Music essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Music - Essay Example This album created a better environment for other artists who we cherish today. It is through such albums that the musical history was laid in place. The son† Burn Baby Burn† by Rob Zombie an Alice Cooper , from this album got a nomination to The Grammy Awards. This is an annual event where highly rated songs are awarded. The song got an award for â€Å"Best Metal Performance†.(Hogarth .G. 35). This song is also present in Zombie’s album â€Å"Past, Present and Future â€Å". This song was also remixed by Alice Cooper and it can be obtained from â€Å"The Life and Crimes† box set. The song has a span of about two minutes and forty five seconds and it has been featured in many films, among them †Rosemary’s Baby†. Music had widely spread in these days (Tilley .A. 8)) and therefore it was appreciated though not compare ably with today’s state. It is through the efforts made by early musicians such as Padre Martini who condemned the old hymns in church claiming that they were the same one’s even in King David’s times. (Hogarth .G. 38) Music should be looked up and should not be taken for granted as advocated by many critics. It is through Chapter X that we are able to understand how music was in the past. Songs such as â€Å"Burn Baby Burn† have moral teachings that guide us in our day to day

Marketing Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Marketing Assignment - Essay Example Successful differentiation gives the firm a competitive advantage as customers will look at the products as superior and unique and can be achieved in various ways. This paper will first detail eight ways to differentiate product offerings, and then concentrate on packaging the product in a more creative manner and incorporating new functional features into the product or product innovation. Strategies for Product Differentiation One way to differentiate products is via product innovation by adding functions or features into a product and commanding a higher price (Trout & Rivkin, 2012: p 34). These features can be added through acquiring or licensing complementary feature sets or by using the firm’s in-house team for product development. Another way to differentiating products is through packaging. At times, all it takes to differentiate or re-energize a product is via changing the packaging. This was very effective when it was used in collaboration with another product and d elivered in an innovative manner. While this method does not have enough value to change a consumer’s life, the manner of packaging offers more convenience allowing them to charge more (Trout & Rivkin, 2012: p 45). A firm could also pursue other market niches in areas that are unsophisticated (Trout & Rivkin, 2012: p 67). ... Yet another product differentiation strategy is via the generation of referrals. A firm, in this case, helps to cultivate referrals and create sales models around the type of selling that are consultative while being less confrontational (Trout & Rivkin, 2012: p 76). In a competitive market, prospects referred by happy customers will be inclined to buy products. This can be achieved by offering incentives to current customers in the hope they will send referrals. Other firms will offer increased service as a means of product differentiation. They combine superior service with a commodity product that helps to differentiate this commodity. Through re-defining their service, the firm, redefines the playing field and offers a home-court advantage since other competitors do not use this combination while they charge a premium for the product. Another strategy is via figuring out what they can guarantee. Since the firm has to deliver on expectations from the client or refund them, they wi ll offer an upfront guarantee (Trout & Rivkin, 2012: p 87). A firm could guarantee their clients that their prices are the best, and offer to refund their money if they find cheaper items of the same quality elsewhere. Since the customer has not time to compare prices, they will buy this product because the price is guaranteed to be the lowest. Firms could also collaborate with complementary service or product providers when their product does not stand by itself as a unique offering. Both entities benefit from this arrangement, for instance, the HBO’s partnerships with motels to show their movies allows HBO to have exclusive viewership in these motels while the motels benefit from showing exclusive movies. Finally, a firm could also employ their hidden assets as a

Mary Shellys Frankenstein Essay Example for Free

Mary Shellys Frankenstein Essay Mary Shellys novel is structured in a way, which attempts to give authority to her views. Opening with an authors introduction, and supported with a preface with her famous husband. Mary Shellys novel starts with a series of letters claiming to know the truth of Victor Frankensteins story. This family involvement, followed by professional distancing, reveals the strength of the authors feelings on the responsibilities of family and scientists. For a century and a half, many readers of the Mary Shellys novel Frankenstein have debated over which character could be associated with the expression Monster. Mary Shelly said in the preface the reason why she produced this nineteenth century novel was a ghost story oh! If I could only contrive one which would frighten my reader as I myself had been frightened that night. She wanted her readers to feel the terror that she had dreamed one night. The readers of Mary Shellys novel Frankenstein might believe that the creature is the monster, however there are two potential monsters in the novel. These two characters from the novel are the Creature itself and the creator of the creature, Dr Victor Frankenstein. One candidate who might be believed to be the monster is Dr Victor Frankenstein. At the age of seventeen Victors parents suggested that he should become a student at