A novel technique of drawing wire, i.e., dieless wire drawing, is described in which no conventional reduction dies are used. The wire is passed through a unit having stepped parallel bores filled with polymer melts, the smallest bore diameter being greater than the initial nominal wire diameter. The technique eliminates the need for a leader wire, prevents breakage during start-up, and eliminates the use of conventional reduction dies and, hence, the problem of die wear. An analysis has been developed for predicting the produced wire sizes for given drawing speeds, the pressure distribution within the unit and the drawing load during the drawing process. The performance of the drawing process is effected by means of the plasto-hydrodynamic action of the polymer melt within the unit. Heat is generated by mechanical dissipation during the drawing process. The effect of this upon the performance of the process is considered by coupling the energy equation into the analysis and allowing the polymer viscosity to be dependent on temperature. Agreement between the theory and experiment is found to be close. To further investigate the performance of the drawing process, an extensive experimental study has been undertaken, in which parameters such as drawing speeds, the temperature of the polymer and type of polymers are varied. Based on the theoretical and experimental results, a microcomputer-based control system for the dieless wire drawing process has been designed and built. A method with which the percentage reduction in area of the wire can be measured on line is proposed. Wires of desired qualities in terms of consistency in diameter over long lengths, or uniform change in area of the wire, are capable of being produced from the new system. A self-tuning controller for determinisic systems is proposed, which has the same structure as a conventional PID controller. The new self-tuning PID controller is based on a generalised self-tuning controller with pole assignment for deterministic systems. Simulation and experimental studies for several examples indicate that the new controller performs well and can be further improved to provide a fundamental method of tuning a PID controller.

No description available.

No description available.

This creative project has explored intuitive/spontaneous drawing from one individual's point of view. The study yielded well over one hundred drawings of which six were chosen for discussion. The artist explained his concept of intuitive/spontaneous drawing and discussed his experimentation with various technics and materials. The study explored new drawing media and their relationship to the intuitive/spontaneous process. Three original examples (Figures I, II, and III) were included in the study. These demonstrated some of the materials and technics. The project presents the artist's ideas and feelings about drawing in general and intuitive/spontaneous drawing in particular.

No description available.

Synopsis of the thesis in Englis Surname and firstname: Bc. Pejchalová Zuzana Department: psychologie PdF UK Praha Title of thesis: Osvojování kresby dětmi předškolního věku (3, 4 - 5letými) Thesis title in English: Learning to draw in preschoolers (3, 4 and 5 years old) Supervisor: PhDr. Miroslav Klusák, CSc. Number of pages: 63 Number of attachments: 30 Number of used literature: 14 Keywords: Drawing in kindergarten Graphmotor Group drawing Guided drawing Freehand drawing Summary in English Diploma thesis is focused on learning to draw in preschoolers. It describes individual art-education parts of the daily program in which children in kindergarten draw. It gives closer characteristics of what children draw within each part, as well as of the educational targets enforced by the teacher. Finally, it focuses on the individual differences in children's learning.

Typescript (photocopy).

This PhD began by attempting to locate the Epic of Gilgamesh within a contemporary landscape and using a comparison of Michael Ayrton and Sidney Nolan as a means of creating a body of narrative based drawing. Initial work, however, illustrated rather than illuminated the text. As the research evolved, analysis of the text as a model for thinking and the different approaches to landscape from Ayrton and Nolan, clarified that the metaphorical journey of Gilgamesh required a different drawing practice. The Epic of Gilgamesh was written in cuneiform script on clay tablets some four thousand years ago. The fragmented and incomplete tablets have survived by chance. Failure, evident in Gilgamesh’s quest, suggested exploring contingency and failure as agents of creative practice. The opportunity to draw directly from the clay tablets in the collection of the British Museum generated the insight that the apprehension of physical objects and their recording as image through drawing, also works as a process of visual translation. The original clay tablets became a source for making drawings possessing a physical equivalence beyond the normative approaches to translation and narrative. This was the central aspect of the final research, superseding the narrative drive that had been the original starting point. Models of working allusively with narrative and landscape were also provided by unique access to the archives of Sidney Nolan at The Rodd, in Herefordshire, and by analysing in parallel the work of Michael Ayrton. This aspect of the research developed as a way of asserting that in the liminal space of the studio, equivalence can be found with the complex and contingent aspects of quest narrative as exemplified by Gilgamesh. Working large scale, the final works produced for this PhD explore translation and transcription in drawing through the surface accretions of material, gesture, intuition and fold.

