A martain is your target reader, has no knowledge or understanding of Essay

A martain is your target reader, has no knowledge or understanding of life on planet earth - Essay Example The baseball game at Fenway Park is one of the most spectacular sports played in the field, a form of entertainment that yearly will flood the stadium with thousands of spectators who are certified baseball enthusiasts. Although some of them are just mere spectators with no particular affinity for a baseball game, they will always find themselves entertained with the game. This is because the baseball game at Fenway Park is already a historic event and a significant part of the human life on earth, as sports cannot be separated from the lives of the people. In the first place, people on earth have the affinity for not only being entertained with the actual sports, but on finding who will win in the game, or the best at playing the sports. The winners in every sport are usually considered the best. Therefore, every player definitely would want to win. In particular, many spectators are looking forward to how the Boston Red Sox would defeat their opponents and bring home the victory. O n the other side, the opponents of Boston Red Sox are thinking the same thing, and so they have in mind to play their best and for them to bring home the trophy. Baseball is a bat-and-ball game. This is a kind of game that is played not only by a one individual, but a team which is composed of nine players. The game is to be played by two competing teams, having nine players each. In every game, one team must be assigned for batting and the other for fielding. The team in batting should hit the ball thrown by the pitcher assigned coming from the fielding team, so that the players in the batting team can run counterclockwise around the arrays of four bases arranged separately at a specific but equal distance in the field in a diamond-like shape. The goal of the fielding team is to achieve three outs from the batting team, by eliminating possible runs from the batting team to the bases.

An I.T. System for a Video Rental Store Essay Example for Free

An I.T. System for a Video Rental Store Essay Contents * Choice of Problem * Description of Problem * Investigation and Analysis of Problem * Specification of Solution * Design of Solution * Implementation of Solution: * Resources Required * Data Collection, Capture and Input * Data Verification and Validation * Output Format * Testing of Solution * Documentation of Solution * Evaluation of Solution Choice of Problem I live in large city called London. My Grandfather runs a video shop there under the name Video Rentals LTD. Has a large and varied amount of stock that he finds hard to keep track of. At the moment he employs a card index system but this has its limitations: * Cards often get misfiled meaning that extra time has to be spent refilling and amending lost data. * On average it takes 30 seconds to search for a record, at busy times this is too long. * The shop currently has about 150 customers, which means that to find a record it may take a long time, this will delay the time that it takes to sort through the records and therefore customers may not want to wait that long and may go to another shop. Description of Problem At my grandfathers video shop the current system involves filing all the information in a filing cabinet. This is a manual system as all the data is hand written. I believe that because of this the video shop needs a computerised system, which will make the database better. There will be graphical menu System that will link all the forms and queries together. My database project will allow the shopkeeper to edit, create and delete record details of members, videos and loans. Investigation To find out more about what the database required I phoned my Grandfather. I wanted to know: * The precise objectives of the new system * The problems or weaknesses in the current manual system * The information that needs to be kept on each customer * The required output * The volume of data (e.g. number of existing customers, number of new customers each year/month) * Any hardware or software constraints. My evaluation will be based firstly on whether it works properly, secondly that it is faster in finding a particular video or client than the existing manual system and thirdly that my Grandfather finds it easy to use. Specification of Solution Objectives of the new system * It should take less than thirty seconds to establish whether a customer is already on file. * It should be possible to go directly from the Customer Details form to the entry of a video that that customer has hired, without having to re-enter the customers name, etc. * Data entry should be as fast and as easy as possible, particularly as there are several hundred existing customers and videos to be entered when the system is first installed. * It be able to show who has rented what video and when. * There must be provision for more than one video to be hired at once by the same person. * The new system is required to provide the following information: * A list of all business customers * A list of all customers interested in a certain type of video such as horror, comedy etc. * A list of customers whose numbers of rentals exceeds a given value. * A list of all rentals that are overdue and need chasing. * It should be possible to send a standard letter to selected customers, using criteria mentioned above. * The user must be able to create new letters whenever needed and perform a mail merge to selected customers. * The main menu should be displayed automatically when the database is loaded, and the whole system should be menu driven. Design of Solution A database package will be ideal for implementing the system for my Grandfathers video rental shop. He has requested that it is done in Access 97 so this is the package that must be used. It would probably be possible to implement the system using Visual Basic or another programming language but it would