the university of Ingolstadt. Unfortunately Victors mother passed away while giving birth to his brother. The death of his mother shocked him and caused him to search for ways to extend life. After the death of his mother, Victor took his parents advice and went to university. My departure for Ingolstadt which had been deferred by these events it appeared to me sacrilege so soon to leave the repose, akin to death, of the house of mourning and to rush into the thick if life. This suggests he wasnt sure if it was the respectable move to make, to leave his mourning family behind and go off to university. While at university Victor became fascinated in biology: One of the phenomena, which had peculiarly attracted my attention was the structure of the human frame, and indeed any animal endued with life. Victor was focused to stop death. He was grieving so much because he had lost someone so important and close to him: I thought that if I could bestow animation upon lifeless matter renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption. His fascination with extending life overtook his studying; he became so committed to finding a way, he had set himself a challenge and he was so sure to achieve that challenge. A time in the novel where we are shown that Victor is related as a monster is the time when he begins to dig up the dead and raid graveyards. Who shall conceive the horrors of my secret toil as I dabbled among the unhallowed damps of the grave or tortured I collected bones from charnel-houses secrets of the human frame. This is a sign of immoral, abnormal attitude and is offensive towards the bodies. The definition of a monster is a misshapen animal or plant; person of wickedness; huge animal or thing. The part of the definition where it says a person of wickedness is what should be used to describe Victor Frankenstein. No normal person would dig up the dead and use body parts to make a creation. Another way, in which Victor could be considered as the monster is the way he treated the creature once he had brought it to life. Victor disowned the creature; he refused to acknowledge it and to accept that the creature was his own: For this I had deprived myself of rest ad health. I had desired it with an ardour at length lassitude succeeded to the tumult endeavouring to seek a few moments of forgetfulness but it was in vain. Victor had no intention of caring for the creature, it was as if he was afraid of his own creation. He discards the Creature immediately after its creation, calling it a wretch and leaving it to fend for itself. This shows how irresponsible he is. It is also another example of him neglecting his family, since the Creature sees him as its father. The creature approaches Victor like a baby would to its father: He held up the curtain of the bed; and his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me while a grin wrinkled his cheeks. How could Victor abandon the creature, he had no sympathy towards it. The way in which the creature is described when it approaches Victor is just like the way a baby would approach its parents, maybe at this part of the novel, we readers are to feel sympathy for the creature and to consider Victor as the monster for the way he treated the creature, it was his own creation he should of cared for it and been its companion. Victor should of treated the creature like his own child, possibly if he did show care for the creature and not show fear, maybe the creature wouldnt have been so vile because he knew no different. The creature didnt know how to treat or care for other people. So really it wasnt the creatures fault for the deaths caused and for the way in which he treated people because overall he didnt know any different and wasnt taught by Victor how to treat others.

Matthew Barney: Artist Biography

Matthew Barney: Artist Biography The mythological world of Matthew Barney Matthew Barney was born on 25th March 1967, in San Francisco, California. He attended school in Boise, Idaho from 1973 to 1985. He was brought up between Idaho and New York and first encountered on visits to his mother. He went to Yale University, New Haven where he enrolled to study medicine but transferred to study Fine Art. After graduating from Yale in 1989, he made a swift impact on the art world. He has had exhibitions in San Francisco and London. He is based in the Guggenheim Museum in New York. While attending Yale he paid his way through college by modelling while studying medicine. After a couple of semesters, he transferred to the art department where his abstracts became popular. It was here that Barney began to experiment with Vaseline as a creative medium. From bursting into the art world in 1991, Barney has been able to create a distinguishing world from using multimedia, sculpture, photography, film and drawing. His work following careful study in process and the evolution of form has been informed by the human body, art history, cultural production and biological development. Early in his career he worked with sculpture fused with video and performance. His work reflects on his past as a gridiron footballer and a wrestler as well as the study of the human form and the work of many of his contemporary artists. Some of his earliest work in Yale was staged in the University’s sports complex. He is most famous for his work as producer and creator of the Cremaster (1994 – 2002) films – five visually excessive works which have been created out of sequence. Barney features in the films in a countless roles with some being as diverse as a magician, a ram, a satyr, Harry Houdini and infamous murderer – Gary Gilmore. Not only have his films included himself but have also included artist Richard Serra, writer Norman Mailer, and actress Ursula Andress. His use of imagery, narrative and dialogue weaves a unique mythology. These films are seen as a self enclosed aesthetic system. Jonathan Bepler composed and arranged the films soundtracks. These