ŠUMAVA - NATURE AND PEOPLE - THROUGH THE EYES OF KAREL KLOSTERMANN (with special attention to the frequency,ways and possibilities of individual colours' usage) The aim of this thesis is to designate and describe qualities of the residents of the central Bohemian Forest and the attributes of local nature in the way they were depicted by the writer Karel Klostermann (1848-1923). The results of individual analyses performed in this thesis present the inhabitants of the Bohemian Forest as a society that is conservative, religion-based, maybe even superstitious and bearing a certain distrust to the surrounding world. The Bohemian Forest's landscape is very demanding, the impact of which is visible in the inhabitants' character traits - the increased directness and, in certain aspects, vulgarity of people living under these conditions. Nature is often approached as a literary image that is further developed in accordance with the spirit of impressionism. This is concluded, among other sources, from the specific use of colours that is further analyzed. The emphasis of sense perception pervades almost every descriptive passage.

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“The Ancient Egyptian Demonology Project: Second Millennium BCE” was intended and funded as a three-year project (2013-2016) to explore the world of Ancient Egyptian demons in the 2nd millennium BC. It intends to create a classification and ontology of benevolent and malevolent demons. Whereas ancient Egyptians did not use a specific term denoting “demons”, liminal beings known from various other cultures such as δαίμονες, ghosts, angels, Mischwesen, genies, etc., were nevertheless described in texts and illustrations. The project aims to collect philological, iconographical and archaeological evidence to understand the religious beliefs, practices, interactions and knowledge not only of the ancient Egyptians’ daily life but also their perception of the afterlife. Till today scholars, as well as interested laymen, have had no resource to consult for specific examples of those beings, except for rather general encyclopaedias that include all kinds of divine beings or the Iconography of Deities and Demons (IDD) project that is ongoing. Neither provides, however, a searchable platform for both texts and images. The database created by the Demonology Project: 2K is designed to remedy this gap. The idea is to provide scholars and the public with a database that allows statistical analyses and innovative data visualisation, accessible and augmentable from all over the world to stimulate the dialogue and open communication not only within Egyptology but also with neighbouring disciplines. For the time-span of the three year project a pilot database was planned as a foundation for further data-collection and analysis. The data that were chosen date to the 2nd Millennium BCE and originate from objects of daily life (headrests and ivory wands), as well as from objects related to the afterlife, (coffins and ‘Book of the Dead’ manuscripts). This material, connected by its religious purposes, nevertheless provides a cross-section through ancient Egyptian religious practice. The project is funded by the Leverhulme Trust and includes Kasia Szpakowska (director) who supervises the work of the two participating PhD students in Egyptology. The project does not include funds for computer scientists or specialists in digital humanities. Therefore, the database is designed, developed and input by the members of the team only. The focus of my presentation will be the structure of the database that faces the challenge to include both textual and iconographical evidence. I will explain the organisation of the data, search patterns and the opportunities of their visualisation and possible research outcome. Furthermore, I will discuss the potentials the database already possesses and might generate in the future for scholars and the public likewise. Since the evidence belongs to numerous collections from all over the world, I would like to address the problems of intellectual property and copyright with the solution we pursue for releasing the database for registered usage onto the internet.