take a lot longer and would involve the owners having to buy more software which is not really necessary, as Access has all the capabilities required. I already have some experience of Access 97 and it is available in my house for development. Using this package it will be possible to: * Set up the necessary tables and relationships * Produce customised input screens, using Visual Basic to automate data entry wherever possible and to perform various validations * Use Visual Basic modules to enable fast searches for a particular customer and past jobs * Design reports as needed * Make and save queries to select certain customers for a mail merge * Implement a customised menu system On starting up the database, I will design it so that you are presented with a main menu that is linked to the client and video databases, which in turn are linked to each other. I will make it so that on each of the forms there are buttons that enable you to scroll between records, delete records and search for records. If you choose to search for a record then you will be prompted to enter the details of the record you want. The database will be menu orientated so I will make a separate options menu that is linked to everything else. The options menu will also contain a help menu that will cover everything that is covered in the user manual. My system will be based on two separate files, one is of the customers and the other is of the videos in stock. Each record in whichever file will only contain one video or customer, and contain fields like name, address, video name, and certificate. The implementation will begin with the design of the database, then data capture forms, entry screens and output screens. Before the database is put in to use I will test the system using a range of valid and invalid data to make sure the system works as it should. I will then create a user manual that will support the system and its functions. Implementation of Solution Resouces Required I have chosen to design and make my database in Access version 97 because this is the program that the final product will be used on. It allows me to create customized data input screens and has a wide range of validation checks available, so unless a good reason transpires for using an alternative program or package, Access will be the first choice of software. In order to run Access 97 and be able to perform a mail merge using Word, a minimum of a Pentium 133 system with 16Mb, wil be required. A faster processor may be needed if the system is going to appear slow in switching between screens and searching for records. When the system is up and running it will take up about 5Mb. The user has a Pentium 300 with 16Mb, which will be perfectly suitable, and similar machines are available for development work in my house at school. My Grandfather is familiar with Word and has good keyboard skills, so should have no problem in entering the data but may need help in doing some of the more complicated functions. In the future he would like to improve his knowledge of Access so that he can perform new queries and reports as the need arises. Data Collection, Capture and Input Three data input forms are needed: 1. Customer Details This form will be used for several purposes so it needs to be able to: * Add a new customer * Look through the current clients and see what videos they have hired. Validations will be performed automatically. The Member ID field will be an integer and letter field so that it is more personalised. Wherever possible default values will be inserted automatically (e.g. most customers are from Ludlow so the relevant fields will default to those values). Tab order will also be used to speed data entry, so each field will have a certain order in which the data is entered. The form will be straightforward and follow in a top-to-bottom order. 2. Video Details This needs basically to be the same kind of layout and make up as the customer details form except that the fields are those to do with the video. I shall use a validation rule for things such as the videos certificate which can only be one of five (18,15,12,PG,U) and have validation text that warns if the data has been incorrectly inputted. 3. Hire Details This form is designed to make the inputting of information much easier and quicker than searching for a customer and ammending the details every time. It just requires you to input the video number and the client number. Everything else is done automatically. If the wrong client or video number is given then a dialogue box comes up telling you so. You will also have the ability to go staright to a clear form so that a new customer can be added or ammended. Validations will be performed automatically. The client number field will be made up of two numbers and a capital letter, 11A for example. All text that is inputted will automatically be put into upper case lettering for ease. A sample of a data capture form is in the appendix. This is how the system will operate: The diagram shows how the menus will be linked. The hire details are entered in and stored to the various tables. Then comes th possibility of ammending a current customer or adding a new one. Data Verification and Validation Access allows you to say what type of data is included in any field, and also allows me to say the maximum length allowed for any particular field. It also gives the possibility of making input masks for the field. The First and Last Name fields will always be text and most names will be shorter than twenty letters. The House Name/ Number field allows for three digits to be put in first eg 112 Orpen Drive. In fields like Sex, Title and Form Of ID, I have coded it so that only the abreviations of the input are required, and even then the input is one of a choice. This speeds up entry time and reduces the possiblilty for error. The input masks and validation rules reduce data being incorrectly inputted, but they do not completey reduces errors. Data such as name and address, can not be validated, so it