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Named after its inventor, what is the signal lamp used to transmit Morse Code, devised in the late 1800s and still used today on naval ships? | Electric Telegraph - The Full Wiki
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"Telegraph" and "Telegram" redirect here. For other uses, see Telegraph (disambiguation) and Telegram (disambiguation) .
This article is about telegraphy in general. For the Electrical telegraph, see Electrical telegraph .
Claude Chappe 's optical telegraph on the Litermont near Nalbach , Germany
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of written messages without physical transport of letters. It is a compound term formed from the Greek words tele (τηλε) = far and graphein (γραφειν) = write. Radiotelegraphy or wireless telegraphy transmits messages using radio . Telegraphy includes recent forms of data transmission such as fax , email , telephone networks , and computer networks in general.[citation needed]
Contents
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Terminology
A telegraph is a device for transmitting and receiving messages over long distances, i.e., for telegraphy. The word telegraph alone now generally refers to an electrical telegraph . Wireless telegraphy is also known as "CW", for continuous wave (a carrier modulated by on-off keying), as opposed to the earlier radio technique of using a spark gap .[citation needed]
A telegraph message sent by an electrical telegraph operator or telegrapher using Morse code (or a printing telegraph operator using plain text) was known as a telegram [1] . A cablegram was a message sent by a submarine telegraph cable [2] [3] , often shortened to a cable or a wire. Later, a Telex message was a telegram sent by a Telex network, a switched network of teleprinters similar to a telephone network.
Before long distance telephone services were readily available or affordable, telegram services were very popular and the only way to convey information speedily over very long distances. Telegrams were often used to confirm business dealings and were commonly used to create binding legal documents for business dealings. [4]
A wire picture or wire photo was a newspaper picture that was sent from a remote location by a facsimile telegraph . The teleostereograph machine, a forerunner to the modern electronic fax, was developed by AT&T's Bell Labs in the 1920s; however, the first commercial use of image facsimile telegraph devices date back to the 1800s.
Optical telegraph
Main articles: Semaphore line (visual telegraphy using signal arms or shutters), Flag semaphore (using hand-held flags), Signal lamp (visual naval communications) and Heliograph (visual communications using reflected sunlight)
Construction schematic of a Prussian optical telegraph (or semaphore ) tower, C. 1835
The first telegraphs came in the form of optical telegraphs , including the use of smoke signals , beacons or reflected light , which have existed since ancient times. A semaphore network invented by Claude Chappe operated in France from 1792 through 1846. [5] It helped Napoleon enough to be widely imitated in Europe and the U.S. The Prussian system was put into effect in the 1830s. The last commercial semaphore link ceased operation in Sweden in 1880.
Semaphores were able to convey information more precisely than smoke signals and beacons, and consumed no fuel. Messages could be sent at much greater speed than post riders and could serve entire regions. However, like beacons, smoke and reflected light signals they were highly dependent on good weather and daylight to work (practical electrical lighting was not available until about 1880). They required operators and towers every 30 km (20 mi), and could only accommodate about two words per minute. This was useful to governments, but too expensive for most commercial uses other than commodity price information. Electric telegraphs were to reduce the cost of sending a message thirtyfold compared to semaphores, and could be utilized non-stop, 24 hours per day, independent of the weather or daylight.
Elevated locations where optical telegraphs were placed for maximum visibility were renamed to Telegraph Hill, such as Telegraph Hill, San Francisco , and Telegraph Hill in the PNC Bank Arts Center in New Jersey .
Electrical telegraphs
Main article: Electrical telegraph
One very early experiment in electrical telegraphy was an electrochemical telegraph created by the German physician, anatomist and inventor Samuel Thomas von Sömmering in 1809, based on an earlier, less robust design of 1804 by Catalan polymath and scientist Francisco Salvá i Campillo . [6] Both their designs employed multiple wires (up to 35) in order to visually represent most Latin letters and numerals. Thus, messages could be conveyed electrically up to a few kilometers (in von Sömmering's design), with each of the telegraph receiver's wires immersed in a separate glass tube of acid. As an electrical current was applied by the sender representing each digit of a message, it would at the recipient's end electrolyse the acid in its corresponding tube, releasing a stream of hydrogen bubbles next to its associated letter or numeral. The telegraph receiver's operator would visually observe the bubbles and could then record the transmitted message, albeit at a very low baud rate. [6]
One of the earliest electromagnetic telegraph designs was created by Baron Schilling in 1832.[citation needed]
Carl Friedrich Gauss and Wilhelm Weber built and first used for regular communication the electromagnetic telegraph in 1833 in Göttingen , connecting Göttingen Observatory and the Institute of Physics, covering a distance of about 1 km [7] . The setup consisted of a coil which could be moved up and down over the end of two magnetic steel bars. The resulting induction current was transmitted through two wires to the receiver, consisting of a galvanometer . The direction of the current could be reversed by commuting the two wires in a special switch. Therefore, Gauß and Weber chose to encode the alphabet in a binary code, using positive current and negative as the two states.
A replica commissioned by Weber for the 1873 World Fair based on his original designs is on display in the collection of historical instruments in the Department of Physics at University of Göttingen .
There are two versions of the first message sent by Gauß and Weber: the more official one is based on a note in Gauss's own handwriting stating that "Wissen vor meinen – Sein vor scheinen" ("knowing before opining, being before seeming") was the first message sent over the electromagnetic telegraph.
Cooke and Wheatstone's electric telegraph
The more anecdotal version told in Göttingen observatory is that the first message was sent to notify Weber that the observatory's servant was on the way to the institute of physics, and just read "Michelmann kömmt" ("Michelmann is on his way"), possibly as a test who would arrive first.
The first commercial electrical telegraph was co-invented by Sir William Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone , and entered use on the Great Western Railway in Britain . It ran for 13 miles (21 km) from Paddington station to West Drayton and came into operation on 9 July 1839. [8] It was patented in the United Kingdom in 1837, and was first successfully demonstrated by Cooke and Wheatstone on 25 July 1837 between Euston and Camden Town in London. [9] In 1843 Scottish inventor Alexander Bain invented a device that could be considered the first facsimile machine . He called his invention a "recording telegraph". Bain's telegraph was able to transmit images by electrical wires. In 1855 an Italian abbot, Giovanni Caselli , also created an electric telegraph that could transmit images. Caselli called his invention " Pantelegraph ". Pantelegraph was successfully tested and approved for a telegraph line between Paris and Lyon .
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Morse telegraph
A Morse key
An electrical telegraph was independently developed and patented in the United States in 1837 by Samuel F. B. Morse . His assistant, Alfred Vail , developed the Morse code signaling alphabet with Morse. America's first telegram was sent by Morse on 6 January 1838, across two miles (3 km) of wire at Speedwell Ironworks near Morristown, New Jersey . The message read "A patient waiter is no loser." On 24 May 1844, he sent the message " What hath God wrought " (quoting Numbers 23:23) from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the Capitol in Washington to the old Mt. Clare Depot in Baltimore . This message was chosen by Annie Ellsworth of Lafayette, Indiana, [10] the daughter of Patent Commissioner Henry Leavitt Ellsworth . The Morse/Vail telegraph was quickly deployed in the following two decades; the overland telegraph connected the west coast of the continent to the east coast by 24 October 1861, bringing an end to the Pony Express .
The famous telegram sent by Samuel F. B. Morse from the Capitol in Washington to Alfred Vail in Baltimore in 1844: "What hath God wrought"
Oceanic telegraph cables
The first commercially successful transatlantic telegraph cable was successfully completed on 18 July 1866. The lasting connections were achieved by the ship SS Great Eastern , captained by Sir James Anderson . [11] Earlier transatlantic submarine cables installations were attempted in 1857, 1858 and 1865. The 1857 cable only operated intermittently for a few days or weeks before it failed. The study of underwater telegraph cables accelerated interest in mathematical analysis of very long transmission lines . The telegraph lines from Britain to India were connected in 1870 (those several companies combined to form the Eastern Telegraph Company in 1872).
Major telegraph lines in 1891
Australia was first linked to the rest of the world in October 1872 by a submarine telegraph cable at Darwin. [12] This brought news reportage from the rest of the world. [13]
Further advancements in telegraph technology occurred in the early 1870s, when Thomas Edison devised a full duplex two-way telegraph and then doubled its capacity with the invention of quadruplex telegraphy in 1874. [14] Edison filed for a U.S. patent on the duplex telegraph on 1 September 1874 and received U.S. Patent 480,567 on 9 August 1892.
The telegraph across the Pacific was completed in 1902, finally encircling the world.
Wireless telegraphy
Main article: Wireless telegraphy
Nikola Tesla and other scientists and inventors showed the usefulness of wireless telegraphy , radiotelegraphy, or radio , beginning in the 1890s. Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrated to the public his wireless radio receiver , which was also used as a lightning detector , on 7 May 1895. He proudly demonstrated his wireless receiver before a group of reporters on a stormy August evening in 1895. It was attached to a long 30 foot pole that he held aloft to maximize the signal. When asked by one of the reporters if it was a good idea to hold this metal rod in the middle of a storm he replied that all was well. After being struck (and nearly killed) by a bolt of lightning he proudly announced to the world that his invention also served as a 'lightning detector'.
Albert Turpain sent and received his first radio signal, using Morse code, in France , up to 25 meters in 1895 [15] .
Guglielmo Marconi sent and received his first radio signal in Italy up to 6 kilometres in 1896. On 13 May 1897, Marconi, assisted by George Kemp, a Cardiff Post Office engineer, transmitted the first wireless signals over water to Lavernock (near Penarth in Wales ) from Flat Holm . [16] Having failed to interest the Italian government, the twenty-two year old inventor brought his telegraphy system to Britain and met William Preece , a Welshman, who was a major figure in the field and Chief Engineer of the General Post Office . A pair of masts about 34 metres (112 ft) high were erected, at Lavernock Point and on Flat Holm. The receiving mast at Lavernock Point was a 30-metre (98 ft) high pole topped with a cylindrical cap of zinc connected to a detector with insulated copper wire. At Flat Holm the sending equipment included a Ruhmkorff coil with an eight-cell battery. The first trial on 11 and 12 May failed but on the 13th the mast at Lavernock was extended to 50 metres (164 ft) and the signals, in Morse code, were received clearly. The message sent was "ARE YOU READY"; the Morse slip signed by Marconi and Kemp is now in the National Museum of Wales .
In 1898 Popov accomplished successful experiments of wireless communication between a naval base and a battleship .
In 1900 the crew of the Russian coast defense ship General-Admiral Graf Apraksin as well as stranded Finnish fishermen were saved in the Gulf of Finland because of exchange of distress telegrams between two radiostations, located at Hogland island and inside a Russian naval base in Kotka . Both stations of wireless telegraphy were built under Popov's instructions.
In 1901, Marconi radiotelegraphed the letter "S" across the Atlantic Ocean from his station in Poldhu, Cornwall to St. John's, Newfoundland .
Radiotelegraphy proved effective for rescue work in sea disasters by enabling effective communication between ships and from ship to shore.
Telegraphic improvements
Phelps' Electro-motor Printing Telegraph from circa 1880, the last and most advanced telegraphy mechanism designed by George May Phelps . Note the keyboard for entering the message.
Teletype machines in World War II
A continuing goal in telegraphy has been to reduce the cost per message by reducing hand-work, or increasing the sending rate.[citation needed] There were many experiments with moving pointers, and various electrical encodings. However, most systems were too complicated and unreliable. A successful expedient to increase the sending rate was the development of telegraphese .
Other research focused on the multiplexing of telegraph connections. By passing several simultaneous connections through an existing copper wire, capacity could be upgraded without the laying of new cable, a process which remained very costly. Several technologies were developed like Frequency-division multiplexing . Long submarine communications cables became possible in segments with vacuum tube amplifiers between them.
With the invention of the teletypewriter , telegraphic encoding became fully automated. Early teletypewriters used the ITA-1 Baudot code , a five-bit code. This yielded only thirty-two codes, so it was over-defined into two "shifts," "letters" and "figures". An explicit, unshared shift code prefaced each set of letters and figures.
The airline industry remains one of the last users of teletype and in a few situations still sends messages over the SITA or AFTN networks. For example, The British Airways operations computer system ( FICO ) as of 2004 still used teletype to communicate with other airline computer systems.[citation needed] The same goes for Programmed Airline Reservation System (PARS) and IPARS that used a similar shifted six-bit Teletype code, because it requires only eight bits per character, saving bandwidth and money. A teletype message is often much smaller than the equivalent EDIFACT or XML message. In recent years as airlines have had access to improved bandwidth in remote locations, IATA standard XML is replacing Teletype as well as EDI .
CN Telegraph and Cable office
The first electrical telegraph developed a standard signaling system for telecommunications. The "mark" state was defined as the powered state of the wire. In this way, it was immediately apparent when the line itself failed. The moving pointer telegraphs started the pointer's motion with a "start bit" that pulled the line to the unpowered "space" state. In early Telex machines, the start bit triggered a wheeled commutator run by a motor with a precise speed (later, digital electronics). The commutator distributed the bits from the line to a series of relays that would "capture" the bits. A "stop bit" was then sent at the powered "mark state" to assure that the commutator would have time to stop, and be ready for the next character. The stop bit triggered the printing mechanism. Stop bits initially lasted 1.42 baud times (later extended to two as signaling rates increased), in order to give the mechanism time to finish and stop vibrating. Hence an ITA-2 Murray code symbol took 1 start, 5 data, and 1.42 stop (total 7.42) baud times to transmit. [17]
Telex
A Siemens T100 Telex machine
A late-model British Telecom "Puma" Telex machine of the 1980s
By 1935, message routing was the last great barrier to full automation. Large telegraphy providers began to develop systems that used telephone-like rotary dialing to connect teletypes. These machines were called "Telex". Telex machines first performed rotary-telephone-style pulse dialing for circuit switching , and then sent data by Baudot code . This "type A" Telex routing functionally automated message routing.
The first wide-coverage Telex network was implemented in Germany during the 1930s[citation needed] as a network used to communicate within the government.
At the rate of 45.45 (±0.5%) baud — considered speedy at the time — up to 25 telex channels could share a single long-distance telephone channel by using voice frequency telegraphy multiplexing , making telex the least expensive method of reliable long-distance communication.
Canada-wide automatic teleprinter exchange service was introduced by the CPR Telegraph Company and CN Telegraph in July 1957 (the two companies, operated by rival Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway would join to form CNCP Telecommunications in 1967). This service supplemented the existing international Telex service that was put in place in November 1956. Canadian Telex customers could connect with nineteen European countries in addition to eighteen Latin American, African, and trans-Pacific countries. [18] The major exchanges were located in Montreal (01), Toronto (02), and Winnipeg (03). [19]
In 1958, Western Union Telegraph Company started to build a Telex network in the United States. [20] This Telex network started as a satellite exchange located in New York City and expanded to a nationwide network. Western Union chose Siemens & Halske AG, [21] now Siemens AG, and ITT [22] to supply the exchange equipment, provisioned the exchange trunks via the Western Union national microwave system and leased the exchange to customer site facilities from the local telephone company. Teleprinter equipment was originally provided by Siemens & Halske AG [23] and later by Teletype Corporation. [24] Initial direct International Telex service was offered by Western Union, via W.U. International, in the summer of 1960 with limited service to London and Paris. [25]
In 1962, the major exchanges were located in New York City (1), Chicago (2), San Francisco (3), Kansas City (4) and Atlanta (5). [26] The Telex network expanded by adding the final parent exchanges cities of Los Angeles (6), Dallas (7), Philadelphia (8) and Boston (9) starting in 1966.
The Telex numbering plan, usually a six-digit number in the United States, was based on the major exchange where the customer's Telex machine terminated. [27] For example, all Telex customers that terminated in the New York City exchange were assigned a Telex number that started with a first digit "1". Further, all Chicago based customers had Telex numbers that started with a first digit of "2". This numbering plan was maintained by Western Union as the Telex exchanges proliferated to smaller cities in the United States. The Western Union Telex network was built on three levels of exchanges. [28] The highest level was made up of the nine exchange cities previously mentioned. Each of these cities had the dual capability of terminating both Telex customer lines and setting up trunk connections to multiple distant Telex exchanges. The second level of exchanges, located in large cities such as Buffalo, Cleveland, Miami, Newark, Pittsburgh and Seattle, were similar to the highest level of exchanges in capability of terminating Telex customer lines and setting up trunk connections. However, these second level exchanges had a smaller customer line capacity and only had trunk circuits to regional cities. The third level of exchanges, located in small to medium sized cities, could terminate Telex customer lines and had a single trunk group running to its parent exchange.
Loop signaling was offered in two different configurations for Western Union Telex in the United States. The first option, sometimes called local or loop service , provided a 60 milliampere loop circuit from the exchange to the customer teleprinter. The second option, sometimes called long distance or polar was used when a 60 milliampere connection could not be achieved, provided a ground return polar circuit using 35 milliamperes on separate send and receive wires. By the 1970s, and under pressure from the Bell operating companies wanting to modernize their cable plant and lower the adjacent circuit noise that these Telex circuits sometimes caused, Western Union migrated customers to a third option called F1F2. This F1F2 option replaced the DC voltage of the local and long distance options with modems at the exchange and subscriber ends of the Telex circuit.
Western Union offered connections from Telex to the AT&T Teletypewriter eXchange (TWX) system in May 1966 via its New York Information Services Computer Center. [29] These connections were limited to those TWX machines that were equipped with automatic answerback capability per CCITT standard.
In 1970, Cuba and Pakistan were still running 45.5 baud type A Telex.[citation needed] Telex is still widely used in some developing countries' bureaucracies, probably because of its reliability and low cost. The UN asserted at one time that more political entities were reliably available by Telex than by any other single method.
Around 1960[?], some nations began to use the "figures" Baudot codes to perform "Type B" Telex routing.[citation needed]
Telex grew around the world very rapidly. Long before automatic telephony was available, most countries, even in central Africa and Asia , had at least a few high-frequency ( shortwave ) Telex links. Often these radio links were first established by government postal and telegraph services (PTTs). The most common radio standard, CCITT R.44 had error-corrected retransmitting time-division multiplexing of radio channels. Most impoverished PTTs operated their Telex-on-radio (TOR) channels non-stop, to get the maximum value from them.
The cost of TOR equipment has continued to fall. Although initially specialised equipment was required, many amateur radio operators now operate TOR (also known as RTTY ) with special software and inexpensive hardware to adapt computer sound cards to short-wave radios. [30]
Modern "cablegrams" or "telegrams" actually operate over dedicated Telex networks, using TOR whenever required.[citation needed]
Operation and applications
Telex messages are routed by addressing them to a Telex address, e.g. "14910 ERIC S", where 14910 is the subscriber number, ERIC is an abbreviation for the subscriber's name (in this case Telefonaktiebolaget L.M. Ericsson in Sweden) and S is the country code. Solutions also exist for the automatic routing of messages to different Telex terminals within a subscriber organization, by using different terminal identities, e.g. "+T148".
A major advantage of Telex is that the receipt of the message by the recipient could be confirmed with a high degree of certainty by the "answerback". At the beginning of the message, the sender would transmit a WRU (Who aRe yoU) code, and the recipient machine would automatically initiate a response which was usually encoded in a rotating drum with pegs, much like a music box . The position of the pegs sent an unambiguous identifying code to the sender, so the sender could verify connection to the correct recipient. The WRU code would also be sent at the end of the message, so a correct response would confirm that the connection had remained unbroken during the message transmission. This gave Telex a major advantage over less verifiable forms of communications such as telephone and fax.
The usual method of operation was that the message would be prepared off-line, using paper tape . All common Telex machines incorporated a 5-hole paper-tape punch and reader. Once the paper tape had been prepared, the message could be transmitted in minimum time. Telex billing was always by connected duration, so minimizing the connected time saved money. However, it was also possible to connect in "real time", where the sender and the recipient could both type on the keyboard and these characters would be immediately printed on the distant machine.
Telex could also be used as a rudimentary but functional carrier of information from one IT system to another, in effect a primitive forerunner of Electronic Data Interchange . The sending IT system would create an output (e.g., an inventory list) on paper tape using a mutually agreed format. The tape would be sent by Telex and collected on a corresponding paper tape by the receiver and this tape could then be read into the receiving IT system.
One use of Telex circuits, in use until the widescale adoption of x.400 and Internet email, was to facilitate a message handling system, allowing local email systems to exchange messages with other email and Telex systems via a central routing operation, or switch. One of the largest such switches was operated by Royal Dutch Shell as recently as 1994, permitting the exchange of messages between a number of IBM Officevision, Digital Equipment Corporation All-In-One and Microsoft Mail systems. In addition to permitting email to be sent to Telex addresses, formal coding conventions adopted in the composition of Telex messages enabled automatic routing of Telexes to email recipients.
Teletypewriter eXchange
The Teletypewriter eXchange (TWX) was developed by the Bell System in the United States and originally ran at 45.45 baud or 60 words per minute, using five level Baudot code . Bell later developed a second generation of TWX called "four row" that ran at 110 baud, using eight level ASCII code. The Bell System offered both "3-row" Baudot and "4-row" ASCII TWX service up to the late 1970s.
TWX used the public switched telephone network. In addition to having separate Area Codes (510, 610, 710 and 810) for the TWX service, the TWX lines were also set up with a special Class of Service to prevent connections to and from POTS to TWX and vice versa.
The code/speed conversion between "3-row" Baudot and "4-row" ASCII TWX service was accomplished using a special Bell "10A/B board" via a live operator. A TWX customer would place a call to the 10A/B board operator for Baudot - ASCII calls, ASCII - Baudot calls and also TWX Conference calls. The code / speed conversion was done by a Western Electric unit that provided this capability. There were multiple code / speed conversion units at each operator position.
Western Union purchased the TWX system from AT&T in January 1969. [31] The TWX system and the special area codes (510, 610, 710 and 810) continued right up to 1981 when Western Union completed the conversion to the Western Union Telex II system. Any remaining "3-row" Baudot customers were converted to Western Union Telex service during the period 1979 to 1981.
The modem for this service was the Bell 101 dataset, which is the direct ancestor of the Bell 103 modem that launched computer time-sharing . The 101 was revolutionary, because it ran on ordinary telephone subscriber lines, allowing the Bell System to run TWX along with POTS on a single public switched telephone network.
International Record Carriers
Bell's original consent agreement limited it to international dial telephony. The Western Union Telegraph Company had given up its international telegraphic operation in a 1939 bid to monopolize U.S. telegraphy by taking over ITT's PTT business. The result was a de-emphasis on Telex in the U.S. and a "cat's cradle" of international Telex and telegraphy companies. The Federal Communications Commission referred to these companies as "International Record Carriers" (IRCs).
Western Union Telegraph Company developed a subsidiary named Western Union Cable System. This company later was renamed as Western Union International (WUI) when it was spun-off by Western Union as an independent company. WUI was purchased by MCI Communications (MCI) in 1983 and operated as a subsidiary of MCI International.
ITT's "World Communications" division (later known as ITT World Communications) was amalgamated from many smaller companies: "Federal Telegraph", "All American Cables and Radio", "Globe Wireless", and the common carrier division of Mackay Marine. ITT World Communications was purchased by Western Union in 1987.
RCA Communications (later known as RCA Global Communications) had specialized in global radiotelegraphic connections. In 1986 it was purchased by MCI International.
Before World War I, the Tropical Radiotelegraph Company (later known as Tropical Radio Telecommunications, or TRT) put radio telegraphs on ships for its owner, the United Fruit Company (UFC) , to enable them to deliver bananas to the best-paying markets. Communications expanded to UFC's plantations, and were eventually provided to local governments. TRT eventually became the national carrier for many small Central American nations.
The French Telegraph Cable Company (later known as FTC Communications, or just FTCC), which was owned by French investors, had always been in the U.S. It laid undersea cable from the U.S. to France. It was formed by Monsieur Puyer-Quartier. International telegrams routed via FTCC were routed using the telegraphic routing ID "PQ", which are the initials of the founder of the company.
Firestone Rubber developed its own IRC, the "Trans-Liberia Radiotelegraph Company".[citation needed] It operated shortwave from Akron, Ohio to the rubber plantations in Liberia . TL is still based in Akron.
Bell Telex users had to select which IRC to use, and then append the necessary routing digits. The IRCs converted between TWX and Western Union Telegraph Co. standards.
Arrival of the Internet
Main article: History of the Internet . See also: E-mail and ARPANET
Around 1965, DARPA commissioned a study of decentralized switching systems. Some of the ideas developed in this study provided inspiration for the development of the ARPANET packet switching research network, which later grew to become the public Internet .
As the PSTN became a digital network, T-carrier "synchronous" networks became commonplace in the U.S. A T1 line has a "frame" of 193 bits that repeats 8000 times per second. The first bit, called the "sync" bit, alternates between 1 and 0 to identify the start of the frames. The rest of the frame provides 8 bits for each of 24 separate voice or data channels. Customarily, a T-1 link is sent over a balanced twisted pair, isolated with transformers to prevent current flow. Europeans adopted a similar system (E-1) of 32 channels (with one channel for frame synchronisation).
Later, SONET and SDH were adapted to combine carrier channels into groups that could be sent over optic fiber . The capacity of an optic fiber is often extended with wavelength division multiplexing , rather than rerigging new fibre. Rigging several fibres in the same structures as the first fibre is usually easy and inexpensive, and many fibre installations include unused spare " dark fibre ", "dark wavelengths", and unused parts of the SONET frame, so-called "virtual channels."
In 2002, the Internet was used by Kevin Warwick at the University of Reading to communicate neural signals, in purely electronic form, telegraphically between the nervous systems of two humans [32] , potentially opening up a new form of communication combining the Internet and telegraphy.
As of 2006, the fastest well-defined communication channel used for telegraphy is the SONET standard OC-768 , which sends about 40 gigabits per second.
The theoretical maximum capacity of an optic fiber is more than 1012 bits (one terabit or one trillion bits) per second[citation needed]. In 2006, no existing encoding system approached this theoretical limit, even with wavelength division multiplexing.
Since the Internet operates over any digital transmission medium, further evolution of telegraphic technology will be effectively concealed from users.
As of 2007, the Internet carried the majority of telegraphic messages in the form of e-mail[citation needed].
E-mail displaces telegraphy
Main article: E-mail
E-mail was first invented for Multics in the late 1960s.[citation needed] At first, e-mail was possible only between different accounts on the same computer (typically a mainframe ). UUCP allowed different computers to be connected to allow e-mails to be relayed from computer to computer. With the growth of the Internet, e-mail began to be possible between any two computers with access to the Internet.
Various private networks like UUNET (founded 1987), the Well (1985), and GEnie (1985) had e-mail from the 1970s, but subscriptions were quite expensive for an individual, US$25 to US$50 per month, just for e-mail. Internet use was then largely limited to government, academia and other government contractors until the net was opened to commercial use in the 1980s.
By the early 1990s, modems made e-mail a viable alternative to Telex systems in a business environment. But individual e-mail accounts were not widely available until local Internet service providers were in place, although demand grew rapidly, as e-mail was seen as the Internet's killer app . The broad user base created by the demand for e-mail smoothed the way for the rapid acceptance of the World Wide Web in the mid-1990s.
On Monday, 12 July 1999, a final telegram was sent from the National Liberty Ship Memorial, the SS Jeremiah O'Brien , in San Francisco Bay to President Bill Clinton in the White House. Officials of Globe Wireless reported that "The message was 95 words, and it took six or eight minutes to copy it." They then transmitted the message to the White House via e-mail. That event was also used to mark the final commercial U.S. ship-to-shore telegraph message transmitted from North America by Globe Wireless, a company founded in 1911. Sent from its wireless station at Half Moon Bay, California , the sign-off message was a repeat of Samuel F. B. Morse's message 155 years earlier, "What hath God wrought?" [33]
Worldwide status of telegram services
In Australia , Australia Post 's TELeGRAM service "combines new age demands with old world charm to offer you a quick, convenient way to send a message that matters." [34] Messages can be submitted online or by telephone, and can be printed on a range of template designs. The printed telegrams are dispatched using Express Post Mail Service or the Ordinary Mail Service. Orders received before 15:00 are dispatched on the same day. The cost of the service, being AUD4.50 for Ordinary and AUD8.50 for Express Post Mail Services in comparison with AUD0.55 for an Australia-wide postage fee, makes this service too expensive for day-to-day communication.
In Bahrain , Batelco still offers telegram services. They are thought to be more formal than an email or a fax, but less so than a letter. So should a death or anything of importance occur, telegrams would be sent.
In Belgium , traditional telex operations ceased 28 February 2007. The Belgacom Telex services were replaced by RealTelex, an internet based Telex alternative. [35]
In Canada , Telegrams Canada offers a public telegram service.
In Ireland , Eircom – the country's largest telecommunication company and former PTT – formally discontinued Telex services on 30 July 2002. [36]
In Japan , NTT provides a telegram (denpou) service that is today used mainly for special occasions such as weddings, funerals, graduations, etc. [37] Local offices offer telegrams printed on special decorated paper and envelopes.
In Mexico , the telegram is still used as a low-cost communication service for people who cannot afford or do not have the computer skills required to send an e-mail . [38]
In Nepal , the Telex service has been discontinued as of January 1, 2009. Nepal Telecom states the reason for its decision due to "availability of advanced technology in data communication." [39]
In the Netherlands , the telegram service was sold by KPN to Unitel Telegram Services in 2001. On 9 February 2007, according to the online edition of the Telegraaf newspaper, the Netherlands national telecommunications company KPN pulled the plug on the last Telex machine in the Netherlands after having operated a Telex network since 1933. As their Telex service had only 200 remaining customers, it was decided that it was no longer worthwhile to continue to offer Telex within the Netherlands. It is, however, still possible to send Telex messages to foreign customers through the Internet.
In New Zealand , while general public use telegrams have been discontinued, [40] a modern variant has arisen for businesses, mainly utilities and the like, to send urgent confidential messages to their customers, leveraging off the perception that these are important messages. New Zealand Post describes the service as "a cost effective debt collection tool designed to help you to recover overdue money from your customers. New Zealand Post Telegrams are delivered by a courier in a Telegram branded envelope on Telegram branded paper. This has proven to be an effective method to spur customers into immediate action". [41]
In Sweden , TeliaSonera , still delivers telegrams as nostalgic novelty items, rather than a primary means of communication.
In Switzerland , UTS took over telegram services from the national PTTs. Telegrams can still be sent to and from most countries.
In the United Kingdom , the international telegram service formerly provided by British Telecom has been spun off as an independent company Telegrams Online, which promotes the use of telegrams as a retro greeting card or invitation.
In the United States , telegram services are operated by American Telegram, which operates under authority of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as well as iTelegram . Western Union announced the discontinuation of all of its telegram services effective from 31 January 2006. [42] Only 20,000 telegrams were sent in 2005, compared with 20 million in 1929. According to Western Union, which still offers money transfer services, its last telegram was sent Friday, 27 January 2006. [43] The company stated that this was its "final transition from a communications company to a financial services company." [44]
Social implications
Prior to the electrical telegraph , all but very small amounts of information could be moved only a few miles per hour, as fast as a human or animal could travel. The telegraph freed communication from the constraints of geography. [45] It isolated the message (information) from the physical movement of objects or the process. [46]
Telegraphy allowed organizations to actively control physical processes at a distance (for example: railroad signaling and switching of rolling stock), multiplying the effectiveness and functions of communication. "... Once space was, in the phrase of the day, annihilated, once everyone was in the same place for the purposes of trade, time as a new region of experience, uncertainty, speculation, and exploration was opened up to the forces of commerce." [47]
Worldwide telegraphy changed the gathering of information for news reporting. Since the same messages and information would now travel far and wide, the telegraph demanded a language "stripped of the local, the regional; and colloquial". [48] Media language had to be standardized, which led to the gradual disappearance of different forms of speech and styles of journalism and storytelling. It is believed that objective journalism finds its roots in the communicative strictures of the telegraph. [49]
Names of periodicals
The word "Telegraph" still appears in the names of numerous periodicals in various countries, a remnant of the long period when Telegraphy was a major means for newspapers to obtain news information (see Telegraph (disambiguation) ).
See also
^ Carey, James (1989) Communication as Culture, Routledge, New York and London, pp.204
^ Wark, McKenzie (1997) "The Virtual Republic," Allen & Unwin, St. Leonards.
^ Carey, James (1989) Communication as Culture, Routledge, New York and London, pp.201-30
^ Carey, James (1989). Communication as Culture, Routledge, New York and London, p.210
^ Carey, James (1989) Communication as Culture, Routledge, New York and London
Further reading
Armagnay, Henri (1908). "Phototelegraphy" . Annual Report of The Board Of Regents Of The Smithsonian Institution: 197–207. http://books.google.com/books?id=gtQWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA197 . Retrieved 2009-08-07.
Gray, Thomas (1892). "The Inventors Of The Telegraph And Telephone" . Annual Report of The Board Of Regents Of The Smithsonian Institution: 639–659. http://books.google.com/books?id=tnjfe4vEBGwC&pg=PA639 . Retrieved 2009-08-07.
Kieve, Jeffrey L. — The Electric Telegraph: a Social and Economic History David and Charles (1973) ISBN 0-7153-5883-9
Standard, Tom — The Victorian Internet Berkley Trade, (1998) ISBN 0-425-17169-8
Wilson, Geoffrey, The Old Telegraphs, Phillimore & Co Ltd 1976 ISBN 0900592796
External links
| Signal lamp |
The largest sex discrimination lawsuit in US history, which began in 2001 and by 2010 involved 1.5m female workers was filed against which employer? | Telegraphy : definition of Telegraphy and synonyms of Telegraphy (English)
"Telegraph" and "Telegram" redirect here. For other uses, see Telegraph (disambiguation) and Telegram (disambiguation) .