are not just a series of films, also involved are photographs, sculptures, drawings and installations which the artist produces in combination with each film. The title Cremaster refers to the muscle that raises and lowers the male reproductive system according to temperature, external stimulation or fear. The films are a mixture of autobiography, mythology and history, his universe is connected and densely layered. The film consists of anatomical allusions, with the position of the reproductive organs during the embryonic process of sexual differentiation. Cremaster 1 is the most ascended position while Cremaster 5 is the most descended. In Barney’s metaphorical universe these pieces represent a condition of pure potentiality. Over the eight years of production, Barney looked beyond biology as a way to explore form creation and took his universe to new levels and other realms indulging in biography, mythology and geology. Cremaster Cycle director/artist Matthew Barney. Matthew Barney, CREMASTER 3, 2002 Prodution Photograph,  © 2002 Matthew Barney Photo: Chris Winget, Courtesy: Barbara Gladstone Cremaster 3 was the final film in the series. It was the most elaborate of the five films. It referenced Barney’s position in the art world. This final film is set on location at Fingal’s Caves in Scotland and Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland. Both of these locations are symbolic. They resemble each other and are entrenched in deep mythology. These films have depicted a parallel mythological world, with rich and complex symbolism. It delves into the dilemmas and traumas that shape today’s society. This was Barney’s ambitious project which took a decade to make. It was packed with references to pagan mythology, modern architecture, popular culture, human biology and art history. The Cremaster Cycle has earned Barney much praise despite its notorious scenes of solipsism and banal masculine trials. It is a highly ambiguous piece. The Drawing Restraint series began in 1997 as a series of studio experiments, which draws upon an athletic model of development in which growth occurs only through restraint. When the muscle encounters a resistance, it breaks down and becomes engorged, but through healing the muscle becomes stronger. This series is well documented through video and photography especially 1 – 6 (1987 – 1989). Drawing Restraint 7 is marked with narrative. His concept lies in three elements – situation, condition and production. These constitute the origins of Drawing Restraint. They are illustrated in highly intricatecreative process of sexual energy divided into the three elements. This series was inspired by the condition of hypertrophy where the muscles of the body develop strength and size when they are placed under restraint. Barney has turned this from artistic production that investigates restraint as a source of creativity. It was in the project Drawing Restraint 9, a feature length film whose song track was composed by Bjork which consisted of sculptures, photographs and drawings which built upon the Shinto religion and on whaling. There are sixteen of these pieces. It’s as if his work is meant to shock. He art is a form of abstract and surrealism, with the use of aesthetic athleticism which underscores the sports iconography which is evident in his work. Through his work the audience can see his icons and who he idolizes in a cult status – Harry Houdini and Jim Otto and the system which he uses to portray these idols. He portrays them as satyrs, with athletic iconography, medical gadgets, mythological creatures etc. It leaves the audience wondering where he gets his ideas from. Once of Barney’s influences seems to be the work of Antonin Artaud and his ‘Theatre of Cruelty’ as it tends to stage events rather than men. When he broke onto the scene with his surreal sculptures and videos and form of art he was instantly successful. He is a phenomenon of his time and from his breakthrough his art has gotten strange and stranger. His is seen as the most important American artist of his generation. His unique production of films, which he also appears in, houses his sculptures and objects which he has designed especially for the use in his films. His ideas come from a host of sources – books and photographs. His work is not regarded by him or others as subsidiary to any others, they are an expression of him in different forms of the same ideas. Barney’s work is very ambiguous and it is best to accept it this way as this is his basic point. If the art is unresolved it is interesting. In the Cremaster series, he has stated that this idea is as a sexual metaphor, that the characters in his films can not be identified as being either male or female. He considers his work as abstract. He has been seen as a bad, late surrealist or because of the nature of his work as a sensationalist and that some of his critics are upset by the scope of his success. His success mirrors the success of Jasper Jones who made his debut some 40 years ago. After graduating from Yale, the word had begun to circulate about him around influential artists, dealers, editors and critics in New York. In the early 1990’s he was taken on by two galleries – Barbara Gladstone in New York and Stuart Regen in Los Angeles. At this point he was a huge phenomenon and he had not even had a solo show yet. By his absence he was present on the art scene, which is his trademark. His work was more accepted due to bad economic times as the galleries where more willing to take a risk on an artist without a track record than they had been in more prosperous times. It was through this that Barney’s work became marketable as well as his Yale connections. His early art work reflects the use of elaborate sexual and biological references and allusions to the world of fashion and sports with obvious links to those who went before him in the 1960’s and 1970’s the likes of Vito Acconci, Chris Burden and Bruce Nauman. His