has to be verified by the user when the information is being entered. This verification involves manually checking each record to ensure accuracy. Output Format I wanted the output in my database to ocupy 3 sections, the visual display forms, the query which was a search output and the mail merge. I will now show that I have completed those task. First of all here is my Main form, which links all the other forms and functions together. Another output would be the members table I Also designed a query to find all the curent videos that are on loan. ID number of Member ID number of DVD ID number of Video Date Out Date In Surname Of Member Name of DVD Name Of Video Old Member Cost She1 dv004 1 25/7/01 27/7/01 Sheppard The Mummy The Fast one Yes à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½2.95 My mail merge is contained at the end of this project. User Guide To load the database click on the database file twice quickly (double click) To save the database click file, the save. Or just click on the icon that looks like this. If you require any further help try microsofts built in help progam. Then is one in Help/Microsoft assistant. And also one accesible by pressing the start button. Then on the help file. Testing of Solution I am going to test my database using a variety of correct and incorrect data. In doing this I hope to find any problems with the system, and in doing this finding the solution. The test results for the major tests are shown below. Errors which came to light during the test were corrected and all tests gave expected results. Test 1: test password When the correct password was entered the database opened. Otherwise the following message was displayed: Test 2: Entering client information Client details entered. All different options, defaults and fields were tested during data entry. The tests resulted in some minor changes of the input masks, such as the number of characters allowed in the address field was not big enough for my address. Test 3: Deleting a record A client was deleted and the result were as expected, access alowed me to delte the record, after promiting me in what I was about to do. I also needed to test whether or not my query worked, to do this I first loaded it up. I was asked to type in th date when the video was due back so I typed in 27/11/01 and the query found the following result. As the query found the right result I believe that my query works correctly. Evaluation of Solution By looking at my testing I can conlcude that my database is succesfull, as all the buttons, tables and queries work correctly. If I look at my my evaluation crtitera I can say whether or not I have completeed them. * It should take less than thirty seconds to establish whether a customer is already on file (Query member search) DONE * It should be possible to go directly from the Customer Details form to the entry of a video that that customer has hired, without having to re-enter the customers name, etc. (Relationships) DONE * Data entry should be as fast and as easy as possible, particularly as there are several hundred existing customers and videos to be entered when the system is first installed. (Data flow) DONE * It be able to show who has rented what video and when. (loan table) DONE * There must be provision for more than one video to be hired at once by the same person. IMCOMPLETE * The new system is required to provide the following information: * A list of all rentals that are overdue and need chasing. (Date due back query) DONE * It should be possible to send a standard letter to selected customers, using criteria mentioned above. (Mail merge) DONE * The user must be able to create new letters whenever needed and perform a mail merge to selected customers. (Mail merge wizard) DONE Seeing as I have completed nearly all of my evaluation points I believe that I can say that my database project is a complete success.

Impacts of Technology on Art

Impacts of Technology on Art Many modern artists use high technology equipment in their works. Whereas traditionally artists used a pencil or brush to make beautiful works of art, artists in the early twenty-first century are now using sound, video or computer generated images. Digital art developed from simple patterns and shapes made using computer programs to finished works of art which can look as realistic as a watercolour or oil painting. Modern art exhibitions often include more videos and installations than traditional painting or drawings. Even artists which use traditional techniques increasingly use modern technology such as the internet to display their works and communicate with other artists. Modern technology provides a means for artists to create works faster with more tools than ever before. I will be discussing the impact of some of these technologies in relation to the art of some modern artists. I will argue that modern technology such as the computer and video is another tool for an artist t o use in their work. I will especially focus on the video artwork of Tracey Moffat and the computer artwork of Lillian Schwartz as but two examples of artists today who use modern techniques. Moffat is an Australian contemporary artist who uses film extensively as an art-form, and many of her works are based on and reflect the modern technology of Hollywood movies and television. Schwartz is an artist who has a long history of using computer technology to experiment ways of creating and manipulating works of art. She has also written extensively about the topic of computer influence in art, and about art produced by computers. Modern technology is having a huge impact on recent art. Modern artists are using new materials and techniques to produce their artworks. Whereas in the past painting and drawing were the main mediums used by artists in their work, now in the 21st century installations, sound, video and computers are becoming more widely used and popular. Artists today are continually experimenting with new technology in different ways, finding new ways