unveiling of the magic inherent in the visual object beyond the capacity of words to define” (Epstein, cited in Sitney, 1978: xxiii). This is a daunting task that the study interprets through the moving image with particular reference to the magical temporal art of trance possession, which is processed within the genre of experimental ethnographic documentary and intercultural film. This thesis is an experiment in form, taking the filmmaker Maya Deren’s notion of film as comprising of “narrative horizontals” and “poetic verticals” (Deren and Sitney, 1971: 178) explored through a practical investigation of movement and time in space both beyond and within the film frame, studied through the art installations Divine Horsemen (2005) and People Inbetween (2007). It is focused through a reading of Gilles Deleuze’s Bergsonian philosophies of cinema as “movement-images” and “time-images” (Deleuze, 1989: xvi, xvii), exhibited as multi-screened video art installations that evolve within the space and hence exist in a perpetual state of “becoming”. Whether this is the sounds and images that change depending on where they are viewed, or the narrative theme of the works as “becoming other”. The themes of “in-betweenness” and the “mix” are investigated through these two video documentary artworks; first, by a third party restaging/remixing of the experimental ethnographic footage of Haitian Voodoo trance possession shot by Maya Deren, unfinished and posthumously released as Divine Horsemen the Voodoo Gods of Haiti (1985); and second, diaspora and the intercultural are explored through the first person personal. Intercultural documentary and experimental ethnography filtered through me with specific reference to my own triangular ethnicity, being British, Sri Lankan, though classified as Dutch Burgher, a “lost white tribe” (Orizio, 2000: 2): a journey into racial “becoming” as an “in-between” belonging to a diasporic community.

Driven by the crippling command of Eros, my work provides a veiled exposure to my secret life in love, desire, fear, and obsession. My sculptures are the physical evidence of an emotional realm coming forth in a coded language that is, even to me, only remotely accessible. The Demon that Lives in My Bedroom, the saga of the Cat People, the stories of Trasnichi and the Love Crusade; all came to me in a beam of thought. Once the beam takes hold, it becomes my obsession, and the era of that work begins. I can trace my development through these eras of obsessions.

The thesis deals with a comparative analysis of the demon-lover motif in selected texts of English and American literature. The theoretical basis is the characteristics of the medieval ballad James Harris and some variations of the examined representation in the collection of traditional ballads by F. J. Child. Particular attention is paid to the role of supernatural in relation to the issue of guilt and punishment, in this regard, also the romantic versions of M. G. Lewis, G. A. Bürger and K. J. Erben are considered. The following chapters deals with stories that develop the demon-lover motif (the post-war stories by E. Bowen and S. Jackson). The literary analysis focuses primarily on the trauma of personal and historical past, and the related persecution of the victim, committed to the promise, to show the deepening of the psychological and emotional significance of the traditional story.