I denna uppsats utforskar vi icke-mänskliga varelser och den mänsklighet vi som betraktare ger dem, både i position som mediekonsumenter samt producenter. Med en frågeställning som fokuserar på hur vi ska gestalta varelser i relation till antropomorfism, och genom granskning av den vaga gräns som existerar mellan fantasivarelser och verkliga djur, tar vi hjälp av teorier främst från Donna Haraway, Boria Sax, Jennifer Parker-Starbuck och Fanny Ambjörnsson. Ändamålet består i att belysa antropomorfiska stilgrepp, om hur och varför vi applicerar beteenden som antas styras av motiv liknande människans på djur, samt att öka förståelsen för den mänskliga linsens inblandning. Genom tidigare forskning, tecken- och färglära, samt en ständig medvetenhet kring posthumanism och mänskliggörande av djur, tar vi oss an att gestalta nyanserad antropomorfism i 3D. I vår undersökning framkommer det att ett kontinuerligt reflekterande krävs vid tillskrivande av attribut på varelser, eftersom vi ständigt tolkar omvärlden genom en mänsklig lins. Argument finns för att de varierade förutsättningarna olika djur är försedda med ger upphov till en helt annan iakttagelseförmåga än den människan besitter. Det behövs både ett kritiserande av människans natur och ett ifrågasättande av att som människa försöka uppfatta världen genom en icke-mänsklig varelses sinnen, när vad vi besitter är ett utifrånperspektiv till djurlivet. / In this bachelor thesis, we investigate non-human beings and the human traits we apply on them, both in a position as media consumers and as producers. The research question focuses on how to portray creatures in relation to anthropomorphism, and with an examination on the vague boundary that exists between imaginary animals and real animals, we explore anthropomorphism mainly through the theoretical lenses of Donna Haraway, Boria Sax, Jennifer Parker-Starbuck and Fanny Ambjörnsson. Our purpose is to illuminate the idea of anthropomorphism – how and why we apply human-like behaviours on animals – and to increase our understanding for the influence of the human lens. With previous research, semiotics, as well as an awareness about posthumanism and humanizing of animals, we come to terms with the depiction of nuanced anthropomorphism in 3D. Through our research it appears that we need to reflect constantly on our choices during application of attributes on creatures, due to our human interpretation of the world. There is discussion concerning the varying qualities among different kinds of animals, which declares that these attributes cause animals to possess a completely different perception than humans hold. It requires both a questioning about the nature of humans, and a criticizing of how we humans try to apprehend the surrounding world through the lens of a non-human creatures and their senses, when all we have is an outside perspective of the wildlife.

This study aims to increase awareness of the portrayal of refugees in Swedish media. In order to achieve this we performed a content analysis of the articles found in the newspaper Dagens Nyheter. Through a strategic selection we chose six news articles published during the fall of 2015 that depicted various refugees’ destinies. We studied the articles in several steps and identified the frames used in the presentation and portayal of the refugees. These frames consisted of roles, characteristics and selected quotations in which the persons were assigned. In the analyzed articles we found that Dagens Nyheter tends to portray refugees in a relatively generalized way, where different categories of refugees are similarly portayed and no refugee gets the role of a hero. They are portrayed in a way that makes them look like they are subordinate to aid organisations and authorities and as if they are in need of help. However, children and elderly tend to be discriminated since they in many cases are being excluded or assigned a subordinate role compared to other categories of refugees.

The focus of this dissertation is the theatrical representation of both the individual and war in a time of disintegrating national states and the dramatisation of destruction versus survival as the driving forces on stage. In a study on the future of empire it has been observed that instead of progressing into a peaceful future, the 21st century has slipped back in time into the nightmare of perpetual and indeterminate state of warfare: ceasing to be the exceptional state, war has become 'the primary organising principle of society', thus echoing Giorgio Agamben's declaration that the state of exception has become the status quo. Seminal studies on contemporary warfare and society such as Mary Kaldor's New & Old Wars (2005) and Ulrich Beck's World at Risk (2008 [2007]) trace how the face of war has changed over the past fifteen years. The dramatic texts examined in this thesis reach from plays depicting inner-state conflict, civil war and the politics of fear, for example Caryl Churchill's Far Away (2000), Sarah Kane's Blasted (1995) and Zinnie Harris's war trilogy (2005-2008) over documentary and verbatim-based plays and their attempt to portray the trauma of war by recreating on stage the process of giving testimony and by endorsing public grieving (e.g. various Tricycle productions and Gregory Burke's Black Watch [2006]), to adaptations of Greek tragedies (like Martin Crimp's Cruel and Tender [2004]) and a Shakespearean play. The questions underlying this work are: how can war be represented on stage? and, how do the plays replicate the sociological structures leading to violence and war and explore their transformation of societies? Springing from the discussion about 'New Wars' in the age of globalisation, it will be demonstrated here how these 'New Wars' also bring forth new plays about war.