to use old mediums and finding new mediums as well. In modern art displays such as the various Biennales held around the world, video plays a dominant role, as well as installation art and increasingly, digital art. There are even exhibitions that solely focus on digital art, such as Ars Electronica held annually in Linz, Austria. The internet is becoming used more with many contemporary artists using it to display their works with online galleries, talk to other artists and sell their works. Internet sites such as deviantart.com or yessy.com offer ar tists an opportunity to sell and display their works and communicate with people throughout the world. Computer programs such as Photoshop and Painter allow artists to easily manipulate photographs and paint pictures using custom artists tools which can create the effects in a few minutes of what previously would have taken months to paint. Many artists today are involved in using digital art technology to produce websites, computer games or online art exhibitions. The conceptart.org website is one example of a site which mostly displays digital art, that has over 100,000 posts by many different people. Digital art is increasingly being displayed in contemporary art exhibitions as well as being online, becoming more popular towards the end of the 20th century. Digital art made its official entry into the art world only in the late 1990s, when museums and galleries began increasingly to incorporate the art form into their shows and dedicate entire exhibitions to it. (Paul 2003: 23) T he impact that these technologies is having on contemporary art is sometimes hard to pin down at one time since they are moving so fast that they are constantly changing and being updated. However, while modern technology provides artists with many opportunities and ways to produce art, it still functions similar to any other artists tool of the past. Films are being produced for art galleries just as paintings were made for exhibiting by the impressionists, such as the films made by Tracey Moffat. Tracey Moffat is inspired by images which come from television and movies to make her own films. These films show that she is not only using new technology to display art, but her ideas for the films are based on the technology itself. In one of her recent films, Artist, Moffat shows a collection of clips from movies and television programs which show how Hollywood and contemporary society depicts artists. By showing popular television shows slant on what the idea of an artist means to modern society, this reflects the view of the ordinary person, who can sometimes misunderstand contemporary art. This film reflects the sometimes uninformed, sometimes humorous view of society towards artists today. She shows a clip from the Agony and the Ecstasy with Michelangelo destroying his first painting in the Sistine Chapel, a comic scene from the movie Batman with Rembrandts and Degas paintings being vandalised by the Joker and a scene from the television show Absolutely Fabulous, as well as o ther scenes from art movies such as Surviving Picasso. This clever 10 minute documentary gives an excellent insight in the way artists are perceived in modern society, how five decades of mainstream media have perceived the creative process and creators themselves (http://www.wmm.com/Catalog/_makers/fm253.htm), especially given that the word artist now more often than not in popular usage such as on television and on the radio, refers to a musician rather than a visual artist, with many people today sometimes confused by a postmodernist style of visual art where anything is allowed and considered art. In another of her short films, Lip, Moffat shows clips put together of black servants in Hollywood movies talking back to their bosses, in what she is trying to show is the discrimination which is often evident in films towards minorities, and reveals the narrow margin Hollywood has allowed black actresses to shine in (http://www.wmm.com/Catalog/_makers/fm253.htm) While watching the fi lms the racism in the movie may be subtle, but when she appropriates many images from different films and puts them together it is much more apparent. In many of her films and images Tracey Moffat has used a style which is close to an appropriation similar to that done by other postmodern artists. In the series of photographs called GUAPA (Good Looking) (Fig.4) she shows photographs of people from different races roller-skating in a rink as though it were a contest with a referee, the image borrowed from similar television images. She uses a soft magenta colour effect in the images, which contrasts with the action which is taking place. The people in the film are dressed in unusual outfits, which gives an impression possibly of a futuristic sport. In one of Moffats films, Heaven (Fig.2), she shows footage of men getting changed in a car park near a beach, and she takes the position with the camera of someone watching who possibly is not supposed to, or whom the people in the film are uncomfortable with having there. She is someone watching the surfers who is not supposed to, shamelessly plays voyeur to a succession of surfers chang ing into their wetsuits in parking lots (http://www.renaissancesociety.org/ show/moffat/index.html) Once again, Moffat is responding to the programs shown on television and in the movies, and by making art on this theme it shows that television and movies are influencing the art which is being displayed in contemporary art galleries. This film makes art out of a seemingly ordinary activity, includes shots of a car as seen from the inside and outside, as well as surfers wearing ordinary clothes and jewellery. She appropriates these symbols of modern life such as the cars and modern clothing and uses them in an artistic way to express the voyeur theme which she is trying to get across. In her film, Bedevil (Fig.3) which is composed of three separate films, Moffat appropriates images from modern life such as the American soldier in the first