reviews seemed orchestrated because they were so good. Any bad reviews which he received were dismissive, like those of Hilton Kramer and through these reviews only heightened his profile. In the early 1990’s the art scene had become about conceptual art on identity politics and the body and sex which was visually meager. The peak was reached with Whitney Bienneal in 1993 and with this it seemed that the art work was doing a penance for all the excesses of the 1980’s. Critics had professed that he was a video version of Mapplethorpe and gay artists openly joked that he was the most successful young gay artist who was not gay. Barney’s idea of art is obviously meant to make the audience la ugh, it has its own strange sense of glamour and it is definitely not preachy. Formally his work was in tune with the younger generation’s priorities, where cross media and installations replaced painting as the dominant art form. His films instantly became collectables, as this medium was not traditionally used but with the advent of this technology it became hot property. This video art was making a comeback with performance art – two of his art forms, from the 1970’s when low technology videos had been used to record artist’s performance. The early 1990’s saw conceptual art be enabled by the technology which was now available and became about the story which the artist felt they had to tell. It was about gender identity and diversity politics and the more eccentric the art/ story the better. Barney’s work mirrored this image, his stories were plentiful and were all eccentric. He has even been referred to as the Wagner of the art world, as like Wagner, he has operated in a mythological language which has seemed irrational and his plan for the Cremaster series would take years to complete. His works are lavishlessly wordless, with soundtracks composed by Jonathan Bepler. They are very slow moving films with fantastic desolate settings. As the series progressed they became more visual with more saturated colours and costumes. His budgets were constantly growing but seemed non existent. He earns back the costs of his films through the limited editions of his photographs, sculptures and laserdiscs. He has, of course, sold his work through private buyers but it is the big museums which compete for his work and through this he has become somewhat of a cult figure. In the 1990’s he was American art star. He does not have any social ambition, public profile or interest in money which seems to enhance his allure. He feels that the bad reviews are more memorable to him than the good ones. He insists that he pays no attention to the critics and insists that his primary focus for art is as a sculptor and that his films reflect this. He is increasingly focused on the visual effects such as colours, shapes, and forms. He is ultimately the most important artist of his generation, in America at least, and as the audience have experienced his imagination is so big. His art is intensely visual and makes use of visual imagery. His works – performance works, sculpture and cinematic works are portraying a civilisation which is in decline. His work is full of references to freemasonry. His works are loaded with initiations and is full of symbolism. He has been proclaimed as the pioneer and saviour of video art and his work is most successful in the genre of body and performance art. He seamlessly creates dramas which are compelling with a compulsive force that are alive in a zone between the psychological and physical. He has a clear mythological vision which can be seen in his work. His practice is that of a diverse array including use of media, which includes performance art, sculpture, drawing, photography and i nstallation. He uses a varied variety of both traditional and unconventional set of materials to create this innovative work. His sculptures are the reinterpretations of his film themes for the gallery setting. Art critic, Jerry Saltz wrote of Barney: ‘One of the most interesting artists to emerge in the 1990’s, and hands-down†¦the most interesting when it comes to the way he works with video.’ Barney tries to establish narratives in which both characters and the environment are interchangeable and with the use of symbols he conveys the meaning or feelings. Matthew Barney has also been compared to the avant garde and this concept of the artist avant garde has been widely used in theories about modern art. This is a key component of modern art and has become synonymous. The terms of artistic freedom throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century through a succession of objects and practices. The modernist sense of avant garde has implied that art does not require external justification, whether it be political or ethical. Modern art critics have claimed that Barney is an advocate and paid up member of the present avant garde movement as well as being an important influence of modern art. His work definitely confirms the existence of a modern avant garde movement which he has followed on from the works of Clement Greenberg, Meyer Shapiro, Walter Benjamin and Thomas Crow. This avant garde movement emerged in the 1930’s in art but also in early socialist tradition. Once this tradition was established, work such as Barney’s has been more readily placed at the forefront of the movement. Thomas Krens, director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation has acknowledged that from Barney’s first gallery show in 1991 he has developed a uniquely aesthetic vocabulary. Barney draws his ideas from all walks, from Hollywood movies, professional sports, mythology, medical processes, biological systems, and psychological pathologies. He has also drawn from hardcore music and spiritual tendencies and mixed them all to provide a blend of allusive narrative structures which he uses the media of film, sculpture, photography and drawing to articulate to his audience. He has been recognised in the artistic community as a great American artist whose work has attracted a vast audience both nationally and internationally. Matthew Barney matches all the cri teria for being of the avant garde persuasion which is active in the present art culture. David Hopkins, in his book After Modern Art 1945 -2000 recognises Barney’s work as interpretation that could be a parody of masculine aspirations. When Barney began to create his art it was widely recognised that there had been a crisis of masculinity which was tied to the social shift which arose from the empowerment of woman in the 1990’s. There were also the issues regarding cloning and genetic engineering. Hans-Ulrich Obrist, a contributing editor of the Tate Magazine described Barney’s work as ‘dense, compacted and multi-layered.’ Obrist is interested that the Cremaster series reaches back to a time of mythology, biology and the geology of creation while jumping forward to a time of modified genetics and the mutation of identity. Culture attempts to articulate changes but finds it hard to keep pace with the changing culture. Barney is on a journey alone in his efforts to build his parallel mythological world which probes into the traumas and dilemmas experienced in modern society. Barney in an interview with Scott Foundas spoke of his desire to communicate the tension within our culture between the male and female forms and the wavering between the sexes. Barney is interested in creating a field that attempts to locate desire and eroticism in an undifferentiated way. His work aims to challenge the grounded notions of gender through making a critique of society as a whole and the insistence of society to only view gender through binary opposition. The Guggenheim Museum in New York continues to exhibit young upcoming artist’s work while their careers are still young. Barney began his relationship with the Guggenheim Museum in 1996 when he was awarded the museum’s Hugo Boss award for excellence and innovation in the visual arts. But it was five years earlier that his status was declared as great. He was honoured with a solo exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Matthew Barney’s innovative work has been recognised by the contemporary art world and has won many accolades but despite these his work remains difficult to understand especially by the mainstream. And it seems to be only accessible to a subculture of artists and his supporters. Without these members he would never have received the attention or acclaim for his work. Barney once said in an interview with Michael Kimmelman (1999) Barney said ‘Art needs to be defended.’ And also ‘It’s fragile. If a work of art is shown too many times, something gets stolen from it. You come to it with preconceptions, or you get tired of it.’ Barney feels that when something becomes an image it is unrecognisable and because they are invested in the subject they cannot operate as an image. He is also worried about his work losing it authenticity due to issues of reproducing the images. Barney is able to draw his themes from issues which are relevant to modern society. Barney meets the criteria of the avant garde group in that he challenges the social conventions, he is an active member of a cohesive group, he maintains an authentic quality despite reproductions and he serves as a social mediator between social classes with drawing from themes of everyday life. His works, therefore, shows evidence that an avant garde does exist in modern and cotemporary culture and this work still remains a motivator for social advancement. Barney redefines the boundaries between the artist and the audience as he focuses on the broader theories of his medium. With his work, he is able to compartmentalise strategically the creative process w hich he then exploits the experience into one giant spectacular. He forges the different media together to create his tangible and imaginary worlds. Barney’s singular vision has created works which fuses performance and video with sculptural installations. The audience can see reflections of Barney’s past i.e. athletics but is able to tune into the new politics of the body which are evident in the work of many of the contemporary artists. His careful exploration of the body draws upon the athletic model of development which only occurs through restraint. Damien Hirst has been acknowledged as one of Matthew Barney’s contemporaries. Hirst was born in Bristol, UK in 1965 and now lives and works in London and Devon. He is the most prominent member of a group known as ‘Young British Artists’ (YBA’s). He has been dominant in the British art scene since the 1990’s and is internationally renowned. His career was closely linked to collector Charles Saatchi in the 1990’s but due to increasing frictions this relationship collapsed in 2003. Hirst was an organiser and organised an independent student exhibition while in his second at Goldsmith’s College in London where he studied Fine Art. Hirst has since admitted that he had drink and drug related problem which spanned a ten year period from the early 1990’s, during this time he was famous for his wild behaviour and extrovert acts. Hirst, too, has tried to challenge the boundaries between art, science and popular culture. He, like Barney, has a wide ranging practice of using sculptures, installations, painting and drawing. He has been praised for his work, his energy and his inventiveness. His work has made him a leading artist of his generation through his constantly visceral and visually arresting work. His work consists of the exploration of the uncertainty at the core of human experience, life, death, love, loyalty and betrayal. Hirst is best known for his work Natural History which features animals in vitrines suspended in formaldehyde. Hirst uses the vitrines to put meaning as both a window and a barrier, providing a minimalist frame but also to attract the attention of the audience. Hirst is also renowned for his