Glossary

The history of the art movement in the city of Erbil during the years 198-1983 The history of Arts (music, fine art, and theatre) in Erbil goes back to long time ago but academically introduced during 1920s of the last century. In terms of music and songs, Kawais Agha was the first local singer who recorded his songs (Lawk) on cylinder phonograph. By mid 1950s, a group of academic musicians founded Darseem Music Band. Darseem Music Band had a significant contribution in the development of music and songs at that time. They also contributed to the development of other fields of Art such as theatre. In early 1980s, the band also had a significant contribution with Erbil Arts Band in the field of theatre. For the first time they did a show about Salahaddin Ayoubi in 1926. Since then theatre and show activities were endured. In 1980s, the theatre movement were developed due to the fact that some Fine Arts Graduates were trained academically and contributed to the development of theatre movement in Erbil. Similarly, fine arts started in early 1930s. Then, in 1950s, it become more developed as a group of students were returning to Erbil after graduating from Fine Arts in Baghdad. In 1970s another group of Fine Arts Graduates similar to their previous generation colleagues, they also contributed in the development of fine arts in the city through school activities and opening fine arts exhibitions at that time. Thus, fine arts in Erbil started to take an academic path and this highly welcomed and appreciated by local residents of Erbil in 1980-1983. In particular, most of the activities were conveying nations messages and this was highly welcomed by people. People were eager and looking forward to see new activities by those artists and actors groups. Nevertheless, the political circumstances in Iraq were not supportive to keep the Arts movement going forward. During the Iraq-Iran war, the situation has changed negatively. Actors and artists were under political pressure by Iraqi government. Especially those artists who were working in the fields of singing, music and theatre. The political pressure by Iraqi regime resulted in decline of the arts movement in the city. Actors and artists were mostly observed by the Iraqi regime agents. This resulted some of actors and artists to leave the field and the home land towards diaspora. Others, were called for military services and sent to the battlefield by Iraqi regime.

The visual arts and architecture have been discussed in Europe since classical Antiquity. While several earlier Greek authors are known to have written on these subjects, the first surviving literature on art dates from the late 1st century bce and the 1st century ce. Some Romans, notably Pliny the Elder, mention the history of arts and crafts, and thus begin the tradition of writing on the history of art. In mentioning previous texts, Pliny also initiates what is here called the historiography of art—the discussion of art’s history. Consideration of the visual arts remained sporadic and scattered until the 15th century, and only a sparse historiography can be reconstructed for periods prior to the Renaissance. In the 15th century the first treatises on painting appeared. They contain some rudimentary historical comments. Writing on art took a fundamental step in the 16th century, when it assumed the form of the compilation of biographies, first by Giorgio Vasari. This paradigm was employed throughout Europe in the following centuries. By the 18th century a self-proclaimed history of art that treated stylistic change in relation to history had come into existence, distinguishing itself from antiquarianism, although Johann Joachim Winckelmann’s claim to have founded a completely new history of art is contested. In the 19th century art history was institutionalized and flourished as an academic discipline, especially in the German-speaking world. Notable scholars developed new ideas there and in Italy, France, and Britain as well. Important traditions of scholarship, such as the cultural and formal history of art, originated and grew in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the earlier 20th century self-consciousness grew about the history of the discipline; the first explicit studies on art historiography appeared. Scholars associated with the Warburg Library in Hamburg and the Warburg Institute in London and with the Vienna School of Art History have in particular garnered a large literature. More recently researchers have tackled the general question of the fate of German art history in the mid-20th century as it was affected by Nazism. But art history in central and northern Europe and in France and Italy has also captured some attention. As the historiography of art gained broad interest in the later 20th century, a “new historiography” also arose that presents a revisionist critique of art history, including previous historiography. British and American scholars have increasingly participated in discussions of historiography and have been especially involved in these newer tendencies. Trends that have raised further questions about the validity of previous methods and approaches have also begun to accumulate their own historiography.

Visual culture is an area of study focused on practices of looking and the role of visual representations in the arts, popular and alternative media cultures, institutional and professional contexts, and everyday life. Art history, film and media studies, → cultural studies, sociology, and anthropology are some of the fields in which visual culture study is conducted. Forms of → visual representation studied include → museum display, fine art, film and → Television, old and new media, computer and → video games, digital culture, medical images such as X‐rays and sonograms, and advertising (→ Art as Communication; Painting; Cinema; Film as Popular Culture; Television, Visual Characteristics of; Video; Digital Imagery; Advertisement, Visual Characteristics of).