story Mister Chuck, the railway tracks in the second Choo Choo Choo Choo and the landlord and eviction in the third Lovin the Spin Im in. The imag es from these films have been partly inspired by memories from her early life. Tracey Moffat uses for inspiration in many of her films the movies and television programs she remembers from her childhood. Modern technology in this way is having an impact on the art produced by artists such as Moffat, who bases her ideas directly upon ideas coming from these things. In her films, she uses imagery which comes from popular culture, from television programs and movies that she has seen including from sources which are not often seen as part of the art world, such as B-grade television programs and television advertisements. She makes use of the stylistic resources of advertising and even so-called trash-TV' (Reinhardt 1999: 7) She grew up in Brisbane in the 1960s, and during this time experienced much of popular culture through different types of modern culture on the new technological tools of television and cinema, from melodramas to deeply surreal film noir (Sever 2001: 12) She also uses modern music in her films such as with cuts showing Jimmie Little singing in the film Night Cries (Fig.1). This film shows a woman caring for her dying mother, as well as showing many years before the woman as a young child at the beach with her mother who is much younger then. Moffat has used the film to create an effect similar to that of Frederick McCubbins The Pioneer which shows a dying person on one side and the same person much younger on the other. This gives the audience a feeling of sadness as they think about all the events which the person went through in their lifetime. The audience would see the way the woman would feel bound to care for her mother in the same way that her mother cared for her when she was a child. Moffat also has considered using computers in manipulating photographic images, because the number of things she can do is greatly increased with many computing tools available for the artist. Photography is always a wonderful challenge Of course now with computer manipulations the possibilities make you exhausted even thinking about it. (Tracey Moffat, quoted in Hentschel 1998: 23) American artist Lillian Schwartz made many experiments with computer art during her long career. Computers are being used by recent artists as tools with which to analyse and create works of art. Schwartz was one of the first artists to experiment with computer images and computer effects on art. She worked closely with scientists in the 1970s in the early stages of computer development, and developed one of the first rock music videos. She also made one of the first digitised films to be shown as a work of art, her video Pixillation showing diagonal red squares and other shapes such as cones, pyramids on black on white backgrounds. This video is regarded as one of the most important early works of computer film art which with her other work is now considered seminal works of computer artcomposed of programmed abstract images. (Rush 1999: 172) She worked in the early stages of her career with scientists as Bell Laboratories developing mixtures of sound, video and art. Later on, durin g the 1980s, Schwartz made many experiments with artworks manipulating images using computer technology and creating some artworks of her own. Schwartz extensively used the works of Leonardo Da Vinci in experiments with computers. These experiments showed some of the ways in which computers can be used to change and develop images. These images expand the audiences perception of artworks which they already know. She used a 3D computer generated model to show that the lines on the Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan match the perspective lines of Leonardos fresco painting of the Last Supper, showing that his painting may have been designed to appear as an extension to the room from where the monks would have been sitting to observe it. Thus technology has given a new dimension to the painting by allowing viewers to better understand why it possibly had been made. Similarly, in Schwartzs most famous work, the Mona Leo (Fig.5), she spliced the left side of the Mona Lisa (Fig.6) with a flipped left side of the red chalk portrait of Leonardo (Fig.7), arguing that the Mona Lisa is a self-portrait by Leonardo. She shows that the Leo nardo self portrait and the Mona Lisa line up perfectly, as when the two images noses were aligned the rest of the face lined up exactly. Using lines drawn on the image, she shows the bottom of the eye, eyebrow, nose and chin all line up together. She also removes the grey tones in the Leonardo self portrait and superimposes the Mona Lisa eye over it in further experiments to show how the images are closely related. Without the aid of a computer, these experiments would take a much longer amount of time, for instance if she was to paint the Mona Leo by hand. Her new works each function as separate works of art in themselves with all the characteristics of a work of art, so the computer is a tool which creates art just as a paintbrush does. This can be considered an art of appropriation, as where an artist has borrowed the images of another artist to create a new work. Schwartz uses computers to manipulate many other images which relate to art and art history, creating new works of art. Schwartzs experiments with computers to manipulate images were done decades before digital art became popular in the late 1990s. She used shapes generated by a computer to make images on the computer screen, such as using trapezium shapes to create an object recognisable as a cat (Fig. 8), as well as triangle shapes to represent a human head. (Fig. 9) She also experimented with ways to superimpose multiple images onto another recognisable image in an effect of a collage, as with Statue of Liberty (Fig.10) and Homage to Van Gogh (Fig.11) Computers applied in such ways can create collages and images faster than