Replica of Claude Chappe 's optical telegraph on the Litermont near Nalbach , Germany
Telegraph (from Greek : tele τηλε "far", and graphein γραφειν "writing") is the long-distance transmission of messages without the physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus semaphore is a method of telegraphy whereas pigeon post is not.
Telegraphy requires that the method used for encoding the message be known to both sender and receiver. Such methods are designed according to the limits of a the signalling medium used. The use of smoke signals , beacons , reflected light signals, and flag semaphore signals are early examples. In the 1800s, the harnessing of electricity brought about the means to transmit signals via electrical telegraph . The advent of radio in the early 1900s brought about radiotelegraphy and other forms of wireless telegraphy . In the Internet age, telegraphic means developed greatly in sophistication and ease of use, with natural language interfaces that hide the underlying code, allowing such technologies as electronic mail and instant messaging .
Contents
16 External links
History
Telegraphs as such have existed in Europe from as early as prior to the Battle of Waterloo , then consisting as semaphores , or optical telegraphs that sent messages to a distant observer through line-of-sight signals. In 1837, American artist-turned inventor Samuel F. B. Morse conducted the first successful experiment with an electrical recording telegraph.
Terminology
A telegraph is a device for transmitting and receiving messages over long distances, i.e., for telegraphy. The word "telegraph" alone now generally refers to an electrical telegraph . Wireless telegraphy is also known as "CW", for continuous wave (a carrier modulated by on-off keying ), as opposed to the earlier radio technique of using a spark gap .[ citation needed ]
Morse argued that the term telegraph can strictly only be applied to systems that transmit and record messages at a distance. This is to be distinguished from semaphore which merely transmits messages. Smoke signals, for instance, are to be considered semaphore, not telegraph. According to Morse, telegraph dates only from 1832 when the first electric telegraph was invented by Schilling. [1]
A telegraph message sent by an electrical telegraph operator or telegrapher using Morse code (or a printing telegraph operator using plain text) was known as a telegram. A cablegram (see cablegram ) was a message sent by a submarine telegraph cable, [2] often shortened to a cable or a wire. Later, a Telex was a message sent by a Telex network, a switched network of teleprinters similar to a telephone network.
Before long distance telephone services were readily available or affordable, telegram services were very popular and the only way to convey information speedily over very long distances. Telegrams were often used to confirm business dealings and were commonly used to create binding legal documents for business dealings. [3]
A wire picture or wire photo was a newspaper picture that was sent from a remote location by a facsimile telegraph . The teleostereograph machine, a forerunner to the modern electronic fax, was developed by AT&T's Bell Labs in the 1920s; however, the first commercial use of image facsimile telegraph devices date back to the time of Samuel F. B. Morse 's invention in the 1800s. Morse and his partner Alfred Vail also invented morse code ).
A diplomatic telegram, also known as a diplomatic cable , is the term given to a confidential communication between a diplomatic mission and the foreign ministry of its parent country. [4] [5] These continue to be called telegrams or cables regardless of the method used for transmission.
Optical telegraph
Main articles: Semaphore line (visual telegraphy using signal arms or shutters), flag semaphore (using hand-held flags), signal lamp (visual naval communications) and heliograph (visual communications using reflected sunlight)
Construction schematic of a Prussian optical telegraph (or semaphore ) tower, C. 1835
The first telegraphs came in the form of optical telegraph including the use of smoke signals , beacons or reflected light , which have existed since ancient times. A semaphore network invented by Claude Chappe operated in France from 1792 through 1846. [6] It helped Napoleon enough to be widely imitated in Europe and the U.S. In the Peninsular War (1807–1814), several similar telegraphs had been used in the Lines of Torres Vedras , by the Anglo-Portuguese army. The Prussian system was put into effect in the 1830s. The last commercial semaphore link ceased operation in Sweden in 1880.
Semaphores were able to convey information more precisely than smoke signals and beacons, and consumed no fuel. Messages could be sent at much greater speed than post riders and could serve entire regions. However, like beacons, smoke and reflected light signals they were highly dependent on good weather and daylight to work (practical electrical lighting was not available until about 1880). They required operators and towers every 30 km (20 mi), and could only accommodate about two words per minute. This was useful to governments, but too expensive for most commercial uses other than commodity price information. Electric telegraphs were to reduce the cost of sending a message thirtyfold compared to semaphores, and could be utilized non-stop, 24 hours per day, independent of the weather or daylight.
Elevated locations where optical telegraphs were placed for maximum visibility were renamed to Telegraph Hill, such as Telegraph Hill, San Francisco , and Telegraph Hill in the PNC Bank Arts Center in New Jersey .
Electrical telegraphs
Main article: Electrical telegraph
One very early experiment in electrical telegraphy was an electrochemical telegraph created by the German physician, anatomist and inventor Samuel Thomas von Sömmering in 1809, based on an earlier, less robust design of 1804 by Spanish-Catalan polymath and scientist Francisco Salvá i Campillo ( es ). [7] Both their designs employed multiple wires (up to 35) in order to visually represent most Latin letters and numerals. Thus, messages could be conveyed electrically up to a few kilometers (in von Sömmering's design), with each of the telegraph receiver's wires immersed in a separate glass tube of acid. As an electric current was applied by the sender representing each digit of a message, it would at the recipient's end electrolyse the acid in its corresponding tube, releasing a stream of hydrogen bubbles next to its associated letter or numeral. The telegraph receiver's operator would visually observe the bubbles and could then record the transmitted message, albeit at a very low baud rate. [7]
One of the earliest electromagnetic telegraph designs was created by Pavel Schilling in 1832.[ citation needed ]
Carl Friedrich Gauss and Wilhelm Weber built and first used for regular communication the electromagnetic telegraph in 1833 in Göttingen , connecting Göttingen Observatory and the Institute of Physics, covering a distance of about 1 km. [8] The setup consisted of a coil which could be moved up and down over the end of two magnetic steel bars. The resulting induction current was transmitted through two wires to the receiver, consisting of a galvanometer . The direction of the current could be reversed by commuting the two wires in a special switch. Therefore, Gauss and Weber chose to encode the alphabet in a binary code, using positive current and negative as the two states.
A replica commissioned by Weber for the 1873 World Fair based on his original designs is on display in the collection of historical instruments in the Department of Physics at University of Göttingen .
There are two versions of the first message sent by Gauss and Weber: the more official one is based on a note in Gauss's own handwriting stating that "Wissen vor meinen – Sein vor scheinen" ("knowing before opining, being before seeming") was the first message sent over the electromagnetic telegraph.
Cooke and Wheatstone's electric telegraph
The more anecdotal version told in Göttingen observatory is that the first message was sent to notify Weber that the observatory's servant was on the way to the institute of physics, and just read "Michelmann kommt" ("Michelmann is on his way"), possibly as a test who would arrive first.
In 1836 an American scientist, Dr. David Alter , invented the first known American electric telegraph , in Elderton, Pennsylvania, one year before the Cooke and Wheatstone and the Morse telegraphs. Alter demonstrated it to witnesses but never developed the idea into a practical system. [9]
The first commercial electrical telegraph was co-developed by Sir William Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone , and entered use on the Great Western Railway in Britain . It ran for 13 miles (21 km) from Paddington station to West Drayton and came into operation on 9 July 1839. [10] It was patented in the United Kingdom in 1837, and was first successfully demonstrated by Cooke and Wheatstone on 25 July 1837 between Euston and Camden Town in London. [11]
Edward Davy demonstrated his telegraph system in Regent's Park in 1837 and was granted a patent on 4 July 1838. He also developed an electric relay. [12]
In 1843 Scottish inventor Alexander Bain invented a device that could be considered the first facsimile machine . He called his invention a "recording telegraph". Bain's telegraph was able to transmit images by electrical wires. In 1855 an Italian abbot, Giovanni Caselli , also created an electric telegraph that could transmit images. Caselli called his invention " Pantelegraph ". Pantelegraph was successfully tested and approved for a telegraph line between Paris and Lyon .
Morse telegraph
A Morse key
An electrical telegraph was independently developed and patented in the United States in 1837 by Samuel Morse . His assistant, Alfred Vail , developed the Morse code signalling alphabet with Morse. The first telegram in the United States was sent by Morse on 11 January 1838, across two miles (3 km) of wire at Speedwell Ironworks near Morristown, New Jersey . On 24 May 1844, he sent the message " WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT " from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the Capitol in Washington to the old Mt. Clare Depot in Baltimore . This message (quoting Numbers 23:23) was chosen by Annie Ellsworth of Lafayette, Indiana, [13] the daughter of Patent Commissioner Henry Leavitt Ellsworth . The message was all capital letters because the original Morse code alphabet had no question mark or lower case.
The Morse/Vail telegraph was quickly deployed in the following two decades; the overland telegraph connected the west coast of the continent to the east coast by 24 October 1861, bringing an end to the Pony Express .
The telegram sent by Samuel F. B. Morse from the Capitol in Washington to Alfred Vail in Baltimore in 1844: "What hath God wrought"
Oceanic telegraph cables
The first commercially successful transatlantic telegraph cable was successfully completed on 18 July 1866. The lasting connections were achieved by the ship SS Great Eastern , captained by Sir James Anderson . [14] Earlier transatlantic submarine cables installations were attempted in 1857, 1858 and 1865. The 1857 cable only operated intermittently for a few days or weeks before it failed. The study of underwater telegraph cables accelerated interest in mathematical analysis of very long transmission lines . The telegraph lines from Britain to India were connected in 1870 (those several companies combined to form the Eastern Telegraph Company in 1872).
Major telegraph lines in 1891
Australia was first linked to the rest of the world in October 1872 by a submarine telegraph cable at Darwin. [15] This brought news reportage from the rest of the world. [16]
Further advancements in telegraph technology occurred in the early 1870s, when Thomas Edison devised a full duplex two-way telegraph and then doubled its capacity with the invention of quadruplex telegraphy in 1874. [17] Edison filed for a U.S. patent on the duplex telegraph on 1 September 1874 and received U.S. Patent 480,567 on 9 August 1892.
The telegraph across the Pacific was completed in 1902, finally encircling the world.
Wireless telegraphy
Main article: Wireless telegraphy
Nikola Tesla and other scientists and inventors showed the usefulness of wireless telegraphy , radiotelegraphy, or radio , beginning in the 1890s. Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrated to the public his wireless radio receiver , which was also used as a lightning detector , [18] on May 7, 1895. He proudly demonstrated his wireless receiver before a group of reporters on a stormy August evening in 1895. It was attached to a long 30 foot pole that he held aloft to maximize the signal. When asked by one of the reporters if it was a good idea to hold this metal rod in the middle of a storm he replied that all was well. After being struck (and nearly killed) by a bolt of lightning he proudly announced to the world that his invention also served as a "lightning detector".
Albert Turpain sent and received his first radio signal, using Morse code, in France , up to 25 meters in 1895. [19]
Guglielmo Marconi sent and received his first radio signal in Italy up to 6 kilometres in 1896. On 13 May 1897, Marconi, assisted by George Kemp, a Cardiff Post Office engineer, transmitted the first wireless signals over water to Lavernock (near Penarth in Wales ) from Flat Holm . [20] Having failed to interest the Italian government, the 22-year-old inventor brought his telegraphy system to Britain and met William Preece , a Welshman, who was a major figure in the field and Chief Engineer of the General Post Office . A pair of masts about 34 metres (112 ft) high were erected, at Lavernock Point and on Flat Holm. The receiving mast at Lavernock Point was a 30-metre (98 ft) high pole topped with a cylindrical cap of zinc connected to a detector with insulated copper wire. At Flat Holm the sending equipment included a Ruhmkorff coil with an eight-cell battery. The first trial on 11 and 12 May failed but on the 13th the mast at Lavernock was extended to 50 metres (164 ft) and the signals, in Morse code, were received clearly. The message sent was "ARE YOU READY"; the Morse slip signed by Marconi and Kemp is now in the National Museum of Wales .
In 1898 Popov accomplished successful experiments of wireless communication between a naval base and a battleship .
In 1900 the crew of the Russian coast defense ship General-Admiral Graf Apraksin as well as stranded Finnish fishermen were saved in the Gulf of Finland because of exchange of distress telegrams between two radiostations, located at Hogland island and inside a Russian naval base in Kotka . Both stations of wireless telegraphy were built under Popov's instructions.
In 1901, Marconi radiotelegraphed the letter "S" across the Atlantic Ocean from his station in Poldhu, Cornwall to St. John's, Newfoundland .
Radiotelegraphy proved effective for rescue work in sea disasters by enabling effective communication between ships and from ship to shore.
Telegraphic improvements
Phelps' Electro-motor Printing Telegraph from circa 1880, the last and most advanced telegraphy mechanism designed by George May Phelps . Note the keyboard for entering the message.
Teletype machines in World War II
A continuing goal in telegraphy has been to reduce the cost per message by reducing hand-work, or increasing the sending rate.[ citation needed ] There were many experiments with moving pointers, and various electrical encodings. However, most systems were too complicated and unreliable. A successful expedient to increase the sending rate was the development of telegraphese .
Other research[ specify ] focused on the multiplexing of telegraph connections. By passing several simultaneous connections through an existing copper wire, capacity could be upgraded without the laying of new cable, a process which remained very costly. Several technologies were developed like Frequency-division multiplexing . Long submarine communications cables became possible in segments with vacuum tube amplifiers between them.
With the invention of the teletypewriter , telegraphic encoding became fully automated. Early teletypewriters used the ITA-1 Baudot code , a five-bit code. This yielded only thirty-two codes, so it was over-defined into two "shifts", "letters" and "figures". An explicit, unshared shift code prefaced each set of letters and figures.
The airline industry remains one of the last users of teletypewriters and in a few situations still sends messages over the SITA or AFTN networks. For example, The British Airways operations computer system ( FICO ) as of 2004 [update] still used teletypewriters to communicate with other airline computer systems.[ citation needed ] The same goes for Programmed Airline Reservation System (PARS) and IPARS that used a similar shifted six-bit Teletype code, because it requires only eight bits per character, saving bandwidth and money. A teletypewriter message is often much smaller than the equivalent EDIFACT or XML message. In recent years as airlines have had access to improved bandwidth in remote locations, IATA standard XML is replacing Teletypewriter data as well as EDI .
CN Telegraph and Cable office
The first electrical telegraph developed a standard signalling system for telecommunications. The "mark" state was defined as the powered state of the wire. In this way, it was immediately apparent when the line itself failed. The moving pointer telegraphs started the pointer's motion with a "start bit" that pulled the line to the unpowered "space" state. In early Telex machines, the start bit triggered a wheeled commutator run by a motor with a precise speed (later, digital electronics). The commutator distributed the bits from the line to a series of relays that would "capture" the bits. A "stop bit" was then sent at the powered "mark state" to assure that the commutator would have time to stop, and be ready for the next character. The stop bit triggered the printing mechanism. Stop bits initially lasted 1.42 baud times (later extended to two as signalling rates increased), in order to give the mechanism time to finish and stop vibrating. Hence an ITA-2 Murray code symbol took 1 start, 5 data, and 1.42 stop (total 7.42) baud times to transmit. [21]
Telex
A Siemens T100 Telex machine
A late-model British Telecom "Puma" Telex machine of the 1980s
By 1935, message routing was the last great barrier to full automation. Large telegraphy providers began to develop systems that used telephone-like rotary dialling to connect teletypewriters. These machines were called "Telex" (TELegraph EXchange). Telex machines first performed rotary-telephone-style pulse dialling for circuit switching , and then sent data by Baudot code . This "type A" Telex routing functionally automated message routing.
The first wide-coverage Telex network was implemented in Germany during the 1930s[ citation needed ] as a network used to communicate within the government.
At the rate of 45.45 (±0.5%) baud — considered speedy at the time — up to 25 telex channels could share a single long-distance telephone channel by using voice frequency telegraphy multiplexing , making telex the least expensive method of reliable long-distance communication.
Canada-wide automatic teleprinter exchange service was introduced by the CPR Telegraph Company and CN Telegraph in July 1957 (the two companies, operated by rivals Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway , would join to form CNCP Telecommunications in 1967). This service supplemented the existing international Telex service that was put in place in November 1956. Canadian Telex customers could connect with nineteen European countries in addition to eighteen Latin American, African, and trans-Pacific countries. [22] The major exchanges were located in Montreal (01), Toronto (02), and Winnipeg (03). [23]
In 1958, Western Union started to build a Telex network in the United States. [24] This Telex network started as a satellite exchange located in New York City and expanded to a nationwide network. Western Union chose Siemens & Halske AG, [25] now Siemens AG, and ITT [26] to supply the exchange equipment, provisioned the exchange trunks via the Western Union national microwave system and leased the exchange to customer site facilities from the local telephone company. Teleprinter equipment was originally provided by Siemens & Halske AG [27] and later by Teletype Corporation. [28] Initial direct International Telex service was offered by Western Union, via W.U. International, in the summer of 1960 with limited service to London and Paris. [29]
In 1962, the major exchanges were located in New York City (1), Chicago (2), San Francisco (3), Kansas City (4) and Atlanta (5). [30] The Telex network expanded by adding the final parent exchanges cities of Los Angeles (6), Dallas (7), Philadelphia (8) and Boston (9) starting in 1966.
The Telex numbering plan, usually a six-digit number in the United States, was based on the major exchange where the customer's Telex machine terminated. [31] For example, all Telex customers that terminated in the New York City exchange were assigned a Telex number that started with a first digit "1". Further, all Chicago based customers had Telex numbers that started with a first digit of "2". This numbering plan was maintained by Western Union as the Telex exchanges proliferated to smaller cities in the United States. The Western Union Telex network was built on three levels of exchanges. [32] The highest level was made up of the nine exchange cities previously mentioned. Each of these cities had the dual capability of terminating both Telex customer lines and setting up trunk connections to multiple distant Telex exchanges. The second level of exchanges, located in large cities such as Buffalo, Cleveland, Miami, Newark, Pittsburgh and Seattle, were similar to the highest level of exchanges in capability of terminating Telex customer lines and setting up trunk connections. However, these second level exchanges had a smaller customer line capacity and only had trunk circuits to regional cities. The third level of exchanges, located in small to medium sized cities, could terminate Telex customer lines and had a single trunk group running to its parent exchange.
Loop signaling was offered in two different configurations for Western Union Telex in the United States. The first option, sometimes called local or loop service , provided a 60 milliampere loop circuit from the exchange to the customer teleprinter. The second option, sometimes called long distance or polar was used when a 60 milliampere connection could not be achieved, provided a ground return polar circuit using 35 milliamperes on separate send and receive wires. By the 1970s, and under pressure from the Bell operating companies wanting to modernize their cable plant and lower the adjacent circuit noise that these Telex circuits sometimes caused, Western Union migrated customers to a third option called F1F2. This F1F2 option replaced the DC voltage of the local and long distance options with modems at the exchange and subscriber ends of the Telex circuit.
Western Union offered connections from Telex to the AT&T TeletypeWriter eXchange (TWX) system in May 1966 via its New York Information Services Computer Center. [33] These connections were limited to those TWX machines that were equipped with automatic answerback capability per CCITT standard.
Telex grew around the world very rapidly. Long before automatic telephony was available, most countries, even in central Africa and Asia , had at least a few high-frequency ( shortwave ) Telex links. Often these radio links were first established by government postal and telegraph services (PTTs). The most common radio standard, CCITT R.44 had error-corrected retransmitting time-division multiplexing of radio channels. Most impoverished PTTs operated their Telex-on-radio (TOR) channels non-stop, to get the maximum value from them.
The cost of TOR equipment has continued to fall. Although initially specialised equipment was required, many amateur radio operators now operate TOR (also known as RTTY ) with special software and inexpensive hardware to adapt computer sound cards to short-wave radios. [34]
Modern "cablegrams" or "telegrams" actually operate over dedicated Telex networks, using TOR whenever required.[ citation needed ]
Operation and applications
Telex messages are routed by addressing them to a Telex address, e.g., "14910 ERIC S", where 14910 is the subscriber number, ERIC is an abbreviation for the subscriber's name (in this case Telefonaktiebolaget L.M. Ericsson in Sweden) and S is the country code. Solutions also exist for the automatic routing of messages to different Telex terminals within a subscriber organization, by using different terminal identities, e.g., "+T148".
A major advantage of Telex is that the receipt of the message by the recipient could be confirmed with a high degree of certainty by the "answerback". At the beginning of the message, the sender would transmit a WRU (Who aRe yoU) code, and the recipient machine would automatically initiate a response which was usually encoded in a rotating drum with pegs, much like a music box . The position of the pegs sent an unambiguous identifying code to the sender, so the sender could verify connection to the correct recipient. The WRU code would also be sent at the end of the message, so a correct response would confirm that the connection had remained unbroken during the message transmission. This gave Telex a major advantage over less verifiable forms of communications such as telephone and fax.
The usual method of operation was that the message would be prepared off-line, using paper tape . All common Telex machines incorporated a 5-hole paper-tape punch and reader. Once the paper tape had been prepared, the message could be transmitted in minimum time. Telex billing was always by connected duration, so minimizing the connected time saved money. However, it was also possible to connect in "real time", where the sender and the recipient could both type on the keyboard and these characters would be immediately printed on the distant machine.
Telex could also be used as a rudimentary but functional carrier of information from one IT system to another, in effect a primitive forerunner of Electronic Data Interchange . The sending IT system would create an output (e.g., an inventory list) on paper tape using a mutually agreed format. The tape would be sent by Telex and collected on a corresponding paper tape by the receiver and this tape could then be read into the receiving IT system.
One use of Telex circuits, in use until the wide-scale adoption of x.400 and Internet email, was to facilitate a message handling system, allowing local email systems to exchange messages with other email and Telex systems via a central routing operation, or switch. One of the largest such switches was operated by Royal Dutch Shell as recently as 1994, permitting the exchange of messages between a number of IBM Officevision, Digital Equipment Corporation All-In-One and Microsoft Mail systems. In addition to permitting email to be sent to Telex addresses, formal coding conventions adopted in the composition of Telex messages enabled automatic routing of Telexes to email recipients.
TeletypeWriter eXchange
The TeletypeWriter eXchange (TWX) was developed by the Bell System in the United States and originally ran at 45.45 baud or 60 words per minute, using five level Baudot code . Bell later developed a second generation of TWX called "four row" that ran at 110 baud, using eight level ASCII code. The Bell System offered both "3-row" Baudot and "4-row" ASCII TWX service up to the late 1970s.
TWX used the public switched telephone network. In addition to having separate Area Codes (510, 610, 710, 810, and 910) for the TWX service, the TWX lines were also set up with a special Class of Service to prevent connections to and from POTS to TWX and vice versa.
The code/speed conversion between "3-row" Baudot and "4-row" ASCII TWX service was accomplished using a special Bell "10A/B board" via a live operator. A TWX customer would place a call to the 10A/B board operator for Baudot – ASCII calls, ASCII – Baudot calls and also TWX Conference calls. The code / speed conversion was done by a Western Electric unit that provided this capability. There were multiple code / speed conversion units at each operator position.
Western Union purchased the TWX system from AT&T in January 1969. [35] The TWX system and the special area codes (510, 610, 710, 810, and 910) continued right up to 1981 when Western Union completed the conversion to the Western Union Telex II system. Any remaining "3-row" Baudot customers were converted to Western Union Telex service during the period 1979 to 1981.
The modem for this service was the Bell 101 dataset, which is the direct ancestor of the Bell 103 modem that launched computer time-sharing . The 101 was revolutionary, because it ran on ordinary unconditioned telephone subscriber lines, allowing the Bell System to run TWX along with POTS on a single public switched telephone network.
International Record Carriers
Bell's original consent agreement limited it to international dial telephony. The Western Union Telegraph Company had given up its international telegraphic operation in a 1939 bid to monopolize U.S. telegraphy by taking over ITT's PTT business. The result was a de-emphasis on Telex in the U.S. and a "cat's cradle" of international Telex and telegraphy companies. The Federal Communications Commission referred to these companies as "International Record Carriers" (IRCs).
Western Union Telegraph Company developed a subsidiary named Western Union Cable System. This company later was renamed as Western Union International (WUI) when it was spun off by Western Union as an independent company. WUI was purchased by MCI Communications (MCI) in 1983 and operated as a subsidiary of MCI International.
ITT's "World Communications" division (later known as ITT World Communications) was amalgamated from many smaller companies, several of which were organized under the American Cable and Radio Corporation : Federal Telegraph , "All American Cables and Radio", "Globe Wireless", and the common carrier division of Mackay Marine. ITT World Communications was purchased by Western Union in 1987.
RCA Communications (later known as RCA Global Communications) had specialized in global radiotelegraphic connections. In 1986 it was purchased by MCI International.
Before World War I, the Tropical Radiotelegraph Company (later known as Tropical Radio Telecommunications, or TRT) put radio telegraphs on ships for its owner, the United Fruit Company (UFC) , to enable them to deliver bananas to the best-paying markets. Communications expanded to UFC's plantations, and were eventually provided to local governments. TRT eventually became the national carrier for many small Central American nations.
The French Telegraph Cable Company (later known as FTC Communications, or just FTCC), which was owned by French investors, had always been in the U.S. It laid undersea cable from the U.S. to France. It was formed by Monsieur Puyer-Quartier. International telegrams routed via FTCC were routed using the telegraphic routing ID "PQ", which are the initials of the founder of the company.
Firestone Rubber developed its own IRC, the "Trans-Liberia Radiotelegraph Company".[ citation needed ] It operated shortwave from Akron, Ohio , to the rubber plantations in Liberia . TL is still based in Akron.
Bell Telex users had to select which IRC to use, and then append the necessary routing digits. The IRCs converted between TWX and Western Union Telegraph Co. standards.
Arrival of the Internet
Main article: History of the Internet . See also: E-mail and ARPANET
Around 1965, DARPA commissioned a study of decentralized switching systems. Some of the ideas developed in this study provided inspiration for the development of the ARPANET packet switching research network, which later grew to become the public Internet .
As the PSTN became a digital network, T-carrier "synchronous" networks became commonplace in the U.S. A T1 line has a "frame" of 193 bits that repeats 8000 times per second. The first bit, called the "sync" bit, alternates between 1 and 0 to identify the start of the frames. The rest of the frame provides 8 bits for each of 24 separate voice or data channels. Customarily, a T-1 link is sent over a balanced twisted pair, isolated with transformers to prevent current flow. Europeans adopted a similar system ( E-1 ) of 32 channels (with one channel for frame synchronisation).
Later, SONET and SDH were adapted to combine carrier channels into groups that could be sent over optic fiber . The capacity of an optic fiber is often extended with wavelength division multiplexing , rather than rerigging new fibre. Rigging several fibres in the same structures as the first fibre is usually easy and inexpensive, and many fibre installations include unused spare " dark fibre ", "dark wavelengths", and unused parts of the SONET frame, so-called "virtual channels".
In 2002, the Internet was used by Kevin Warwick at the University of Reading to communicate neural signals, in purely electronic form, telegraphically between the nervous systems of two humans, [36] potentially opening up a new form of communication combining the Internet and telegraphy.
In 2006, a well-defined communication channel used for telegraphy was established by the SONET standard OC-768 , which sent about 40 gigabits per second.
The theoretical maximum capacity of an optic fiber is more than 1012 bits (one terabit or one trillion bits) per second[ citation needed ]. In 2006, no existing encoding system approached this theoretical limit, even with wavelength division multiplexing.
Since the Internet operates over any digital transmission medium, further evolution of telegraphic technology will be effectively concealed from users.
E-mail displaces telegraphy
Main article: E-mail
E-mail was first invented for CTSS and similar time sharing systems of the era in the mid-1960s. [37] At first, e-mail was possible only between different accounts on the same computer (typically a mainframe ). ARPANET allowed different computers to be connected to allow e-mails to be relayed from computer to computer, with the first ARPANET e-mail being sent in 1971. [38] Multics also pioneered instant messaging between computer users in the mid-1970s. With the growth of the Internet, e-mail began to be possible between any two computers with access to the Internet. This led to the development of a form of communication that is a hybrid between a telegram and an email, namely the Edigram .[ citation needed ] Such communications could be sent on a round-the-clock basis, and were characterized as being short, concise and lacking any superfluous terms.
Various private networks like UUNET (founded 1987), the Well (1985), and GEnie (1985) had e-mail from the 1970s, but subscriptions were quite expensive for an individual, US$25 to US$50 per month, just for e-mail. Internet use was then largely limited to government, academia and other government contractors until the net was opened to commercial use in the 1980s.
By the early 1990s, modems made e-mail a viable alternative to Telex systems in a business environment. But individual e-mail accounts were not widely available until local Internet service providers were in place, although demand grew rapidly, as e-mail was seen as the Internet's killer app . It allowed anyone to email anyone, whereas previously, different system had been walled off from each other, such that America Online subscribers could only email other America Online subscribers, Compuserve subscribers could only email other Compuserve subscribers, etc. The broad user base created by the demand for e-mail smoothed the way for the rapid acceptance of the World Wide Web in the mid-1990s.[ citation needed ] Fax machines were another technology that helped displace the telegram.
On Monday, 12 July 1999, a final telegram was sent from the National Liberty Ship Memorial, the SS Jeremiah O'Brien , in San Francisco Bay to President Bill Clinton in the White House. Officials of Globe Wireless reported that "The message was 95 words, and it took six or eight minutes to copy it." They then transmitted the message to the White House via e-mail. That event was also used to mark the final commercial U.S. ship-to-shore telegraph message transmitted from North America by Globe Wireless, a company founded in 1911. Sent from its wireless station at Half Moon Bay, California , the sign-off message was a repeat of Samuel F. B. Morse's message 155 years earlier, "What hath God wrought?" [39]
Worldwide status of telegram services
In Australia , Australia Post closed its telegram service on 7 March 2011. In the Victorian town of Beechworth , visitors can send telegrams to family members or friends from the Beechworth Telegraph Station. [40]
In Bahrain , Batelco still offers telegram services. They are thought to be more formal than an email or a fax, but less so than a letter. So should a death or anything of importance occur, telegrams would be sent.
In Belgium , Belgacom still offers telegram services within the country and internationally. [41]
In Canada , Telegrams Canada still offers telegram services. AT&T Canada had discontinued its telegram service in 2001 and later became MTS Allstream .
In Germany , Deutsche Post delivers telegrams the next day as ordinary mail. Deutsche Post discontinued service to foreign countries on 31 December 2000. [42] [43] A private firm, TelegrammDirekt.de, offers delivery in Germany and service to a number of foreign countries. [44]
In Ireland , Eircom – the country's largest telecommunication company and former PTT – formally discontinued telegram service on 30 July 2002. [45]
In Japan , NTT provides a telegram (denpou) service used mainly for special occasions such as weddings, funerals, graduations, etc. [46] Local offices offer telegrams printed on special decorated paper and envelopes.
In Lithuania , telegram service was closed by the only provider Teo LT on 15 October 2007. [47]
In Mexico , telegrams are still used as a low-cost service for people who cannot afford or do not have access to e-mail . [48]
In Nepal , Nepal Telecom closed its telegram service on 1 January 2009. [49]
In the Netherlands , the telegram service was sold by KPN to the Swiss-based company Unitel Telegram Services in 2001.
In New Zealand , New Zealand Post closed its telegram service in 1999. It later reinstated the service in 2003 for use only by business customers, primarily for debt collection or other important business notices.
In Sweden , TeliaSonera , still delivers telegrams as nostalgic novelty items, rather than a primary means of communication.
In Switzerland , Unitel Telegram Services took over telegram services from the national PTTs. Telegrams can still be sent to and from most countries.
In the United Kingdom , the international telegram service formerly provided by British Telecom was sold in 2003 to an independent company, Telegrams Online, [50] which promotes the use of telegrams as a retro greeting card or invitation.
In the United States , Western Union closed its telegram service on 27 January 2006. [51] Western Union's telegram service was acquired by iTelegram , an independent company. Telegrams, Flowergrams, and Candygrams are also offered by independent companies such as American Telegram . [52]
Social implications
The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page .
(January 2012)
Prior to the electrical telegraph , nearly all information was limited to traveling at the speed of a human or animal. The telegraph freed communication from the constraints of space and time and truly affected how Americans lived their lives. [53] In 1870, 9,158,000 messages were handled by the telegraph network in the United States but by 1900 the number had risen to 63,168,000. [54] These numbers indicate the increased frequency of use and the degree of which Americans were quickly accepting the telegraph. The telegraph isolated the message (information) from the physical movement of objects or the process. [55]
Telegraphy facilitated the growth of organizations "in the railroads, consolidated financial and commodity markets, and reduced information costs within and between firms." [54] This immense growth in the business sectors influenced society to embrace the use of telegrams.
Worldwide telegraphy changed the gathering of information for news reporting. Messages and information would now travel far and wide, and the telegraph demanded a language "stripped of the local, the regional; and colloquial," to better facilitate a worldwide media language. [55] Media language had to be standardized, which led to the gradual disappearance of different forms of speech and styles of journalism and storytelling.
Names of periodicals
The word telegraph still appears in the names of numerous periodicals in various countries, a legacy of the long period when Telegraphy was a major means for newspapers to obtain news information (see Telegraph (disambiguation) ).
See also
Entores Ltd v Miles Far East Corporation is a landmark English Court of Appeal decision in contract law on the moment of acceptance of a contract over telex.
^ Downey, Gregory J. (2002) Telegraph Messenger Boys: Labor, Technology, and Geography, 1850-1950, Routledge, New York and London, p. 7
^ a b Economic History Encyclopedia (2010) "History of the U.S. Telegraph Industry", http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/nonnenmacher.industry.telegraphic.us
^ a b Carey, James (1989). Communication as Culture, Routledge, New York and London, p. 210
Further reading
Armagnay, Henri (1908). "Phototelegraphy" . Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution: 197–207. http://books.google.com/?id=gtQWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA197 . Retrieved 2009-08-07.