The sociological study of fame and celebrity is situated in the broader area of the sociology of (popular) culture. In this chapter, a theoretical perspective in the sociology of fame is presented that breaks with the reductionist notion of fame as a commodity and the related idea that fame is a pathology. Instead, fame is conceptualized from a constructionist cultural-sociological perspective as a relation between a person or persons to whom the quality of fame is attributed, on the one hand, and the audience who offers the attention on which fame is developed, on the other. Such a constructionist perspective enables a true sociology of fame that is geared at scientific explanation rather than engaging in a normative critique.

The concepts of theatricality and performativity have been enormously productive sources of recent scholarship in the fields of theatre and performance studies. While the former term has a long history of use and abuse, the latter has gained contemporary currency in connection with the emergence of performance studies, on the one hand, and new interpretations and applications of J. L. Austin's 1950s philosophy, on the other. As scholars have reexamined theatricality and probed performativity, a number of new uses of these terms have developed, and depending on the scholar's viewpoint, a binary or sometimes hierarchical relationship between these terms has prevailed.

The aim of the study is to explore the peculiarities of obtaining the qualification of a museum studies expert and educator by higher education seekers within the framework of the integrated certificate program “Museum pedagogy”. The article describes domestic and foreign experience of training specialists for the integrated field of museum pedagogy. The analysis of the scientific literature shows that while defining a museum educator researchers give primary importance either to museum or pedagogical component of their work. Therefore, the authors provide a comprehensive definition for a specialist in the field of museum pedagogy in the paper. It is shown that a museum studies expert and educator is able to combine cultural and pedagogical expertise and skills, develop teaching technologies through museums, design a museum-educational environment, experiment with museum and pedagogical methods and techniques. The content of the two-year certificate programme designed and implemented on the basis of Mariupol State University is comprised of ten three-credit academic disciplines, inter alia,“Museum Studies”, “History of Arts”, “Cultural Studies”, “Preservation of Historical Monuments of Ukraine”, “Practicum on Perception of Contemporary Art”, “Modern Museum Communications”, “Museum Didactics”, “Methodology of Museum Education”, “Art Pedagogy” and “Pedagogical Practicum”. In the focus of the programme are: acquisition of theoretical knowledge in museum studies, familiarisation with museum development in Ukraine and all over the world; enhancing the understanding of cultural and art orientations; development of skills to design and organise the educational process in institutions of general secondary education by means of museum pedagogy, and create a museum-educational environment. The paper gives rationale for the core competencies for a prospective museum studies expert and educator, enumerates the learning outcomes of the integrated certificate programme. The authors provide the requirements for text and visual content of the programme presentation.

Our approach is an ‘Archaic Anthropology’, a methodological combination of contemporary anthropological engagement with the historicisation of the present using genealogical methods, drawn from Nietzsche, Weber, Foucault and Agamben, a contribution to the emergent paradigm of ‘economic theology’. Specifically this entails taking contemporary discourses – from social policy to job-seeking advice – as constitutive of the society it purports to describe. Thus, contemporary conceptualisations, whether created by academic disciplines or popular culture draw from existing cultural models, including theology, to make sense of complex social and economic experiences, from national recessions or growth to personal careers or unemployment. Thus, government is not simply evidence-based but incorporates medieval pastoral power – following Foucault, or the market reflects an invisible hand which is equally providential as it is economic – drawing on Agamben’s theological genealogy. By combining key ideas and figures from cultural sociology and governmentality studies, our approach allows us to trace the ‘production of meaning’ – how cultural models are deployed to decipher meaning in even arbitrary events, shape identities continuously and give direction and purpose to social and economic life.

The authors of the article analyse the problem of individual and collective memory through the prism of The Holocaust reminiscence. They are aware that we are living in a time when living memories of the grave crimes and catastrophes of the 20th century are fading away, as well as the complex political, social and cultural processes, taking place at present, are becoming intensified in the context of the War in Ukraine. These events and processes once again highlight the social importance of individual and collective memory and the need for its conscious formation through media and intercultural education. The aim of the authors’ endeavour is to explore four forms of The Holocaust reminiscence, : 1/ reminiscence in the form of reconstruction (authentic representation of the past); 2/ reminiscence as (re)interpretation (remembrance that refers to the past but is interpreted in the context of current findings); 3/ reminiscence as prevention and civic engagement (education and educational programmes that promote tolerance and moral qualities); 4/ reminiscence as a tool for cultural identity formation (forming collective identities and promoting social inclusion). The study will include interpretations of selected works from the field of performing arts and case studies from media culture. Attention will also be focused on particular proposals for media-educational and cultural-pedagogical activities which can be used in cultural institutions and in media education in order to develop media literacy and critical thinking.