possible by hand. These images function not only as experiments with computer work, but also as works of art in themselves. Statue of Liberty is composed of different elements which have been put together using a computer, similar to Cubist collages and Dadaist photomontages of the early 20th century. She warped images of faces of Rembrandt into a photo of Einstein, showing similarities in the facial features (Fig. 12), a task which would be almost impossible to do by hand, but only take a few seconds with the aid of a computer. She similarly combined images of works of art in a poster for the Museum of Modern Art in New York in her poster Big MoMA (Fig. 13), an also near impossible task by hand, but relatively easy with computers, and still creating a legitimate award winning work of art. The role of computers to be used by the artist has been addressed by Schwartz. Computers can today perform many functions for the artist, from creating artworks through altering photography or by flipping shapes, changing colours, adding tones and a seemingly infinite amount of other uses. Computer artists can create interactive images, robot installations, digitalised and/or 3 dimensional images. Many of the ways which this latest technology is used to create art makes art into a genre becoming close to being a video game or a movie. In her research on computers, Schwartz discusses whether art produced wholly by computers can be considered as art, the question is asked as to what a work of art means, Is it the final piece of art (or output) by which creativity is judged, or is creativity independent of the art. (Schwartz 1992: 256) She asks whether it means that something must be produced creatively, or are people impressed with the craftsmanship and effort that has gone into a work such as a Michelangelo or Titian when they think of it as art. For if it is only the craftsmanship which makes a work of art then computers can surely produce artworks since they have the ability to work faster than humans in many ways. Paint and brushes can be regarded as technology of sorts because they are implements which are made for the artist to use in his painting, just as a painting computer program is there for an artist to create his works on. The Renaissance artists had assistants to mix paints, prepare canvases, or in the case of Rubens even finish off the painting. The computer can be regarded as assistant which allows the artist greater time to put into creative ideas, and less into repetitive tasks which can easily handled by a computer. The computer is very much like an apprentice Since the master (the programmer or artist) does not have to be present for many of these operations, it seems as if the computer is acting in place of the artist. We have again found our scientist-artist, and it is the computer itself. (Schwartz 1992: 233) Video and computers are having a huge influence on modern art. Modern art exhibitions are increasingly incorporating the use of both video and computers, as well as other technologies. In addition, artists such as Moffat are using ideas obtained from new media such as television and Hollywood movies which are being displayed in art galleries. Schwartz uses computers to manipulate images and create new works of art. Art is continuing to change with the introduction of new technologies. Artists are effectively using these technologies in their works, and will almost certainly continue to do so in the future. Moffats use of film and Schwartzs use of computers shows that these new media can and are often used in art, and are every bit as valid a medium as a paintbrush or pencil. Reference List Books Cooke, Lynne and Kelly, Karen 1998, Tracey Moffat: Free-Falling. Dia Center for the Arts, New York, USA Duckrey, Timothy 1999, Ars Electronica: Facing the Future. A Survey of Two Decades, Massachusetts institute of Technology, USA Goodman, Cynthia 1987, Digital Visions. Computers and Art. Harry N. Abrams inc. publishers, New York, USA Hentschel, Martin 1998, Tracey Moffat, Wurttembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Germany Hertz, Richard and Klein, Norman 1990, Twentieth Century Art Theory. Urbanism, Politics and Mass Culture, Prentice-Hall Inc., New Jersey, USA. Lucie-Smith, Edward 1995, Movements in art since 1945. Issues and concepts, Thames and Hudson, London, UK Paul, Christiane 2003, Digital Art, Thames Hudson, London, UK Popper, Frank 1997, Art of the Electronic Age, Thames Hudson, London, UK Reinhardt, Brigitte 1999, Tracey Moffatt. Laudanum, Hatje Cantz Publishers, Ostfildern, Germany Rush, Michael 1999, New Media in Late 20th Century Art. Thames Hudson, London, UK Schwartz, Lillian F. 1992, The Computer Artists Handbook. Concepts, Techniques and Applications. WW Norton Co. Inc, New York, USA Sever, Nancy 2001, Tracey Moffat. Invocations, ANU Drill Hall Gallery, Australia

Overcoming Problems in The Alchemist Essay -- Paulo Coelho

Have you ever encountered problems while trying to fulfill a goal in your life? In the book The Alchemist, written by Paulo Coelho, a shepherd boy named Santiago overcomes obstacles to reach his personal legend. Throughout the book Santiago encounters many friends to help him fulfill his destiny. Santiago encounters many problems throughout the story. He overcomes them with the help of his friends and his wife-to-be. These problems shape Santiago into a dignified man of many traits. The first two obstacles that Santiago faces are that his father tells him he can not do something that he wants to do and that he wants to pursue his personal legend, but he does not want to hurt those that he loves. For example, Santiago’s father said, â€Å"The people who come here have a lot of money to spend, so they can afford to travel. Amongst us the only ones who can travel are shepherds.† Everyone is told by their parents and friends that everything we want to do is impossible. Since Santiago did not have money to spend to travel his only choice was then to become a shepherd to fulfill his desire. T...