paintings which includes his Butterfly Paintings which feature actual butterflies suspended in paint. Tracey Emin compared Hirst to Andy Warhol, in the mid 1990’s Virginia Bottomley descr ibed him as a pioneer of British art. Hirst sees the real creative theme as being the conception of the project not the execution. Death is a central theme in Hirst’s work and he became famous for a series in which dead animals a shark, a cow and a sheep, are preserved after sometimes been dissected in formaldehyde. The Physical Impossibility of Death in Mind of Someone Living. This piece became an iconic work of the British art world and its sale in 2004 made him the world’s second most expensive living artist after Jasper Jones. He has since eclipsed Jones when Lullaby Spring sold for  £9.65 million on 2007. Hirst has been a controversial figure not only through his art work but also on the public stage, on the eve of the first anniversary of the World Trade Centre attacks, he commented to BBC News Online (Allison, 2002): ‘ The thing about 9/11 is that it’s kind of like an artwork in it’s own right†¦Of course, it’s visually stunning and you’ve got to hand it to them on some level because they have achieved something which nobody could have ever thought possible – especially to a country as big as America. So on one level they kind of need congratulating, which a lot of people shy away from, which is a very dangerous thing.’ Following public outrage at his remark, he had to issue a statement through his company, Science Ltd (Science Photo Library Press Release, 15th March 2005): ‘I apologise unreservedly for an upset I have caused, particularly to the families of the victims of the events on that terrible day.’ In comparison, both Barney and Hirst are contemporaries in the modern art world. They are both renowned in their field. They are both out to shock and maybe this is not their intention. Barney through his use of mythological imagery and his use of the human form has been criticised but are these criticisms right. Can an artist not express themselves in this way? It seems that modern art is full of debate with regards to style and appreciation. There is plenty of shock value in both Barney’s and Hirst’s work. Critics have asked if the audience needs to see the imagery these two have produced. Barney’s work Cremaster is full of this imagery and it is based for a specific audience. He is trying to convey in his imagery the use of the body and how unstable the relationship between male and female is. He has both been praised and criticised for his work, Hirst has also been criticised for his work. It seems that the only way to grow within the art world is to prompt discussion and criticism. Both of these men are at the top of their profession through getting acclaim and winning various awards and prizes. They both use the abstract to create a surreal and almost sensationalist image. While Hirst is very public, Barney stays in the background with no public profile to speak of. Bibliography Allison, R., (2002) 9/11 wicked but a work of art, says Damien Hirst, The Guardian, 11th September 2002 Artaud, A., (1958) The Theatre of Cruelty in The Theatre and its Double, trans. Richards, M.C., Grove Press Crow, T., (1996) Modernism and Mass Culture in the Visual Arts, Yale University Press Edwards, Steve. Art and Its Histories: A Reader. New Haven: Yale University Press,  1999. Foundas, S., (2003) Self Portraiture Meets Mythology: Matthew Barney Talks about his Cremaster Cycle, IndieWire on the Web Hopkins, D., (2000) After Modern Art: 1945 – 2000, Oxford University Press Kimmelman, M., (1999) The Importance of Matthew Barney, New York Times. 10th October 1999 Obrist, H., (2006) Artist Project: Matthew Barney, Tate Magazine: Issue 2. 15th February 2006 Science Photo Library Press Release, 15 March 2005

RIM is Done Essay -- Business, Technology

Research In Motion (RIM) is a Canadian multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, that designs, manufactures and markets wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile and tele-communications market. They are mostly known for making the BlackBerry brand. When the BlackBerry was invented during the early 2000’s it was a huge hit. When 2011 came along, things starting to go downhill for RIM. Over the course of the year, they have lost more than 75% of their stock value. This caused a decline in investor’s confidence. However, they would have to deal with competition from Apple, faulty devices like Playbook turned consumers off, and frequent job cuts. If these points do not get dealt within the next 5 years they will declare bankruptcy and will cause a major impact in the cellphone industry. Competition from Apple is taking away potential sales from RIM. However, it is one of the few problems they must deal with in order for them stay in business. Apple is just one of the few competitors for RIM. On October 12th, Apple released the new iMessage and its new iPhone 4S and while that was happening, RIM was facing a worldwide outage that affected millions of people. People that were using the BlackBerry were sick, and tried having to deal with frequent outages, and decided to switch to the iPhone. That is another reason why competitors like Apple are doing a lot better because of selection. Rim’s phones are out-dated compared to those other firms’. Consumers have more choices today, and in many cases, the alternatives are superior. The BlackBerry has a single-core chip inside with a 640x480 screen, compared to the Apple, which has two-cores and 640x960 screens. On March 11th 2011, Apple release... ...ada – CBC News, December 15, 2011 RIM looking anemic: Revenues down, more job cuts on the way, PlayBook sales negligible, September 15, 2011 RIM stocks drop 23 per cent after BlackBerry maker reports poor Q2 performance – Global News, September 16, 2011 RIM timeline – theSpec.com, January 23, 2012 Exclusive: Amazon weighed buying RIM, interest cooled – Yahoo! Finance, January 12, 2012 Is Lazaridis/Balsillie exit enough to save RIM? – Yahoo! Finance, January 23, 2012 Rim’s Chances For A Successful 2012: About Zero – BYTE, January 03, 2012 Rim’s Chances For A Successful 2012: About Zero – BYTE, January 03, 2012 RIM stock declines 8.4% following CEO step-down – Fudzilla, January 23, 2012 Ten things RIM's new CEO must do right away – CNET News, January 23, 2012 Microsoft, Nokia Reportedly Considering Rim Buyout – HotHardware, January 12, 2012