This practice-based thesis aims to explore and demonstrate the conflict that exists between traditional, male-oriented attitudes and feminist perceptions of the female nude within the context of life drawing practices. The research interrogates the problematisation of life-drawing practice for female practitioners, proposing that perceived tensions and conflicts can be resolved through practice-based enquiry. In response to this, practice has been devised and tested, that negotiates this opposition, evolving an innovative system of projective geometry for drawing and painting which considers representations of the female nude in a way that is compatible with a specifically female viewpoint. The methodology includes: 1. The development of a portfolio of paintings and drawings of the female nude produced in the life drawing room by a female practitioner. This body of work is integral to the submission. 2. Qualitative questionnaires and discussion groups which inform, support and substantiate findings. 3. A literature review which considers the historical background of life drawing and the role played by female practitioners in academic life-drawing leading to an explanation and practical enquiry of sight-sized drawing that epitomises the habitual rituals of the life drawing class in relation to the researcher’s gendered interests. Conclusions and outcomes: The literature review together with other findings are analysed and synthesized, leading to an overview of four interrelated waves of feminism and feminist theory. The emergence and influence of a Negative Feminist Critique of the Female Nude is shown as related to the subjective female identity and interests of the artist. Through the creation of a feminist strategy, demonstrated to be antagonistic to the traditions of the female nude, have resulted in an alternative canon of the female nude that hinges on the interpretation of artworks and affects, but is distinct from, the experience of practitioners. Interactions with the model are identified as crucial to negotiating existing precepts of the female nude in female-directed life drawing practice. Questioning if linear perspective is intrinsically voyeuristic and analogous to a peep show reveals this position as socially- rather than materially-constructed. The extended drawings articulate multiple viewpoints without fragmentation and prioritise experiential understanding of process over external critiques of content. A series of extended paintings is examined in relation to the artist’s formally based material interests in painting and stitch combined with socially-formed interactions of collaboration and empathy. Resultant art works intervene in the field of existing life-drawing conventions and demonstrate a recognisably female sensibility in their representation of the female nude. These findings will be used to inform future life-drawing practice and pedagogy.

Cartoons have traditionally occupied an important place in French visual culture, and are now a permanent feature in even the most prestigious publications, including Le Monde, where they appear on the front page. Moreover, there is a long tradition of political cartooning which is firmly situated within the historical context of caricature and lampooning, which over the years has contributed to public debates on key issues such as politics, religion and social change. In this thesis, I focus on political cartoons and argue that the political cartoon is still significant as a cultural product and as a powerful journalistic medium at a time when the existence of the print media is threatened by new technological developments. In order to understand how cartoons remain a powerful mode of expression in the twenty-first century, I begin by examining the historical development of cartooning, tracing its origins in grotesque art, physiognomy and caricature. I then explore a number of events in early modern European history such as the Reformation and the French Revolution to show that the medium was used as a means of mass communication, to inform a largely illiterate public, incite protest and instigate rebellion through propaganda. I show how political graphics were used as effective political weapons against the ruling authorities, in the face of tight regulation such as censorship, and underline the French artists' commitment to defend their right of expression. As I demonstrate, this commitment continues to be pursued by contemporary French cartoonists such as Plantu who is dedicated to fighting for freedom of expression and promoting peace issues, under the banner of Le Monde and the United Nations. In analysing a corpus of Plantu's editorial creations, I underline theoretical perspectives for ‘reading' cartoons and illuminate the visual rhetoric used by cartoonists to communicate serious issues. I conclude with an assessment of the significant role that French cartoonists played during the 2006 Cartoons War to further highlight the impact of cartoons as a vehicle for political communication, and as a catalyst for debate in the twenty first century.