Esta investigação analisa um número determinado de obras em gravura e desenho de Albrecht Dürer (1471 - 1528) e Hans Baldung Grien (1484 - 1545) residentes nos territórios germânicos da Europa no período do Renascimento, produzidos entre 1497 e 1545. Constata-se que o corpo da bruxa concebido na Europa pré-moderna foi um corpo carregado de preceitos excessivamente masculinos e opressivos. É reconhecido também que, independente das pretensões dos artistas, fosse para desenvolver suas faculdades imaginativas, fosse para melhorar seu status social e econômico, a capacidade de criação do artista resultou numa imagem feminina adulterada. Para compreensão dos recursos culturais, políticos e sociais dos artistas em questão, analisou-se no primeiro capítulo, as perspectivas historiográficas de uma teorização da bruxaria, divididas em duas principais concepções: a crise na fé cristã e a questão de gênero. Após a publicação dos primeiros incunábulos no final do século XV, em especial o primeiro tratado inquisitorial ilustrado, De Laniis et phitonicis mulieribus (1489) de Ulrich Molitor, no segundo capítulo, observou-se o início de uma tradição iconográfica específica na Europa e a instauração da representação da bruxaria no âmbito das Artes Visuais por Albrecht Dürer, que estabeleceu dois modelos de representação, a bruxa de corpo grotesco e a bruxa de corpo afrodisíaco. No terceiro e último capítulo, analisou-se as obras do discípulo de Dürer, Hans Baldung Grien, que no decorrer da sua trajetória artística, tornou o corpo da bruxa protagonista de seus trabalhos. Elementos como a forquilha, os cabelos soltos, o corpo nu e os voos em animais são sancionados por ele e, de modo consequente, de seus contemporâneos. Assim, a última tarefa nesta parte foi apresentar uma herança iconográfica oriunda da tradição estabelecida por Dürer e Hans Baldung, como nas obras de Lucas Cranach, Peter Bruegel, Frans Francken, entre outros. / This research analyzes a number of engraving and drawing works by Albrecht Dürer (1471 - 1528) and Hans Baldung Grien (1484 - 1545) residing in the Germanic territories of Europe during the Renaissance period, produced between 1497 and 1545. The body of the witch conceived in Early modern Europe will be a body laden with excessively masculine and oppressive precepts. It is also recognized that, regardless of the artists' pretensions, whether to develop their imaginative faculties or to improve their social and economic status, the artist's creative capacity has resulted in an adulterated female image. In order to understand the cultural, political and social resources of the artists in question, the historiographical perspectives of a theorizing of witchcraft were analyzed in the first chapter, divided into two main concepts: the crisis in the Christian faith and the question of gender. After the publication of the first incunabula, at the end of the 15th century, in particular the first illustrated inquisitorial treatise De Laniis et phitonicis mulieribus (1489) by Ulrich Molitor, the second chapter notes the beginning of a specific iconographic tradition in Europe and the establishment of representation of witchcraft in the field of Visual Arts by Albrecht Dürer, who established two models of representation, the grotesque body and the aphrodisiac body of the witch. In the third and last chapter, the work of Dürer's disciple, Hans Baldung Grien, who in the course of his artistic career, made the witch's body the protagonist of his works analyzed. Elements such as the fork, loose hair, naked body and flights on animals are sanctioned by him and, consequently, by his contemporaries. Thus, the last task in this part is to present an iconographic heritage derived from the tradition established by Dürer and Hans Baldung, as in the works of Lucas Cranach, Peter Bruegel, Frans Francken, among others.