Social Status and Feminism in The Great Gatsby Essay -- Feminism Femin

F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby may appear to be a simple tragic romance; however, within the text, Fitzgerald identifies and defines social gaps and importance of wealth. He also presents women within a very separate space as the men. The Great Gatsby allows the reader to enter into the world of wealth and experience the joys and tragedies of being within this certain class as well as allowing the reader to interpret the position of gender inside the class. "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,' he [my father] told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had" (Gatsby 1). This quote was possibly the backbone of the narrator's actions and character. Through out the novel, the characters that he came into contact with were immediately associated with their money and their association with their given level of wealth. The irony of this opening line is that the poor, or less wealthy, were never really even seen by the narrator. The only people that the narrator saw, according to the reader, are the more wealthy and upper class that were associated with Gatsby's parties. What is even more ironic than the overall absence of the lower classes within the novel is where this neglected level of wealth actually did become part of the novel. Ironically, the only character that lower wealth was associated with was Gatsby. In his past, he was of lower class, but in the actual time when the novel was written, Gatsby was not only representative of wealth, but he seemed to have had the most wealth of all the characters. He was the most prestigious when compared to all of the other characters, yet was the only to have the absence of money in his past. The quote in the p... ...lar practices and thoughts, or he completely redefined them. By doing so, the novel takes on a new identity separate from its tragic romantic cover. Social status and feminism tower over the lost and found love that encompasses this novel.    Works Cited and Consulted: Bewley, Marius. â€Å"Scott Fitzgerald’s Criticism of America.† In Modern Critical Interpretations: The Great Gatsby. edited by Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers. 1986. 11-27. Fetterley, Judith. The Resisting Reader: A Feminist Approach to American Fiction. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1978. Fryer, Sarah Beebe. Fitzgerald's New Women: Harbingers of Change. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research P, 1988. McAdams, Tony. â€Å"Ethics in Gatsby: An Examination of American Values.† In Readings on The Great Gatsby. edited by Katie de Koster. San Diego, California: Greenhaven Press. 1998. 111-120. Social Status and Feminism in The Great Gatsby Essay -- Feminism Femin F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby may appear to be a simple tragic romance; however, within the text, Fitzgerald identifies and defines social gaps and importance of wealth. He also presents women within a very separate space as the men. The Great Gatsby allows the reader to enter into the world of wealth and experience the joys and tragedies of being within this certain class as well as allowing the reader to interpret the position of gender inside the class. "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,' he [my father] told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had" (Gatsby 1). This quote was possibly the backbone of the narrator's actions and character. Through out the novel, the characters that he came into contact with were immediately associated with their money and their association with their given level of wealth. The irony of this opening line is that the poor, or less wealthy, were never really even seen by the narrator. The only people that the narrator saw, according to the reader, are the more wealthy and upper class that were associated with Gatsby's parties. What is even more ironic than the overall absence of the lower classes within the novel is where this neglected level of wealth actually did become part of the novel. Ironically, the only character that lower wealth was associated with was Gatsby. In his past, he was of lower class, but in the actual time when the novel was written, Gatsby was not only representative of wealth, but he seemed to have had the most wealth of all the characters. He was the most prestigious when compared to all of the other characters, yet was the only to have the absence of money in his past. The quote in the p... ...lar practices and thoughts, or he completely redefined them. By doing so, the novel takes on a new identity separate from its tragic romantic cover. Social status and feminism tower over the lost and found love that encompasses this novel.    Works Cited and Consulted: Bewley, Marius. â€Å"Scott Fitzgerald’s Criticism of America.† In Modern Critical Interpretations: The Great Gatsby. edited by Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers. 1986. 11-27. Fetterley, Judith. The Resisting Reader: A Feminist Approach to American Fiction. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1978. Fryer, Sarah Beebe. Fitzgerald's New Women: Harbingers of Change. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research P, 1988. McAdams, Tony. â€Å"Ethics in Gatsby: An Examination of American Values.† In Readings on The Great Gatsby. edited by Katie de Koster. San Diego, California: Greenhaven Press. 1998. 111-120.