Economic Commentary Essay

This article talks about a recent increase in the rate of unemployment in the Euro-zone countries due to the fall of the rate of inflation, which was caused by a decrease in the oil and commodity prices. In this commentary, I will analyze the relationship between these two economic problems, discuss their effects and evaluate the possible solutions. Europe’s inflation dropped from 1.6% to 1.1% in the last two months. According to economic theory, such a fall in the general price level (PL) is not ideal because it limits economic growth. In this case, the decrease of inflation rate is caused by a raise in the short run aggregate supply (SRAS) due to the fall of the oil and commodity prices. This also reduces the consumer’s price expectations, therefore decreasing aggregate demand (AD). [See graphs] The effects of this situation are double-sided. The fall in the European inflation rate will hurt people with variable incomes, and benefit people with fixed incomes. Due to the increase in the purchasing power of money, it will hurt borrowers and benefit lenders. As the value of money rises, savings will become more productive; however, it will cause a fall in expectations that reduces investment in the stock market. Finally, it will discourage the creation of new ventures; although, it will prevent future capital flight. In addition to these effects, inflation provokes unemployment. The European Central Bank (ECB) has reported that its unemployment rate rose from 7.9% to 8% in December, as inflation decreased. In the European Union, anyone 15 years of age or older who is not working but available for work and actively looking for one is considered unemployed. This type of unemployment is classified as cyclical because it varies with the business cycle. In order to understand better how unemployment relates to inflation, the economist A.W. Phillips did several studies showing that there is a trade-off between them. As inflation increases, people have more money in their hands. This will encourage the government to increase its spending, hence creating new jobs. Phillips designed a curve (PC) that portrayed the relationship between these contradictory macroeconomic goals. Increasing unemployment has the following economic and social costs: According to Arthur Okun, for every 1% increase in unemployment, there is a 2.5% decrease in the real GDP which will increase government borrowing and budget deficit, leading to a raise in the indebtedness of the countries. More unemployment implies more people insured by the social security programs; hence, the government welfare costs will increase. In addition, less people in conditions to pay income taxes will reduce government tax revenues. Unemployment causes an increase in homelessness and, therefore, in street violence and crime. Similarly, it incites alcoholism and drug consumption, as well as immigration and suicides. From the PC, it can be concluded that a higher inflation will decrease the rate of unemployment in the EU. This, according to the article, will be attempted by the ECB through the implementation of discretionary expansionary monetary policy, which consists in a raise in money supply and a decrease in interest rate, to increase AD and lower SRAS. This is a policy taken from the Neo-Keynesian macro-model that believes in interventionism and short run measures to prevent deflation. [See graph] One of the strengths of monetary policy is the short recognition, decision and execution lags. According to economists Mendel Gordon and Milton Freedman, they vary from 5-10 months and 6-24 months, respectively. One of its weaknesses, identified by Neo-Keynesian fiscal activists, is the weak links between banks and borrowers. This means that, regardless the interest rate changes, expectations remain unchanged. Fiscal activists also believe that monetary policy works indirectly and, thus, more slowly; however, monetary activists claim that it is not slower than fiscal policy. Finally, monetary policy would succeed in increasing the rate of inflation, although it is limited by cash leakages and volt cash. Moreover, Milton Freedman affirms that it may destabilize the economy because of insufficient information. Consequently, it is better to follow the K% rule which consists in the establishment of a constant money growth rate determined by the Central Bank.