Gray, Thomas (1892). "The Inventors Of The Telegraph And Telephone" . Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution: 639–659. http://books.google.com/?id=tnjfe4vEBGwC&pg=PA639 . Retrieved 2009-08-07.
John, Richard R . Network Nation: Inventing American Telecommunications (Harvard University Press; 2010) 520 pages; traces the evolution of the country's telegraph and telephone networks.
Kieve, Jeffrey L. — The Electric Telegraph: a Social and Economic History David and Charles (1973) ISBN 0-7153-5883-9
Standage, Tom — The Victorian Internet Berkley Trade, (1998) ISBN 0-425-17169-8
Wheen, Andrew;— DOT-DASH TO DOT.COM: How Modern Telecommunications Evolved from the Telegraph to the Internet (Springer, 2011) ISBN 978-1-4419-6759-6
Wilson, Geoffrey, The Old Telegraphs, Phillimore & Co Ltd 1976 ISBN 0-900592-79-6
External links
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
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Which Scottish castle did Queen Victoria and husband Prince Albert buy in 1852? | Balmoral - The history of the Scottish holiday home to the Royal Family.
The history of the Scottish holiday home to the Royal Family
Balmoral Castle has been the Scottish home of the Royal Family since it was purchased for Queen Victoria by Prince Albert in 1852, having been first leased in 1848.
In the autumn of 1842, two and a half years after her marriage to Prince Albert, Queen Victoria paid her first visit to Scotland. They were so struck with the Highlands that they resolved to return. A further visit to Perthshire and then Ardverikie encouraged them to seize the opportunity to purchase Balmoral.
After searching enquiries they bought the estate on the 17th February 1848 and on 8th September 1848 they arrived to take possession of a property they had never seen, but to which they had committed themselves for many years to come. They were not disappointed and when they returned South they opened negotiations for the purchase of the land on which Balmoral stood.
These protracted negotiations were completed on 22nd June 1852, when the fee simple of Balmoral was purchased by Prince Albert. Once the land was purchased they decided to rebuild as the building was no longer adequate for their needs. The architect selected was William Smith, City Architect of Aberdeen. Soon after the family arrived at the Castle, Mr Smith was summoned from Aberdeen on 8th September 1852.
Prince Albert decided to build a new Castle as the current one was considered not large enough for the Royal Family. A new site was chosen, 100 yards to the North West of the building, so that they could continue to occupy the old house while the new Castle was under construction.
The foundation stone for Balmoral Castle was laid by Queen Victoria on 28th September 1853 and can be found at the foot of the wall adjacent to the West face of the entrance porch. Before the foundation stone was placed in position Queen Victoria signed a parchment recording the date. This parchment, together with an example of each of the current coins of the realm, was then placed in a bottle, inserted into a cavity below the site prepared for the stone.
The Castle was completed in 1856 and the old building was then demolished. This building is commemorated by a stone which is located on the front lawn at a point opposite the tower and about 100 yards from the path. This stone marks the position of the front door to the demolished castle.
When Queen Victoria died in 1901 Balmoral Estates passed, under the terms of her will, to King Edward VII, and from him to each of his successors. Balmoral Estates has been more than just a favourite home to successive generations of the Royal Family .
Although it remains largely the same as it was in Queen Victoria's reign, successive Royal owners have followed the initiative of Prince Albert in making improvements to the estate.
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South-West is how many degrees on a compass? | 1000+ images about Balmoral Castle on Pinterest | Edinburgh, Prince andrew and August 15
Pinterest • The world’s catalog of ideas
Balmoral Castle
Balmoral Estates The Estates Office Balmoral Estates BALLATER Aberdeenshire, AB35 5TB Scotland, UK PHONE: 013397 42534 FAX: 013397 42034 [email protected]
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'Cucumber Time' is the quiet season in which trade? | World Wide Words: Cucumber time
Cucumber time
Cucumber time appears in the Oxford English Dictionary, with the first example being this:
Cucumbers, Taylers. Cucumber-time, Taylers Holiday, when they have leave to Play, and Cucumbers are in season.
A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew, 1700. Tayler is a variant spelling of tailor.
The entry doesn’t explain what cucumber time actually is. From the examples, it becomes clear that it’s a season of the year, obviously summer. A correspondent to the scholarly publication Notes and Queries in 1853 explained: “This term ... the working-tailors of England use to denote that which their masters call ‘the flat season’”. The Pall Mall Gazette enlarged on that in 1867: “Tailors could not be expected to earn much money ‘in cucumber season.’ Because when cucumbers are in, the gentry are out of town.” So it is the dull time of year, when orders are few, work is slack and tailors perforce have time to themselves (the use of play in the 1700 dictionary is clearly sarcastic).
After 1861, the British media started to refer to this period of high summer as the silly season, originally the time of year when Parliament and the law courts were in recess, anybody of substance had left London and news was in short supply. (The term was the invention of an unsung writer on the old Saturday Review.)
Tailors became known slangily as cucumbers because of this reference to their cucumber time. The OED’s entry for this sense of cucumber consists of a mystified note by the editor that cucumber, is “used with some obscure reference to a tailor”. The writer to Notes and Queries attempted to explain this, too:
Cucumber Time. — This term ... has been imported from a country which periodically sends many hundreds of its tailors to seek employment in our metropolis. The German phrase is “Die saure Gurken Zeit,” or pickled gherkin time.
Notes and Queries, 5 Nov. 1853.
Sauregurkenzeit (as it is usually written) is indeed a German idiom with that literal meaning, which expresses the same idea as the English silly season. However, the writer’s assertion requires German tailors to have been coming to Britain before 1700, which may have been so, though I suspect the writer would have been hard pressed to provide evidence.
What is odder still is that several languages contain literal translations of the phrase cucumber time or cucumber season or its near-equivalent using gherkin: Estonian (hapukurgihooaeg), Dutch (komkommertijd), Norwegian (agurktid), Hungarian (uborkaszezon), Czech (Okurková sezóna), Polish (Sezon ogórkowy), and Hebrew (Onat Ha’melafefonim). Both the Dutch and Norwegian terms are said to be from English. But, as a guess, unsupported by evidence but with the Hebrew usage as a pointer and remembering the strong traditional association of Jews with tailoring, might it be that the expression was originally Yiddish?
As a further excursion into slang, there’s this quip, which was quoted by the same correspondent to Notes and Queries:
Tailors are vegetarians, who “live on cucumber” while at play, and on “cabbage” while at work.
You might think cabbage here is the slang term for money, but that’s twentieth century and American. The cabbage in this case is, however, an equivalent idea, since it was the name given to the waste cloth left over when tailors cut out clothes, and which was appropriated by them as a perquisite. Peter Scoging tells me that cabbage in this sense is still used in the garment trade in Britain.
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Which bird, which lays the largest egg in proportion to its body size of all birds, is an apteryx? | The Stone Twins > Enlightenment > Columns > Cucumber Time
Cucumber Time
5th August 2013
Just a few days into August, and it’s officially ‘Komkommertijd’ – or cucumber time. A silly name for a period that the rest of the world calls the silly season. A time of year when nothing is supposed to happen. When Parliament is in recess, and when anybody of substance or those with school kids migrate southwards. Typically, news is in short supply, and the news media publish fabricated and frivolous articles. Just like this one.
Actually, when news of the Omnicom and Publicis merger first broke, one could have been forgiven for thinking it to be some silly season tale. Similarly, how extraordinary is the story that Queen Elizabeth prepared a speech for World War III in 1983? or that Berlusconi is going to jail, the US has closed all its embassies and Gareth Bale is actually Cornelius from Planet of the Apes? In this quiet period of humdrum coverage, it’s often difficult to distinguish legitimate news stories from the prankish ones. Even those on botoxed chipmunks, flying ostriches or Thai air drummers. De Telegraaf tends to keep the silly season going all year round, but lately it has enjoyed a good run of “Germans digging in Scheveningen” stories.
Apart from the silly news, Komkommertijd is also the period when supermarkets are out of peanut butter, hagelslag, liquorice and all the other essentials that Dutch holidaymakers stuff into their caravans. It’s a time when crappy TV is full of crappy repeats, and even crappier advertising. And when more useless photographs of pink wine, idiotic tattoos and jolly times on canal boats are posted to Facebook. More silly ‘Likes’, please.
According to a scholarly link, the term cucumber time can be traced back to the English tailoring trade of the 1850s: “Tailors earned little during the summer months… when cucumbers are in, and the gentry are out of town.” So, there we go. However, the Brits will never embrace the term again. Since the 1970s when the cucumber was a sitcom stalwart, it will forever be associated with saucy double entendres. At least, they know where to stick it. Cor blimey!
During Komkommertijd, the long green cylindrical vegetable that is called a cucumber actually plays no role. There’s no discernible increase in its visibility or added activity from the Cucumber Council of Holland. You might see slices in salads or on the eyeballs of your mother-in-law, but cucumbers remain as anonymous as Edward Snowden. In fact, Komkommertijd specifically references pickled cucumbers or gherkins (those vinegary green things that you only see in a Big Mac). The Germans call the season ‘Sauregurkenzeit’, or pickled gherkin time. So perhaps, that’s a better phrase for this quiet period? with those non-holidaymakers in a type of marinated cryosleep – preserved in an acidic solution until the last week of August.
Ironically, in the month when nothing is supposed to happen, many quite serious things have occurred in August. How about the small matter of World War I breaking out? or the time Hitler invaded Poland? Clinton’s admission of an improper physical relationship? or, when the entire global financial system melted, just like a big ice lolly? The silly season is upon us – though, don’t get complacent. Parliaments may be adjourned and newspapers are full of twaddle, but be prepared. Stay as cool as a cucumber and please don’t leave home without one.
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Who is the twin sister of Sebastian in William Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night'? | SparkNotes: Twelfth Night: Plot Overview
Twelfth Night
Context
Character List
In the kingdom of Illyria, a nobleman named Orsino lies around listening to music, pining away for the love of Lady Olivia. He cannot have her because she is in mourning for her dead brother and refuses to entertain any proposals of marriage. Meanwhile, off the coast, a storm has caused a terrible shipwreck. A young, aristocratic-born woman named Viola is swept onto the Illyrian shore. Finding herself alone in a strange land, she assumes that her twin brother, Sebastian, has been drowned in the wreck, and tries to figure out what sort of work she can do. A friendly sea captain tells her about Orsino’s courtship of Olivia, and Viola says that she wishes she could go to work in Olivia’s home. But since Lady Olivia refuses to talk with any strangers, Viola decides that she cannot look for work with her. Instead, she decides to disguise herself as a man, taking on the name of Cesario, and goes to work in the household of Duke Orsino.
Viola (disguised as Cesario) quickly becomes a favorite of Orsino, who makes Cesario his page. Viola finds herself falling in love with Orsino—a difficult love to pursue, as Orsino believes her to be a man. But when Orsino sends Cesario to deliver Orsino’s love messages to the disdainful Olivia, Olivia herself falls for the beautiful young Cesario, believing her to be a man. The love triangle is complete: Viola loves Orsino, Orsino loves Olivia, and Olivia loves Cesario—and everyone is miserable.
Meanwhile, we meet the other members of Olivia’s household: her rowdy drunkard of an uncle, Sir Toby; his foolish friend, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, who is trying in his hopeless way to court Olivia; Olivia’s witty and pretty waiting-gentlewoman, Maria; Feste, the clever clown of the house; and Malvolio, the dour, prudish steward of Olivia’s household. When Sir Toby and the others take offense at Malvolio’s constant efforts to spoil their fun, Maria engineers a practical joke to make Malvolio think that Olivia is in love with him. She forges a letter, supposedly from Olivia, addressed to her beloved (whose name is signified by the letters M.O.A.I.), telling him that if he wants to earn her favor, he should dress in yellow stockings and crossed garters, act haughtily, smile constantly, and refuse to explain himself to anyone. Malvolio finds the letter, assumes that it is addressed to him, and, filled with dreams of marrying Olivia and becoming noble himself, happily follows its commands. He behaves so strangely that Olivia comes to think that he is mad.
Meanwhile, Sebastian, who is still alive after all but believes his sister Viola to be dead, arrives in Illyria along with his friend and protector, Antonio. Antonio has cared for Sebastian since the shipwreck and is passionately (and perhaps sexually) attached to the young man—so much so that he follows him to Orsino’s domain, in spite of the fact that he and Orsino are old enemies.
Sir Andrew, observing Olivia’s attraction to Cesario (still Viola in disguise), challenges Cesario to a duel. Sir Toby, who sees the prospective duel as entertaining fun, eggs Sir Andrew on. However, when Sebastian—who looks just like the disguised Viola—appears on the scene, Sir Andrew and Sir Toby end up coming to blows with Sebastian, thinking that he is Cesario. Olivia enters amid the confusion. Encountering Sebastian and thinking that he is Cesario, she asks him to marry her. He is baffled, since he has never seen her before. He sees, however, that she is wealthy and beautiful, and he is therefore more than willing to go along with her. Meanwhile, Antonio has been arrested by Orsino’s officers and now begs Cesario for help, mistaking him for Sebastian. Viola denies knowing Antonio, and Antonio is dragged off, crying out that Sebastian has betrayed him. Suddenly, Viola has newfound hope that her brother may be alive.
Malvolio’s supposed madness has allowed the gleeful Maria, Toby, and the rest to lock Malvolio into a small, dark room for his treatment, and they torment him at will. Feste dresses up as "Sir Topas," a priest, and pretends to examine Malvolio, declaring him definitely insane in spite of his protests. However, Sir Toby begins to think better of the joke, and they allow Malvolio to send a letter to Olivia, in which he asks to be released.
Eventually, Viola (still disguised as Cesario) and Orsino make their way to Olivia’s house, where Olivia welcomes Cesario as her new husband, thinking him to be Sebastian, whom she has just married. Orsino is furious, but then Sebastian himself appears on the scene, and all is revealed. The siblings are joyfully reunited, and Orsino realizes that he loves Viola, now that he knows she is a woman, and asks her to marry him. We discover that Sir Toby and Maria have also been married privately. Finally, someone remembers Malvolio and lets him out of the dark room. The trick is revealed in full, and the embittered Malvolio storms off, leaving the happy couples to their celebration.
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| Viola |
In which South American country is the region and its regional capital city called Arequipa, the nation's second largest city (as at 2010)? | Twelfth Night | Literawiki | Fandom powered by Wikia
Plot
Act I
The play opens in Duke Orsino's palace. Orsino makes a great show of being lovesick for Countess Olivia. A messenger returns and tells Orsino that Olivia will not receive any suitors for the next seven years because she is in mourning for her recently deceased brother. Surprisingly, Orsino is encouraged by this news. He is impressed that Olivia demonstrates so much love for a brother and is certain that one day she will love him even more.
The scene then changes to the sea coast. Following a shipwreck, Viola has become seperated from her twin brother Sebastian and does not know if her brother is dead or alive. The sea captain who is with her tells Viola that she is in Illyria and that the country is governed by Duke Orsino. Viola decides to disguise herself as a youn man and persuades the captain to present her to the duke as a servant.
The next scene introduces some other characters who live in Olivia's house: the maidservant Maria, Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek. Sir Toby Belch is an older relative of Olivia but their exact relationship is not clear. Sir Toby calls Olivia both his niece and his cousin but the meanings of the words "cousin", "niece" and "uncle" were not as precise in 17th century English as they are now. As his name suggests, Sir Toby Belch is a glutton and a drunkard. There is a hint of a romantic relationship between Maria and Sir Toby. Sir Andrew Aguecheek has come to visit Sir Toby. He believes himself to be Sir Toby's friend. Sir Toby constantly makes fun of him behind his back but is eager for him to marry Olivia. By his own admission, Sir Andrew is not very intelligent and looks sickly (the word "ague" means "fever").
This painting by Frederick Richard Pickersgill shows the Twelfth Night characters Viola (disguised as the young man Cesario) and the Countess Olivia.
The following scene takes place several weeks after the shipwreck. Viola has disguised herself as a young man and is using the name Cesario. Viola has won the confidence of Duke Orsino and is sent to Olivia's house to pass on a message of love.
The final scene introduces more servants in Olivia's household: Feste the jester and the steward Malvolio. Feste tells Olivia that she is a greater fool than he is because she is sad even though her brother is in Heaven. Olivia is impressed with Feste's wit but Malvolio does not hide his dislike for Feste and jesters in general.
Sir Toby tells Olivia that a messenger from Orsino has come to see her. Olivia agrees to see the messenger, at first she and Maria, both wearing veils, speak to Viola who does not know which one is the real Olivia. However, Olivia is instantly smitten with the handsome "Cesario". After Viola leaves, Olivia tells Malvolio that the messenger left a ring behind and tells him to return it.
Act II
1838 depiction of the British comic actor George Bartley (1782-1858) as Sir Toby Belch.
The beginning of Act II reveals that Sebastian is still alive. He has been living for several months with another sea captain called Antonio who is wanted for piracy by Duke Orsino.
In the following scene, Malvolio catches up with Viola and tries to return the ring. Viola will not take the ring because she did not leave it behind. Malvolio throws it to the ground and declares that whoever wants it can take it. Viola realises that Olivia has fallen in love with her and says, "Poor lady, she were better love a dream."
The next scene shows Sir Toby and Sir Andrew returning to Olivias house drunk very late at night. They continue their drunken party in the house and are joined by Feste and Maria. The party ends abruptly when Malvolio appears and scolds them all. Maria begins to hatch a plot to take revenge on Malvolio. She says that her handwriting is very similar to Olivia's and she will write a letter that will make Malvolio believe the countess is in love with him.
The scene which follows takes place in Orsino's palace. Feste is brought over to sing a sad love song for the duke. Viola tells Orsino that she is in love with someone who looks similar to him and is about his age. Orsino does not understand the true meaning of this and advises "Cesario" to court a younger woman.
The final scene of Act II begins with Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and a male servant of Olivia's named Fabian secretly watching Malvolio find the letter they have left for him. Malvolio finds the letter whic he believes is from Olivia. He reads that Olivia would like to see him wearing yellow stockings and cross-garters (a style that was already old-fashioned in Shakespeare's time). After he leaves, Maria arrives. She is told that Malvolio has fallen for their trick and she reveals that Olivia hates cross-garters and the color yellow.
Act III
Viola is sent again to Olivia's house. She attempts to pass on Orsino's message of love and to discourage the countess from taking a romantic interest in her.
In the next scene, Sir Andrew Aguecheek declares that he is leaving because Olivia is more interested in "Cesario" than in him. Sir Toby and Fabian tell him to challenge "Cesario" to a duel.
Malvolio appears before Olivia wearing cross-gartered yellow stockings. This image is based on a painting by Daniel Maclise (1811-1870).
The following scene shows Sebastian and Antonio. Antonio lends Sebastian some money and they agree to meet up at an inn later.
The final scene of Act III begins with Maria warning Olivia that Malvolio has gone mad. He enters wearing yellow stockings and cross-garters and quotes the love letter which he believes Olivia sent to him. Olivia believes that Malvolio has become a dangerous madman.
Viola is challenged to a duel by Sir Andrew but their fight is interrupted by Antonio who mistakes Viola for her twin brother Sebastian. Some officers arrive and arrest Antonio for piracy. Antonio asks Viola for the money that he lent to Sebastian. When Viola is unable to return the money, he accuses "Sebastian" of being an ungrateful false friend.
This 1771 illustration by Francis Wheatley shows Viola, on the left with Fabian, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek, on the right with Sir Toby Belch, preparing for their duel.
After Antonio is taken away, Viola realises that he called her "Sebastian" and that her brother may still be alive.
The act ends with Fabian, Sir Toby and Sir Andrew complaining about "Cesario's" cowardice and vowing to beat him later.
Act IV
Sir Andrew and Sir Toby see Sebastian, mistake him for "Cesario" and begin to beat him. Sebastian is better at fighting than his attackers but the fight is stopped by Olivia. Sebastian, uncertain if he is awake or dreaming, agrees to be Olivia's lover.
The following scene shows Feste putting on a robe and a false beard to disguise himself as a priest called Sir Topas (a name taken from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales ) and preparing to visit Malvolio to further taunt him. Malvolio has been locked in a dark room. As Sir Topas, Feste mocks Malvolio by telling him that the room has large wndows and is full of light.
Feste then reappears as himself and asks Malvolio if he is mad. Malvolio replies that he is just as sane as Feste. The jester taunts him for saying that he is as sane as a fool but agrees to fetch him a light, paper and ink so that he can write an explanatory letter to Olivia.
The act ends with a priest arriving to marry Sebastian and Olivia.
Act V
Antonio is brought before Orsino and Viola. Orsino tells Antonio that he is wrong to say that he lived with "Cesario" for many months because during that time "Cesario" was a servant in the duke's house.
The priest tells Orsino that he has married Olivia to "Cesario" in this painting by William Hamilton (1751-1801).
Olivia arrives and calls Viola "husband". Viola denies having married Olivia but the priest is called for and says that he married them just two hours earlier. An angry Orsino is about to leave, saying that he never wants to see the deceptive "Cesario" again.
Sir Andrew and Sir Toby arrive and complain about how "Cesario" has beaten them. They are sent away and Sir Toby finally reveals to Sir Andrew what he really thinks about him, calling him a fool and a "thin faced knave".
Sebastian arrives, causing Orsino to say, "One face, one voice, one habit and two persons". Sebastian and Viola slowly recognize each other as being the twin that they each thought had been dead for several months and Viola reveals that she is really a woman. Orsino suddenly becomes aware of Viola's true feelings for him and wants to see her in woman's clothing. Viola says that her woman's clothes are in the posession of the sea captain who rescued her but Malvolio has had the captain arrested.
The letter which Malvolio has written is read. Orsino comments that it does not sound like the letter of a madman. Malvolio is released from the dark room and the plot against him is revealed. Malvolio cries, "I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you!" before leaving.
Orsino sends some servants after Malvolio to find out about the sea captain and says,
"Cesario come:
| i don't know |
What, alluding to a piece of broken glass, became London's tallest building when under construction during 2010? | Dsl collection tome 2 by Sylvain Levy - issuu
issuu
dsl_cover_paperback_2_Layout 1 11/12/2013 10:24 Page 1
dslcollection a collection of Chinese contemporary art
dslcollection www.dslcollection.org [email protected]
This book is available as a FREE download from Amazon.
Helen Ho
a collection of Chinese contemporary art
dsl_cover_paperback_2_Layout 1 11/12/2013 10:24 Page 2
Book design by Terence Beedham at iwd
A special thank you to Martina Kรถppel-Yang for assisting with the conception and editing of the book.
“A collection is the work of a person. It is its limit and its greatness. It has to awaken the curiosity and the emotion. It is an artistic adventure.� Monique Barbier-Mueller
The concept of an adventure is very much key to the spirit of dslcollection – from the artworks that we collect to the way we share the collection through digital technology – everything is aimed at bringing different experiences for people to connect with art. For this reason, we have chosen to present this second edition of the dslcollection catalogue as a fusion between a book and a magazine.
Foreword
To enable our readers to fully appreciate and experience the diversity in China’s contemporary art scene, and more importantly, to create their own adventure, we have decided to “curate” this 2nd edition, arranging our artists and artworks according to their specialities and positioning them in different chapters, similar to a series of rooms in an exhibition. Our aim is not to be an encyclopaedic collection, but just to open a few doors to China’s contemporary art scene. As a start, Chapter 1 focuses on the earlier generation of contemporary artists, those who were already active around the Chinese Avant-Garde Exhibition in 1989. Caught amidst one of the most turbulent periods in China’s modern history, many of these artists had to create outside the formal system, or “machine”. The next few chapters are arranged according to regions – Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. We dedicate a chapter to new media artists and end with a survey of the latest generation of Chinese artists, many of whom are relatively unknown in the West. At the end of the book, you will find a certain number of tags that enable you to watch the videos of the collection or to experience the virtual exhibition curated by Martina Köppel-Yang. This catalogue has been produced with the aim of sharing, as much as possible, the adventure and l’esprit of dslcollection. – Helen Ho
2
With their thoughtfully researched Chinese contemporary art collection accessible online and promoted on Facebook, Sylvain and Dominique Levy redefine collecting for the digital age. Extracts from article by Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop (Published in BLOUINARTINFO.COM, Asia Edition, September/October 2013)
“We started as a young couple, going to flea markets and buying works to decorate our house, primarily 1940s furniture,” Dominique says. “Neither of us came from a family of collectors, though we had an eye trained for beautiful things.” Their aesthetic training was centered largely on fashion. Dominique’s mother, Rose Torrente-Mett, founded Torrente, a French haute couture and readyto-wear label, and her uncle, Ted Lapidus, was a highly influential designer in the 1960s. Sylvain used to run French fashion house Caroll before turning to real estate development.“ After the first furniture, we started worrying about the walls, and I remember the first painting we ever bought was a beautiful sunset by Dupuy Godeau, not the best artist, nor his best work,” she recalls, laughing. In the early 1990s, the couple started buying Western contemporary art, with works by Robert Rauschenberg, Manolo Valdés, and Antoni Tàpies decorating their home, but they
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Artists Name
concede there wasn’t a cohesive approach to the budding collection and the works were bought “more as trophies.” “We only started to collect seriously with contemporary designs in the mid 1990s,” says Dominique. “We had friends who owned the Gallery Kreo and at the time, pieces by Ron Arad and the Bouroullec brothers were really accessible. No one wanted them. That’s when we started to buy, not just to decorate our house, and we had to take up storage space. But when you’re no longer constrained by space and size, that’s when you can really have a lot of fun.” The couple eventually turned away from design. “It became too hot and expensive, and you had to be put on a waiting list to get a piece, and frankly I prefer to play golf than have to do that,” explains Sylvain. Their flat is still a treasure trove of 20th-century design with a range of interesting pieces, including a 1998 Zenith chair by Marc Newson, a 2001 Grappe carpet by Ronan and
Erwan Bouroullec, and Ron Arad’s 1996 round bookcase and 2001 Pappardelle chair in bronze. “The flat is very much a reflection of our life as collectors and our personal taste, which is very eclectic,” Dominique says. “This is not a show flat—the children used to sit on this Ron Arad chair, and all the furniture is there to be used.”
dynamic French couple has. They’ve also embraced 21stcentury technologies—not only to digitize their collection of about 200 artworks to make them available to all on the Internet, but also to create iPad apps and reach out via social networks like Facebook with pages in English and Spanish. That’s not to say they’ve eschewed traditional media; they’ve published books in English, Spanish, and Chinese.
approaches. “Previously, it was a more traditional approach to collecting with no real coherence: we would buy an object because we liked it,” he explains. “But when we started our collection on contemporary Chinese art we deliberately decided to do things differently because from the start we knew we wanted to open the collection to the general public using the Internet and social media.”
Philip Tinari, director of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, notes that the DSL Collection has been a “very public advocate for the field in general, as well as a pioneer in trying to apply the Internet and social media to the running and promotion of a private collection.”
For the Levys, it was extremely important that their collection had, as Dominique puts it, “a soul, as well as an image,” which they thought could only be created by following rules such as keeping the collection relatively small and within certain limits.
Their current passion for contemporary Chinese art started in 2005 when the couple visited Shanghai and met Lorenz Helbling, founder of ShanghART Gallery, and also toured artist Ding Yi’s studio. They quickly started to acquire works by Zhou Tiehai, Zeng Fanzhi, and Zhang Huan. They also bought works by Yang Jiechang and his wife, Martina Köppel-Yang, after meeting them in Paris and started to focus on the young Cantonese art scene, from the Big Tail Elephant Working Group to the Yangjiang Group.
“They have collected some of the most important figures of the Chinese avant-garde over the last three decades and have been generous lenders to exhibitions around the world, including at UCCA,” he says, noting that the collection is rooted in the “same basic understanding of contemporary art history as other major collections,” including those of Uli Sigg and Guan Yi. “While it is smaller than these other collections, DSL manages to feel alive rather than archival in its selection of particular works.”
Few collectors have published their own collecting manifesto, but the
Sylvain points out that over the years the couple has had different
“It must be niche to give your collection a clear image,” Sylvain adds. “We wanted to work on big formats because Chinese artists have always liked to express themselves via those.... The difficulty when you start collecting is to have access to quality, and if you focus on big formats, there are very few people in that sphere, and you can have some beautiful pieces. Of course we can’t have them in our living room, but the day we decided to have a museum-like collection, we had gone beyond buying art to decorate our walls.” “By limiting ourselves, we know we have to be much more careful in our selection, take the time to
research and select each artwork,” says Dominique. “Early on we also decided that if we’d made a mistake we would be able to let go of the work. There are a lot of collectors that are in an accumulation phase, especially with Chinese art, because they want to open big museums. Our approach is very different.” The Levys believe that a collection should be first and foremost a private story, “our own story as collectors, as well as the meetings with different people,” Sylvain says. “Each of the artworks is a bit like the words that help us write a story, our story,” he adds. “Some are stronger than others. The idea is to create something that has a real soul. We can collect works by artists completely unknown, but these represent, for us, something very interesting in the story we’re telling.” The result is a highly personal, scrupulously crafted collection—though the Levys joke that despite similar tastes, curating doesn’t always come easy. “That’s the interest of this adventure; it has taught us to compromise, which is a very good thing for a couple,” Sylvain quips. “I guess I am the adventurous madman and she is the reason.”
Less is more
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Artists Name
A collection just limited to 250 works. Works come in and go out to continuously regenerate the collection.
A book This book reflects the desire of the founders of the dslcollection, to look systematically at the collection they are creating of contemporary Chinese art. Beyond a simple idea of accumulating works of art, it is their wish actively to conceptualise the collection, treating it as an ongoing project with the ability to further the field of which it is a part. This book offers an opportunity to consider the dslcollection from its beginnings to its current stage, and to think about the road ahead in awareness of the contexts surrounding and influencing it, and upon which it has the potential to exert an effect. In so doing, this book may present more questions than it is able to answer; at the heart of the exercise is active engagement with the question of what it means to be an art collection in the 21st Century. By Iona Whittaker The book is also available in Chinese and Spanish. The Spanish edition was translated by Ofelia Botella
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Artists Name
Facebook With over 29,000 likes on our Facebook page and a high degree of daily interactions, dslcollection has placed itself well ahead of other private collections despite not having a physical exhibition space. We have also recently launched a Spanish version of our Facebook page which is aimed at increasing our visibility in Spain and Latin America. Ilma Nausedaite is in charge of our English Facebook page, and Ofelia Botella is looking after the Spanish version.
Being shareworthy
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Artists Name
Linkedin With over 15,000 connections spread across 200 cities around the world, dslcollection continues to engage with the public on a very personal basis, sharing our artworks and knowledge of Chinese contemporary art with professionals in the art world as well as interested amateurs. The level of endorsements and the successful collaborations that have resulted from our connections have proven the power of social networks as a communication tool. Artstack Launched at the end of 2011, Artstack is an innovative social platform for users to find, share, and discover art, design and video. While sharing similar social functions of Facebook, Artstack is an exclusively artistic community; hence recommendations, comments and dialogues are much more focused. Dslcollection has been sharing our artworks through Artstack since it was first launched at the end of 2011. We now have over 38,000 followers, many of whom are new to the Chinese contemporary art scene.
A bricks and clicks collection
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Wang Yi 454 Wang Yuyang 456
Yu Aishan 470
Zhao Zhao 482 Zheng Jiang 488 Zhou Ming 490 Zhu Xinyu 492 Zou Tao 500
1 OLD GHOSTS NEW SPIRITS 20
This section looks at the controversial and provocative figures of the Chinese art scene from the 1980s to the early 1990s. Regarded as the first decade of contemporary Chinese art, the 1980s, a decade of general opening and relative liberalism was a period of exceptional creative fervour and artistic experimentation. An unprecedented access to a range of newly translated and published Western literature, philosophy and art, as well as to re-editions of traditional Chinese books allowed the artists to develop new languages and concepts. Using their new stylistic and conceptual tools the artists dealt with their “old ghosts�, like for example recent history, in particular the Cultural Revolution, or with socialist realism and what they called the excess of meaning, the semantic redundancy of their culture. They developed their individual utopias alongside the official utopia of the modernization of Chinese society and culture. The resulting proliferation of artistic activity makes it difficult to generalise this period, particularly since it was a nation-wide, decentralised movement with groups of artists coming together to exhibit works in areas as diverse as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Hunan, Hebei, Hangzhou or again Xiamen. Yet, the artistic endeavours of this decade share a common ambition – to break away from traditional norms and to develop a new culture: Old ghosts making their way for New Spirits.
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Artists Name
Language 路 Communication 路 Man, 1988, Performance. Image courtesy of Yang Jiechang, Hou Hanru, Chen Tong and Tang Songwu
This chapter reunites works developing autonomous artistic positions, positions of resistance, difficult to digest within the general system. Even though these positions often act from the margins, they have the potential to change the longterm behaviour and the conditions of the system. They represent a kind of erratic factors, unpredictable apparitions, mistakes - ghosts - modifying in the end the course of events.
To create this work, the artist pinched a piece of pork every day, taking a photograph of the moment until the pork finally became too dry. The viewer is led to imagine Gu, a man full of life, sitting there pinching the "water" and "blood" out of a dead life, experiencing the constant contact between life and death. However, what the viewer experiences is only the elegance of false pretences and the ritualistic scene in a temple-like space. The photographs of hands pinching the pork are neatly arranged, like a series of abstract paintings. The pieces of dried pork are laid on a table in the middle wrapped in red cloth, like the remains of the deceased waiting for others to pay their last respects. Gu has deliberately created a distance between what the viewers had “seen” and the real “meaning” that he had obtained in creating the work, so as to conceal what only he had experienced. What Gu created was only an inflammatory scene, a tentalising hint at the true significance. Meat C-print. 10 works (163x149 cm each). 1997-98.