How powerful is The Bell Jar as a feminist text?

The Bell Jar is an attempt by Sylvia Plath to write about growing up as a woman, in America during the forties and fifties. It was first published in January 1963, before the fights for equal rights were debated in the late sixties and seventies. This was one of only a few novels, at its time, in which the main character and narrator was a woman. The novel may also show Esther's search for her identity, she thinks she knows what she wants but she becomes more and more uncertain as the novel unfolds. The struggle for women in those days is something which would we could not possibly understand. A lady could not even get a loan from the bank without her husband or father co-signing it. Unmarried women were denied birth control, and girls should not attend college. If they did it was expected that they were looking for a husband. The other girls in Esther's dormitory in college told her she was wasting her â€Å"golden college years†. Throughout the book, there are many possible role models for Esther, not all of who have a positive influence on her. Jay Cee is an experienced, successful editor at the magazine where Esther has won an internship. Plath writes of Jay Cee as being somewhat masculine. This may have been because at the time only men were successful so she felt for a woman to be successful she had to be manly. However Esther starts to aim some of her anger towards Jay Cee – â€Å"Jay Cee wanted to teach me something, all the old ladies I ever know wanted to teach me something, but I suddenly didn't think they had anything to teach me. † Esther dreamt of becoming a poet, but even her mother did not believe in her ambition. Her mother felt the only way she would succeed was if she learnt shorthand, as the highest position she would ever get was to be a secretary. Mrs. Greenwood never listened to what Esther had to say nor did she respond to her in any meaningful way. Mrs Greenwood felt that she was the perfect mother and the only way to show that was by bringing up the perfect set of children. The children's role was to behave well to reflect their mother's goodness. So when Esther refused to have shock treatments, Mrs. Greenwood said, â€Å"I knew my baby wasn't like that, I knew you'd decide to be alright again. † A lot of Esther's anger is aimed towards her mother and may even be the root of her illness. Mrs. Greenwood is everything that Esther doesn't want to be, which is the reason she hates to conform. She feels that if she starts doing what â€Å"normal ladies† do she will end up like her mother. Esther even went as far as talking off her own mother's death. When they both slept in the same room, Esther says, † The piggish noise irritated me, and for a while it seemed to me that the only way to stop it would be to take the column of skin and sinew from which it rose and twist it to silence between my hands. † After writing the book, Sylvia Plath told her brother that she wanted the novel to be published under a pseudonym. In those days, or even today, death wishes were not exactly the things to satisfy parental dreams. Buddy Willard is first seen, in the text, as a typical American male. Mrs. Greenwood says of him â€Å"he's so athletic and so handsome and so intelligent†¦ kind of person a girl should stay clean for. † Before Esther gets to know him she thinks he's wonderful, but as they get better acquainted her attitude towards him changes. Buddy Willard is a prime example of a cocksure male. He thinks men rule the world while women should just do what they're told. This does not help Esther when she is trying to find her role within society to feel accepted. Buddy Willard is shallow and does absolutely nothing to make Esther feel good about herself. He's insensitive and clumsy in his dealings with Esther. He refers to her poetry as dust; thereby dismissing the one thing that she believes has great value, through arrogance. The motive for her hatred for all the men in the novel except for one may stem from the fact that Sylvia Plath's husband left her in 1962 and she wrote â€Å"The Bell Jar† a year after. However her poem â€Å"Daddy†, which she wrote in the very same year was a lot harsher towards her father and was more of a gut response. Another thing that deeply annoyed Esther was the double standard for men and women. If a man slept with a woman without loving her it was perfectly acceptable, yet if a woman slept with a man whom she didn't love then she could be labelled a whore. There are proper codes of behaviour, particularly sexual ones for women and Mrs. Greenwood makes sure Esther knows of those by sending her a pamphlet about these codes. However Buddy is not expected to adhere to the same set of rules, so when Esther finds out he slept with a waitress, she shouldn't be hurt because it didn't mean anything! It is one of Esther's desires to be sexually liberal, along with being a poet or a successful writer.