An essay on the novel Frankenstein Essay

The novel Frankenstein is as relevant and terrifying today as it was when it was first published At the time that Mary Shelly wrote the book Frankenstein the idea of creating and bringing people back to life using electricity was a prominent idea in science. She was also reading Emile by a famous French philosopher Rousseau where he argues that mans nature is harmless but is made evil by society. These ideas help to influence her novel and contribute to the key themes. When Mary Shelly was young her mother died and this ties in with the character of Victor whose mother also dies from giving birth to his brother William, who is later murdered by the creature, (Mary Shelly also had a son called William who died at the age of 3). Mary Shelly’s first child died twelve days after she was born, she had a dream that her child had come back to life she wrote â€Å"Dream that my little baby came to life again – that it had only been cold and that we rubbed it by the fire and it lived – I awake and find no baby – I think about the little thing all day† this tragedy is reflected in Frankenstein with the idea of bringing the dead back to life. Mary Shelly’s own childhood seems to have been brought up in the character of the creature, the creature was abandoned by Victor and Mary Shelly seems to feel that her mother abandoned her because she died when Shelly was only a baby. The book Frankenstein has three different narrators though out the novel; Robert Walton, the captain of a ship heading for the North Pole. Victor Frankenstein the creator of the creature and finally the creature itself, although Victor and the creatures stories are embedded in Walton’s narrative. Mary Shelly uses Walton’s letters to his sister to tell the story from his point of view and that of Victor and the creature. The book starts with Walton writing letters to his sister. Walton then encounters Victor Frankenstein when his ship can go no further north because it is stuck in the ice; Victor Frankenstein has been traveling across the ice following the creature and is ill because of the cold. Robert Walton takes him aboard his ship where Victor Frankenstein tells him the story of creating the creature. Victor tells him about his childhood in Geneva which he spent with his cousin Elizabeth. Victor went to the University of Ingolstadt. While he was there he became obsessed with the idea of bringing people back to life. Victor thinks he has found the secret of life and puts together a human being from bits of other dead people. It was a â€Å"dreary night in November† when he finally brings the creature to life. He looks at the repulsive thing that he has created and it horrifies him. He tries to sleep but is disturbed by dreams of his mother and Elizabeth â€Å"I held the corpse of my dead mother in my arms†, he wakes up to see the creature standing over him. Mary Shelly is increasing the tension and making the reader more involved. He escaped into the streets of Igolstadt and runs into his friend Clerval, who had come to study at the university. Victor takes his friend back to his apartment, but he finds that the creature is no longer there. He then becomes ill from a fever; the sickness is a sign that he has realized the horror of what he has done. Before he returns to Geneva he receives a letter from his father telling him his brother William has been murdered. Victor hurries home and when he was passing through the woods where William was murdered, he catches sight of the creature and is convinced the creature killed him, Mary Shelly is increasing the horror with each event as the story unfolds. Victor took a holiday in the mountains to try and ease his grief for his brother. While he is alone one day, crossing a glacier, the creature approaches him. The creature then tells Victor what has happened to him he describes running away from Igolstadt after he was assaulted by the towns’ people, and how he hid away in forests where he discovered fire. He discovers a small shed where he spends some time as he is sheltered from the rain; there is a small peep hole where he can look in to a family house this is where he learns to speak as there is a foreigner in the house who the family is teaching to speak their language. The creature asks Victor to create another creature for him to be his companion. Victor agrees but later after he has started he destroys the second creature so the creature tells him he will be there on Victor’s wedding night. On his return to Geneva Victor marries Elizabeth. He fears what the creature said to him and that he will kill him. To be careful he sends Elizabeth away to wait for him. While he waits for the creature, he hears Elizabeth scream and Victor realizes that the creature had been hinting at killing his new wife. Victor returns home and his father dies of sorrow shortly after. Victor says that he will devote the rest of his life to finding the creature and getting his revenge. Victor tracks the creature northwards and it becomes icy. Victor almost catches up with the creature, but the ice breaks and Victor cannot reach the creature. Victor dies shortly after he finishes telling his story. Walton then tells the remainder of the story in letters written to his sister. When Walton returns, several days later, to the room in which the body lies he is shocked to see the creature weeping over Victor. The creature tells Walton about his suffering. He then says that now his creator has died he can end his own torment. The creature then walks off for the northernmost ice to die. In chapter 5 Shelly describes how the monster comes to life and how Frankenstein has a nervous breakdown. He had spent two years working on the creature and it turned out to be an abomination in his eyes. Shelly tries to terrify the reader by using some very strong emotive words â€Å"with an anxiety that almost lead to agony†, she makes the creature look as grotesque as possible â€Å"His yellow skin barely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath† she also writes â€Å"his watery eyes, that seemed almost the same as the dun white sockets. † Victor never refers to the creature as a human; he refers to it as a â€Å"wretch†, â€Å"monster†, â€Å"creature† and â€Å"demonical corpse†, this helps to show how Victor rejects the creature as soon as he has brought it to life just because of the way it looks, this is how the creature is treated by society through out the rest of the novel, he is seen as a monster and is rejected by society. These make the creature seem repulsive and grotesque, the thoughts of this creature would have terrified readers when it was first published but I do not think that it has the same effect on readers today. Far worse things are viewed in many places for example on the internet, television or in newspapers although something which had an appearance like the creature would probably still be rejected by society today and would still be considered horrifying.