GU DEXIN
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2005.03.05 is a single project that comprises a series of different artworks. The use of the opening date as the exhibition’s title signifies the handover of the exhibition by the artist to the general public. Using a large number of apples, bananas, and artificial materials for various site-specific installations, Gu encourages the audience to participate in the exhibition. The audience can consume the fruit at will and thus become included in the process of reshaping the artwork as the exhibition progresses. Deliberately placed inside gallery’s atrium is a large-scale plinth. A close examination shows that the plinth was conceived with the proportion of the whole atrium in mind. One would normally expect to see a classical sculpture on the top of it to sanctify the architecture of that space. Gu subverts such a trope by painting the plinth with bright red paint, thereby making the object self-referential. Furthermore, Gu deflates the imposing spectacle of such an out-of-proportion plinth by placing a "sea" of bananas on the marble floor. Within a short time, the rotting bananas have left their marks on the marble floor. If the very identity of the atrium is derived from the art object, Gu’s strategy is to counter this architectural conceit with a completely natural phenomenon. The viewer is confronted with a sense of helplessness, witnessing thousands of bananas gradually rotting away. 2005.03.05 (left) Installation, Canvas - H: 350; Base - 150, W: Canvas - 250; Base - 150, D: Base 150 2005.
Artist statement "The way the audiences perceive an artwork or an exhibition should not be confined by the use of language. From my personal perspective, the inscription of a date also signifies the opening or closing of an event. For me, this date is a closing. But for others, it is a beginning." 2004.05.09. Installation. 10,000 porcelain vehicles. 2004. 26
Gu Dexin
A simple wooden chair that could have been found in any ordinary room; painted in bright red with a black rubbish bag carelessly crumpled on the seat. The entire front of the chair and rubbish bag appear to be encrusted with red molecules. It is only on closer inspection that one notices the shape of the rubbish bag. Contrary to initial glance, the bag forms the shape of a woman's breasts. Strategically covering both breasts, the red droppings also form a distinctive bikini-like shape that flow over the edge of the seat. Using his characteristic combination of shock and humour, Gu is raising an existential question about the female body and sexuality. Chair, Installation. Mixed media. 151 x 100 x 100.
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Gu Dexin
Showing China from its best sides’ 95 Oil on canvas. 120 x 260cm. 1995
A room filled with grey industrial bins, at the centre is a large green beanbag/cushion with the sign "Wuquan - Wuzhi de lichuang" printed on it. The sign translates to "the right of objects - the power of ignorance". This installation is derived from a revised version of the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. In 1994 Wu and Inga Svala Thorsdottir redrafted their version of the Declaration to include rights for living and inanimate things, i.e. humans, animals, plants and in short, everything. They then arranged for labels proclaiming "Thing’s Rights" in English and Chinese to be affixed to garbage bins, which can be readily adapted to different exhibition settings. Thing's Rights and Power of Ignorance Installation. Mixed media. 2006.
WU SHANZHUAN, INGA THORSDOTTIR 30
61 little figurines positioned over a large map of China (800x500cm). Inspired by children's toys and the popular chocolate, Kinder Surprise, Shen has created an endearing installation with much deeper social relevance. A large chocolate egg stands at the back with its top cracked open: this symbolises birth. The chocolate melts away onto the black soil of Chinese land. Little, sweet figurines dressed in typical Chinese costumes, are seen running away from the chocolate egg. This is the artist's analogy for the issue of Chinese immigration. The Dinosaur's Egg: A Kinder Surprise Installation. Fibreglass figures (group of 61. each measuring 45 x 50 x 55cm). 2001.
Seven frozen tongues are suspended from the wall, which gradually melt away. Beneath the tongues are traditional Chinese spittle bowls, which collect the dropping liquid, representing the need to prevent wastage. After some time, menacing knives appear from behind and slowly slice through the now frozen tongues. This rather aggressive performance represents the artist's response to the loss of communication between people, and the difficulties of being immigrants in a foreign land. Wasting one's spittle Installation. Mixed media. 1994.
SHEN YUAN
PENG HUNGCHI
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Diminutive god statues became very popular during the gambling craze in Taiwan during the 1980s. These statuettes were believed to be able to come up with the winning numbers. After failing to deliver these winning numbers, many of the "gods" were dumped at recycling centers, similar to abandoned dogs being sent to pounds. Thus, in what seems a rather extraordinary reversal of fortune, humankind has taken the liberty to punish the gods, seemingly without fear of retribution. For this work, Peng filled the entire gallery space with 606 statuettes. In a projection on the wall, a dog recounts the tale of the deities’ passing from idolized vessels to abandoned remains, reminding us of the parallel between the god pound and its canine counterpart. God Pound 1300 abandoned statues and a single-channel video “The Chronicle of the Misfortune Deities�. 2006.
Lim expresses his conceptual art through painting, installation and self performance. His work highlights his interest in, and critique of, the dissimilation inherent in the everyday living reality of consumerism. Details about the further adventures Painting. Mixed media on panel. 250 x 350cm. 2009.
LIM H.H.
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YANG JIECHANG
Yang's expansive series of ink works on paper aims to point to the relationship between the material and the immaterial. Deceptively simple, it is impossible to take these works in at once, which is precisely the artist’s intention. Rather, the viewer is forced to move around and in-between the stretched frames with their dense yet reflective ink surfaces. The structure of the paper, infused with medicinal herbs, further impacts upon the effect of the ink, imbuing the surfaces with unexpected patterns that resemble rivers running through mystical terrain. These surfaces eventually give way to shimmering, undulating silvery marks, with an effect similar to that of the special Buddhist genre of black thanka paintings—a connection Yang makes himself with folds resembling the robes of Buddhist monks. 100 layers of ink Ink on paper and gauze. 300x400cm. 1989-90.
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Artist statement - "When I was three years old, my grandfather began to teach me to calligraphy. Very often he was writing on a leaf fan, thereafter he would blacken the fan with the help of a kerosene lamp, then wipe away the traces of ink, so that the originally black characters turned white. I grew up with my grandfather. When I am writing calligraphy today, I too, rarely do it according to the rules. Even though I studied calligraphy for more than thirty years, I do not apply all these strict rules in my work. There is not one brushstroke that is not a mistake, all are wrong, not one is good, which makes them all harmozing in the end. I used this method to write several thousand names; names of people I have met during my life-time, and who left a deep impression in my memory. To write a name, I just need a few seconds; but in this short moment, the most characteristic features of this person - his appearance, his voice and conduct appear in front of my eyes and under my brush." I still remember Ink on paper. 6 panels (300x173cm each). 1998-2006.
Drifting Metropolis. Ink and mineral colours on silk mounted on canvas. 8 panels each 280 x 150cm. 2008/2009. 40
Yang Jiechang
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Artists Name
The fourth work in Yu's new "Wrestling" series, which made its debut in her solo exhibition "Golden Horizon" at Shanghai Art Museum in 2011, this large composition draws inspiration from both classical Chinese painting and Western art, in particular the form and composition of Catholic altarpieces. All the figures are carefully rendered in colourful detail, depicting each individual's spirit and strength. The "Wrestling" series represents a snapshot of everyday experiences, with a focus on exploring how the younger generation maintains the fine balance between tradition, family values, career and social expectations. With the gold-foiled canvas as a backdrop, Yu has elevated the ordinary into the sublime. Wrestling 4 Painting. Gold and acrylic on canvas. 250 x 300cm. 2011.
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Artists Name
Central Park No. 10 Painting. Oil on canvas (2 parts). 195 x 350cm. 2013
"Zhao started his ""Central Park"" series in 2011, inspired by his fond memories of the park's natural wilderness amidst the urban life of New York City. At first glance, the haunting landscape appears out of focus, reminiscent of the early stages in photography where the captured image could just as easily fade away. However a closer look reveals the intricate details that have been carefully defined with fine, feather-like brushstrokes. “Lines have characteristic of freedom and energy, and at the same time require thoughts and compositions. I like pure lines and the relationship they have with each other.� Zhao Xuebing"
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Zhao Xuebing
For this video installation, Xue uses a highspeed camera to capture the dynamic details of real bamboo under various manmade environments. Through the contradiction of real and fake, abstract and concrete, the video explores the inner and outer world of human beings. This large-scaled video installation epitomises the artist's aesthetic style and creative inclination. To portray nature in the mind of an artist in an exquisite and vivid manner, not only matches with Chinese’s
literati’s tradition of “depicting things”, but also expresses the common concerns of contemporary art. The materials for the video clips were all drawn from real life, and they morphed into a bamboo forest from the artist's mind. Through the contradiction of real and fake, concrete and abstract, the video triggers the thinking about the outer and inner world of human beings. Bamboo Installation. Seven screen video installation. 2013
XUE SONG
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Artists Name
This work is allegorical in its reference to historical events, which gradually leads into recent post ‘9/11’ events thinly masked as a fantastic tale. Looking at a distance into today’s world relieves the viewer from claustrophobic identification, and sets him adrift in the strange universe of contemporary life. Qiu seems to suggest that very few advantages have been gained by populating the world with all the monsters we have created. The New Book of Mountains and Seas Video. 26mins. 2006.
QIU ANXIONG
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"Black-and-white film shows a tormented Chinese history in a succession of bare landscapes, snow-capped mountains, dark cityscapes, a single beautiful girl playing the banjo by the water, a sick man and surging masses. Portentous clouds fill the screen, the landscapes flow out and we see more and more images of war and decline. Where have the good times gone?" - Qiu Anxiong Minguo Landscape Video with ink animation. 14'33". 4:3. 2007
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Qiu Anxiong
Exhibited in one of the collateral events at the 54th Venice Biennale, this installation consists of 6 black and white video projections. Each video depicts a portrait that changes regularly at a fast pace, its features morphing into different persons, animals and symbols. The premise for this work is that there are many hidden facets behind each face and each person. Everyone has a dark side, a “beast� side, and his life is built layer by layer through his own personal and different experiences. Cover and Clean Installation. Multimedia. 2011.
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Qiu Anxiong
SUN XUN
Comprising 150 small paintings and drawings on old newspapers and books, Sun's extensive series is an intimate look at time, narration, and history. Clocks and pendulums, drawn in the style of Dali and other Surrealists, appear on old magazines such as People's Liberation Army Pictorial or the Xinhua Daily, which were once the only publications that were freely available to the public. But how would today's audience view them now? The Shock of Time Installation. Multimedia. 300 x 600cm. 2006.
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Sun Xun
The installation work of “21G” was originally a part of site-specific exhibition of “21G” animation. It is a mechanical animation installation, which makes use of stroboscopic light and small pieces of sculptures, producing a number of animation clips through the rotation of gears. The original choice of wood is pomegranate which is now extremely rare. Thus, this project remains to be drawings, and has become only a work of imagination. 21G Painting, drawing, chalk, charcoal, pencil on canvas. 216x195cm. 2007.
"Some Actions Which Haven’t Been Defined Yet In The Revolution" Mixed media. Single-channel video (12 min. 22 sec), Wood Printing Block (14 pieces). 2011
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Sun Xun
According to the artist, this work can be likened to a Taoist temple - the water buffalo has long been associated with Lao Tzu, a legendary Chinese sage who was also the founder of Taoism. "Un immigrant sans papier" was the result of a group exhibition tour to Kunstvereniging Diepenheim in the Netherlands. Like many small European towns, there were no immigrants in Diepenheim and the town appeared insulated from the outside world. Similar to many of Huang's works, this piece is a comment on the loss of identity and an individual voice as a result of globalisation.
Un immigrant sans papiers Installation. mixed media. 2005.
HUANG YONG-PING
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First exhibited to wide acclaim at the Saatchi Gallery in 2008, "Angel" is a life-size sculpture of what appears to be an angel, lying face-down on the exhibition room floor. The figure appears oddly human, and exhibits none of the ethereal, pure qualities of the "angels" of popular imagination. Instead he has a blunt, crude materiality. He is old, with weathered features and sunken muscles. His white mane falls loose and unkempt. His supple diaphanous robe has collected above his knees, presumably from a fall, revealing an unflattering view of his spindly legs. Oddly protruding from his gown are his 'wings', which more closely resemble large de-feathered chicken wings. Sun and Peng's works have always begged questions of mortality. Here their beguiling humour masks this continued interest while potentially raising even wider philosophical questions. Angel Life-sized sculpture in fibre-reinforced polymer and silica gel. Cage size 800x400cm. 2008.
SUN YUAN & PENG YU
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Reminiscent of the 1920s-30s sculptures of German artist, Ernst Barlach, Wang's wooden sculptures are instantly recognisable. Made of large logs of wood, the surface may be smooth and highly polished or showing some cracks, the colour may be a warm brown, close to black or nearly blue. Whether the works mean to represent one figure or two or a head only, they are always highly stylised and readily accessible to the viewer. Couple Sculpture. Wood. 52 x 25 x 31cm. 1997.
WANG KEPING
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To make "12 Square Meters", Zhang spread on his body a visceral liquid of fish and honey to attract the flies in the public restroom in the village. He sat on the toilet, almost immobile, for an hour. Eventually, his body was covered with flies. As with the rest of Zhang's works, this "performance" also relates to the individual and to society, to human tenacity and to human vulnerability, to the conceptual reduction of beings into nothingness and to the complex relationships interwoven between what we are and the awareness of what we are. "I prefer to put my body in physical conditions that ordinary people have not experienced. It is only in such conditions that I am able to experience the relationship between the body and the spirit".- Zhang 12 Square Metres C-print. 152.4x101.6cm. 1994.
Fifteen photographs of identical size, each showing a close-up of Zhang, whose face is covered with soap foam while a small photo peers through his open mouth. Although well known for his range of artistic practices, many of Zhang's works are in fact composites. "Foam" drives this approach further by actively deceiving the viewer. What looks like the documentation of a performance was in fact especially staged for the series of photos. Zhang holds on to his method of captivating his audience through a sense of discomfort. The foam on his face is open to a range of unpleasant inferences, while the photos of his family in his mouth could be interpreted as devouring his history, just as the soap may be washing away his past. Foam (right) C-print. 15 works (152.4x101.6cm each). 1998.
ZHANG HUAN 70
Artists Name
This work consists of a six-meter-tall seated skeleton of a Buddha. The figure has a tailbone and is holding a one-meter-high stone figure of Zhang. The rib cage of the Buddha is made of pear tree, which Zhang had found in Shandong, and together with local farmers, he'd cut and dried the wood to be used for the sculpture. The whole process took over nine months. The premise for this work is the traditional faith in the Big Buddha people visit temples to pray and make wishes in front of Buddha sculptures. Here, Zhang is questioning this deepseated faith - is the Big Buddha still helping people? Of equal significance is the choice of materials. For the body of himself, Zhang chose stone, which is a dead material. For the skeleton of Buddha, Zhang has chosen a living material, a tree. Big Buddha (right) Wood, steel, stone. 590x400x300cm. 2002.
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Zhang Huan
When discussing his works, Zhang often quotes the passage of "Samsara": "Buddha is human, human is Buddha". This work is one of several paintings and sculptures that Zhang created in Shanghai, made from the ash of burnt offerings and incense collected from a nearby Buddhist temple, which are then sorted according to colour and grain consistency. Like all of Zhang's works, the choice of ash as a material is significant: while tradition dictates that ash be buried or scattered into lakes, contemporary society considers ash as a pollutant. As a result, ash is treated as rubbish. Samsara Incense ash on canvas. 400x250cm. 2007.
"The body is a proof of identity and also a kind of language." In a performance reminiscent of Josef Beuys at the Hamburg Kunstverein, Zhang covered his entire body in honey, then sprinkled on sunflower seeds. He then entered a cage that he'd designed using wood and chicken-wire, and in which two wooden crates were stacked in front of a leafless maple tree. Once inside, 28 doves were let in slowly, some settling on the artist's body. To the sound of music by Wang Guotong, a contemporary Chinese composer whose compositions blend Asiatic and classical Western traditions, the audience witnessed an act as simple as it was symbolic- when all the doves were in the cage, the artist released one of them. The message is one of hope - that the sunflower seeds might one day sprout into plants - a promising thought that suggests hope throughout all cultures. Seeds of Hamburg C-print. 12 works (152.4x127cm each). 2002.
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Artists Name Zhang Huan
For "Peace 1", Zhang created a large bronze bell based on Tibetan temple models and inscribed it with the names of eight generations of his ancestors. Beside it, a large and detailed cast of his own body is suspended horizontally. The figure of the artist, which was cast directly from his body, has an intimate realism that includes goose bumps, fine lines and raised veins from the artist's clenched fist. Without the viewer's intervention, the surrogate hangs statically, a hand's length from the bell. But pushing the figure by the side or feet, however, the viewer changes from audience to participant, from spectator to accomplice. As the bell sounds and continues to resonate, "Peace" comes to life, radiating low tones and, through them, strata of the artist's history. This work tells Zhang Huan's story and gestures towards that of the immigrant and the artist at large. Peace 1 Sculpture. 335.3x365.7x243.8cm. 2001.
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Zhang Huan
It's awe-inspiring to wander among this huge installation of oversized figures of blue-haired women in very short skirts. Every one of them strikes the same, slightly uncomfortable pose - half kneeling and half gyrating. Their long legs end in heavy black shoes, which disappear into the floor. Modelled on images from an internet porn site, these figures were meant to be subjugated to the viewer's leering gaze. Here, the oversized female figures clearly dominate over the viewer. This act of a re-orienting an original gaze-intention is a good illustration of Wang's artistic practice. Wang refers to his work as threedimensional images rather than sculptures. He is not interested in dealing with specific discourses. The overarching theme of his work is the global situation of a thorough information and media overload, where no society in the world is safe from the political and social impact of mass-media. Enter Sculpture. Plastic. 260 x 170cm. 2004.
WANG DU
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TSAI CHARWEI
"My interest in Buddhism is intertwined with my practice in art. For me, art and spirituality are inseparable. Through art, I am able to reach a purer state of consciousness that I cannot do through the chaos of daily life. However, I do not consider myself religious as my appreciation of the religion is merely based on a philosophical approach…. In any case, my exposure to Buddhism and to contemporary art in New York around that time led me to start the ‘Mantra’ series." - Charwei Tsai
Mushroom Mantra Mixed media. Black ink on fresh mushrooms. 2005
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Artists Name
The deconstruction of meaning generating structures, such as the Chinese script and language, Chinese traditional culture or the legacy of the Chinese revolution was the main subject of the Chinese avant-garde of the mid-1980s. Once the culture at hand was freed from redundancy it was ready for appropriation and reinterpretation.
Floating across a washed, grey picture surface that vaguely resembles a traditional Chinese landscape painting are no more than eight Chinese characters. Despite their relatively large scale and proper calligraphic brushstrokes, the characters are themselves meaningless and unintelligible. "Deformed Characters" is the fourth painting of Gu's "Pseudo-Character Series" (1984-86); in deconstructing these familiar characters, Gu strives to empty them of any meaning, distancing the viewers from their comfort zone. Taking into account the significance and sanctity of the visual language to China's ruling elite, Gu's work invites independent thinking, which is in turn a serious challenge to the dominant power. Mythos Of Lost Dynasties - Tranquillity Comes From Meditation, No. 4: Deconstruction Of Words Splash ink calligraphic painting. wenda gu studio, zhejiang academy of arts, hangzhou, china 1984-1987. Ink on rice paper, silk boarder mounting. 280 X 178cm.
GU WENDA 84
ZHENG CHONGBIN
Based on a unique visual language of only black and white, Zheng's ink painting has been able to capture the essence and deeper meaning of what colour can express. With every element reduced to the simplest tones, the most profound ideas of humanity and the loftiest, darkest aspects of nature can be experienced. Stained No.1 Ink, acrylic. Wash on paper. 369 x 290cm. 2009.
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CHEN WENBO
Since 2000, Chen has moved away from his figurative works of the 1990s to landscape pictures and objects of everyday urban life. In sharp contrast to elaborate architectural masterpieces, Chen has chosen to depict practical, anonymous structures such as passages, tunnels and bridges. In this painting, Chen depicts a thoroughfare from the highway to the airport, which passes through Siyuanqiao, an area notorious for its countless garages and counterfeit spare parts stores. Chen's typical smooth technique, the absence of brush marks and cool atmosphere reflect the facelessness of new urbanism in China. It represents a comment on the artificiality and anonymity of the metropolis and forced modernism. The unnatural reflections of light hint at the artificiality all around us. The monochromatic palette across a vast canvas leaves the viewer with a strong sense of despondency and isolation. No. 88 Painting. Oil on canvas. 440 x 280cm. 2003.
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Part of his latest series of large cityscapes, Liu has painted a truly futuristic metropolis. As the title suggests, this work shows a city enveloped in a purple glow, possibly hinting at the pollution that hangs over our cities. Here, Liu has woven an ageold Chinese Tao myth of origins, where the phrase “purple air� was used to describe the energy/life force that opened up the universe. In his expansive panoramas of congested building clusters, one finds gigantic structures resembling space ships: designed ready to launch. Some so enormous that they are cut-off at mid-point – towering into the stratosphere. The shapes of these megalopolises are like supermarket bar codes, suggesting that cities could be scanned like any commercial product. Liu's work begs the questions: where do we come from, where we are now and where we are going.
Purple Air Painting. Oil on canvas. 300 x 540cm. 2006.
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Untitled Books, crate, steel. 85 x 107 x 200cm. 2011.
Light Year Oil on canvas. 160 x 750 cm. 2006
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Liu Wei
Liu began working in the three-dimensional around 2006 and Capacity II is one of the best examples of his works during this period. Five oversized pill capsules in a stainless steel casing, variously filled with miniature toys in the form of fighter jets, tanks, astronauts, rockets and female manga figurines. Liu's use of cheap plastic toys (all products of China's low-end manufacturing industry), combined with his characteristic wit and visual playfulness, acts as a critcial commentary on the country's consumerism and insatiable appetite for power. Capacity II Mixed media. 132 x 314 x 34.5cm. 2006
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Liu Wei
Part of Shi's third large scale project, "Mount Everest", this work captures the haunting wonder of the world's tallest mountain. From a technical perspective, this series presented Shi with the greatest difficulties, requiring numerous trips up the mountain to pick the perfect position. The final result was a series of works that captured the complete harmony and infinite power of nature. Himalayas Everest 8844.43M Nov.20.2005 Photography. Silver gelatin print. 400 x 129cm. 2005.
SHI GUORUI
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"I am making use of the symbol for love, using colors and composition to give free rein to the energy of this symbol. I believe that emotions are powerful and that art is formidable. I will continue to duplicate this symbol for love because love is what society lacks the most these days." - Ai Jing Gold in Love Painting. Acrylic on canvas. 120 x 120cm. 2008
AI JING
NOV 2012 “I LOVE AIJING: AI JING COMPOSITE EXHIBITION”, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF CHINA, BEIJING
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TANG SONG
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"A visual Chinese epic poem" Tang's latest series of large-scaled abstract works has been five years in the making, and pays homage to Hans van Dijk, the renowned Dutch art historian and curator, who had a profound influence on Chinese contemporary artists from the late 1980s and 1990s. It was van Dijk who introduced the concept that art should be ""real"", rather than a mere representation of a reality outside of art itself. 1989631 is a prime example of van Dijk's teachings - built up with repetitive monochrome lines, the work references classical Chinese ink painting, modern abstraction and action painting. The work is a dramatic manifestation of a process." 1989631 Painting. Mixed media on canvas. 250 x 600cm. 2013. Shooting Incident (Below)
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Tang Song
Qiu's works are typically filled with multiple images layered with different interpretations, forming a bridge between historical events and present-day occurences. In this series of paintings, every object has an associated meaning, but while playing on these specific associations, Qiu is simultaneously stripping away their intrinsic symbolisms. According to Qiu, "In my mind, coal is raven or raven is butterfly, and butterfly is ink, and ink is coal." A lot of trees to make a piece of coal Mixed Media. Cast paper assemblage. 214 x 168 x 10cm. 2010.
QIU ZHIJIE
Legacy: ghostly manifestation in a new society 108
Artists Name
The Chinese modernity is one intrinsically linked to revolution and to MarxismMaoism; and the imagery and narratives, the legacy of this revolutionary modernity, constitute an important cultural pool from which Chinese artists of all generations draw inspiration until today. Its manifestations persist in the culture of the post-revolutionary and post-modern China.
"Sometimes, I enjoy the excitement brought about by a matter of fortuity. 2006 is the year of the Dog in China. I happened to see some images of Cao Fei's work where men were dressed up as dogs, behaving stupidly docile. Sotheby's also organized the biggest Chinese contemporary art auction ever. These few events collided I combined them in one painting and called it New York, Dog Year." Yan Lei
Looking at the subject matter, it would be fair to assume that Yan's painting is yet another critique of China's social changes in recent years. Instead, Yan has re-worked the well-known painting "Divert Water from the Milky Way Down" (1973-4) by Sun Guoqi and Zhang Hongzhan, to illustrate the potential variations of artistic creation. The near psychedelic palette is a characteristic of Yan’s paintings. Part of the "Super Light" series, these works are inspired by a brand of nicotine-reduced cigarettes, and denotes the artist’s practice of borrowing other artists' works and “making them lighter through re-working”.
Super Lights - Dog Year New York (Left) Painting. Oil on canvas in two parts. 200 x 267cm. 2006
Divert water the Milky Way down Painting. Acrylic on canvas. 199 x 359cm. 2005.
YAN LEI
WANG XINGWEI
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The composition of this work clearly recalls Cheng Conglin's "A Snowy Day in 1968", a now iconic work from the "Scar Painting" movement (1979-82), which aspired to turn the then-popular Socialist Realist style back onto itself, highlighting the destruction left by the previous decades. The "No U-turn" signs that are strategically placed around the picture plane refer to the ground-breaking exhibition, "Create History: Commemoration Exhibition of Chinese Modern Art in 1980s" held at the National Gallery. At the time, the "No U-turn" sign represented a symbol of the new China trying to burst out from the old one. There was no turning back, as the sign implied. Untitled Painting. Acrylic on photos. 400 x 400cm. 2006.
Games feature prominently in Li's work and ping pong is one of his recurring themes. As the most popular sports in China, it is also a metaphor for international politics, especially in the case of Chinese and American political relationships. In this particular work, the viewer is confronted with two figures of Mao one figure is from the early days before the founding of People's Republic of China, and the other after it. Mao in these two periods is clearly very different people. They are playing a game of ping pong and the scene unfolds as a live show on TV. By juxtaposing two similar subject matters in mismatched chronology, Li has succeeded in creating a tension and connection between the two. Ping Pong Oil on canvas. Diptych (150x200 each). 2007.
LI QING
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Li sees himself as a director, composing mildly absurd scenes with realistic backgrounds and human figures performing unusual tasks. To Li, a work's subject, title and imagery form an inseparable whole. This is exemplified in "Twang", a work that can only be understood knowing the story behind it. It is about two friends who lived far away from each other and kept in touch by playing the Chinese zither, guqin. The caption reads “Kang Qi come over” “I don’t know”. Kang has been the given name of Xi Kang, a famous musician of the fourth century and author of a long poem on the guqin. The story is also reminiscent of a Chinese historical myth about music and friendship (Yu Boya and Zhong Zhiqi). Unlike Li's other paintings, which are clearly located in the present, "Twang" is timeless. What one sees could happen anytime anywhere. It is a perfect example of the working style of Li, who alludes to legends to communicate his complex semi-real inner world, while at the same time offering the viewer a space of his own within this world. Twang Painting. Oil on canvas. 300 x 480cm. 2003.
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LI DAFANG
"Surface could be interpreted as the community of surface - neither inner, middle, nor behind." - Wang Jianwei
Surface Painting. Oil on canvas; triptych; 162 x 112, 200 x 300, 162 x 112cm. 2012
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Jia wants viewers to step out of their worlds for a moment and to feel the anguish and isolation that engulfs his painted world. This desire accounts for the enormous scale of his paintings, which ultimately draws viewers close to the solitary soul that Jia inserts in the vast landmasses that set the stage for his synoptic psychological dramas. In this work, "Untitled", a forlorn figure stands with his head bowed low in front of a giant propeller, which is partly stripped of its outer casing. This could be read with reference to the cold, social landscape of Shenyang (where Jia lives and works), where most of its local steel plants and heavy industry factories were forced to close during the 1980s and 90s. Set against a cold, grey background reminiscent of an abandoned hangar, the lone "shadow" of a figure, depicted with soft, painterly brushstrokes, appears even more insignificant. Untitled Oil on canvas. 296 x 400cm. 2007/8.
JIA AILI
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After two years of painting and repainting, Jia's five-panel monumental masterpiece is as close to being finished as it'll ever be. Images of industrial debris and lone figures, recalling the global powers' space exploration programmes of the 1980s, capture moments of solitude that are ambiguously filled with regret and hope. His subdued palette of grey and blue hues conveys lonely moments felt at the end of a day or even an era. Indeed, the scene appears to be the aftermath of some disastrous event. As the title implies, this is a work aimed at capturing the understanding of our time through the eyes of a hopeful pioneer ready to explore, or even create, a beginning of a new world, our century. We are from the century Oil on canvas. 600 x 1500cm. 2008.
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February’s Talk Now Painting. Oil on Canvas. 3 panels. 300 x 500 cm.
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Jia Aili
ZENG FANZHI
Although less recognised than his iconic Mask paintings, the "We" series (2002) is perhaps of even greater historical significance, both aesthetically and culturally. This series, of which "We no. 8" is a part, marks a critical turning point in Zeng’s artistic development. Using two or more brushes at once, Zeng simultaneously “creates and yet destroys.” What truly distinguishes this series is its timelessness – the works are very much “of the moment” but at the same time, they exist beyond the present. We no.8 Painting. Oil on canvas. 400 x 400. 2003.
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Unlike previous generations who lost their identity in their fervent worship of Mao, Yin's art is far from reverential. In this work, Mao is depicted as an ailing man, almost drawing his last breath. The expression on his sunken face is one of anguish and pain. The sense of doom resonates from the cold, somewhat luminiscent blue palette. This work could not be further from the vibrant, heroic portrayals of Mao that was widely plastered across propaganda posters. Mao Painting. Oil on canvas. 200 x 250cm. 2007.
YIN ZHAOYANG 128
CAI GUANGBIN The chief purpose of this artwork is to highlight the poor living conditions in China, and the palpable sense of dislocation felt by its people as a result of the country's rapid process of urbanization. Tremendous city crowds have destroyed the old structures of residential distribution which was popular in the 1990's. The process of making a new living in "new China" has created a lot of problems and contradictions. It has also broken the principle of "harmony of man with nature", a philosophy that remains crucial in Chinese cultural values. Tide - Repeat and Strangeness Ink on rice paper. 240 x 170cm. 2002.
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This triptych represents portraits of the artist and her two sisters. According to Chinese culture, a young woman's long hair is associated with life, sexual energy, health and beauty. The image of hair can symbolise intimate feelings and emotions and Zhang's depication of exaggerated scrolls of hair adds a universal theme to this very personal story. The triptych composition and its title clearly references the iconic image of "Three Graces" during the Renaissance period. The eldest sister is shown in the larger centre piece, flanked by the younger twins on either side, reminiscent of the centre position of Chinese emperors in classical paintings. Three Graces Works on paper. Charcoal on paper. 90 x 730cm. 2011.
ZHANG CHUNHONG
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This long handscroll epitomises Li's painting style. Using the traditional medium of Chinese ink on paper, Li's technique is modern and innovative, achieving extremely expressive faces with a minimum amount of lines and colours. He breaks an image down to its minimum; the background is empty and unpainted, leaving just the colour of the paper he paints on. Li doesn't just portray the human form with all its imperfections and blemishes; instead he celebrates them. Garden Works on paper. Ink on paper. 53 x 470cm. 2011.
LI JIN
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In this work, Wang posed a male and a female model in the pose of Russian-style painting (as taught in most art academies) simply to show the provocative spread of education as a business to make money in China. Artist statement - "Children who are less capable of going to universities due to higher grades are given the opportunity to pay a lot of money to go to art schools. So how to make these children pass exams to art schools is a huge industry. This is what I am critical about." MOMA Studio Photography. C Print. 170 x 300cm. 2005.
WANG QINGSONG
Made in the summer of 2005, this triptych required 800 models, 5 trucks, 8 buses, 5 trucks filled with garbage and Wang's team of assistants. The three panels depict different scenarios on the same stretch of dirt road. By giving the viewer three very different scenarios on the same road, Wang raises questions regarding time, history and changes. Historical events come and go, but the only thing that always remains is the chaos and destruction afterwards. Come come come Photography. C print (set of 3). 170 x 200cm. 2005. 136
Every few centuries, an artist is compelled to revisit Gu Hongzhong's ''Night Revels of Han Xizai,'' the 10th-century scroll painting about a disillusioned government official, who turned into a party animal after failing at imperial reform. Now comes Wang's almost 1 km long photomural, ''Night Revels of Lao Li". Here, the figures of Han have been replaced by one of China's most eminent art critics today, Li Xianting, who is well known for championing risque artworks. Wang's story unfolds across five scenes. In Li's final appearance, he gazes sternly at the prostitutes whose tasteless outfits are clearly referencing Gaudy Art, China's version of Pop Art, of which Li was a
keen supporter. Wang, a former member of the very same art movement, has self-referentially cast himself whispering into a mobile phone. Through his multi-layered combination of the classical and the cutting edge, Wang is clearly questioning the role of the intellectual in China from past to the present. Night revels of Lao Li Photography. C Print. 120 x 960cm. 2000.
Wang has regularly produced risque works featuring mass nudity, but "Yaochi Fiesta", staged as an idyllic, "classical" Chinese landscape, is one where he consciously addresses the growing indifference to nudity in China. Here is a mythical scene of paradise, but the scores of nude Chinese figures simply look distressed. With legs crossed, pursed lips, and some with crossed arms, they appear ashamed by what was meant to be a delicious fantasy. This work is another example of the artist's wry approach to chronicling China's rapid cultural and social changes in the face of newfound wealth. 138
Wang Qingsong
Yaochi fiesta Photography. C Print. 127 x 410cm. 2005.
