University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Sociology

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Sociology

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Sociology

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Sociology

An exploration of the mythologized narratives that the work and lives of Conceptual artists Bas Jan Ader, Ana Mendieta, and Francis Alÿs have created and inspired. By virtue of their biographies, the fetishization of their personalities, and the ways in which this anecdotal information can be read in their work, mythologized narratives have been constructed, allowing for a prolonged interest existing within and without the confines of the art world. These mythologies come together as part of the oral tradition of the art world, a chronicling of narratives that incites continued interest for future generations.

One major question in the area of Feminist Media Studies is to analyze the stereotypical female role portrayals in media. Researchers in this area have examined diverse media including television, radio, films, textbooks, literature and so on. Empirical evidence provided by these studies shows that women in media are often underrepresented or stereotypically portrayed in traditional roles such as housewives or mothers associated with feminine values, such as dependent, submissive, and passive. Using content analysis and semiotic analysis, this study is designed to examine the portrayals of female roles in a sample of contemporary (1949-2010) Chinese films. Content analysis is employed to examine how women have been portrayed in films, with the primary focus on the frequency of three types of female roles including (1) traditional roles, (2) modern role, and (3) ideal role. Results suggest that during this long period of time, representations and constructions of women in films have shifted from promotion of gender equality, to diminishing and erasing gender difference, and finally regressed to confining them to traditional roles while emphasizing traditional feminine values and expectations. In using semiotic analysis, this research is able to outline the connotative meanings of the female characters as well as the implicit cultural values and messages of gender that are embedded in films. On this cultural analysis, the findings reveal that female role portrayals in films, which are influenced by political, cultural, and social changes, remained associated with traditional feminine stereotypes, values, and expectations.

The present dissertation deals with the establishment of Campus Sundsvall, MidSweden University, and discusses how the architecture visualizes visions and ideas of the participants involved, the city of Sundsvall, the university and the proprietor, Akademiska Hus. The purpose is to investigate the process where the symbolic values are formulated and materialized – the interaction between architecture, language and visual material. The first chapter discusses the American tradition of campus planning and how the idea has been transformed in Sweden to represent an area, often located in the city, gathering one or more buildings used by a university. The second chapter deals with the architectural competition of Campus Sundsvall and analyzes the program, the solutions presented by the participants and eventually how Campus Sundsvall turned out in the late 1990s. The third chapter investigates the sources of the concepts of the architecture and the planning model and discusses why the city of Sundsvall was attracted by these ideas. The planning history of Sundsvall and especially Stenstaden, the city centre of Sundsvall, are central in interpreting the question of identity as a symbolic value. In the last chapter, discussing the campus as a creative space, the present increase of IT supported distance courses questions the importance of the university campus.