To a growing student population for whom smartphone and Internet use started in their early childhood, social media and popular culture can be effective tools to mitigate potential anxiety and alienation students may feel when taking a theory course. This paper offers strategies and insight on the endeavor of utilizing both popular and social media cultures to teach social theories. I discuss assignments and activities used to generate student engagement, as well as share examples of successful student submissions that demonstrate application of course materials to their everyday life. Informed by Paulo Freire's (2011 [1968]) pedagogy of “students-as-teachers,” the strategy of asking students to contribute what they know about social media and popular culture helps students be more critical participants in society and communicates to students that instructors value their experiential knowledge.

This book examines the links between experiencing immersion in antiquity and modernity. Immersive experiences are big business within today’s creative economy. Forms range from immersive museum exhibitions, theatrical performances, art installations and experiences facilitated through virtual and augmented reality technologies. Yet the idea of immersion is not new; paintings, sculpture and theatre have all been theorised historically in terms of illusion, realism and immersion. From antiquity to modernity, there has been an interest in theorising the relationship between reality and virtual realities, and in contemplating whether feeling present in an alternate universe is a sought-after experience or something problematic and dangerous. The chapters in this volume explore the warnings against immersion voiced by Plato and embodied in the figure of the Homeric sirens, contrasted with the pro-immersion perspectives championed by Aristotelian mimesis and embodied in the concept of enargeia. The volume also examines the integration of the ancient world into immersive novels, games, museum exhibitions and theatrical performances. Practice-as-Research contributions explore the benefits of this synergy from practitioner perspectives. Contributors from diverse fields – including classical reception studies, art history, game studies, heritage studies and theatre studies – approach the interplay between antiquity and modernity from varied standpoints. Together, they uncover previously unforeseen connections across disciplines and lay the groundwork for future research and additional classically inflected immersive experiences.

The Rise of Skywalker.Among the interviewees featured in the report was Thomas Manglitz, co-founder of the fan-run museum 1 Stars of the Galaxy in M€ onchengladbach, Germany (hereafter SOTG).Housed in a former indoor swimming pool vacated by the city, SOTG displays production materials and merchandise from a variety of science fiction productions.However, the vast majority of the amateur museum's displays are dedicated to the Star Wars franchise, ranging from action figures to LEGO sets, replicas, and collectible figurines.Because of this focus, SOTG has become a popular destination for local and regional press, as well as fellow fans, to interview Manglitz about Star Wars, including the history of the films, the success of the franchise's merchandise, its fan community, and the story behind the museum itself.Although Manglitz himself frames the project as a hobby without any economic agenda in such reports, the curatorial work of the fans behind SOTG should not be considered as mere leisure.Rather, following Mel Stanfill's plea to study fan practices and projects through a labor framework and "ask who benefits from these activities" (131), fan curating should be acknowledged as a form of work that creates cultural and economic value for different agents.

"I’m a Modern Bride": On the Relationship between Marital Hegemony, Bridal Fictions, and Postfeminism

This article examines the 1993 Whitney Biennial, its focus on identity politics, and the exhibition’s position within the methodological debates between Art History and an interdisciplinary Cultural Studies. It identifies where and how the voice of the exhibition came to be defined and observes the relations between the institutional framework, the curatorial agenda, and what the art itself performed. With emphasis on the artworks of Andrea Fraser, Renée Green, and Daniel J. Martinez, I argue that contemporaneous critical reception missed the Biennial’s art historical contribution, which highlighted artists synthesizing historically incompatible modes of practice, and bringing identity politics to bear on institutional critique and conceptual art.

Exhibition Review: <i>Cindy Sherman</i>

In this wide-ranging and timely volume, fourteen scholars address the important question, how should we talk about religion, whether our own or the religion of others? They confront such fundamental topics as the sufficiency of reason for a full life, the adequacy of our methods of describing and analyzing religion, the degree to which any serious confrontation with the religious experiences of others will challenge our own, and whether there can be a pluralism that does not dissolve into universal relativism. Writing from a diversity of perspectives and academic disciplines - philosophy, classics, medieval studies, history, anthropology, economics, political science, and art history, among others - the contributors illuminate issues at the heart of the most significant cultural, social, and political debates of our day. What emerges is not a univocal answer to the question posed in the title. Instead, by demonstrating how religion is talked about in the languages of very different academic disciplines, the essayists creatively address issues that no one should ignore: fundamentalism, the role of religion in American democracy, the tension between secular liberalism and religious rhetoric, monotheism versus pluralism, and the relationship between poverty and liberation theology.