An epic production even by the artist's standards (15 consecutive days), this truly monumental photographic sees Wang's conceptual genius reaching new heights. With his characteristically elaborate visual reshuffling of art historical icons, Wang has recreated a parade of the most celebrated classical sculptures, including "Laocoon and His Sons", "The Winged Victory", Rodin's "Burghers of Calais", a seated Buddha, Degas' ballerina and an assortment of Roman portrait busts, discus throwers and archers. This 42 metre bas-relief work is intended as a satirical commentary on the Chinese public's new-found enthusiasm for masterpieces, regardless of region or period. The idea for this project came to Wang while watching the printing operations in a Beijing digital lab. He became fascinated with the long sheets of paper being churned out from the machines. Recalling Chinese classical handscrolls, Wang decided to create a sweeping panorama of the greatest sculptures of the past centuries.
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Wang Qingsong
The History of Monuments Mixed media. Print, installation and 30-minute documentary video. 125 x 4200cm. 2009.
LI ZHANYANG
This monumental work intertwines two stories - one based on the historical legend of Liu Hulan, a famous Communist party member who was tragically killed at the age of 15; and the other, the factual incident of Li Baozhu, a farmer found guilty of raping a young girl. The story of Liu Hulan has tremendous cultural significance to the Chinese audience and by interweaving it with a contemporary incident, Li is commenting on the changing values in contemporary society. Liu Hulan 2008 Fibreglass installation, unique edition. 500 x 70 x 125cm. 2008
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ZHANG DALI
As part of his "Dialogue with Demolition" series, Zhang spraypainted silhouettes of his head on walls of half-demolished traditional houses in Beijing and hired workers to chip away the bricks within the silhouette so that people could look through the hole at urban architecture-in a sense, “reading his thoughts� regarding the replacement of the old with the new. By applying a "modern" technique such as graffiti onto the ancient walls of Beijing, Zhang is commenting on the cost of modernity to China - destruction of tradition and in turn loss of identity or rebuilding for a better future?
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Demolition: Forbidden City, Beijing Photography. C Print. 159 x 100cm. 1998.
One of Zhu’s main artistic concerns is the plight of the millions of agricultural workers who illegally flock to China’s cities in search of manual jobs. In this performance, Zhu re-enacts the daily routine of a typical labourer who leaves home everyday, dressed in a Mao suit, black leather shoes, and carrying a briefcase. On the back of his jacket is a white cloth label with Chinese characters written in red. The phrase translates to “This person is for sale; please discuss price in person". The work in the dslcollection includes the blue cotton jacket that Zhu wore for the performance’s duration, and the white cloth label framed under glass. Person for sale Fabric sign with acrylic and graphite framed under glass. 95 x 75cm. 2009.
ZHU FADONG
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This work is part of the large-scaled mural created by Liu in collaboration with JR, a world-renowned French street artist. The multilayered art project was executed in several stages, which began with a photograph taken by JR of Liu's eye and fingers. The photo was then enlarged to fit onto a double garage door at 11 Spring Street, New York City. The building itself is significant as the site of a massive street art extravaganza organised by the Wooster Collective in 2006. Liu then used his signature technique to camouflage JR into the mural. JR through the eye of Liu Bolin is the result of this elaborate collaboration between the two artists. LIU BOLIN
JR Through the Eye of Liu Bolin Photography. Edition 7 of 12. 146 x 200cm. 2012
YANG
YONG
The initial impression of Yang’s photograph is one of selfconsciousness - a woman posing in a fictional urban setting. What is interesting is that the work does not suggest a narrative - it is not simply an out-take from a bigger story. It simply shows the relationship between the photographer and the model herself. Like most of Yang's photographs, this is taken in Shenzhen, one of China's Special Economic Zones. The forced nature of this development (an imported population, inorganic growth of an urban infrastructure) has produced the sense of artificiality that underlines Yong’s photographs. The Cruel Diary of the Youth Photography. C Print. 115 x 76cm. 2000.
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Cui is well-known for her unusual focus on the theme of sexuality - a delicate theme that remains taboo in China today. This video is an intimate look behind the scenes of a ladies’ room in an expensive Beijing night-club. What appear to be ordinary girls enjoying an evening out are in fact prostitutes at work. "Like hell in heaven, or heaven in hell." While avoiding any commentary or judgment on the scene, Cui offers a rare insight into a hidden facet of the muchacclaimed China boom. Ladies Room Video. 6' 12". 2000.
CUI XIUWEN
FENG MENGBO
FENG QIANYU
One of China's leading new media artists, Feng has created Q4U, a customized version of Quake 3, the popular Internet game whose plot is simply kill or be killed. Q4U is extensively customized featuring a 3D likeness of the artist holding a video camera in one hand and a plasma rifle in the other. There are three play stations in the gallery and Feng himself in China engages with players from around the world via the Internet throughout the performance. Given the dynamic audio-visual of contemporary video games, Q4U is formally stunning. It is projected over three large screens, each featuring a different point of view.
"Combine the nobleness humanity paintings with the network that is fickleness and eager for quick success and instant benefit to form the tension. And the base for the antinomy and unification among them to go consistent is the rapid change of nowadays humanity environment." - Feng Qianyu
Q4U Interactive video & internet installation. 2005.
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Network Shuimo Multimedia. 210 x 210 x 210cm. 2006.
SONG KUN
‘It's My Life' comprises 365 miniature paintings, with one work executed each day over a year. What makes it interesting is that Song was sometimes lazy – the way we often are when we keep a diary – such that some canvases are left blank or unfinished. The secrets depicted in this visual "diary" are not particularly revealing. What Song has achieved is a delicate weaving of personal revelation, history and fantasy. While drawing on the self, she has also drawn on the momentum of life in Beijing. The ultimate beauty of the work is how seamlessly the artist has blended an inner psychological landscape with the porous, gritty landscape of the Chinese capital. It’s My Life Oil on canvas. 90 works (35x25cm each). 2008.
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Alchemies: body and material
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Beginning from the late 1980s, the body and the interest in material and its transformation became important subjects for the young generation of artists. Performance art and with it, photography and video, documenting the performances, developed into a new and key domain of contemporary Chinese art of the 1990s and beyond. The focus on the alchemy of the body and of material was linked to the search for these other forces, other than political and social, determining the life of the individual.
CHEN CHIEH JEN
"The film is based on the famous 1905 photograph of a man being punished the Manchu way, by being cut into pieces for the crime of murder. His ecstatic expression is attributed to opium, which was administered to prolong the torture. Philosopher Georges Bataille discussed this photo extensively in his book The Tears of Eros and noted the correlations between the beauty of religious eroticism, divine ecstasy and the shocking horror of cruel torture. Chen's cinematic close-ups of the victim's face bring to mind images of blissful euphoria, homoeroticism, and religious crucifixion. Slow motion close-ups of a hand holding a knife, the grim expressions of the crowd of ponytailed bystanders, blood dripping down the crowd's legs and flowing into the ground are eerie, but surprisingly not as violent as what one might expect considering Chen's topic. The film is oddly un-sadistic, even though the content is of death by dismemberment. Interspliced with the staged reenactment of the torture scene are scenes where the camera slowly pans above a crowd of silent women. These women are factory workers in Taoyuan, and due to various tragic events such as occupational hazards or unemployment, they no longer are able to work. Chen links these contemporary women to the 1905 victim. Due to the women's circumstances, which are often beyond their control, they are also suffering a long torture, but without any bliss. Chen came to international prominence with his large computer images of similar torture scenes. However, this film is a departure from those past works. By linking the historical with the contemporary social and economic situation in Taiwan, Chen has created an extremely powerful work that links the past with the present, the fictive with the documentary. He is also specific to the local situation, while remaining universal."
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Lingchi — Echoes of a Historical Photograph Video. black and white video, 25 minutes.
"Memoirs (Me)" is part of a series of largescale photo prints of Sheng's left hand in the palm of which he holds various small images. Using what he calls “found images”, like old family photos, newspaper cut outs, historical images, political or pornographic photos, Sheng creates “image-within-an-image” situations. By reducing the images’ size and presenting them in his un-proportionally large hand, he cuts off their recording function as he once cut off his finger. This act of de-contextualization transforms the images’ original political, cultural or social content, reducing them to their aesthetic and entertaining function. Memoirs (Me) Print. C Print. 150 x 200cm. 2000.
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SHENG QI
RONG RONG Four panels of equal size, grouped in pairs, show a simple scene: a bald man slowly walks into a pond until he vanishes and the only visible sign of his presence are the concentric rings of water that remain. Rong Rong achieved prominence in the 1990s for his gritty depictions of life in the East Village of Beijing. A recurring subject is fellow artist, Zhang Huan. These 4 panels capture Zhang Huan walking into the local pond to clean himself after the now famous performance piece where he sat on a public toilet in Beijing, covered with honey to attract flies. In addition to being an important work for Rong Rong, this piece also raises many questions regarding art, authorship and authenticity. Who owns the creative act? Which is the real creative act: Zhang Huan's performance or the photographic documentary? These questions go to the very heart of contemporary art practices. Untitled (Beijing East Village Series) Photography. Set of four. 45 x 65cm. 1994.
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This triptych is a 2001 copy of a set of photographs documenting a performance that took place 15 August 1994 in Taixing, a remote place in Henan province. Standing on the bridge, Wang poured 25 kg of organic pigment into the canal, creating a 3 km long stream of deep red water. The bridge is of particular significance as it was constructed under primitive conditions during the Cultural Revolution to demonstrate the people’s determination in promoting socialism. Against this background, Wang’s artistic act gains meaning. Obviously red is the colour of socialism and the Cultural Revolution. It also refers to the blood that was spilled during those violent years. Red is also the colour of happiness and wellbeing in Chinese popular culture. Wang’s performance invites the viewer to consider the multiple meanings associated with a blood red muddy stream beneath a bridge that was built by people whose hopes had been sourly disappointed in the very process of their work. Red flag canal Photography. C print (set of 3). 197 x 127cm. 2001.
WANG JIN
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Created for the 6th Shanghai Biennale in 2006, this work consists of 4 traditional Chinese earthenware wine vessels with their typical brown glaze and bulky form hanging suspended from the roof beams of a lofty room, which itself has the appearance of a traditional Jiangnan building. The wine jars are held by thick ropes and contain LCD monitors playing videos. According to the artist, "Story is the way we transform ourselves and how history is left to tell the story. When we tell our story, we temporarily leave our daily life. It was through this work that I have dissociated myself from my daily life as well as my history. As a result, I can examine the past and explore the relationship between past and present, Eros and Death, being and nothing." Story Installation. Video.. 181 x 434cm. 2006.
GAO SHIQIANG As the title implies, "Red" takes the social and cultural implications of the color red. As the scene unfolds, flags representing different territories can be seen aligned by a grey riverbank. As the camera pans to the left, the flags turn red. Following the same slow pan, an interior scene emerges in which red buttons, red books from the Cultural Revolution, and red cigarettes are revealed in a darkened atmosphere, lit only by candlelight. A picture of Mao stands on the table, his face unusually ruddy and red against a green background, echoing the green suit and red armband worn by the protagonist. This color combination repeats itself as the camera takes the viewer along a rock wall that is green and red with mould. As the camera slowly rounds the end of the wall, we see the same picture of Mao, hanging on the outside of a building. The natural phenomenon of the coloration of the rocks is a patina built up over time. This patina serves as a natural indicator of passing time and seasons gone by, alluding to the now historical position of the iconic Mao. 168
Red Video. 50’6�. 2008.
Lu's choice of material is key to this artwork. With a deceptive similarity to crystal or glass, this bed appears fragile and precious. Yet, acrylic is simply plastic, a man-made material that is cheap, practical and hardwearing. It's certainly not known for its aesthetic beauty. By using such an ordinary material to make an antique wedding bed, which is itself a symbol of Chinese cultural history, Lu points to the vulgarity of contemporary consumerism and the continuing backwardness in China. Wedding bed I Installation. Acrylic glass. 250 x 150 x 230cm 2001.
LU HAO
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LIU JIANHUA
Liu’s use of porcelain is strategic, emphasising its contrasting characteristics of purity and fragility. The material also adds to the artist’s commentary on the human cost of capitalist developments and the instability of ordinary life. However, the significance of Liu’s work extends beyond his chosen material. It is the artist’s intricate yet unrestricted representation of his subject matter that encourages viewers to create their own interpretations and narratives. This installation was the result of a visit to Jingdezhen in September 2003. There, Liu witnessed the bulldozing of many beautiful old trees as the city was undergoing a massive urban reconstruction to celebrate its one thousandth birthday. Blocks of cut tree trunks were found everywhere on the streets - a desolate sight that continues to haunt the artist.
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Transformation of memories Installation. Porcelain. 2003.
"Part of his ongoing ""Nature Series"" featuring silkworms, Liang's inspiration for this installation came from watching silkworms dangle down from a roof on their own filaments. “It's a moment when life hangs by a single thread, as those little worms climb with great determination along the filament secreted from their own glands, back up the trembling thread. Milan Kundera's novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being reminded me of the tremendous weight and tremendous lightness life can have. The two are counterposed, antagonistic, but interconvertible.� - Liang Shaoji
LIANG SHAOJI
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Chain: The Unbearable Lightness of Being/Nature Series No.79. Installation. Mixed media. 2003
Lin created her first series of prints in 2006 at the invitation of the Singapore Tyler Print Institute. Lin's characteristic technique of creating gradual changes with a subtle palette of black, grey and white is reflected in this set of prints. Other distinctive features include uneven surfaces resembling scars and winding threads. Although print is typically regarded as a two dimensional art form, she has manipulated the medium to create richly textured works - a testament to her artistic innovation and originality. Seeing Shadows Prints. Silk screen prints. 123 x 347 x 8cm. 2010.
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In some of Lin’s more recent work, she has further pushed the investigation between the pull to modernity and nostalgia for the past. Using technological mediums such as video and photography, Lin intercuts, interlaces and weaves over, under and beside images, using traditional women’s craft techniques. Focus series Works on paper. Cotton thread on printed cotton paper mounted on aluminium. 179 x 150cm. 2002.
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"“All animals, no matter how small, have roughly the same number of bones as the most massive of animals. The complexity and intricacy of the skeleton does not decrease with size.� - Lin Tianmiao Lin's most recent series, The Same, explores the concept of equality things may look the same from a distance but as you get closer, everything could be different. Against a cavernous monochromatic setting, hundreds of objects in various shapes and sizes (eg. miniature tools, animal skeletons and bones), hand-painted in bright colours, are grafted together with silk threads to create a visually stunning new world. The Very Same is a celebration of gold, the universal symbol for wealth and opulence. But the dazzling splendour goes far beyond visual stimulation - on the contrary, it is a provocative display of the underlying human fragility in modern-day life." The very same Installation. Synthetic skeletons, animal skeletons and gold leaf. 1,500 pieces. 2011
A monumental work in size and subject matter, Superstition is characteristic of Gao's sardonic manipulation of iconic imagery and classical forms. As a symbol of Western architectural and cultural achievements, few can rival the Parthenon; yet here the grand structure stands merely as an etching within a large foam wall, itself a modern creation of little value. With his usual dark humour, the artist reminds the viewer of today's shifting political and economic powers. And more importantly, he questions the veracity of collectively accepted truths that a time-honoured icon such as the Parthenon is important and powerful because we have been told it is.
Superstition Mixed media. Foamboard relief. 420 x 900cm. 2011.
Arc de Triomphe 300 x 240 x 30cm. 2013
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GAO WEIGANG
"Reading and learning are usually beneficial, but also a form of control, like a drug. In Chinese, reading and drugs is same pronunciation." Gao Weigang Poison (Left) Installation. Acrylic paint on books, paper, wood. 230 x 208 x 33cm. 2008 Vice (Below) Installation. Acrylic paint on canvas and mirror. 350 x 1200cm. 2012 Superstructure (Right) Installation. Stainless steel, titanium. 175 x 120 x 12cm. 2010
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Gao Weigang
Comprising 50 pieces, this work is bound together by interlocking steplike forms, suspended at various heights and angles, literally stretching across the majority of the gallery. Held in place by thin metal wires which possess a threatening precariousness as if Gao is playing with contrasts of heft and weightlessness, the imposing presence of unexpected symmetry transforms an arduous process into visual poetry. Biding their time, the intricate modular structures have effectively colonized the main areas of the gallery – if not just yet the sky. In these long undulating swathes of mirrored stainless steel, punctuated by the diffusion of its golden hue, Gao has extended one of his signature motifs, the stair, as a point of reference, not only by alluding to the exhibition title but also by exploiting the dialectical relationship between opacity and transparency. 188
Gao Weigang
NO WAY! 50 stairs, stainless steel, titanium. 2013.
2 CANTONESE CONNECTION
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Artists Name
Loosely grouped as “The Cantonese Connection”, this section focuses on contemporary artists living and working in China’s Guangdong Province.
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Artists Name
Big Tail Elephant Working Group is an artist group from Guangzhou consisting of Lin Yilin, Chen Shaoxiong, Liang Juhui and Xu Tan. Although each member has developed his own artistic style and focuses on different concerns, all of them draw their inspiration from Guangzhou, one of the earliest cities in China to undergo the dramatic economic reforms brought about by Deng Xiaoping's Open Door policy. The core theme of their artistic projects revolves around the cultural, intellectual, social and political rifts in urbanised China. The Big Tail Elephants often directly intervened in the urban environment as a kind of guerrilla warfare, creating through their interventions an aesthetic and conceptual distance with the urban environment and everyday life. Their interventions unmask the often absurd and risky conditions of the rapid change of Chinese society. The Group was particularly active between 1991 and 2003, with almost annual exhibitions in the form of performances and large-scale installations. They were also included in the Venice Biennale in 2003.
Viewed from a distance, the installation looks like a Babylon tower. A closer look shows that the little windows are in fact small video screens and that a similar installation is repeated inside the construction. The Babylon tower metaphor offers various approaches to the understanding of Liang's installation. Today China is one of the countries with the highest number of skyscrapers worldwide. While highrise buildings have drastically changed the cityscape, digital media have similarly altered the living habits of its population, with mobile phones, DVD-players and the Internet now an inseparable part of life. Furthermore, people from all over China and the world have flooded into the major cities - foreigners, local professionals, and migrant labourers. This stockpot of latent civil unrest, architectural developments, linguistic alterations and globalisation is forced within a teetering construction of wood and electronic equipment. City Installation. Mixed Media. 800cm. 2003.
LIANG JUHUI
Entering the project Installation. Wood board, mirrors, pictures. 105 x 360 cm
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Liang’s “One Hour Game” is intended to disrupt the normal process of vertical urban expansion. In an elevator of a skyscraper being constructed in Guangzhou’s new town, he sets up a video game and plays the game for an hour while the elevator continues to move up and down, carrying workers to work. The usual path of construction is hence disturbed. What is more interesting is that, here, there is a detournement of the metaphoric significance of the elevator through the intervention of the game. The elevator has become more like a sight-seeing elevator in an amusement park than a serious construction tool. One Hour Game Installation. Video. 1996.
The "wall" has always been a central part of Lin's work. This installation, made of steel bars and bricks, highlight the impenetrability of sight and movement created by buildings a reference to the overdevelopment in Chinese cities. The raw bricks and steel bars are hardly "ideal residences" as the work's title suggests. More appropriately, they serve as barriers: the question is whether they create security or simply restriction. Standard series of ideal residences Installation. Mixed media. 1991.
LIN YILIN
Biennale.com 2002 (previous page and above) C-print. 280x400cm
XU TAN
This work reflects on the rapid social changes in southern China during the 1990s. The toy cars zooming past at different speeds and directions refer to the social upheavals at the time. The backdrop to these speeding toy cars is a Song Dynasty painting, which again raises the question of Chinese historical values and the cultural contexts behind today's consumerism. Together with its accompanying piece, "Uniform Velocity, Variant Velocity 1", which included food and other everyday objects, Xu continues to address the issue of contemporary materialism in modern China. Uniform velocity, variant velocity 2 Installation. Mixed Media. 1992.
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Uniform Velocity, Variant Velocity 2 Guangzhou, China Installation (toy car run on a board which painted Chinese ancient (Song dynasty) painting and hand writing). 1992.
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Collectivity memory - Shanghai, the Bund Ink on paper. 170 x 300cm. 2006.
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CHEN SHAOXIONG
Urban lives leave different memories for individuals, not only for local citizens, but also for foreign visitors. The emergence of cities symbolises national power and economic growth which is itself part of a collective creation. The thousands of thumb prints on this work represent such a collective memory. Chen's painting technique (using fingerprints to emulate digital photography) is almost pixel-like, symbolising the meshing of people's lives and the landscape.
This video work was filmed at Red Ant Bar in the southern city of Guangzhou in 1993. Originally intended as a 5-hour video, the session was cut short by police after only 2.5 hours. All of Chen's works between 1991 and 1993 are titled after units of time. The concept behind these works was to temporarily remove the concept of reality and the passage of time. For Chen, the artwork represents his quest into the definition of art. 5 hours Installation. Photographs, video and documentation. 1998
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Chen Shaoxiong
4 Shanghai Style new bohemian vision and the imaginary This section focuses on contemporary artists from Shanghai, a region that, over the past decade, has become the hub for abstract painting and new media, often expressing a kind of new bohemian narrative.
SHANGHAI STYLE
As one of China’s earliest and most developed port cities as well as its colonial history, Shanghai has always been an outward-looking and internationallyoriented city. It is hardly surprising that early Twentieth Century China’s first art institute, first instance of life drawing, first modern art society, and even the first national art exhibition all took place in this vibrant metropolis. The first awakening of the abstract art movement following the Cultural Revolution began in the 1980s, with the exhibition “Experimental Exhibition of 83 Phases of Painting” at Fudan University marking the first successful recognition of Shanghai’s abstract artists. Considered the golden age in Shanghai’s burgeoning art scene, a large number of young and middle-aged artists bravely broke away from realism to engage in abstract experimentation. The representative figures of this early abstract art movement include Yu Youhan, Li Shan, Chen Zhen, Zhang Jianjun and Qiu Deshu. Among the 14 artists invited for the first time to the Venice Biennale in 1993, there was only one abstract artist, Ding Yi, who is also our collection’s first ever acquisition. That same year, his abstract work was also exhibited at “Chinese Avant-Garde Art” hosted by Berlin’s House of World Culture as well as the First Asia-Pacific Triennial in Brisbane. In the 1990s, Shanghai artists became forerunners in the field of new media, video art, photography and interactive video installations. Yang Fudong, Yang Zhenzhong, Xu Zhen, Hu Jieming and Jin Jiangbo are among the most successful and progressive in this domain. The 1990s saw further emergence of a truly particular “Shanghai style”. The distinctive qualities of inner restraint, lucidity, delicacy, detachment and elegance found in Shanghai abstract art are also present in new media works. This style embodies the cultural connotations and fashionable sensibilities of this metropolis, in which the new classes of "white collar" workers and urban bourgeoisie constitute an important part of the population.
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DING YI Viewed from a distance, the surface of the painting appears plain yellow. It is only up close that one detects a regular pattern of small X's. Ding started to use the X while searching for ways to free himself from the burden of cultural meaning, which had been so prominent in classical Chinese painting and later, in socialist art. Though fascinated by tradition, he could not accept an art consciously made for a social elite, explicitly excluding the rest of the population. His solution is to concentrate on the pure act of seeing, regardless of the viewer’s cultural or educational background. Choosing the universal shape of the X serves his intent to be visually intelligible beyond national and cultural boundaries. Over the years, Ding's artistic language has evolved from the very strict geometric designs in mute colours to images that are enriched with colour and ever more complex patterns. However, one thing always stays the same - the X. Appearances of crosses (triptych) Acrylic on tartan. 3 works (260 x 140cm each). 2001.
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Details of appearance of crosses.
The First Intellectual (right) Ink on paper. 170 x 300cm. 2006.
Filmed over five years from 1997 to 2002, Yang's first black and white movie tells the story of Zhuzi, a young intellectual, who has consulted countless doctors over his "illness". Without any physical symptoms pointing to a definitive diagnosis, one is led to assume that the character's illness is far more deep-seated and psychologically driven. A central theme of Yang's work is the urban intellectual's psyche, the generation who is old enough to remember life before the re-opening of China's economy, while spending their formative years in a modernising China. For many, these rapid changes left them feeling estranged from society. The unclear symptoms of Zhuzi refer to this disrupted inner balance - the constant pressure to adapt, which in turn causes a restless dissatisfaction that finally results in an intense but silent psychological drama. An Estranged Paradise (far right) Video DVD. 76 minutes. 2002.
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YANG FUDONG
An earlier work of Yang, this photographic triptych shows an urban intellectual. The viewer sees an injured man in a business suit, threatening to throw a brick, but his target is unclear. The man is in fact alone on an empty street, which amplifies his sense of restless futility. According to Yan, "the First Intellectual is the expression of a psychological condition of confusion as a result of materialism and the situation of the individual in a big city. It is about somebody who gets hurt, but he does not know where the injury comes from." Yan's later works continue to document this social "disease" which has plagued the Chinese intellectual society since the economic reforms.
YANG ZHENZHONG
The proud father, the caring mother and a flock of well bred siblings. Quite an ordinary family photograph, were it not for the fact that they are all chickens - in fact a huge extended chicken-family portrait, neatly lined up for the camera. This work is an excellent example of the light-hearted work characteristic of Yang. The last of the "Lucky Family" series, this work shows the ironic image of an extended Chinese family, with its supreme patriach, matriach and countless offsprings. Yang's reference to "lucky" is a satirical comment on China's longstanding problem of family politics. Lucky Family 4 Photography. C Print. 120 x 200cm. 1995.
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Unlike other video artists, Yang's works are more akin to the styles of Fluxus and performance art. In this work, a male figure’s movements appear in 12 different orientations on 12 monitors. In some of the images, this movement is defined by the blurring of light and the play of shadow on the moving figure. The notion of contradiction occurs here between the figure’s speech and action—each figure moves and, at the same time, utters, “Don’t move.” What is fascinating about this incongruity is that each figure, with eyes closed, appears to speak to himself rather than to the viewer; his utterance resembles self-talk. When the 12 monitors show close-up views of the performers’ heads moving in different orientations, each image against its dark background creates a ghostly effect. The result is an intense, melodramatic eeriness for the viewer. Don’t Move Installation. 12 Video screens. 2006.
What looks like a broken toy, turns out to be a carefully executed painting of a man in an old-fashioned railway uniform, standing on a trolley rail, whose wheels are almost a figment of our imagination - they are pencil sketchings. Pasted around the canvas background are various newspaper and film cuttings, the whole picture is crowned by the slogan "Dianying jiushi nian", which translates to "90 years of cinema". This work was created at a transitional period of Zhou's career when his focus shifted away from exploring domestic issues to the more pressing problems with the globalised art world. 90 years of Chinese cinema Gouache and paper collage on canvas. 245 x 270cm. 1996.
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ZHOU TIEHAI
A camel wearing cool sunglasses, dressed in a bright red coloured 18th century formal costume, complete with medals and sword, nonchalantly leaning against a pillar. Yet, the architectural structure in the background is curiously reminiscent of the balustrades at Tiananmen Square, where Mao had proclaimed the founding of the PRC in 1949. The character of "Joe Camel" was created at a time in the early 1990s when Zhou had yet to become an auction favourite. The Camel's name consitutes a double-entendre: "Joe" is very close to the Chinese pronounciation of "Zhou" and it is a clearly American-sounding name. Over the years, the character of Joe Camel has re-appeared in various guises in Zhou's oeuvre. The Dense Cloud Dark Works on paper. Gouache aon canvas. 307 x 520cm. 2000.
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Zhou Tiehai
The proud lion of San Marco with a halo around his head, his paw resting on an open codex with the sentence "CALUM CONANS COMESSE LEO IESE NULLO ALATERE DEVORARE POTEST". Quite unexpectedly, the entire scene is painted beautifully on a surface made of old newspapers, turning the work into a mixed media collage. Throughout Zhou's artistic career, a key preoccupation has been the hierarchical ranking within the international art scene - despite their centuries-old cultural heritage, Chinese artists are typically labelled as "emerging" or "developing". Defying the establishment, Zhou has always avoided presenting himself as a Chinese artist; instead he's adopted the visual language of Western art, as evidenced by his alter ego, Joe Camel. This present work is another manifestation of Zhou's preoccupation. The lion wants to eat the sky, but he doesn't know how to swallow it. Works on paper. Gouache and collage on canvas. 307 x 520cm. 2000. 274
Zhou Tiehai
XU ZHEN
Known for his humorous commentary, the irony of this work's title ("Comfortable") cannot be lost on its audience. Mini buses form the arteries of China's transport system, connecting villages and towns. The tri-coloured plastic bags carry personal belongings of the workers who commute across the country for work; workers who are not privileged enough to enjoy the fast life of China's newly developed, glamorous cities. The washing machine is a symbol for people's private daily lives. By dragging it out into the open, Xu is commenting on the social discrepancies in China's economic growth - the fortunate and the less fortunate. Comfortable Bus. 500 x 250 x 250cm. 2007.
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As a social commentary on the rapid modernisation of China and the resulting loss of traditional values, this series of photographic works document the underworld of Shanghai’s nightlife with blurred, almost faded images of Karaoke bars and nightlife in general. Each of the pictures is constructed of texts from virtual conversations taken from the Internet, and they are sometimes incredibly explicit in their pornographic content. Super Absorbent Photography. Set of 6. 100 x 117cm. 2006.
Using a hidden camera, “Shouting” is a multi-channel video installation with footage of 40 sites around Shanghai, capturing the moment when unsuspecting pedestrians on busy streets are suddenly disrupted by a loud scream. The work explores the instinctive and universal human response to the unexpected; the work was positioned at the entrance of the China Pavillion, which also acts as an “awakening”. Shouting Video installation. 8 channel video synchonised. 2005.
At the Venice Biennale.
Spread B-029 Collage. 500 x 300 cm. 2010.
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MADE IN
Launched in 2009, "Spread" is an independent art program developed by MadeIn. The principle of this project is to use cartoons from around the world to create new collages. In this work, references to current social events are explicit but their gravity is downplayed by the work's cartoon qualities: multiple parodies of "Superman", a truck marked "US Economy" going off the road, a giant wreath that reads "OIL", all awashed with black oil. This work represents a satirical comment on the globalised society.
"Under Heaven is a subtle formation relation between material and support, where layers and space are passively represented but cleverly interact with a reflection on painting and activism." - MadeIn
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MadeIn
Under Heaven - 20120730 Painting. Oil on canvas, spray paint, aluminium board. 200 X 140 X 15cm. 2012
Under Heaven - 20120815 Painting. Oil on canvas, spray paint, aluminium board. 420 x 254 x 15cm. 2012
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MadeIn
This installation piece consists of a floor full of broken bricks, debris, dust – it is a sight of a human shelter that lies flattened beneath you. Nothing is there, besides a yawning emptiness of destruction. Looking closer you can see the debris moving up and down in soft, slow waves, there is no calmness after the bomb.
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Artists Name MadeIn
This highly-acclaimed work is loosely modelled on Theodore Gericault's 1819 historical painting of the same title. Hu draws a parallel between the social demise portrayed in Gericault’s “Medusa” and the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Hu's “Medusa” is far more than just a reference to the past; the photos allude to today’s excess consumerism and advertisement imagery. Pictures of contemporary youths engaging in hedonistic acts are juxtaposed with dull grey pictures of suppressed people in traditional Mao uniforms. These compositions using images appropriated from different socio-political realities signify a strong critical engagement with both history and the present – it is a concern that ranges beyond pure private considerations. Raft of Medusa C-print. 3 works (125x177cm each). 2002.
HU JIEMING
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A cloth thrown casually over a few chairs. These very ordinary objects are recurring motifs in Zhang's paintings. Through his careful observation, Zhang guides the viewers' gaze towards the incidental, towards that which is often overlooked. His gaze is focused on particular details, which are rendered from unusual perspectives that evoke photographs. In the tradition of the still life, Zhang precisely directs our attention to the gloss of a table's surface or in this case, to a piece of cloth covering two chairs. Human figures are completely absent from his paintings, but it is exactly this absence that alludes to their potential presence. The Furniture be Cover by Cloth Oil on canvas. 200 x 250cm. 2007.
ZHANG ENLI
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WU YIMING
Filled with ancient characters, Wu's works have the distressed appearance of stained old scrolls that have been locked away for generations. However, they are anything but nostalgic redrafts of old myth. Here, the female subject, possibly a courtesan, based on her short skirt and open blouse, is vaguely contemporary but her face is characteristically blank. The antique world is entirely present, yet completely unapproachable. Like all of Wu's paintings, this female character is in many ways, a phantom. Untitled Works on paper. Watercolour on paper. 300 x 195cm. 2005.
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The first part of the video consists of an old woman sitting on a bed combing her hair. Fireworks are shot outside of the window and everything becomes surreal: plants start growing in the room from the floor, as in a peaceful field; soon only the fireworks illusions and their ephemeral beauty remain, real, fake or imagined. Some men are spying on the scene from outside of the window; perhaps they belong to this old woman’s thoughts, just as in the fairytale of the "Little Match Girl". As the fire goes out, the men disappear and the whole scene settles back into a boring, lonesome night again. Fireworks Video. Single channel video 5'7".