Generally speaking depictive theories attempt to explain the experience of looking at paintings and drawings, in particular they describe the process by which a viewer makes sense of a surface that has been intentionally marked in such a way as to describe some thing in the world. Depictive theories have generally been developed with reference to figurative work where the viewer is able to recognize the depicted object(s). The aim of this thesis is to determine the extent to which they apply to non-figurative work, what is commonly referred to as abstract art, and to identify what factors can influence the understanding and interpretation of such work. The method used is a combination of theory and practice. An analysis of theories of depiction and of contemporary scholarship on the subject is undertaken. Using the results of this work and by reference to the key concepts of these theories an analysis of specific artworks is carried out in a series of case studies. The purpose of the case studies is to identify, in the first instance, how certain theories of depiction can be seen to apply. In other words how they explain the experience of looking at a figurative artwork. The case study approach is an essential element of the methodology of the project. It is used, initially, to interrogate a work by Titian that is, arguably, readily explained by ‘traditional’ depictive theories. The procedure evolved for this analysis is then applied to the less figurative works of Auerbach and Twombly and from this process a non-iconographic approach to depiction is developed which is tested by application to my own work and to that of two contemporary artists. The thesis concludes that a comprehensive theory of depiction must allow for such factors as material and facture and that, as a result of this research, the meaning of the term ‘depiction’ can, under certain conditions, be extended to include for non-figurative work. It suggests that some theories may usefully be modified to accommodate the findings of this research. Dominic Lopes argues that ‘a complete account of pictures should explain abstract pictures as well as figurative ones.’ This thesis is seen as making a contribution to the development of any such account.

Zimmermannová, V. Depiction of Women in Contemporary Czech Art. /Graduation Thesis/ Prague 2010. Charles University in Prague. Faculty of Education. Department of Fine Art Education. Supervisor J. Bláha. This graduation thesis aims to describe and reflect on the views relating to the depiction of women, female corporality, identity, sexuality and other elements related to the topic of women in contemporary Czech art. The thesis tries to explore characteristic methods of expression and topical schemes that connect contemporary works of art, and at the same time puts them into the context of art history, sociocultural theories of sex and gender, and current media production. Furthermore, it presents a variety of ways to apply this theme in fine art education lessons at secondary and special art school. key words women, art, depiction, corporality, body, identity, sexuality, gender, meaning, stereotype

The Reformed tradition, following Zwingli and especially Calvin, excluded images from the churches. Calvin rejected the sacred images of his day as idolatrous on the grounds that they were treated as making God present, that the necessary distinction between God and God’s material creation was not maintained, and because an image, which rightly was to be mimetic of visible reality, could not truthfully depict God. Calvin approved the Renaissance notion of visual art as mimetic and he understood that artists’ abilities were gifts of God and were to be used rightly. He also had a very keenly developed visual aesthetic sense in relation to nature as the “mirror” of God’s glory. However, the strong human tendency towards idolatry before images, he believed, meant that it was not expedient to place any pictures in the churches. Reinterpretation of key biblical passages, particularly the first and second commandments (Calvin’s numbering), together with changes in the understanding of what constitutes visual art, of the relationships between words and visual images, and of the processes of interpretation and reception not only of texts but of all perceived reality, lead to a re-thinking of the issues. The biblical narrative with its theological insights can be interpreted into a visual language and used by the church as complementary to, but never replacing, biblical preaching and teaching in words. Attention to the visual aesthetic dimensions of the worship space is important to allow for this space to function as an invitation and call to worship. Its form, colour, light and adorning may give aesthetic delight, which leads to praise and thanksgiving, or it may provoke other response which helps people prepare to offer worship to God. The world and its people depicted in visual art/image may inform the praying of the church and the visual representation of the church (the saints) may provide congregations with an awareness of the breadth of the church at worship in heaven and on earth. In the present diversity of views about visual art and the work of the artist there is freedom for the artist to re-think the question of vocation and artists may find new opportunities for understanding and exercising their vocation not only in secular art establishments and the community but also in relation to the worship of the church.

Tarptautinė apšvietimo komisija (TAK) 1931 m. akies reakcijai į spalvas aprašyti eksperimentiškai nustatytos ir pradėtos naudoti r(λ), b(λ), g(λ) funkcijos. Tačiau šių funkcijų analizinės išraiškos gana netikslios (Gauso funkcija) ir gremėzdiškos (Furje eilutė). / The thesis problem. The International Commission on Illumination (CIE) to describe eye reaction to colours in 1931, experimentally identified and began using functions r(λ), b(λ), g(λ). However, the analytic expressions of these functions are not explicit enough (the Gaussian function) and cumbersome (a Fourier series). The main aim of the thesis – to find simple analytic expressions of the functions r(λ), b(λ), g(λ), which could be adapted for practical calculations.