白蛇傳是從白蛇故事、傳說逐漸發展而成，直至馮夢龍《警世通言．白娘子永鎮雷峰塔》一出，被學者公認為白蛇傳故事的成型，自此，即成為地方戲曲熱門的表演曲目。民國以來，藝術形式發展得更多元，加上影音事業的起步，除了傳統的戲曲之外，白蛇傳在舞蹈、舞台劇、電視劇、電影皆有作品呈現。 　　關於白蛇傳的學術研究成果，多由文學、藝術等方向來分析，本文則是改以宗教學的視角來詮釋白蛇傳故事。首先，從源流探討先民如何從蛇圖騰崇拜，演進發展為龍神信仰。也因為古代民族對於蛇文化的崇拜，在傳說故事中，蛇扮演了重要的主角，其中，最著名的女蛇精，即是被鎮壓在雷峰塔下的白蛇，故知白蛇傳說是逐步推衍而成的一種民間敍事。 　　在宗教上，本文是以基督教、佛教、道教、民間信仰為例，說明蛇的形象與象徵意義。其次，由「精怪修煉」和「人的修行」二方面，來分析不同精怪、妖怪、鬼魅、魔神仔等異類的定義，並探討異類由蛇變人的緣由與目的。後以佛、道色彩的謫凡神話，和恩怨必報、宿緣說的論點，述說白蛇、青蛇、許宣、法海之間複雜的關係。 　　在白蛇傳中，白娘子在端午節喝下雄黃現出「原形」，故事背後具有豐富的端午民俗意涵，而現形後便涉及到「收妖」的部分。文中分析道士使用符、籙、咒的文化演變，和遣天兵神將的本領；次則分析法海這位高僧，運用神通及使用法器，展現高深莫測的收妖能力，以及在收伏白素貞之後，造塔（雷峰塔）鎮邪的經過。 　　如實存在的「雷峰塔」，具有歷史文化和宗教的意蘊，並呈現佛塔建築的高度藝術特色；又因塔位於西湖邊，更增添旅遊的價值。隨著時代的演變，從帝制進入民主政治初期，「雷峰塔」被投射成封建腐敗的舊禮教象徵。之後，兩岸因政治因素而無法自由往來時，「雷峰塔」旋即變成象徵政治影響的枷鎖。因此可說，「雷峰塔」不論在現實生活或是文本當中，皆具有多元豐富的意蘊。 　　綜言之，本文是以宗教學詮釋的視角來凸顯白蛇傳故事，亦旁及文化、民俗等向度的探討，期能在文學角度之外，呈現白蛇傳研究的新視域。 / The White Snake Legend was gradually evolved from the White Snake story.Until the Feng,Meng-long's "Jingshitongyan, The White Snake was kept squelching under the Leifeng Pagoda forever", the scholars considered it was the forming of the White Snake Legend. From then on, it became the popular repertoireof the local opera. Since the republic of China, the art forms developed diversifed.In aadtion to the growing up of the audio and video career, The Snake Story could be shown in the dancing, the theater, the drama and the film ways. Most of the academic research about The White Snake Legend were analyzed in literature and art ways. This thesis change the perspective of religious studies to explain the White Snake story.First of all,it explored from origins how the ancestors worshiped the snake totem , and then developed into the Dragon belief.The snake played an important leading role in the legends.Among them, the most famous female snake, that is, the white snake was suppressed under the Leifeng Pagoda.Therefore,it can be proved that The White Snake legend was a kind of narrative folk which was formed step by step. In the religion level,this thesis used the Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism,and the Chinese folk religion for example.Second,it analyzed the defention of different heterogeneous, such as the monsters, ghosts, devil-earners and the trickers, by the" Spirit practice and the "Human practice ". Then discussed the reason and the purpose of heterogeneous changed from the snake to be a human. Further, used the argument of the banishment myth of Buddhism and Taoism and the contention of grievances must be reported and the theory of the relationship predestined from a previous existence to describe the complex relationship between the White Snake, Green Snake, Xu Xuan, and Fahai. In the White Snake Legend, the White Snake drank the realgar and showed her original shape in the Dragon Boat Festival. The story implied abundant folk meaning of the Dragon Boat Festival. After showing her original shape,it related to the part of the revenue demon.In the script analyzed the cultural evolution of the priests used the symbol, the memo, and the curse and the ability of assigning the troops from heaven.Then analyzed the monks of Fahai who used the supernatural powers and the Buddhist instruments to show the enigmatic ability of closing demon and the process after subduing Bai Suzhen and then built the tower (Leifeng Pagoda) to repress the evil. The "Leifeng Pagoda" truthfully exist and has the meaning of historical and cultural and religious and shows a high degree of artistic features of the Pagoda building. Furthermore, the tower is located in the West Lake, which is added to the value of tourism.With the evolution from a monarchy into a early democratic political, the "Leifeng Pagoda" is a symbol of the projection into the old ethics of feudal corruption. After the two sides across the Taiwan Strait can’t come and go freely because of the political considerations, the "Leifeng Pagoda" immediately became a symbol of the yoke of political influence. Therefore, it can be said, the "Leifeng Pagoda" whether in our real life, or in the text has rich multi-dimensional.In conclusion, this article used the perspective of religious studies to interpretate the White Snake Story.It also probe into culture, folklore, and other dimensions.Hope to show a new point of view as well as the literature.