LI MING
ZHANG DING
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In this video, Zhang adopts the film style of Fellini to compare the dreams with the realities of the hundreds of thousands of migrant workers who come to Shanghai in search of wealth and opportunity. Red velvet theatrical curtains open to reveal the mis-enscène of Pudong, Shanghai's vast new district built on former rice fields. A man in a white satin tuxedo, our "knight in shining armour" walks on stage. He picks up a bicycle with a stuffed horse's head mounted on the toolbar and a horse's saddle and rides off into the night. The film progresses in a series of tableaux, with the white knight always returning
to an empty intersection. The film ends with him returning to the Pudong stage, leaving his horse-bike and walking away. As with many contemporary Chinese artists, Zhang is examining the far-reaching consequences of China's modernisation. This video in particular shows tremendous sympathy for the plight of migrant works who have come to the cities in search of a better life. Great Era Video. 14 mins. 2007.
Buddha Jumps over the Wall - Painting no. 1 Painting. Acrylic on canvas. 400 x 280cm. 2012
Recalling elements from the "Garden of Eden", this painting features a rather androgynous nude female emerging from a jagged, thistly grove, her naked flesh rolled up into a red-and-white life preserver. The perspective is slightly deceptive, giving the viewer the impression of a 3D digital drawing. It is only on close inspection that one notices the texture of the acrylic paint. To truly appreciate the significance of this painting, it is important to note that a section of the canvas also appears in the exhibition space: a strange roofless pavilion - decorated only with oyster shells atop its pillars - is home to a red-and-white life preserver, sliced open next to a tree branch that stretches upwards. This work is part of Zhang's "Buddha Jumps over the Wall" solo exhibition at TOP Contemporary Art Center, Shanghai in 2012. Named after a famous Chinese dish, the painting and related performances demonstrate the artist's mastery at arousing all of the viewer's five senses.
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Zhang Ding
Liu's paintings and themes speak to the anguish of modern man. There is something unsettling and uncanny on the canvas, suggesting that there is much more at stake than what is visible on the surface. He elaborates on the notion of space, both interior and exterior, and how these spaces seem to construct their own intriguing narrative. Despite the rich palette, "In the wild" is another generic field laden with anonymity and vastness.
LIU WEIJIAN
In the wild Painting. Acrylic on canvas. 180 x 220cm. 2010.
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ZHENG GUOGU
This work is part of Zheng's ongoing and ambitious "Age of Empire" project, which is part land art, part playground, and part social experiment. Inspired by the computer game series, Age of Empires, Zheng is gradually transforming an agricultural area on the outskirts of Yangjiang city into a real-worldreplica of the game’s virtual community. Zheng has created an entirely new landscape that includes hills and mountains and a small village area, all surrounded by a stone wall. "Age of Empire" is a project that does not concern itself with making a finished artwork—to date not a single building has been completed—rather, it functions as an exercise in turning the fictional into reality. Although ostensibly meant to house an artist studio, a small museum, and living and entertainment quarters, the real achievement of Age of Empire lies in its integration of life and art. Waterfall (Landscape of the Age of Empire) Painting. Oil on canvas. 210 x 311cm. 2006.
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This work is one of Zheng's collaborative projects after forming the Yangjiang Calligraphy Group. The group tests the boundaries of calligraphy in a contemporary context, often extracting the characters from their traditional setting and turning them into sculptural objects. For "Garden", Zheng has created an ornamental Chinese Garden complete with a vibrating lake made of crumpled up calligraphic drawing and footbridge. Garden Sixty banana trees, one calligraphy pond with thousands of calligraphies, bridge, one waterfall, two written calligraphy paintings by the artist. 2005.
In May 1994, Zheng spent an extensive period with a mentally handicapped man in Yangjiang, following him around and photographing him in various places at different times. These pictures became a major part of this poignant work, "Me and My Teacher". In Zheng's view, the essence of art may well lie in those people who, because of their so-called “abnormality�, are in some sense free from social and cultural constraints. In one of the photos, both he and his companion appear possessed by innocent and spontaneous laughter, which is perhaps the most natural and touching moment among these images. 210
Zheng Guogu
Me and my teacher Photography. C Print. 180 x 270cm. 1993.
JIANG ZHI
This video depicts Chinese leaders Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, and Jiang Zemin, running, one after the other. Not only do the running leaders represent themselves, they symbolise the entire Chinese nation. Their action of endless moving depicts faith in progress, summed up in the popular slogan, “ As long as we are running we are always advancing,” while emphasizing that the concept of fate is deeply rooted in this society. Onward Video. 2006.
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“Objects in Drawer” was made in 1997. Pieces of personal belongings and damaged human body parts were installed together in three opened drawers. "Life is a course of losing. Time rushes away memories, cutting bodies apart. The pain of losing time projects itself on objects. Memories attach on personal belongings, giving them individual lives and feelings." Objects in Drawer C print (set of 3). 150 x 100cm. 1997.
Sucker is a virtual world crafted from video, installation, music, and writing. The artist imagines a new kind of humanity, which can attain knowledge or interact with people just by sucking in. “Sucking and being sucked” is a concept that illuminates the complicated relations among individuals, and between society and the world. The artist tries here to give form to a virtual society. The installation includes: wooden structure of a room, 60 photos of various sizes, a spinning light pole, a round light box installation (on the ceiling), a CD playing Sucker’s national anthem, a book “Sucker”, and the Sucker’s national flag (color jet print on nylon fabrics). Sucker Installation. Multimedia. 370 x 160 x 180cm. 2003.
"Part of a new painting series, ""A Thought Arises"", which began in 2010, this work is particularly significant in reuniting the artist's personal interest in the expressive quality of traditional painting and digital media. Based on an original screenshot from the computer, every pixel of the ""wave"" image is then realistically painted onto canvas; the result is a truly unique work that breaks down all boundaries between abstract versus representational, man-made versus natural, and digital versus substantial. ""These visual results form another spectacle that derives from an inner and abstract world of the computer. It is a stimulated momentary world that can be easily changed and reshaped, and seems to be even more vulnerable, accidental, unreliable and transient.� - Jiang Zhi" Untitled Wave No. 1 Painting. Oil on canvas. 350 x 240cm. 2012
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Jiang Zhi
Created as inscriptions for the "5th Ink Painting Biennial: Ink, Life, Taste" in Shenzhen (December 2006), these four calligraphies describe ways to make a quick profit in contemporary Chinese society. Sha's critique of contemporary Chinese values is written in a coarse script, reminiscent of graffiti. Yet, its overall appearance is closer to the literati tradition of elegance and refinement. The witty combination of classical aesthetics and form with contemporary philosophies is also evident in the red seal marks: the work's title is printed as a big square relief seal, while the second seals resemble mobile phone batteries. Small Investment, Big Profit Works on paper. Ink on Xuan paper. 60 x 110cm. 2006.
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SHA YEYA
A tall structure on wheels that vaguely resemble a wardrobe with 4 doors. The doors open to reveal multiple stairways, reminiscent of a three-dimensional M.C. Escher work with its explorations of infinity and architecture. On the side of the doors are connecting cables resembling basic circuit boxes. With a simple, geometric structure that recalls 20th century European Modernist architecture, this installation demonstrates Sha's keen interest in spatial development. Small Investment, Big Profit Installation. Multimedia. 375 x 120 x 120cm. 2003.
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Sha Yeya
ZHOU TAO
Zhou created this video work "1,2,3,4" for the 7th Shanghai Biennale, which took place at the Shanghai Art Museum in Shanghai, China in 2008. He created this work in the immediate vicinity of the museum, People’s Square, by recording morning staff meetings in over forty area shops and companies. The groups include dozens of young women wearing immaculate corporate uniforms, cooks, and salesmen, and a small group of tee-shirted teenagers. Regardless of occupation, the employees count off and move in step to the rhythms of their companies’ corporate songs (or chants), which are meant to build team spirit and corporate loyalty. Humorously, Zhou edited the clips to allow the rhythm of these recitations to steadily increase in intensity and build to a crescendo.
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1234 Video. 3 mins. 2008.
RMB City is an art community in the 3-D virtual world of Second Life and was realised by Cao Fei as a public platform for creativity. Second Life is an online platform for participants to create a parallel reality in which to live out their dreams and has amassed 14 million registered users. Each user is represented by an avatar, a digital figure that they can customise and control. Reflecting on China’s recent urban and cultural explosion, the architecture of RMB City is an amalgam of ancient and modern Chinese icons from the panda to the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Olympics. RMB City Interactive multimedia. Installation. 2007.
CAO FEI
222
A black and white vignette reminiscent of early Chinese movies with its grainy screen shot and 1930s jazz background music. Cao found her subject on the street in China: an innocent and otherwise ordinary man, dancing to music in his head and blowing kisses at passers-by. Completely oblivious to his surroundings, the man is happy in his own little world. Although Cao’s work appears light-hearted and playful, it is actually based on a much darker and bleaker reality. With rapid urbanisation in China, there is simply no room for this man. Where he once stood is now a large apartment block. There is no space left in China - physically or spiritually. Give me a kiss Video. 5 minutes. 2002.
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Cao Fei
With a cast of dogs as a metaphor for office workers, Cao's video is a fresh and playful take on the herd mentality in today's society. In the video, men and women masquerade as dogs in a corporate setting, acting out various scenarios of office politics with a canine twist. Despite their dog-like movements, their human characteristics easily come through the satirical veneer. Besides the usual social commentary on modern China, what distinguishes Cao from her contemporaries is her attention to broader cross-cultural issues. Rabbit dog Video. 8 minutes. 2002.
DUAN JIANYU
"I love looking for trivial, fragile things on surfaces and in installations, things of no consequence. I also love secretly describing the details of life, apparently rationally and politely, calming them with fakes, falsities and untruths." This assertion by Duan points to the philosophical nature of her art. Concerned about social reality and localization within painting, she also draws from traditional and contemporary Chinese culture. Guilin Scenery, ancient birds and flowers, and Dai women are combined with Duan’s personal feelings and Chinese characteristics. This painting is part of the Sister series (15 works in total). Sister no.14 Oil on canvas. 181 x 434cm. 2007.
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CHEN TONG
Having trained in traditional Chinese ink brush painting, Chen has long had an affinity with the literati. With his strong interest in French new realism, his works are characterised by keen observation and precise documentation. His paintings appear extremely authentic and neutral, yet with a critical stance that belies the artist's cultural and political views. “Taliban� comprises ten portraits of young Taliban soldiers, in which Chen’s mature style is clearly demonstrated: extreme visual understatement of artistic form as well as simplicity of technique to express a critical and alert perception of our world. Chen has certainly found his place among the great Chinese literati painters.
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Talibans Ink on canvas. 10 works (60 x 40cm each). 2007.
Chen conceived this "reinforced" bicycle within a very short time, inspired by Dr Norman Bethune (member of the Communist Party of Canada), Picasso as well as his childhood memories of village life in the Chinese countryside. The books inside the bookcase are entitled "The idea of the uselessness of study"; this paradox represents Chen's comment on the role of learning in contemporary society. Bicycle. Installation. Bicycle and bookcase construction. 165 x 340cm. 2007.
230
Chen Tong
5 NEW MEDIA
This section focuses on Chinese artists specialising in New Media and video art. The new millennium brought along a newfound vitality and interest in the world of new media art, a form of art that is mediated via the digital world, typically with the Internet as its platform. Once considered an emerging art, it not only challenges traditional creative media and ways of thinking, but also raises new questions and concerns about contemporary life and the globalised society. This is particularly fascinating when seen from the perspective of Chinese new media artists. Having undergone one of the greatest economic, social and cultural changes in recent decades, China’s artists have been especially quick and adept at adopting digital technology. With ever-increasing access to information, these artists have rapidly absorbed and reinterpreted the most innovative concepts, using them to express the unique realities of life in contemporary China. Our collection of New Media artists is merely “a drop in the ocean� among the incredible talents in the Chinese contemporary art world. The works collected are by no means a complete picture of media art created in, or responding to, contemporary China. It is very much our personal take on a medium that has virtually no boundaries.
302
Created for the 48th Venice Biennale, this video installation comprises 10 monitors with different Chinese people, old and young, singing the age-old "Happy Birthday" song in Mandarin. Despite the joyous sentiments of the tune, the singers look somewhat awkward and unnatural. Characteristic of Zhang's wit, this work neatly captures a critical period in contemporary China. While the Chinese population is anxious to "catch up" with the West, certain practices and concepts are simply foreign. It is a clash between domestic and external ideologies, with contemporary Chinese society standing precariously on shifting sands. Just For You Installation. 10 video monitors. 20 mins. 1998.
ZHANG PEILI
304
Artist statement - "I wanted to stop movement, like a video freeze frame. This problem of fixing the moment, I wanted to master it. I wanted to show what I saw, but which didn't exist..." In this work, a pair of melancholy eyes stare outward from a blurred black and gray field, recalling both the monotone faces that launched the grey humour movement (and therefore quoting also the early influences of video art) and tradition of painting from photography in general. It is this collusion of media that floats to the fore here: painting is betrayed as a mechanism for the production of affect within the temporal frame of video. Face No. 13 Video and painting. Betacam tape (25 minutes) and oil on canvas in 2 parts. 170 x 195cm. 2007.
LI YONGBIN
306
Yellow Signal. A four channel video installation. Channel one, 4' 53'' Channel two 17' 30'' Channel three 5'25'' Channel four 4'28''
WANG JIANWEI 308
Projected on three long hanging screens, reminiscent of classical Chinese hanging scrolls, are various scenes and close-ups of Beijing street life. With multiple screenshots that flow across the screens, the viewer could almost be experiencing the walk on the street. These works demonstrate Zhu's keen sense of observation that is devoid of any judgment or criticism. His artistic skill is shown through the tension created on screen rather than the actual subject matter. Passages Installation. 3 channel video. 2001.
310
A suspended projector, hanging from the ceiling, projects images of facial expressions of six adults onto a cradle: images of the parents, the paternal grandparents and the maternal grandparents, teasing and playing with a baby. The cradle is actually a mini pool filled with milk. In the middle of pool there is a circulatory system which pumps and drains the milk. The only sound we can hear is the running of milk. According to Wang, "The milk symbolizes the food for the baby who is absent in the video and yet the images of the six adults on the surface of the milk also suggest his presence. The changing expressions of the six adults and the constant running and draining of milk not only suggest a sense of impermanence, at the same time, they also signify the continuity in life.� Baby Talk Insallation. Video. 1996.
WANG GONGXIN
312
LI SONGHUA As a political commentary, this video work shows the image of a small Chinese boy reading the bombastic text of a speech on China’s glorious economic future. It is a timehonoured tradition for Chinese artists to respond to the pressures of intense cultural change through their creations. Li's manifestation is through his video work. Speech (left) Video. 24mins. 2005.
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Artists Name
DU ZHENJUN
The work's title is a play with words on several levels, similar to the ambiguity of the installation itself. The part-human, part-dog figure on the screen clearly relates to the title of "dog-man". Yet, the layers of meaning can be further broken down to a phonetic one that is also visually reinforced. At a quick glance, "Chienman" could easily be read as "Chinaman". The saying goes that in the pre-1949 years, a sign that said, "No dogs and Chinese allowed", could be found outside a park near the Bund. Though the sign might never have existed, the multiple uncertainties of this work tell us something about a Shanghai-born artist living in a foreign society, abandoning his classical training to practise a completely new medium that is just beginning to be accepted by today's art establishment.
Chienman Interactive multimedia installation. 1997 .
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In this later work "Disturbance", individuals on the screen go about their daily business, engrossed in their work. Posted on the wall is a number that the viewer can call that activates everyone’s cell phones on screen. People stop working, snap out of their reverie and scramble to find their cell phones. This “disturbance” also causes cows to moo, cats to hide and babies to cry on-screen. It is an ingenious way of allowing viewers to control a virtual space through a seemingly everyday object (the cell phone); it becomes the “remote control” for the piece. Disturbance Interactive multimedia installation. 2005.
This installation is a relatively low-tech project for Jin. Comprising a huge sculpture of a roaring dinosaur with a viciously thrashing tail, this animal represents China's volatile economic boom. 'Dragon' and 'dinosaur' are the same word in Chinese, denoting both the creature in Chinese mythology as well as the bones of the dinosaurs found in the Gobi desert. Chinese Tyrannosaurus Installation. Multimedia. 600 x 250 x 100cm. 2005.
JIN JIANGBO 318
Jin's work revives the theme of information overload in the digital age, and the growing complications of self-realization within the globalised society. The video and sculpture installation shows a man slumped over a flat screen monitor that rests on a table. Above him hang 20 other monitors showing different Web pages. Is the man dreaming of the monitors or are they the cause of his catatonic state, or both. 320
Jin Jiangbo
God, Go ahead with chatting Installation. Multimedia.. 400 x 400 x 300cm. 2008.
This work comes from a series of digitally modified panoramic vistas of New Zealand which was taken during Jin's residency at Auckland University. Brilliant features a view of Arrowtown in bright, almost psychedelic colours that pulsate across the wide surface. The complex layering of the landscape is characteristic of Jin's ingenious digital treatment of his subjects. Brilliant Photography. Pigment ink on photo rag, edition of 6. 40 x 200cm. 2011 . 322
Jin Jiangbo
Also from Jin's New Zealand series, Illusion is a far more subtle, romantic image. A silvery haze shimmers across the surface, further accentuating the sublime quality of the snowy mountain slopes. Illusion Photography. Pigment ink on photo rag. 74 x 100cm. 2011
324
Jin Jiangbo
.
HU JIEMING Hu’s latest project, "100 Years in 1 Minute", is a video and sound installation of monumental scale. The 1,100 videos (comprising deconstructed excerpts of the most iconic images in art history) were produced in a collaborative effort by Hu and 18 team members, each bringing his individual concept of time and cultural interpretation. The installation’s audio component, broadcast from 120 loudspeaker, consists of 30 pre-recorded sounds, and a live soundtrack that is recorded and instantly replayed through in situ omnidirectional microphones.
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100 years in 1 minute 10-channel video installation with 1-minute audio playback. Height 300cm. Variable site size (ideally 300 sqm). 2010.
YANG YONGLIANG As part of a commission by China Environment Protection Foundation, Yang created three print advertisements using Shan Shui style art to raise awareness of the serious pollution problems in China. This work in the dslcollection is an animated film version which was played in People Square Subway Station. The three paintings, "Let the Hills be Hills and the Rivers be Rivers", "Leave Nature Alone", "Don't Let Nature Come to an End", show the impact of factories, cars and buildings on the environment. Shanshui Video. 2009.
328
Cement Landscape Painting. Acrylic color, Cement, Sand, Resin paint on canvas. 250 x 800cm. 2010.
330
Yang Yongliang
WU CHI TSUNG "To my mind, the Souvenir of Mortefontaine [by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot]... is very similar to Chinese landscapes, but I can't explain why. Perhaps they share a common spirit. Perhaps the undisputed differences or boundaries between different cultures are not so undisputed after all". - Wu Chi Tsung Landscape in the mist - 001 Video. Single channel video 9'15". 2012
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MIAO XIAOCHUN
Countless numbers of naked, bald figures pushing against one another as they rush amidst the clouds. A closer look reveals to the viewer that these figures are identical and autobiographical, although void of any expressions. Miao developed his plastic alter ego as a reaction to the feeling of alienation in a different culture when he was studying in Germany between 1995 and 1999. This particular work was inspired by Michelangelo's "The Last Judgment" in the Sistine Chapel, and is the last part of Miao's "The Last Judgment in Cyberspace" series. The Vertical view Photography. C print (6 panels). 244 x 720cm. 2006.
334
Comprising nine panels, this installation is modelled on Hieronymus Bosch's 15th century masterpiece, The Garden of Earthly Delights. "Microcosm" is an imaginative reinvention of the sumptuous landscape of sin, salvation, and tawdry visions of those who never made it to paradise. While preserving Bosch's original narrative, new digital technology has enabled Miao to explore a contemporary visual vocabulary. Abandoning the traditional fixed single-point perspective, he adopted the Chinese tradition of multiple viewpoints across a single landscape. By employing these different
views to create a three-dimensional transposition of The Garden of Earthly Delights, Miao has created a tangled and complex structure across the nine panels. The relationship between six side wings and three front panels means the viewer can view hell from heaven, and can also see heaven from hell. The spectator is encouraged to physically move about the work and discover hidden pleasures from new vantage points. Microcosm Photography. C print (9 panels). 300 x 1246cm. 2008.
Microcosm - 3D computer animation Animation. Duration 15'56". 2007-8.
336
Miao Xiaochun
In post-war Japan, unwanted babies (often of mixed races) were frequently left by their unwed mothers in coin lockers, which being landmarks of every train station in Japan, are themselves culturally significant. However, these coin lockers were eventually removed due to fear of being used as bomb deposits by terrorists. Based on these historical references, the "Locker Baby Project" was born. This work in the dslcollection is the 2nd instalment of the project. Commissioned by the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, it was first exhibited at Palais de Tokyo in Paris in 2005. The installation comprises 6 large teacups, each occupied by a clone baby, each linked to a net depository of popular love songs. "Baby Love" positions the audience and each cloned baby in a perpetual spin of a fairground teacup ride. With its varying speed, the swirling teacups hint at the inevitability of a crash. Baby Love. Mobile wifi installation. 6 large teacups (170cm diameter), 6 clone babies (70cm tall). 2005.
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CHEANG SHU LEA
6 “The skill is to see the strength of the grain, not only the grandeur of the tree”
YOUNG TALENTS
340
Artists Name
This section focuses on the dslcollection’s most recent acquisitions, represented by the latest generation of Chinese artists and their art. In China’s contemporary art scene, artists born from the 1980s have grown up with far greater exposure to Western culture, and are well accustomed to the effects of globalisation. With unprecedented access to information and technology, these young artists are concerned with subjects that differ greatly from the concerns of earlier generation of artists. It follows that each of these young talents has also developed his unique artistic language. Since the publication of the first dslcollection book, we have spent an enormous amount of time visiting artists’ studios, graduate shows, galleries and museum exhibitions all over China. Many of the artists we have chosen are only in the beginning of their careers, and some of them may simply be “shooting stars”. Nonetheless, a key mission of our collection is to reflect China’s contemporary art scene. We can reach this goal by giving as much visibility and exposure to the new generation of artists as possible. In deciding on which artists/artworks to collect, we had no prejudice, nor age limit. Our young artists have been chosen simply by merit – a brilliant vision, virtuoso technique – an amazing work of art.
CHEN FEI Xiao Wu Ji Painting. Acrylic on flax canvas. 180 x 240cm. 2012
Showing strong influences from anime with its bold colours and "superflat" representation, this work is characteristic of Chen's creative style and subject matter, drawing inspiration from his everyday life. “Xiao Wu Ji lies at the intersection of the city of Beijing and the countryside, and I occasionally stroll by and stop at
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Only fools feel sad Painting. Acrylic on flax canvas. 180 x 130cm. 2010
its supermarket. Xiao Wu Ji seems surprised to discover the Beijing of 2012 - it’s still using the grey cement and green roofs of the 80s; it’s as if time has stood still. I like to think that we can’t possibly imagine a life that good. This piece depicts a girl who cannot aspire to be elegant, she has many dreams and isn’t
content with the status quo, but she’s helpless under all kinds of restrictions. All she can do is work at things she doesn’t like in Xiao Wu Ji just seeking basic nourishment and shelter. I’m painting her but also painting myself.”
This painting comes from Chen's "Bad Taste" series, which was inspired by the artist's belief that a preference for ugly or less pretty things do not have to be considered as "bad taste". "I have my own set of system, values and philosophy, thus this series of 'bad' taste will be revealed in my work from time to time."
With Chen's characteristic vignette technique, the viewer is presented with an ambiguous scene - two men, dressed in identical grey suits, each isolated in his cubicle. From the attentive gaze of the man on the right, they seem to be listening to something, although the man facing the viewer on the left appears to have dozed off. Like a snapshot from a film, the viewer is only privy to this scene and is left with many more questions. Two Men Painting. Oil on canvas. 200 x 250cm. 2013
CHEN HAN
CHEN WEI
346
Just a worn hat lying on a concrete ground‌the simple yet poetic narrative of this work creates a strong visual impact that truly distinguishes Chen's oeuvre. The eccentric imagination of Chen's photography marks a definitive departure from the previous generation of artists who were focused on political history and social concerns. The spirit of Chen's works points towards a newfound focus on personal experiences and intellectual freedom.
Tiny shards of shattered glass from a pair of reading glasses‌this unassuming scene is characteristic of Chen's contemplative style. It requires little explanation and allows viewers to draw their own conclusion. Every element is meticulously planned and laid out; the end result is such that the process of assembling and positiong the objects (rather than the photographic session) becomes the primary creative output.
Mister in the corner (Opposite, top) Photography. Archival inkjet print. 75 x 100cm. 2011
Fragile (Above) Photography. Archival inkjet print. 75 x 100cm. 2012
Nothing in Chen's photographs is ever left to chance. In this work, the pointed ends of the chair legs rest precariously on four brightly-lit light bulbs. With its dramatic cinematic setting and surreal quality, the work is reminiscent of western masters such as Cindy Sherman and Gregory Crewdson. A chair and four 100 watt bulbs (Left) Installation. Wooden chair, bulbs, rug and cables. 120 x 120 x 100cm. 2010
CHEN YUJUN
“Through this specific spatial format [of a minimally furnished room], I am trying to depict a unique domestic space and the alienated identity of its occupant.” - Chen Yujun Temporary Family - The Room That Doesn't Exist No. 2 Painting. Acrylic on canvas (3 parts); 200x300cm, 40x60cm, 220x80cm. 2011-12 348
At first glance, the video seems to be depicting the sublime beauty of the moving sun. The suspense and drama gradually build up…as the audience realises that the video actually features the hypnotic light effects created by vibrating cymbals in a music studio. The eclipse Video. 3 mins. 2011
Quoting iconic images and tunes from two of the 20th century's cult classics, A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971) and The Million Dollar Hotel (Wim Wenders, 2000), Cheng's video explores the themes of marginalisation and self-value in today's complex society; themes inspired by childhood memories of pirated DVDs, the internet and secondary news filtered into China. The video features a troubled young man who eventually throws himself off a rooftop, thus reconciling conflicting viewpoints from the two original movies. "They are not related but I couldn't help wondering what effect combining them would have. It's like the time a friend handed me a pirated DVD in which another movie follows the first one. This was a mistake but the two movies became somehow related." 1971-2000 Video. 7 mins 43 sec. 2012
CHENG RAN
"Anonymous - Imagining and Imitation of Man Ray's Tears (1930)" Single channel video with sound. 15 min. 2010
CUI JIE "Pipes started on an old piece. I used the gradient patterns as the ground that covered the original paint but kept the previous texture. The pipes and building in the painting are what I spotted in Beijing’s neighborhoods. Very small parts of the pipes are exposed outside the building, the most hidden inside. I was imagining the pipes twisting and extending at certain rhythm and eventually reaching another space. The hidden pipes are usually understood with the perspective theory knowledge, but not visually perceived. I was attempting to address such relationship between the exterior and the interior." Cui Jie Pipes Painting. Oil on canvas. 150 x 200cm. 2010
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"I understand the world through the window of China. With globalisation, the whole concept of Chinese characteristics has been blurred. But even though I don't emphasise them, there are definitely some Chinese symbols that I've been exposed since birth. Whether these symbols come out in my work is something the audience needs to decide." Cui Jie Ne Zha (Jigsaw puzzles) Painting. Oil on canvas. 280 x 200cm. 2008
354
Cui Jie
FANG LU
In her latest and exceptional work Cinema, the artist explores in a meticulous yet almost casual way of how “the self” in our today’s life is a controlled and staged construction of oneself. What appears at first sight to be a not unusual performance of selfchoreography, becomes at a second glance a disturbing portrait of a female persona brought to life under contemporary conditions of attractiveness, anxiety and narcissism. Unlike her previous works, which focus more on the internal human conditions, this new video elevates the individual relationship with its environment to a more recognizable and appealing set of behavioural actions of selfawareness and self-inflicted anguish. Cinema, as a “portrait,” is staged in the fashion of creating a self-image in the guarded societal arena of surveillance. In this media oriented process of constructing a self-image, one experiences over time the loss of one’s, authentic, identity. In that sense Cinema is a “melancholic” portrait. Cinema Video. 7-channel video, 19'19". 2013
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Artists Name
"I use the ink on paper not for emphasis, but to achieve a particular gradation of grey. The ink seeps into the water and color, injecting into the picture a sense of the accidental, of that which is beyond our control, but in a way that is not overwhelming." Fang Wei Huangshan mountain Painting. Oil on canvas. 200 x 300cm. 2011
358
"The black torso of a diver rotates from a fan above a white octagonal kiosk; inside, a bright blue and yellow parrot perches above the diver's legs; pairs of clear acrylic feet variously stuffed with syringes and other instruments rest on the exterior wall panels. This is the metaphorical cage that the artist has created between the audience and his work. ""When I build the cage, I feel the work will be equal to the audience and they will be forced to be in the cage...I want the parrot to be the watchman, the inspector. From the parrot's perspective, the audience is trapped in this white space, surveyed or inspected by him."" - Gao Lei" The principle Installation. Multi-media . 2011
GAO LEI
360
G72 Installation. Stainless steel, velvet. 580 x 170 x 170cm. 2011
"G72 explores the optical illusion of a vertical mirror image. Due to the force of gravity, the velvet rope around the balustrades will inevitably fall downward; the balustrades appear to be fixed to the ceiling but in fact they are suspended in the air, forming a standard of absolute vertical." - Gao Lei
F73
Gao Lei
GE GUANZHONG
Artist statement - "Upon the completion of the ambitious 4-panel work after months of diligent work, what I feel the strongest about is how to grasp and express contradictions. First and foremost is the subject matter. The interspersion of men and mountain landscapes indicate the conflicts and contradictions between society and nature, and the strong color scheme further strengthens the opposition between chaos and order. Secondly, the magnificent mountain landscapes and the dim-colored uniforms form a deep contrast, underlying the consequences of human activities on the environment and the worrying conditions of the masses at the bottom of social echelon. Corrupt practice and lack of balance in the social structure are main themes for the creating this work. Blind-folded men holding sign boards symbolize big-power and hypocritical politics, whereas men trapped in the mountains are trying to change themselves. For them, it is either falling to corruption or struggling to survive. The Coke-cola can became magical tokens from the Chinese gods – a self depreciating irony of the pervasive impact of foreign cultures in China. These intricate contradictions constitute the final work of Red Soil."
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Red Soil Ink and colour on paper. 230 x 560cm. 2008.
Inspired by the theatrics and fantasy of a circus, the "Shoulders of Little Clowns" series encompasses installations, paintings and performance art. The underlying concept is to encourage "an exit from reality, then a willingness to laugth at oneself, and finally a realistic acceptance of chaos." The Shoulders of Little Clowns No. 2 Mixed media. Oil on canvas with white silicone, cat specimen. 212 x 229cm. 2012
GUEST (XU QU, LU PINGYUAN AND ZHAO YAO)
366
GUO HONGWEI
368
Artist statement: "In the development of my work, I am constantl seeking voided objects - subjects that do not accommodate the commonplace reflex of extending meaning beyond themselves or generating narratives in the manner of a still frame in a movie. Ultimately, in my painting, I am interested in the process itself and in exploring a deeper sense of quality lying within the details. Thus, my focus is most clearly trained on the visible surface of the work."
In this work, Guo's painterly style succeeds in endowing an everyday object (radiator) with youthful tenderness as well as a kind of energetic directness. He does not have any emotional feeling about his very ordinary subjects; instead, the focus is on their formal values and the way in which the paint behaves when it makes contact with the support. These mundane objects, even rolls of toilet-paper, gain a new radiance when presented in carefully orchestrated fashion against their pure white backgrounds. Since Guo has no desire to place his objects in context, to give the kind of “explanation� he despises, there are no distractions as he observes the way in which the paint behaves. That is what Guo aims to achieve, to direct the viewer away from the subject matter and concentrate on other aspects.
Masterpiece. Painting. Oil on canvas. 100 x 150cm. 2009.
Radiator Painting. Oil on canvas. 200 x 300cm. 2009.
This work was awarded the John Moores (Shanghai) Contemporary Painting Prize in 2010. Artist statement - "Magnify the propotion to real airplanes. Create an ideal airplane pattern, and a paradox where errors grow with disturbance and beauty. A metaphor about seek and dream." Grand Airplane 2 Acrylic on canvas. 150 x 200cm. 2009.
HAN FENG
370
"I insist to work on traditional silk scroll, using more iconic forms of language, to provide water, flower, people and rocks deeper implications. I work to communicate the seemingly short or long distance between contemporary being and traditional culture with damaged and worn out silk scrolls." Hao Liang Untitled Painting. Ink painting on silk. 400 x 170cm. 2012
HAO LIANG
372
"As a tribute to his father, this installation began with the artist's decision to search all over his home town of Wuhan for neon lights that feature the same characters as his dad’s name, “He Taoyuan”, as well as one of his favorite Japanese movie stars.
HE AN
""It appears that He An hovers between taboo territories. From his initial direct opposition to meaning, his work mocks certain aspects of it as it progresses. He makes his work linger between ‘making mischief’ HERE and ‘research and investigation’."" Wang Jianwei, curator" "What makes me understand what I know?" Installation. Neon light. 2009.