En nuestra cultura el museo ocupa un lugar privilegiado simbólicamente, pero también físicamente, en la ciudad. Y no tan sólo lo ocupa, sino lo crea, lo define, lo cambia y le da significado. Esta tesis demuestra que ese lugar hoy está en el clúster de museos. Y en el clúster, fuera del cual deviene casi imposible contemplar el museo, el museo cambia; cambian el significado y la importancia de sus aspectos básicos. Mi hipótesis es que en el proyecto del museo el aspecto urbanístico –su lugar y relación con la ciudad– toma primacía sobre el aspecto museográfico y arquitectónico. El contenido –la colección y el montaje– y la arquitectura del museo se funden en la densidad cultural del clúster como lugar del museo, destacando ese lugar y urbanismo en primer plano. El lugar – el clúster– se convierte así en clave para una nueva lectura del museo y de la ciudad. Apoyando la idea de multi-lugar, con múltiples funciones, significados y públicos, el clúster de museos se desmiembra. Se considera como ubicación física en la ciudad, forma urbana que el clúster toma, dinámicas y relaciones que establece, y lugar público que crea en esta interacción con la ciudad. A través de un análisis histórico, comparativo y crítico de estas cuatro dimensiones del lugar de museos, en los cuatro capítulos, la disertación confirma la hipótesis, como también la teoría del locus genii, mostrando el papel fundamental del clúster de museos como fuerza que organiza, genera y transforma el sistema de museos y el sistema de ciudad. Demuestra que el boom de museos, creando, cambiando y acentuando los clústeres de museos, representa una revolución en la relación y concepción del museo y de la ciudad. Desde el clúster de museos se nota toda una sucesión de cambios e innovaciones radicales en el museo, en el mismo clúster de museos y en la ciudad, a través de los cuales se explica la primacía del aspecto urbanístico en el proyecto del museo, y la teoría se amplía a la importancia del aspecto museográfico en el proyecto de la ciudad. El clúster de museos se eleva a rango del manifiesto urbanístico, mostrando que los nuevos modelos del museo-clúster, del clúster de museos y de la «ciudad de museos» son diferentes escalas o niveles de un urbanismo de densidades y flujos que maximiza el uso e impacto de los museos y espacios públicos entre ellos en la movilización y la difusión de la cultura y de la información cultural.Aunque el estudio abarca un espacio histórico y geográfico más amplio para demostrar la extensión de este fenómeno todavía poco investigado e insuficientemente conocido, se acentúan las transformaciones de los museos y sus clústeres y sistemas en las últimas tres décadas, en las principales ciudades europeas, incluyendo también los casos notables de otros continentes que sugieren las posibles direcciones de un futuro desarrollo. / In our culture the museum occupies a privileged place symbolically, but also physically, in the city. And not only does it occupy it, but it also creates, defines, changes it, and gives it meaning. This thesis demonstrates that that place is in the museum cluster. And in the cluster, out of which it becomes almost impossible to contemplate the museum, the museum changes; the meaning and the importance of its basic aspects change. My hypothesis is that in the museum project the urbanistic aspect – its place and relationship with the city – takes precedence over its museographic and architectonic aspects.The content – collection and display – and the architecture of the museum merge into the cultural density of the cluster as the place of the museum, highlighting that place and urbanism in the foreground. The place – the cluster – thus becomes the key to a new reading of the museum and of the city. Supporting the idea of multi-place, with multiple functions, meanings and audiences, the cluster is dismembered. It is considered as the physical location in the city, the urban form the cluster takes, the dynamics and relationships it establishes, and the public place which it creates in this interaction with the city.Through a historical, comparative and critical analysis of these four dimensions of the place of museums, in the four chapters, the dissertation proves the hypothesis, as well as the theory of the locus genii, showing the fundamental role of the museum cluster as a force that organizes, generates and transforms the museum system and the urban system. It demonstrates that the museum boom, by creating, changing, and emphasizing museum clusters, represents a revolution in the relationship and conception of the museum and of the city. From the museum cluster is observed a whole range of radical changes and innovations in the museum, in the very museum cluster and in the city, through which the primacy of the urbanistic aspect in the project of the museum is explained, and the theory is extended to the importance of the museum aspect in the project of the city. The cluster of museums is raised in rank of the urban manifesto, showing that new models of the museum-cluster, the museum cluster, and the "city of museums" are different scales or levels of an urbanism of densities and flows that maximizes the use and impact of museums and public spaces between them in the mobilization and dissemination of culture and cultural information.Although the study includes a wider historical and geographic space to demonstrate the extension of this still little investigated and insufficiently well-known phenomenon, the accent is on the transformations of the museums and their clusters and systems during last three decades, in the principal European cities, including also the remarkable cases from other continents that suggest the possible directions of a future development.

This thesis examines the formal and programmatic expansion of one of the most efficient generic spaces, the international airport hub, by serving the specific needs of an increasingly common mobile citizen, the medical tourist. International airport hubs are comprised of a network of interlinked corridors where large transient populations are received, held and then dispersed again. The medical tourist is a product of the rapidly increasing cost and specialization associated with medical treatment procedures. Recognizing that the density of airport hubs now rivals that of contemporary city centers, this project expands the capacity of the international airport hub, thus enabling the airport to compete for citizens in a manner similar to cities. As one iteration of a potential airport expansion system that could serve multiple mobile citizen types, this project exploits the security requirements of an existing airport and an innovative program to hypothesize a new type of airport terminal.

This essay researches the prevalence of Gnostic influences in contemporary music lyrics, more exclusively within the context of the extreme metal scene. A resurgence of such topics has also been evident in contemporary music; not surprisingly, as music in general is part of the foundations of culture, and in a wider aspect, of society at large. The essay is performed using a hermeneutic method, interpreting music lyrics and discussing them from a background of cultural and religious theory. The purposes of researching the influences of Gnosticism in this environment are to determine the presence of Gnostic thought in extreme metal lyrics, research the eventual re-interpretations of historical sources of Gnosticism, and to discuss the acknowledged Gnostic influences in the displayed art form in a contemporary cultural perspective, related to cultural aspects such as secularization, modernity and globalization. Sources include music lyrics appropriate to the subject matter at hand as well as previously published interviews. The results of the investigation demonstrate that there are multiple interpretations of Gnostic thought apparent in extreme metal lyrics, varying from slight re-interpretations to more extensive ones, as apparent in what is identified as a chaos-gnostic current. The Gnostic material has in the latter scenario been integrated into an originally satanic worldview and as a result has become a major part of the chaos-gnostic belief system. The chaos-gnostic current has appeared in a highly secular surrounding, and the results of the essay propose that a secular surrounding can breed elements of trangression within individuals, leading to the resurgence of oppositional counter-cultural characteristics and an awakening of alternative spirituality with oppositional overtones.