"Dynamics" is very roughly the study of how objects change in time; for instance whether an electrical circuit goes to equilibrium, due to thermal dissipation. By "information", we mean how helpful it is to observe an object in order to know it better, for instance how many binary digits we can acquire on the value of a voltage by an appropriate measure. A "computation" is a physical process, e.g. the flow of current into a complex set of transistors, that after some time eventually gives us the solution of a mathematical problem (such as "Is 13 prime?"). We are interested to various relations between these concepts. In a first chapter, we unify some arguments in the literature to show that a whole class of quantities of dynamical systems are uncomputable. For instance the topological entropy of tilings and Turing machines. Then we propose a precise meaning to the statement "This dynamical system is a computer", at least for symbolic systems, such as cellular automata. We also show, for instance, that a "computer" must be dynamically unstable, and can even be chaotic. In a third chapter, we compare how complicated it is to control a system according whether we can acquire information on it ("feedback") or not ("open loop"). We are specifically interested in finite-state systems. In last chapter we show how to control a scalar linear system when only a finite amount of information can be acquired at every step of time.

Submitted by Johnny Rodrigues (johnnyrodrigues@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-04-17T12:08:06Z No. of bitstreams: 1 JOSÉ ANTÔNIO LEAL DE FARIAS - DISSERTAÇÃO PPGCC 2014..pdf: 3257698 bytes, checksum: cea41aeb45f4b269f2356f8ecad15069 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-04-17T12:08:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JOSÉ ANTÔNIO LEAL DE FARIAS - DISSERTAÇÃO PPGCC 2014..pdf: 3257698 bytes, checksum: cea41aeb45f4b269f2356f8ecad15069 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-08-05 / Recompensas em Crowdsourcing Computação por Humanos é uma abordagem que utiliza seres humanos para obter resultados mais satisfatórios em áreas em que os atuais recursos computacionais não conseguem atender adequadamente. Diversas técnicas e aplicações foram desenvolvidas para suportar essa abordagem e algumas delas utilizam recompensas financeiras como forma de estímulo aos indivíduos, enquanto outras se utilizam de jogos criados especialmente para suportar uma determinada tarefa e ao mesmo tempo como meio para aumentar a participação e o engajamento dos participantes. Este estudo descreve os resultados de um experimento que utilizou jogos comuns, não associados a qualquer tarefa ou atividade específica, criados apenas para entretenimento, como forma de recompensa para esses indivíduos. Nossos resultados mostram que jogos são um meio eficiente de estímulo ao engajamento na execução de Computação por Humanos. / Human Computation is an approach that uses humans to get more satisfactory results in areas where current computational infrastructures cannot meet properly. Several techniques and applications have been developed to support this approach and some of them use financial rewards as a stimulus to individuals, while others make use of games specifically designed to support a particular task and, at the same time, as a means to increase the participation and engagement of his participants. This study describes the results of an experiment that used regular games, not associated with any specific task or activity, created just for entertainment, as a reward for these individuals. Our results show that games are an effective means of stimulating the involvement in the execution of Human Computations.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-03T12:19:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Regina Cardoso.pdf: 1785744 bytes, checksum: e238c246422fe179f1c279977e8620f4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-04-13 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / The ancient thought had interpreted all harmful events or personal and psychological illnesses as satanic influence. Regarding this background the purpose of this work is to analyze the imagery of Markan community concerning the demonic and how this reading would have impacted the lives of people in that context. In order to carry this out we shall seek to identify, in the passage of Mark 3.20-35, demonic mechanisms of that society and how this imaginary was reflected in the community quotidian. In addition we shall verify the reason why the practices of Jesus involving exorcism caused such a disconfort, leading to his identification as a demon. We regard as necessary to evaluate the thaumaturgical activity of Jesus and its representativeness at the time, as well as the social effect it produced and its reception by Markan community. / O pensamento antigo interpretava todas as manifestações danosas ou enfermidades pessoais e psíquicas como influência satânica. Considerando esse pano de fundo, a proposta deste trabalho é analisar o imaginário da comunidade marcana em relação ao demoníaco e como esse tipo de leitura impactava a vida das pessoas naquela conjuntura. Para tanto, buscaremos identificar na perícope de Mc 3,20-35 os mecanismos demoníacos daquela sociedade e como esse imaginário se refletia no cotidiano da comunidade. Além disso, verificaremos por que as práticas de Jesus envolvendo o exorcismo incomodavam, levando à sua identificação como demônio. Entendemos ser necessário avaliar a atividade taumatúrgica de Jesus e a representatividade que ela tinha em seu contexto, bem como o efeito social que produzia e a sua recepção pela comunidade marcana

This thesis examines the meanings of purification practices and purity concepts in early Christian culture, as they were articulated and formed by Greek Christian authors of the first three centuries, from Paul to Origen. As purity and defilement are especially suited for articulating difference, hierarchy and change, these concepts were essential for early Christians, shaping their understanding of human nature, sin, history, and ritual. In parallel, the major Christian practices embodying difference and change, baptism, abstinence from food or sexual activity, were all understood, emoted and shaped as instances of purification. Two broad motivations, at some tension with each other, were at the basis of Christian purity discourse. The first was a substantive motivation: the creation and maintenance of anthropologies and ritual theories coherent with the theological principles of the new religion, and the integration of purity traditions and concepts into these worldviews and theories. The second was a polemic motivation: construction of Christian identity by laying claim to true purity while marking the purity practices and beliefs of others (Jews, pagan or “heretics”) as false. I trace the interplay of these factors through a close reading of second- and third-century Christian Greek authors discussing food abstentions, death defilement, sexuality and baptism, on the background of Greco-Roman and Jewish purity discourses. This thesis demonstrates three central arguments. First, purity and defilement are central concepts for understanding Christian cultures of the second and third centuries. Second, Christianities developed their own conceptions and practices of purity and purification, distinct from those current in contemporary and earlier Jewish and pagan cultures, though decisively influenced by them. Third, concepts and practices of purity and defilement were shifting and contentious, an arena for boundary-marking between Christians and others and between different Christian groups.

This thesis is concerned with the irreversibility of certain information processing operations. The two main results of this thesis concern the recording and erasure of information on a physical memory and the measurement, or acquisition of information by a physical device. These operations are shown to be irreversible, and their degree of irreversibility is related to the amount of information processed.