HE AN
374
"Water expresses no clear indexical characteristics. Its vagueness allows it to bear whatever meaning people endow it with and perhaps, simultaneously, it may mean nothing at all. Water is enormously generous. Water is shapeless in itself; one cannot grasp its form. The moment of my pressing the camera shutter, it freezes, becoming an image of shapes. Under the pattern of the waves, powerful, latent forces are moving. I copy the appearance of the photographs; this repetitive and timeconsuming process brings me a sense of calm. Each wave pattern is an endless and ever-changing enigma. Each form looks similar to the next, yet differs completely from it. I am engulfed. I learnt to swim early. It was only after many years that I saw the ocean for the first time. Little of that experience remains in memory, except for the excitement I felt at that moment." Hou Yong Black no. 11 Painting. Oil on canvas. 250 x 204cm. 2013
HOU YONG
Artists Name
HSU CHIA WEI
Hsu's latest project focuses on the Huai Mo Tzu Chiang House in Chiang Rai, Thailand, which shelters a generation of orphans owning close relationships to the region’s complex history. In the video, the director of the orphanage (who was once an intelligence officer) points out the historical origins and changes. The artist’s customary style is extended in this work—the people telling the stories, the people hearing the stories, the crew made up of orphans, with the artist standing furthest back, observing it all. Huai Mo Village Video. One channel video installation; 8 minutes and 20 seconds. 2012
Part of the artist's "Huai Mo Village" series, this collaborative tapestry came about when the artist visited Huai Mo Tzu Chiang House, where he found more than ten sewing machines that were donated by a British national some ten years ago. The machines were intended to provide the local orphans with a source of income, enabling them to make a living by producing and selling purses and clothes by their own. However, these machines were not fully utilized. After his visit, the artist invited a teacher to teach the orphans to use the machines, and eventually completed this tapestry together. The design of the tapestry is based on a picture taken in 1973, featuring two senior officers standing in front of the newly-established CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). The fabrics used for the tapestry are usually used to make clothes for local children. The fabric in dark blue is used for making girl's skirt, the khaki is used for boy's pants, while the white is used for their shirts. Huai Mo Village - Tapestry Tapestry. 290 x 190cm. 2013
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"Aphasia (an impairment of language ability) implies my personal and muddled feelings towards oil painting. When I was in middle school, I was deeply attracted to the oil paintings of Chuck Close and Richard Estes' super realism, even though I knew very little about oil painting at that time. I put a lot of hope and efforts into this painting. I want it to be closer to reality-not only just the reality in the painting but also my actual feelings about life, especially in this 'so-busy-that-you-stop' era. Aphasia has been haunting me since my adolescence. It disturbs me all the time but I just can’t get rid of it. But after I have a deeper understanding of the world I’m living in, I finally realize that aphasia is nothing to me, compared to all the things in society that can make you speechless." - Hu Wenlong Aphasia Painting. Oil on canvas. 249 x 167cm. 2010
HU WENLONG
380
A soft silhouette of a young couple and a baby peeks through the delicate silk which has been painted with foliage. A bright light shines on the left, illuminating bowls of plant bulbs. What is the most striking is the strength of the baby's image in contrast to his parents; his cherub-like facial features are clearly visible. The intimacy of this scene, which is reinforced by the small scale of the work, is absorbing. Despite being confined in a small lightbox, the audience cannot help but be captivated by the subtle combination of visual and audio effects. Glorious Youth Watercolour on silk. lightbox and sound. 95 x 75cm. 2009.
HU XIAOYUAN
382
“Being ignored never ends, just like the river.� Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said this to the interviewer when she was sitting in the forest. It attracted me so much. The sentence, a fragment, with no start or end, reflects the boundless ocean of consciousness outside the short words. The river sometimes – through its identical parts and transformation of time, reveals the forms of life. Sometimes one side which seems still, just like that death is a sprout of new life, is another form after transformation. I am fascinated by cicada skins, snake skins and honeycombs, which imply death metaphorically in their living forms. They are fragile and easy to be ignored. Dead objects also have implications of new life, just like talking in sleep with no start or end.
Being Ignored Never Ends, Just Like the River Installation. Metal, paper pulp (wasted toilet paper), wood, mirror, snakeskin, cicada skin, honeycomb, cotton line. Variable dimension. 2011.
384
Hu Xiaoyuan
HUANG YUXING
This work marks a significant point in Huang's artistic development. Sweeping aside all traces of explicit representation, Huang has relied on the pure intensity of his palette to bring the canvas alive. Huang's latest series of works reveal a "pronounced desire to impress upon his audience the weight of expression itself; color is the main focus of these works, and color, on its own, begins to convey the artist’s very moods and intentions." Laboratoire dans la forêt Painting. Oil and acrylic on canvas. 170 x 275cm. 2012
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"Commenting on the destructive nature of China's rapid urbanisation, the Unregistered Cities series features lilliputian ghost cities amid the very real crumbling ruins of Beijing's abandoned houses. ""My idea was very simple: to put classical Chinese motifs and icons, which expresses the essence of humanity at hidden corners of the cityscape. The representation itself is an opening for the audience to discover in the end, both a question and answer come from them."" - Jiang Pengyi" Unregistered city no. 2 Photography. Ultra giclee print, edition of 8. 90 x 125.4cm. 2008-2010
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JIANG PENGYI
A visual spectacle that is characteristic of Jiang's oeuvre, the "Everything Illuminates" series captures light trails emitted by phosphorescent powder over everyday objects, thus transforming their appearance and endowing them with a non-objective selfcontentedness. Everything Illuminated No.9 (Previous page) Photography. Archival inkjet print. 251 x 180cm. 2012 Everything Illuminated No.10 (Right) Photography. Archival inkjet print. 251 x 180cm. 2012
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Jiang Pengyi
Jin is renowned for creating interactive, playful installations that drive at issues erupting out of China's dizzying transformation into a globalized, commercial society. "Desperate Pee" is a life-size silicon statue of the artist peeing on a bridge into a canal in Venice. Exhibited at the 52nd Venice Biennale, the original statue caused quite a scandal when it was set alight by vandals. Desperate Pee Installation. Mixedmedia, 165 x 35cm. 2007.
JIN SHAN
392
JIN SHENGJIA Trace Mixed media. 30,000 individual keyboards. 240 x 540cm. 2012
"Up close, this monumental work appears to be an abstract collage of used keyboards; it is only from a distance that the panoramic landscape, in the tradition of classical Chinese shanshui, reveals itself to the viewer. Jin modelled his landscape on the Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains (c. 1348-50), considered one of the greatest surviving masterpieces by the highly esteemed painter, Huang Gongwang (1269-1354). In part an hommage to Chinese cultural heritage, the artist also aims to ""trace"" the continuous history of human civilisation, from the ancient to modern, and from ""Chinese"" to ""international"". ""When keyboards are new, they are white and the same. When the keyboards are typed on for a long time under different circumstances, in different environments, they present colours with subtle differences. These differences are the traces left by this busy information age."" - Jin Shengjia"
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LI RAN HERE
This video installation consists of a series of texts and documents (including letters, oil paintings and photos) related to his father's artrelated education and creation from the late 1970s-90s, as well as a single channel video "Another Modern Artist'', where Li acts as an imaginary modernist artist. The work takes its title from the 1989 Hayward Gallery exhibition "The Other Story: Afro-Asian Artists in Postwar Britain" curated by Rasheed Araeen, which pointed to the "absence of non-Western artists in the history of modern art". Another "The Other Story" Another Modern Artist Video installation. Singer channel sound HD video, 7 min 05 sec. 2013
LI RAN 396
Artists Name
Rorschach Test No. 7 Painting. Acrylic on canvas. 180 x 360cm. 2011
This work is part of the artist's recent "Rorschach Test" series, named after a psychological test by Swiss psychologist, Hermann Rorschach, who discovered that people looking at the same inkblot often see many different things. The test was used to examine personality characteristics and emotional capabilities. Based on the idea of the Rorschach Test, Li creates large-scale
paintings with mirror symmetry and a myriad of dazzling colours. Always fascinated by the concept of optical illusion and how the eye forms visual images, Li conceptualises works that create a sensory experience for the viewer. Starting from a simple sketch, each individual dot is meticulously airbrushed by hand to form layers are on the canvas.
LI WEI
400
"When a hero faces to death, it’s a real death not just an illusion. To be a hero doesn’t mean to act honorably in danger as in movies, death itself doesn’t need to be sensational and hero isn’t exist sentimentally, he’s not an idol for people to admire. Hero has complicated humility and he also is a normal people in real life. The truth of hero’s end is: hero can see through the death itself. But nobody knows." Li Wei Hero - Chorus 2012
The Truth Sculpture. 59 x 39cm. 2009
“Actually here in China, a lot of people never really understood the “Hollow Man” , they just think this is some beautiful statue of girls, some also think they looks like Xiang Jing’s sculpture. But actually what I want discuss in this work is how a human being react in this society ( maybe in Chinese society) , they have control over their real emotions, never even dare to show their individual expressions in front of the public, and try to look normal. Have you ever seen people’s numb faces in the subway or on the bus? Normal people have this kind of expression of “being in control”, hiding themselves in the “community”, and try to look like everyone. In China we are just beginning to have individual expressions, actually maybe 90% of Chinese face still look like that. But when you look at these faces, everyone had his individual details, no one actually is same as the other, they are all unique people. That’s why I painted so much details on their faces. So unconsciously you can see how absurd their control, because you can never hide your individuality as a human in this world. I want show this absurdity with a very objective material carrier- these natural persons. That’s why I made a group of persons, so people can see them for real together.” – Li Wei 404
Li Wei
Help. Resin, acrylic, oil painting, human hair, costume. 226 x 60 x 80 cm. 2013
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Unpeaceful Christmas Eve - A block of Cake Video 15''. Year: 2011.
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Li Wei
LI WEI
Part of her latest "Ink" series, this work uses the time-consuming technique of ink blots; dots of ink are applied individually and in varying sizes to create two distinct viewing experiences: abstraction and definition. With nature (especially the bamboo) as her subject, Li creates a serene, delicate landscape that is at once classical, spiritual and contemporary. Enlargement Painting. Ink on canvas. 280 x 700cm. 2011.
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LI ZHOUWEI
412
As the title implies, "Life Journey" spans over 25 metres across the room. In the first canvas, we see a trail of children, playing with one another, some on skateboards, some flying kites. As the viewer moves across the 25 works, he sees the figures growing up into teenagers, adults, the elderly and eventually ending with a burial service surrounded by monks. Much of the canvas areas are left bare, only a small trail of figures can be seen winding across the surface of the paintings. What makes this new artist so exceptional is her delicate yet purposeful brushstrokes. Life Journey Painting. Ink on canvas, multiple works. 145 x 2576cm. 2010.
In a sunny winter square, passers-by stop on the same spot, one after the other, and look at the camera. In increasing numbers, these strollers with a curious gaze appear to see something that is hidden from the audience. Could it be that these passers-by are looking at us and that the usual relationship between artwork and viewer is reversed? Liang creates in this work a random group portrait. She presents a moment of suspended time, accentuated by the blue atmosphere of the light and the ethereal musical soundtrack. The artist also uses a strategy often employed by the Surrealists which involves destabilizing the viewer by posing the question "Who is looking? Is the viewer looking at the artwork or is the artwork looking at the viewer?" Crowd Video. 4’.
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LIANG WEI
This work deals with the play of light and shadow. Continuing with her exploration of the interaction of colour and patterns, Liang manipulates the distribution of matt and gloss paint to create an artificial source of light within the two dimensional plane. Perfect depth: Your inner god Oil on plaster models. 7 works (20x20x20cm each). 2008.
LIANG YUANWEI
416
"Dawn" is a series of six variable-sized paintings on linen. Based on the same petal-like motif, Liang continues her personal exploration of light on canvas; each of the six works has its own colour field that interacts with natural light, thus creating a subtle three-dimensional depth. "The contrasts of sizes and hues well elucidate creatures in summertime, whose figures are looming from the foggy ambience." - Liang Yuanwei Dawn Painting. Oil on linen. 2012 418
ArtistsYuanwei Liang Name
The works #16 transforms reproductions of sculptures by Hans Arp into pedestals for projectors. By mismatching the projection with the screen, the work projects a blue square that constantly zooms in and out. Executed in low tech, the piece alters the conditions of the exhibitions within a seemingly conventional parameter, and disturbs the spectator’s view by creating a continual discrepancy between exhibiting and viewing. LIU CHUANG Works #16 Installation. 2012
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The title of Liu's elegantly simple project "Buying Everything On You (2006-08)" is self-explanatory. To create this work, Liu approached random strangers on the street and offered to purchase everything on their person. The items were then "laid bare" on plain white plinths. Is this a snapshot of the contemporary consumer, where one is defined by what he/she owns? Or is Liu providing us with an empty portrait: while his subjects may be defined by their clothes and belongings, they inevitably remain elusive? Buying Everything on You Mixed media. Various materials. 120 x 240 x 20cm. 2006-7
This work forms part of the extensive "City DNA" series where the artist captures the aerial views of cities around the world found on Google Earth. Using the most meticulous of paint strokes, Lu reduces and transforms the recognisable landmarks of our cities into pure geometric shapes. Reminiscent of Piet Mondrian's neoplasticism, Lu eliminates the painting elements of perspective, light and depth; instead he uses colour, lines and composition to fulfill his painterly vision. For Lu, his painting is more than a device to articulate the fascinating observation from the height of a satellite on Google Earth; it is his personal response to globalisation and the impact of urban planning on earth. City DNA Shanghai Painting. Acrylic on canvas. 200 x 400cm. 2011.
LU XINJIAN
422
Artist statement: "A racing motorcycle for the handicapped is pulling two legs wearing ice skates on the feet. The moving harsh pavement keeps sharpening the blades of the skates. Along with the harsh noise, the blades become sharper and sharper, until they turn into a real pair of knives. Speed endows the passing pavement with a soft and silky texture, thus the only hard thing, the blades, are always in the process of becoming sharp or blunt." All my sharpness comes from your hardness Video. Single channel video 25'30". 2011.
MA QIUSHA
424
"I deliberately painted an inverted table to show an angle that we would not normally see. I painted the lake without water, exposing rocks and all the rubbish at the bottom of the lake. We are used to seeing things from a certain angle and once this changes, everything becomes strange. Just like the back of the moon. We act like we know a lot about our own culture and history; in fact, we know very little. All of us are just blindly following one another." Ni Youyu No. 1 (Series: Bottom of the Tai-Lake) Painting. Mixed media on canvas. 200 x 320cm. 2011
NI YOUYU
426
Generous layers of oil paint cover the canvas to create a dream-like world of intense colour and rhythm - one can almost feel the rickety movement of the building blocks as the player gingerly places them on top of one another. Could this be an allegory of the artist and the social reality that he lives in? Or is this his attempt to escape reality? Despite the chaos and jumble of colours, there is a sense of magic and poetry to the scene that capitvates the viewer. "Most of the time I'm expressing myself through painting...my paintings have their own life, I am not like other artists who keep painting the same mark in each work. My works are alive with vitality." - Ouyang Chun Building Blocks Player Painting. Oil on canvas. 185 x 280cm. 2008.
OUYANG CHUN
428
Much like Pan's "Sea" series, this work carries a palpable sense of wistfulness. Despite the dark palette, the landscape is very well defined and evocative. A small lone figure stands amidst towering trees, insignificant amidst nature's anonymity. The location, the figure's identity are irrelevant; all the artist is interested in is to create this world of quietness. "I don't feel any desires for drawing figures, nor anything with an unequivocal directional property." - Pan Jian Solitude is the Garden of Darkness Painting. Oil on canvas. 180 x 250cm 2011.
PAN JIAN 430
A special commission for the collection, Shadow is the Edge of the Night pushes the artist's virtuoso skills to its very limit. Peering into the dimly-lit landscape, the viewer's eye is inevitably drawn to a lone figure standing by the shimmering lake. Once again, the location or identity of the figure is unimportant - the artist simply wants to create a world of quietness. "It can be said that though his painting is full of a quiet atmosphere, behind it there lies a mournful, unsettled poetic air, with dark tones creating a strange sad, gloomy mood which expresses a bleak but poignant realm." - Huang Du on Pan Jian Shadow is the edge of the night Painting. Oil on canvas. 250 x 500cm. 2012
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Pan Jian
With this very personal work, Pei summed up the new back-to-basics spirit whistling through the art world, where artists are rediscovering why they wanted to be artists in the first place – creating work for themselves, not the market. “I always work from deep feeling and I often feel angry. If you have strong emotions, it is better to create than to destroy. I think in everyone’s deepest heart there is a violent side and I want to use that violent side to create. I see my studio as a secret garden in which I can make things grow.” Isn’t something missing? Multimedia video. 2009.
434
PEI LI
"I never define the genre of my art, nor do I think about how to reflect the contemporary age. The so called contemporary art, in my understanding, is not a style or genre that can be defined. It is rather how people discover their own experience, the kind of personal experience that cannot be repeated by others, and use a new method to express the experience. I like embroidered shoes and painted garments because they are private and yet common. This is my personal experience. And real contemporary art is open to any unexpressed experience." - Peng Wei Flowing Water Robe Painting. Ink and colour on paper. 194 x 120cm.
PENG WEI 436
Qiu has used realistic sculptural techniques to create this series. Her analysis of different levels of society, which the piece presents, casts a profound critical eye upon contemporary society. It also embodies an independent social stance typical of today’s younger generation. The artist’s acute attention to current reality and art along with her inherent compassion make this piece entirely original in its social critique. This is the artist's first major sculptural piece, which has already won her three separate art prizes in China, including the Luo Zhongli Art Scholarship. Guangzhou Jiangnan West Road, xx/xx/2005 Installation. Bronze. 230 x 300 x 450cm. 2006.
QIU JINGTONG
438
"I am personally very fond of the whale in “Wild Dream Fantasy Series” with its ambience of sadness and desperation that I want to convey. Big-sized animals have their particular spirits: even when they die, their spirits don’t end and their mystery continues to influence. I like animal subject. Animals, lives that are totally different from human being, exist by their physical instincts and coexist with us. I imagine the inner-heart shock would be much stronger than the visual shock when one stands next to a dying whale. To complete the sensory experience I have added in a special element: sound. Generally speaking, paintings are about visual, while what I am trying to accomplish is to help obtain feelings both in sense and heart." Shang Chengxiang Wild dream fantasy series no. 5 Painting. Oil on canvas. 215 x 280cm. 2012
SHANG CHENGXIANG
440
"A “net” on a plain surface is formed by numerous squares at regular intervals in the rhythm of “square, blank, square, blank” in both horizontal and vertical directions. The structure and visual effect of the “net” is set as intense and precise, and at the same time loose and intriguing. I duplicate, enlarge, reduce, adjust, displace and overlap these “nets” composed of squares. Each of these movements and consequent traces on canvas seem to verify kinds of existence, such as the existence of the net structure and the existence of self. I feel a sense of vertigo from the space constructed by the distorted, displaced and overlaid squares, and at the same time bewildered by the shape of time gradually formed in my painting. Lost in contemplation of the paradoxical but also interdependent notions of “existence” and “nihility”, what I feel is nothing but a solemn power, beyond words." - Shang Yixin
97% Painting. Acrylic on canvas. 206.5 x 200cm. 2012
In the tradition of Duchamp's "readymades", Song's paintings use readily downloadable images from the internet, which are then direcly transferred onto canvas. "In an everyday context, these spaces are distinguished by common and cheap decorative styles. This kind of decoration is probably another way to represent an aesthetic, or it can be seen as violently treating the meaning of aesthetics. Most of these spaces have only evidence of human presence. These vestiges really interest me, I leave them in my paintings as traces, odd brushworks." - Song Yuanyuan Aesthetic System Workshop Painting. Oil on canvas. 210 x 160cm. 2011.
SONG YUANYUAN
444
"In the state of idleness, or self-awakening, in the moment when I try to be adaptable or to wrestle, I am forever ready to welcome the unknown and chaotic future, to move forward with high hopes. To look for the world which creates the great future is my ultimate pursuit. I consciously create an unconscious world." - Wan Zhenyu Supreme Future Painting. Oil on canvas; 2 panels. 305 x 410cm. 2011
WAN ZHENYU
446
For Wang Guangle, painting becomes ritual. "Untitled" series is based on "Coffin Paint" series: he adds a layer of paint, each application begins a little further removed from the edge. But this time before the next application he adds a small amount of dark paint in the white paint from last layer, the amount is so subtle that after stiring the change can hardly be recognized by naked eyes. Since the layer which shrinks every time from all four sides of the last layer accumulates, the gradient of color can be recognized and in the center of his piece he has achieved a kind of suction affect. Repetition and labour that lasts for several months turns the work into a "cosmic tunnel". But the painter would more like the "black hole" to be articulated as "visible time". Untitled Painting. Acrylic on canvas. 180 x 140cm. 2007.
448
WANG GUANGLE
WANG TIANXUAN Part of the recent series, "Qi Xie Mountain Lore", this work represents Wang's personal adaption of the greatest classical Chinese landscape paintings of the Song Dynasty. Described as "art history style painting", Wang combines classical imagery (eg. towering precipitous mountains) with his unique perspectival division; the resulting monumental landscapes reflect the artist's bleak view of contemporary society. The Flames of the Mountain Painting. Oil on canvas. 280 x 420cm. 2011-12 .
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Wang's work clearly shows signs of a virtuoso painter, with great empathy for his subject. Influences from Bacon are apparent. Artist statement - "Through placing abstract and strange creatures in real-life scenes, the individual element in the picture begins to develop "obscure" links with one another, and at the same time shows the relationship between life and nature and the subconscious anxiety and panic. My painting is a mime, which shows “the events� of human psyche." Event Painting. Oil on Canvas. 200 x 250cm. 2010.
452
Wang Tianxuan
"Site 2013-9"
“I began to try a simpler space. I deconstructed and reconstructed it, and displayed three side lines only which belong to the theoretical space element (Angular Perspective). The space becomes more abstract. The unidentifiable generic space took the place of the specific one. The image itself becomes the purpose, structure, shape, material, colour and the procedure of painting took on a meaning. The viewers can enjoy the freedom to reach their own destination guided by the retinal game.� - Wang Yi
WANG YI "Site 2013-10"
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WANG YUYANG
Travels in Four Dimension, ”Curves and Dimensions” Page55 ”so loves…can never meet” - Wang Yuyang Tiger (Below) Painting. Oil on canvas. 208 x 250cm. 2012
"Buch der verrückten Experimente “An Ape For a Kid Sister” Page103 “As an ape…is treated the same ”. Page106 to 107 “Though…died a year after” Wang Yuyang" Dubious Installation. Brass, copper, stainless steel, iron, wood. 490 x 450 x 400cm. 2013
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Wang Yuyang
"Xiao Xu’s elaborate ink paintings create a sense of mystery for the nostalgic voyeur. The landscape of “Wandering Stag” enshrouded in mist and fog evokes a metaphor for the search for meaning and longing for another world. The delicate layers of ink wash convey a transparency that skillfully creates depth into a dreamlike world. Xiao Xu represents a generation of young artists predisposed to explore the solitude and fantasy explored in the scholarly tradition in Chinese painting." - RedBox Studio Untitled Painting. Ink painting on silk; 3 parts. 170 x 90cm. 2012
XIAO XU
458
XIE MOLIN
"With the idea of creatively applying digital and mechanical techiniques to painting, I consider the computer and cutting plotter as alternatives to human hands." Xie Molin Xie begins by developing the "Yao" pattern on a computer. This is then precisely applied into thick layers of white paint using his signature painting machine. All aspects of the creative process are under his complete control - colour, form and application. The net effect is a captivating combination of rhythm and texture with a simplicity that undermines the intensely technical process. Yao Painting. Acrylic on canvas.160 x 218cm. 2011
460
XU QU
"Sea Level is part of Xu's latest project titled "Xisha, South China Sea No. 1", which is partly inspired by the artist's childhood memories of the sea. In this work, a single strip of bright neon light cuts across the "horizon" in each of the deep blue panels; an exemplification of the artist's method of "applying ideas born of minimalism." Notwithstanding the political implications of the location, Xu's interest in the area is more driven by the contradictory relationship "between the real and the internalised to which this sensitive area - the object of restriction and desire - give rise." "I believe there are many elements involved in physical memory. When I’m working I unfold these memories; it’s comparable to removing something from a safe." - Xu Qu Sea Level Mixed media. Aluminium panels, neon, 5 works. 216 x 115 x 5cm. 2011
462
Part of a series that explores the transcience of time and the changeable nature of objects, this hand-painted animated video features whales and airships, a seemingly incongruous pairing, moving back and forth within a warehouse space. In the same manner as the watercolours and gouaches of this series, the whales and airships appear as delicate, grisaille forms that gracefully float across the surface of the video screen. Last Experimental Flying Object Video. Hand-painted animation. 7'23". 2008
YE LINGHAN
464
Part of his series of prints collectively titled "Phosphorous Red", Ye has mastered the technique of applying phosphorous liquid onto hand-made paper. These bold images contain a wide range of references including space travel and colonization, the principles of chemistry and physics, nationalism, politics and rock music. He succeeds in drawing together this potentially improbable material into an invigorating and highly-legible series of manifesto like declarations. Red Colours Painting. Mixed media. 200 x 450cm. 2010.
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No.2. Oil on canvas. 160 x 140cm. 2008.
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With her keen interest in the ephemeral qualities of light, Yu has abandoned the inadequate paint brush for this extensive installation work, which consists of 115 painted panels (250x300cm each), 3-minute Super 8 film, a digital map print and multiple C prints .To record the cast shadows of a tree from sunrise to sunset, a large piece of fabric (50x25m) was laid out around a tree in the open countryside. Yu is shown in her process documentation sitting and absorbed within her painting as she sketched the tree's shadow as it turned from west to east. No longer is the singular painting sufficient because the observation of the shadow's development has to be stretched out and meticulously recorded. The Tree Installation. Mixed media. 2008.
YU AISHAN
470
ZHANG YAO
"This series is about the practice of painting. Flat geometric shapes are painted onto found fabric; its absolute and contrasting colours allow one to associate the painting with typical abstractions. These paintings are not derived from any set of aesthetics nor are they exploraitons of certain ideology. Instead, they serve as a disruption to this form of understanding. The graphics that seem to have some sort of meaning are borrowed from logic or math challenge diagrams in puzzle books. Only colours are added to the graphics to produce paintings that circulate into the system of paintings." - Zhang Yao A Painting of Thought. Painting. Acrylic on found fabric. 200 x 180cm. 2013
472
"My work originates from a series of random fragments, something I hardly feel will come into being. I am just a supplicant to my own emotions, innovations and developments and I try to preserve something of the visual experience I’ve gathered." - Zhang Wei Walking in silence, walking in heaven Mixed media. Mixed materials on canvas. 200 x 480cm. 2010.
ZHANG WEI
474
"It is a presentation of representation, but not exactly. It is based on the occasional start of text concept. After experiencing the process of “you are there�, catching by the video on the print paper, the audience can make collages with the images according to his own wish, and at last the images are transferred to the canvas with violent composition. With different media transformation, the details of the picture become blurring and images form on the canvas eventually. The formal clear concept disperses, which is a result of effect without cause." Zhang Emperor Mountain Mixed media. Mixed materials on canvas. 200 x 480cm. 2010.
476
Zhang Wei
"Cities at night are decorated by neon and a clear outline is projected on our retina, which make cities at night even more concrete than in daytime. Invasion of light also became the gorgeous chord of the modern city. In the ever-bright city, bright lights take place of stars and force the night sky to lose its color. Although it’s even more beautiful in the evening, most people can no longer see the night sky's true beauty." - Zhang Wei Blue light no. 1 Mixed media. Mixed media on canvas. 300 x 300cm. 2012
478
Zhang Wei
ZHANG ZHENXUE
Artist statement - "Tradition is something quite fascinating. During a transient one month’s stay in England, I became fascinated with the wellpreserved historical architecture in all cities around England, which led me to create this improvised painting. The English-style architecture with a brickstone structure looks massive and strong and majestic with some implication to certain significances in western philosophy. Therefore, I try to represent traditional English architecture in approaches of scattered perspective and freehand ink and wash, in order to realize the collision and fusion between Oriental and Western classical cultural elements. The 'harmony without sameness' relationship between English-style brick-stone and Chinese ink and wash makes perfect sense to me." Liverpool Works on paper. Oil on transparent paper. 85.5 x 2500cm. 2011.
480
For his return to the medium of painting, Zhao has chosen a subject that is particularly dear to the heart of Chinese people - ping pong. Across two large canvases, Zhao has reduced the high speed excitement of the game to a deliberate placement of paddles and ball on a flat green background. Through the standardised format, Zhao comments on the remarkable characteristic of China's national sport - the willingness of all players to follow rules and more significantly, their general reluctance to do so in other situations. Ping Pong No. 1, 2 Painting. Oil on canvas (set of 2). 200 x 260cm. 2011
ZHAO ZHAO
482
The fragmentary forms of Zhao’s "Officer" scattered on the floor act as a scathing commentary on issues of power that can only be addressed obliquely in China. Wearing a policeman’s uniform, the artist posed for a conventionally realistic sculpture that was pushed over and broken into pieces as soon as it was completed. Carved in limestone, the shattered sculpture reflects on the role of public sculpture in perpetuating power structures throughout history and the fate of such monuments when a ruling figure is deposed. The numerals visible on the officer’s jacket refer to the date on which Ai Weiwei was arrested in 2011, providing yet another layer of political significance to Zhao’s provocative use of academic procedures to comment on contemporary issues of the greatest significance. Officer Installation. Limestone sculptures. 180 x 49 x 46cm. 2011
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Ai Weiwei's Portrait, Oil on Canvas. 220 x 200cm. 2013
486
ArtistsZhao Zhao Name
"This painting is inspired by begonia flower patterns on a piece of glass. Its subject is mainly the life behind the glass. The refraction of light diffuses and blurs objects, producing a mottled colouration and a florid yet fragmented feeling. I’m interested in 'vanishing' because its process contains a projection of time. And, by portraying this process, I can recall the disappearing and the disappeared around me and try to record and save them in my own way." - Zheng Jiang Tent Painting. Tempera on aluminium panel. 204 x 340cm. 2012.
ZHENG JIANG
488
ZHOU MING
Artist statement - "This work is essentially a crime story - about self-murder and the reconstruction of reality. Using medical terminology and imagery, 490
the film presents a series of self torture, which constantly changes - hesitating, disappearing, destroying."
Migraine. Video. Animation. 2010.
Jade Painting. Oil on canvas. 330 x 570cm. 2011
492
"I am extremely sensitive to art. My works always usher people into a deep space of the soul: a place of reminiscence, faint colors, cold and shady environment, dim light, everything solitary and miraculous as if the dreams of the audience can be easily taken away. I am a man who grows continually before death brings the growth to an end. I pass through the interlayer of these worlds, get suspended or stranded in it, leaving a touching trace. What I paint is that very world." - Zhu Xinyu
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Zhu Xinyu
\A cold breath across over of the boundless cemeteries Painting. Oil on canvas. 200 x 240cm. 2009
Her thought yet to be labelled Painting. Oil on canvas. 200 x 310cm. 2011
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Andromeda Painting. Oil on canvas. 200 x 270cm. 2011
Untitled Painting. Oil on cardboard. 221.8 x 366cm. 2012
IOIIOl Painting. Oil on cardboard. 127 x 232cm. 2012
498
Zhu Xinyu
This work earned the artist the Chinese New Star Art Prize. Iron covered drum Painting. Oil on canvas. 120 x 300cm. 2007.
ZOU TAO
Temporarily not Painting. Oil on canvas. 300 x 600cm. 2011
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A
C
Abbas Nadim (1980) Born and bred in Hong Kong, Abbas completed his Bachelor in Fine Arts at London's Chelsea College of Art & Design and graduated with a MPhil from the University of Hong Kong. Abbas' oeuvre includes large-scaled installations and sculptural works that explore the psychological patterns of every objects and the cliché. Viewers would easily recognise certain components in the artist's works but are often destabilised by their compositions. Abbas has participated in many group exhibitions in Hong Kong and overseas since 2001. His inaugural solo show took place in 2010 at Experimenta, Hong Kong.
Cai Guangbin (1963) Having graduated from the Traditional Chinese Painting Department of China Academy of Art in 1988, Cai is now a professor at the Art College of University of Shanghai for Science and Technology. First exhibited at the Art Gallery of Chicago University in the US ("Reflections of Century, Viewpoint of China Exhibition" 1998), Cai has had a number of group and solo shows. Cai is best known for his contemporary take on traditional Chinese ink painting.
Ai Jing (1969) With a successful singing career behind her, Ai switched her creative focus to painting in the late 1990s and became a student of Zhang Xiaogang in 2000. Ai's paintings draw their inspiration from her years of touring around the world and visiting various leading museums - her experiences act as a new source of creativity. Since her first solo exhibition at Beijing's Today Art Museum in 2008, Ai has had a number of shows in China and New York. Her versatility as a true artist (of music and art) is internationally recognised.
Cao Fei (1978) Now living and working in Beijing, Cao is acknowledged as one of the most talented artists specialising in multimedia installations and video art. Partly inspired by Surrealism, her works combine social commentary, popular aesthetics and documentary conventions. These videos and installations represent a commentary on the rapid and chaotic changes that are still taking place in modern China. Cheang Shu Lea (1954) Cheang is a multi-media artist, working within the fields of netbased installation, social interface and film production. As one of the leading multimedia artists dealing with multidisciplinary studies, her work is unique in creatively intermingling social issues with artistic methods while allowing viewer interaction. Most recently, she has moved to 35mm feature filmmaking. Chen Chieh Jen (1960) Born 1960, Taiwan. Chen exhibits widely in Taiwan and internationally. Making his first appearance at the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999, Chen's work "Empire's Borders" was included in the Taiwan Pavillion at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009. In 2005 he was one of 41 artists presented by curator Maria de Corral in the Padiglione Italia, "The experience of art" at the 51st Venice Biennale. Chen continues to work with photography, film, installation and performance to explore issues which have a particular global resonance. Globalisation, labour, consumerism, migration and the power of images are key issues addressed by his works.
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Chen Fei (1983) As one of the most promising talents of the post 80's generation, Chen belongs to a group of artists who has redefined the direction of Chinese contemporary art, turning away from the societal rhetorics and aesthetics of the earlier avant garde movements. With his tongue-in-cheek humour, Chen's works appear "superflat", his canvases filled with vibrant colours and bold patterns. Graduating from the renowned Beijing Film Academy, Chen's continuing passion for films is clearly evident in his oeuvre: "I can't say I was not affected, because what I have seen and learnt will be expressed in my work. Watching films is a very important channel through which I gain knowledge." Chen Han (1973) Having graduated from the Oil Painting department of Luxun Academy of Fine Arts in 2005, Chen has regularly participated in various group exhibitions in China. His oeuvre consists of small oil paintings, similar to little vignettes. These snapshot images have the effect of hinting at a much larger 'stories', which are hidden from the viewer. Chen Shaoxiong (1962) Chen was one of the founding members of the Big Tail Elephant Group (1990). After his first series of performances and installations exploring the relationship between urban energy consumption and bodily resistance, he has presented a series of video installations in the form of perceptive devices that demonstrate efforts to negotiate with balancing between fundamentally precarious, contradictory elements of our senses and the environment, notably the rapidly changing urban scenes. Chen Tong (1962) A well-established Chinese artist, Chen was awared Chevalier des Arts et Lettres in September 2010 for his contribution to promoting French culture and the strengthening of cultural ties between China and France. In addition to his work as an artist, curator and art critic, Chen is also a publisher and owner of the Borgeslibreria Bookstore in Guangzhou. Over the past 20 years, Chen has been responsible for translating and publishing French literary masterpieces.
Chen Wenbo (1969) Chen Wenbo’s contribution to the contemporary Chinese art scene belongs largely to the visual rather than the conceptual. Like Liu Wei to some extent, he works almost exclusively in very bright, very flat images that waver between representation and abstraction. But instead of concentrating primarily on visual effect, Chen Wenbo is interested in the technologies of vision. Chen Wei (1980) Breaking away from virtuoso documentary style of China's first generation of contemporary photographers, Chen's photographic/installation works focus the attention back to the medium, more in the tradition of western masters such as Cindy Sherman and Jeff Wall. With their lyrical cinematic settings, Chen's works can be likened to dreamscapes that capture fleeting moments in everyday life. Taxidermy, broken glass, melted wax and other found objects form the artist's stage set, creating fanciful scenes that are at once disconcerting and oddly mesmerising. Chen Yujun (1976) Chen graduated from China Academy of Art in 1999 and now works in Hangzhou where he also teaches in the Academy's department of experimental art. Chen and his brother/artist, Chen Yufan, come from a rich emigrational background with branches of their family spanning across Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. As a result, the issue of displacement and the search for self-definition in a foreign culture form an integral part of Chen's oeuvre. As young critic Lu Mingjun described, Chen's search for self-identity creates in his artistic practice a distinct anthropological aesthetic: for the artist, the foreign lands of Southeast Asia represent a space of possibility or experience of the unknown, and it is the communication of this experience that becomes the original intention of his work.
Cheng Ran (1981) Since graduating from China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, Cheng has become one of the leading video artists in China. Cheng's videos delve into the inner psyche of China's younger generation, capturing their living experiences against the backdrop of globalisation. Drawing inspiration from European art house cinema, rock music and youth culture, Cheng creates cinematic works that are at once poetic, mysterious and relevant. Chow Chun Fei (1980) Born and bred in Hong Kong, Chow graduated with his BA and MFA degrees from the Department of Fine Arts at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2003. In 2004, he was a visiting lecturer in the School of Design at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. An active member of Fotanian Art Village, Chow continues his teaching career at the Hong Kong Art School and the Lee Sha Kee School of Creativity on a parttime basis. He currently works in Beijing and Hong Kong. Chow was the finalist in the Sovereign Art Prize in 2004 and 2005. In 2008, he was awarded the Hong Kong Arts Centre 30th Anniversary Award Grand Prize. Chun Ouyang (1974) A graduate from the Department of Art Education at the Fine Art Academy in Xi'an, Chun now lives and works in Beijing. Despite the innocent, almost child-like, façade of his paintings, Chun's early years were far from idyllic. Having abandoned middle school and run away from home, Chun is well educated in the harsh realities of the world. Many of the seedy underworld types that he met during these early years would appear in his paintings as "evil" characters. Self expression remains the key feature of Chun's oeuvre.
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Cui Jie (1983) One of the few female rising stars from China's Post-80s generation, Cui's artworks have been exhibited worldwide, including the 4th Prague Biennale and the Tomas Y Valiente Art Center in Madrid. Cui's early works are characterised by the juxtaposition of conflicting images on canvas as she questioned the truth in reality. Like many of her peers who draw their inspiration from Western movies, Cui's paintings show the influence of Orson Welles; her canvases are typically composed of fragmented landscapes, arranged in grids and graphic patterns. Cui Xiuwen (1970) Graduating from the Central Academy in 1996, Cui's known for her bold, often controversial paintings, including “Intersection Series” (1998), featuring a full frontal view of a naked man. 1998 marked a turning point in the artist's career when she discovered the limitless possibilities of video as a medium. Her first video installation, "Lady's Room" (2000) made a lasting impression on the Chinese contemporary art scene when it led to the first lawsuit in the history of Chinese contemporary Cui's honest and confrontational videos and photographs explore the taboo subjects of sexuality, feminism, and gender roles in China.
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Ding Yi (1962) As one of the leading Chinese abstract artists today, Ding has been widely exhibited, with works at the Venice Biennale (1993), Yokohama Triennial (2001) and Guangzhou Biennale (2002). His signature is represented by a cross that is carefully and subtly repeated across the canvas. Rather than being concerned about illusion or representation of objects, Ding's works explore the abstract aesthetic using layered intersections of vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines across surfaces to challenge the viewer's visual perception. The formal method of abstraction and the variations within the repetitive patterns makes his work an intriguing case for the relevance of abstract painting in contemporary art. Like Chinese calligraphy, Ding’s crosses constitute a certain correlation between the order of the universe and that of the human.
Fang Lu (1981) Fang received her BFA from Graphic Design department at School of Visual Art in New York in 2005, and MFA from the New Genres department at the San Francisco Arts Institute in 2007. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Space Station, Beijing (2010), Borges Libreria Institute of Contemporary Art, Guangzhou (2011); and in group exhibitions such as the Shenzhen Sculpture Biennial (2012), CAFAM Future Exhibition (2012), and in Museu do Oriente in Lisbon (2011), Walter & Mcbean Gallery in San Francisco (2008), Contemporary Artist Center in Massachusetts (2004) and other places. Now living and working in Beijing, she is also a co-founder of Video Bureau, an independent video archive resource in Beijing and Guangzhou.
Du Zhenjun (1961) Du can be considered one of the earliest contemporary Chinese multimedia artists and his interactive video installation works are recognised internationally. With a focus on the state of "Modern Man", Du's visually stimulating images and engaging computer technology betray a deep-seated sense of cruelty and violence. His works represent a critique of human nature and the relationship with modern civilisation. Duan Jianyu (1977) “Life is a heap of mixed material of unclear quality.” Purposely avoiding the painterly sublime, Duan strives for the most generic subject matter, delving into the most banal. Chickens, which appear in many of her works, are a metaphor for this interest in the ordinary. Yet hers is not a naive or even narrative description of everyday life. Instead, she uses a highly refined method of displacement that propels the work into a realm where art acts as a language and painting as a medium. Duan's sincerity about the fundamental role of art in life is matched by her ambitious scope: to use art as a medium to tell basic truths about conditions of contemporaneity.
Fang Wei (1968) Having graduated from Shanghai Arts & Crafts Institute in 1986, Fang left for Japan to pursue his passion for painting but instead became an antiques dealer for 15 years. Upon returning to Shanghai, he set up a fine art printing studio, producing prints for many of China's leading artists, including Zhang Huan, Zeng Fanzhi and Wang Guangyi. Indeed, Fang was a key collaborator in Zhang Huan's ash paintings, big Buddha sculptures and woodcut prints. Having never given up his true passion, Fang returned to full time painting in 2008. His first solo exhibition took place at the Shanghai Gallery of Art in 2012. Feng Mengbo (1966) Feng is a young Chinese artist whose work uses the the styles and structures of contemporary electronic games. He combines this with traditional cultural influences, including Chinese opera legends, the Cultural Revolution and Hong Kong action cinema, all of which follow a romantic, heroic representation of moral or political tales. Feng has worked in paint, video and more recently digital media, to produce narrative pieces, full of computer game images, mixed with symbols from communist China. These subtly satirical works represent a humorous response to global mass culture and China's recent developments.
G Feng Qianyu (1974) Belonging to the latest generation of new media artists emerging from China, Feng had her first solo exhibition at the renowned Libreria Borges Bookshop in 1999. Since then, Feng has taken part in The Longmarch Project as well the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003.
Gao Lei (1980) Central to Gao's large-scaled installations are the themes of power, control and surveillance. Room-sized installations, akin to prisons, featuring a carnival of animal parts and ready-mades form Gao's imaginary universe, which are in fact grounded in real-world concerns and personal experiences. "People just do so many violent and dark things to animals. From them we can see the dark side of human beings." Gao Shiqiang (1971) Gao is one of the recent “scholarly” artists in the field of Chinese video art. Not only has Gao forged new territory for aesthetic innovation and built upon the foundation of the Hangzhou school as the leader in fine art digital media, he has also developed a profoundly rich vocabulary that distinguishes his art from that of his predecessors. Yet, the poetic, non-literal and allusive style of his moving images is clearly part of the mastery inherent in the Hangzhou Image Movement. The careful observation of reality, emphasizing individual interpretations of experience, orients Gao’s work towards a strong singular vision and offers a unique insight into the human condition.
H Premier Wen Jiabao selected a painting by Ge Guanzhong as a national gift for the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2008. Gu Dexin (1962) Gu is perhaps the most avantgarde and radical of China’s leading contemporary artists. Although he did not formally study art, Gu quickly made a name for himself in the late 1980s with his strange, colorful portraits of alien beings and provocative experiments altering and reshaping plastics and other materials. In 1989, his work was already being shown in the Pompidou Centre in Paris. And since then this eminently uncollectible artist has broken every conceivable convention by using blow torches and other tools to reshape plastics, raw meat and fruits and vegetables. Decay is a central feature of many of his works.
Gao Weigang (1976) "A graduate of the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, Gao is one of the most versatile artists of his generation, being equally skilled in painting, sculpture, installation and performance art. Across this wide range of media, Gao's works share the common intent to challenge the audience's preconceived ideas and accustomed visual language, often with wry humour and irony. Gao received the Art Futures Award at Art HK in 2011."
Gu Wenda (1955) Acknowledged as a pioneer of Chinese contemporary art, Gu was one of the leaders of the ’85 New Wave Art Movement in China, who went on to influence an entire generation of artists in China with a series of provocative ink paintings that employed pseudo Chinese characters. After emigrating to the United States in 1987, he began creating large-scale installations to explore the issues of multiculturalism and globalization. His “United Nations” project was created with blocks, curtains and characters constructed from human hair he collected from around the world. Gu Wenda has established himself as a powerful commentator on the cultural and linguistic barriers that continue to exist in a globalized era. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York and Shanghai.
Ge Guanzhong (1977) Ge received his MFA from Beijing’s Xu Beihong Art College of Renmin University in 2008. Brought up in an artistic family and meticulously trained as a traditional ink painter, he has gradually shifted his style and subject matter to reflect the massive changes in modern Chinese society. His graphic compositions and aggressive use of vivid colors distort classical subjects and contribute to the rapid evolution of contemporary ink painting. Of recent note,
Guest (Xu Qu, Lu Pingyuan and Zhao Yao) GUEST is a new collective consisting of three of China's leading young talents: Xu Qu, Zhao Yao and Lu Pingyuan, whose solo careers have also garnered critical acclaim. Xu Qu was born in 1978 and now works in Beijing. Born in Luzhou, Sichuan province, in 1981, Zhao Yao also lives and works in Beijing. The youngest member, Lu Pingyuan, was born in Zhejiang in 1984 and works in Shanghai.
Guo Hongwei (1982) Guo Hongwei is representative of a new generation of contemporary Chinese artists who have moved beyond the political concerns of the generation immediately preceding him. Choosing to focus on his immediate surroundings, he is able to concentrate on the potential of his chosen medium, whether watercolor on paper or oil on canvas, to create surprising visual equivalents of objects that are mostly overlooked.
Han Feng (1972) Having graduated from the Art Institute of Harbin Normal University in 1998, Han has had a number of solo exhibitions around China since 2000. Most recently, he was awarded the first prize in the John Moores (Shanghai) Contemporary Painting Prize, 2010. Han's portfolio includes Simulated Life series, Grand Bus series, Grand Airplane series, Wave series, Townhouse series and Thermal Power Plant series. Hao Liang (1983) Born in Chengdu, Sichuan, Hao graduated with a Bachelor degree from the Chinese Painting Department of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in 2006. He is currently completing his Master degree at the Institute. To Hao, the exploration of contemporary Chinese ink painting is rooted in tradition; deliberately adopting the realism of Song Dynasty artists and the brush technique from the Xuanhe period, his paintings are distinctly classical in tone. He An (1971) After graduating from the Hubei Academy of Fine Arts in 1996, He An has participated in group exhibitions both abroad and in China, mostly presenting his pictorial works such as in the Documentary Exhibition of Chinese Avant-Garde Art in the 1990s, in Fukuoka Art Museum (2000), Chinese Photography in Chambers Fine Art, New York (2001), Paris-Beijing, Paris (2002) as well as Fuck Off, Eastlink Gallery in Shanghai (2000), and Distance in the Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou (2003). He An has now added various media to his practice such as sculpture, painting and installation which were presented in group exhibitions, notably The Exhibition of Young Artists, Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art (2004), The Real Thing, Tate Liverpool, ( 2007) and Rendezvous, MAC-LYON (2008). Hou Yong (1976) A graduate of Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Arts, Hou has participated in many international exhibitions since 2000. The artist is best known for his waterthemed paintings - his longrunning series, "Black", shows figures swimming in glossy, dark water, almost engulfed by the waves around them.
Hsu Chia Wei (1983) A graduate of the National Taiwan University of Arts, Hsu was appointed as director of Taipei's Open-Contemporary Art Center in 2011, an art space established over 12 years ago and run by young artists. Hsu's creative method is a specific kind of “Narrative” -- a way of documenting that interferes with the text in reality, by focusing on site specific and peculiar characteristics, such as memory, imagination, or identification. He has been continuously trying to merge the languages of contemporary art and film to originate his works, fabricating a mythical narrative which lingers between fiction and reality. He maintains a critical attitude toward filming, and through the power of film creation, he strives to move art to locations outside museums and to developing his political practice. His works have been on display in museums and international film festivals, such as Jeu De Paume, The 39th International Film Festival Rotterdam, The 55th Venice Biennial, 2012 Liverpool Biennial, 2012 Taipei Biennial, 8TH Taiwan International Documentary Film Festival, and RENCONTRES INTERNATIONALES PARIS / BERLIN / MADRID screened at the Centre Pompidou Paris, Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin, and Reina Sofia National Museum Madrid. Hu Jieming (1957) Eschewing the traditional Chinese ink brush technique, Hu studied Western oil painting through the eyes of 19th century Russian realists before being captivated by the likes of Picasso, Warhol, Duchamp and Beuys. Now acknowledged as one of the leading pioneers of new media art in China, Hu is a master at combining photography, video, digital and audio interactive technology to explore the concept of “refresh”, a recurring state of transience beyond time and space. Hu Wenlong (1986) Having just graduated from Minzu University of China in 2011, Hu's virtuoso painting skills are reminiscent of the largescaled portraits by American photorealist, Chuck Close. Hu's graduation piece was awarded the prestigious John Moores Prize in 2012.
J Hu Xiaoyuan (1977) Hu's works touch on questions of human existence in an extremely subtle and personal way. For her objects, drawings and installations, she favours materials that bear signs of wear or carry sentimental values. Her motifs come primarily from the everyday environment or are connected to family history. These keepsakes are intimate and testify to the artist's sense of loneliness. Through her skilful manipulation of subtle sexual motifs, Hu deconstructs the traditional notions of feminity in a discreet and sympathetic way that makes her art feel contemporary. Huang Yongping (1954) Huang is a contemporary French visual artist of Chinese origin. Huang's work combines many media and cultural influence, but is particularly strongly influence by the intellectual abstraction of Dada and by Chinese numerology traditions. Founder of the Xiamen Dada group in China in the 1980s, Huang's installations have included unorthodox materials such as live snakes and scorpions. Many of Huang's sculptural works encompass a large scale, some tens of meters in dimension. Although Huang permanently left his home for Paris in 1989, his creative methodology remains firmly rooted in his Chinese identity. Huang’s consistent questioning of the hierarchies of language, art, history and politics is equally mediated, however, by Western influences including Ludwig Wittgenstein, Michel Foucault, Joseph Beuys, John Cage and Marcel Duchamp. In fact it is the collision between ancient beliefs (China) and new knowledge (the West) that drives Huang’s art.
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Huang Yuxing (1975) Since graduating from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, in 2000, Hu has had numerous group shows around Asia. His complex and mesmerizing works, marked by Tibetan Buddhism, draws from the Chinese and Western pictorial traditions. Huang's artistic language stands apart from his peers and at first glance, appears to be detached from current social contexts. Nonetheless, despite the surrealist quality of his paintings, a general sense of sarcasm about politics exists. Huang's paintings are characterised by their distinctive eerie aura, achieved through multiple layers of pure oil paints and acrylics on canvases.
Jia Aili (1979) Living and working in Beijing, Jia Aili narrates private moods rather than public events or modern day China. His intense and emotionally charged work reflects on the human condition, and the individual's vulnerability in a rapidly modernising society. The artist has been selected from a new generation of artists in collaboration with Platform China Contemporary Art Institute. Using a muted colour palette and quick brushwork, Jia conjures up the disorientating emotions felt in a developing society. Jiang Pengyi (1977) Since graduating from Beijing Institute of Art & Design in 1999, Jiang has become one of the leading contemporary photographers in China. In 2009 he received the Tierney Fellowship Award from the First Annual Three Shadows Photography Award, followed by the Jury Grand Prize from the Societe Generale Chinese Art Awards in 2010. His photographs of miniaturised urban landscapes and skyscrapers represent the artist's critique of the excessive urbanisation, redevelopment and demolition in Beijing. Jiang Zhi (1971) Having graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 1995, Jiang now lives and works in Beijing. Jiang is a video artist who pays close attention to social reality, and hence his works touch intimately on the problems of real life. So piercing is his gaze, in fact, that people might feel embarrassed by his merciless vision or laugh at his black humor. Regardless of the reaction, he causes audiences to rethink everyday situations and appreciate the complicated moods that come with living.
Jin Jiangbo (1972) As an interactive media lecturer at Qinghua University in Beijing and with many years experience in that field, many of Jin's works are based on sophisticated animation technology. Jin approaches art by way of a formidable intellect. His work is driven by ideas rather than personal experience. He is equally drawn to new media, which “connect art and technology”, and to photography, which is both objective and “sensitive enough to capture small traces of this fleeting world”. He is best known for his panoramic photographs of abandoned factories and silent market halls, which he calls “my review of the craze and spuriousness of the deceptive commodity economy”. Jin Shan (1977) Working with a variety of media, Jin comments on the daily lives of the younger generation living in contemporary China. Renowned for his interactive, playful installations, Jin's works invite the audience to be a part of his utopian world. In Slide, a gallery staircase was turned into a giant slide so that visitors had to take the plunge in order to see the rest of the artwork. Games aside, Jin's installations represent his critique of the new values of materialism and social changes in modern day China. Jin Shengjia (1986) One of the younger artists in the collection, Jin graduated from Shanghai University with a major in printmaking and is currently completing a Master degree in easel painting. Over the past three years, Jin has participated in a number of group exhibitions within China.
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Kwan Sheung Chi (1980) A multi-disciplinary artist from Hong Kong, Kwan graduated from The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2003. In the same year, he set up a studio in the Fotan industrial district and has since been an active member of the Fotanian artists studios complex. In addition to his studio practice, Kwan co-founded the Hong Kong Arts Discovery Channel, a web-based channel that aims to promote critical discourse through interviews with artists, curators, critics and the general pubic. He is also a founding member of two local art groups, hkPARTg and Woofer Ten, both of which deal with the practice of art in relation to politics, social concerns and the community. In 2009, Kwan was awarded the Starr Foundation Fellowship to take part in an international residency program in New York, USA.
Lau Lewis (1988) One of the youngest artists in the collection, Lau graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2010. Since then, he has participated in many group exhibitions in Hong Kong. His first solo show took place in 2013 at Gallery Exit, Hong Kong. Winner of the Y.S. Hui Fine Arts Award in 2010, Lau is best known for his oil paintings of scenes at the Star Ferry, a familiar Hong Kong icon that is loved by tourists and residents alike. Lee Kit (1978) A graduate of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Lee is now one of the city's most recognised and respected artists and will be representing Hong Kong at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013. Central to Lee's artistic production are the everyday and the ordinary. What matters more to Lee is the attitude towards life and the freedoms that his artworks represent. As a counterpoint to Hong Kong's consumerist and goal-oriented society, Lee's conceptual practice celebrates the banal qualities of life, which in turn acts as a sanctuary. It is through his cloth paintings and installations that Lee makes sense of the contradictions shaping his surroundings. "Without Hong Kong, I won't do this kind of work." - Lee Kit Li Dafang (1971) Li's works are specifically regional. They are related to the geography of where the artist has come from. He was born and grew up in Liaoning Province, in northeast China, where the high altitude and long, harsh winters have created a rough and grey landscape. He lived in Beijing for the first time between 1993 and 1997, and for the second time in 2003. Since then, Beijing has become home. Li's paintings breathe in the dry dust and cool climate of north China and absorb the geographical, social, and cultural temperament integral to this region. The realistic landscapes and imagery of his paintings are unmistakably northern: unkempt bushes and forests, cityscapes, roads, vistas of fields and open lands, the deep colour of the earth, the stocky appearance of buildings, and industrial leftovers.
Li Jin (1958) Li is one of the best-known and most unorthodox ink painters from the New Literati group. Li gradually formed his uniquely playful style in the early 1990s, and is now famous for his seductive depictions of the good life in modern China. In contrast to the austerity and stereotyped subjects of classical literati art, food and wine and the simple things in life form Li's subject matter. Li Ming (1986) Graduated from China Academy of Fine Arts (New Media Art Department) in 2008, Li has had a number of exhibitions around China. Li is also a member of the Shuangfei Arts Center. Li Qing (1981) In Li's work, juxtaposition usually occurs between two similar subject matters or scenes but in difference chronologically. In China's art scene, the juxtaposition of old and new, reflecting the remarkable social transition taking place over the last three decades, continues to be popular. In contrast to his contemporaries, Li's subject matter is ordinary and unnoticed. Rather than adopting grand rhetoric and heavy themes, Li is more interested with an ordinary scene that affects our perception to the world. With his bold brush stroke and impasto, Li smartly turns the visual games and subject matter into his own painterly game, a pictorial world that reflects changing reality. Li Ran (1986) Graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in 2009, Li is the cofounder of the artist group " /Company". Li has had solo shows at Beijing’s Magician Space and Shanghai’s Aike Dellarco Gallery, and was included in the Shenzhen and Gwangju Biennales in 2012. Li also took part in curator Biljana Ciric’s “Alternatives to Ritual” exhibition at the Goethe Institute Open Space in Shanghai, and ON/OFF, a major survey of young Chinese artists in Beijing’s Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art (UCCA). In 2013, Li participated in a group show focusing on reassessing performance art in China (curated
by Su Wei at Beijing’s Star Gallery). For Art Basel Hong Kong 2013, Li was commissioned by Aike Dellarco to create a new piece for the gallery’s space in the “Discoveries” section of the fair. Li Shurui (1981) A graduate of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in Chongqing, Li has had a number of solo and group exhibitions around the world, including the Deitch Project at Art Basel Miami in 2009 and Artissima in Turin in 2013. Now living and working in Beijing, Li is particularly well known for her "Light" series which began in 2005. Over the years, Li has continued to develop her concepts of light, space, and the colour spectrum. Often in large formats, her works are powerful not only from their impressive scale, but also the immersive ambience they create around the viewer. They have an astounding ability to capture the viewer's imagination, leaving them with a resonating impression. Li Songhua (1969) Li Songhua is one of the most promising artists that has emerged from China today. His sculptures and installations use different materials, some of them unusual, mixing traditional methods with an informal approach, such as bronze and feathers. He draws his inspiration from ancient myths but adapts to modern day tastes and expresses himself according to new contemporary approaches. He has been invited to exhibit at large art exhibitions at home and abroad including The Triennial of Chinese Art, Nanjing Museum in 2005, China Gold: Chinese Contemporary Art, Musée Maillol, Paris and Poznan Biennial of International Contemporary Art, in 2008. Li Wei (1979) Born in Harbin in 1979, Li obtained a master degree at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, in 2007, and has predominantly exhibited in museums and galleries across China. Her works fall into two general categories; one which manipulates the density of lines to create abstract space and the other is based on meticulously applied dots to explore the way in which viewers perceive and experience space. Li's focus on
natural landscapes as subjects and general tendency towards large-scaled works recall her training in fresco painting; fresco has always been an integral part of any space - it is meant to create an entire environment for the audience to experience. This distinctive quality is clearly evident in Li's oeuvre. Li Wei (1981) A graduate from the Sculpture Department at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Li is one of China's latest generation of female artists who is fast gaining critical recognition for her work. Following the strong tradition of figurative art in China, Li's fibreglass sculptures and portraits are based on life models, which in turn infuse them with a very real sense of humanity. Her large-scaled sculptural installations often evoke an eerie, if not sinister, ambience. A key theme in Li's work is "forgetting" as she strives to reveal what the viewer would rather forget. Li Xiaojing (1981) Now living and working in Beijing, Li is a contemporary abstract artist whose work has been actively followed worldwide. In contrast to the Rational paintings of the 1980s, Li's works are concerned with micro qualities, individual thoughts and feelings. Similar to a personal diary, her paintings incorporate references to natural forms but are set within a tenuous and remote visual context. Li Yongbin (1963) Li has always been fascinated by the representation of temporality and the ways and possibilities in which we perceive events unfolding. In the last decades he has made numerous unedited real-time recordings of non-dramatic events, or rather, nonevents. Li Zhangyang (1969) With a background in sculpture from the Luxun Art Academy and later the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, Li now works in Chongqing, where he also teaches at the Sichuan Academy. Since 2000, Li’s work has been shown extensively in solo and group exhibitions around the world. By turns satirical, radical and poignant, Li’s monumental
installations are derived from firsthand observations of Chinese contemporary society. Li’s figurative style of neo-realism offers an honest look at the decadent side of present-day China; at times, his work is reminiscent of Dutch Old Masters such as Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Breughel the Elder. Following their lead in both amusing and criticising, Li’s gentle self-mockery throws life into perspective. “I observe and depict people like you and me.” Li Zhouwei (1973) Graduated from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art, Li now works at the Academy as a lecturer and is also a painter at the Guangdong Art Academy Youth Painting Institute. Li was one of the winnders of the John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize in 2010. Liang Juhui (1977-2006) The Big Tail Elephant Group (also known as the Long Tail Elephant Group) emerged in Guangzhou, China, in response to the city’s rapid urbanization in the early 1990s. Liang was one of the 3 founding artists which also included Lin Yilin and Chen Shaoxiong. They came together with a common interest in the transformation and inevitable corruption of modern cities. Through performances, installations and exhibitions of a wide spectrum of works, the Big Tail Elephant Group provided an open space for artists to explore issues associated with urban development. Liang Shaoji (1945) A graduate of Zhejiang Fine Art School and now living in Linhai, Liang has exhibited extensively in international Biennales and Triennales, including Venice (1999), Lyon (2000) and Shanghai (2000 and 2006). Well known for his serenely abstract hangings and installations referencing Chinese classical philosophy, Liang started his "Nature Series" in 1988, breeding silkworms and incorporating them into his works. This proved to be a turning point for his artistic practice as he combined bioecology, weaving, sculpture and video to create "recordings of the fourth dimension."
Liang Wei (1959) Liang is one of many Chinese artists now residing in the US. Having lived in Seattle, USA for the past 20 years, he continues to paint landscapes that express his personal experiences. "I try to reclaim such moments that get lost in the bustle, to reawaken our vision of where we live; I wish to inspire people to appreciate your living environment, which leads our aspirations to reality." Liang Yuanwei (1977) Liang is a young artist whose photography, painting, and installation work often focuses on articulating the sites of both beauty and oppression within the semiotics of the everyday. Notable for her membership in the N12 group, she began organizing exhibitions and attracting international attention along with her peers during and immediately after her time as a student. Her most recent work has involved themes of discretion, secrecy, interpersonal communication, personal struggle, and the affect produced therein. Significantly, her work claims that this affect is all that fills up the empty space that dominates domesticity and everyday life. Uniquely, her practice rejects the feminine specificity idealized by so many of her peers in favor of more broadly universal explorations of social themes. Lim H.H. (1954) Lim is a Malaysian artist of Chinese heritage currently living in Rome. He expresses his conceptual art through painting, installation and self performance. His installation works highlight his interest in, and critique of, the dissimilation inherent in the everyday living reality of consumerism. Despite living in and surrounded by Western culture and patterns of thought, LIM's work still breathes a certain quality of Eastern philosophy. The visual objects he employs are not kept to a particular semantic meaning, but rather are reassigned as required by his artistic creations.
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Lin Tianmiao (1961) Lin is a highly regarded installation artist. She has made a career transforming silk, threads and textiles into elaborate works of art. Influenced by Ann Hamilton, Barbara Kruger and Kiki Smith, Lin has taken household objects and wrapped them in white thread, or reconfigured them in a way that express her conflicting feelings about a women’s everyday chores. She also experiments with photography and video. In 2002, she with her husband, the video artist, Wang Gongxin, created an installation ("Here? Or There?") involving photos, video and eerie sculptures and bizarre costumes. Lin Yilin (1964) Lin’s artistic practices have always been an energetic and witty mingling of social architecture and everyday life. In his main interest, the ways in which how we would ordinarily relate to spaces of communities amidst urban development, Lin tends to organize his artworks as a means of engaging the architecture of the space. The artist employs a variety of media, ranging from sculpture and installation to live actions, photography and videos featuring outdoor performances. Best known for his installation works made from stacking bricks, Lin was orginally trained as a sculptor, and later became interested in architecture and found brick walls an expressive means through which to explore the relationship between sculpture and architecture. For Lin, the bricked wall engenders a symbolic construction between the viewers and him. The wall acts itself, architecturally, in a repeating geometry that ebbs and flows according to the artist’s direct physical response to the place upon which the wall is embodied. Liu Bolin (1973) "A graduate from the Shandong College of Arts in 1995, Liu went on to obtain his Master of Fine Arts from Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2001. Having come of age during the early 1990s, Liu had witnessed the country's rapid economic growth and with it, extensive destruction of historical sites and the consequent social instability. Best known as ""The Invisible
Man"", Liu would cover himself with paint to perfectly ""disappear"" into the background; his ""Hiding in the city"" series of photographic works was originally inspired by the destruction of Suo Jia Cun, one of Beijing's largest artist villages, in 2005. ""I was a meaningless person, according to society. Those years made me feel like people can exist or completely disappear."" - Liu Bolin" Liu Chuang (1978) Since graduating from Hubei Art Academy in 2001, Liu has exhibited in a number of international museums, including Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art (Greece, 2004), Mediations Biennale (Poland, 2008), and Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art (Oslo, Norway 2007). Now living and working in Beijing, Liu first developed his artistic practice in the boomtown of Shenzhen and his oeuvre is a personal commentary on the effects of China's extraordinary urbanisation. Liu is a highly political artist, described as a "social interventionist whose practice seeks to destabilise the comforts of daily life through aesthetic disruption of social rules". Liu Jianhua (1962) At the age of 12, Liu was sent to work with his uncle, a Chinese arts and crafts master, in the city of Jingdezhen, China's historical capital of ceramic production since the Song Dynasty (9601279). Liu would hardly expect that ceramics would one day become his signature medium, albeit with very different meaning. Indeed, Liu has opened up a whole new horizon on the traditional appreciation of Chinese ceramics. His earlier "Regular Fragile" exhibition, using ceramics to copy ordinary objects from us – from a flower, a pair of shoes, children’s toys and even a pillow – to the piece of paper and bone showcased here, continue to amaze viewers, not only for their visual impact but also for their subtle zen meanings. "That's my deep interpretation of ceramics," Liu explains. "I especially don't like any focus on making ceramics itself. I try to explore an 'undeveloped' part of ceramics.
Almost nobody has ever thought that ceramics could be used in such a way." Unlike his peers who would often stick to one symbolic art language for years, Liu repeatedly goes beyond such constraints. Liu Wei (1972) Liu’s paintings are impressive in scale as well as in consistency. Mostly held in douche and dark colors, however, there is something unsettling and uncanny in his painted environments. Cryptic titles such as ‘Mentally Disabled People’s Thoughts Impossible to Aprove’, ‘Gambling Without Answer’, and ‘Superstition’s Implication’ also indicate that there is more at stake as what is visible to the eye. He elaborates on the notion of space, both interior and exterior, and how such spaces seem to construct their very own narrative. Often, these places are laden with anonymity and vastness, whether it be new industrial buildings or run-down generic habitats. Liu Weijian (1981) Now established as one of China's leading sculptors, Liu started out working in porcelain factories in his native Jiangxi province, in the city of Jingdezhen, world famous for its porcelain production. Later, he studied sculpture and is well known for his interpretations of China's emergence as the factory floor of the world. His sculpture and installation often recreates assembly lines, piles of electronic waste and broken porcelain figures. China makes goods for the world and the garbage left over from those goods often gets sent back to China. Liu collects some of it and packages it together for his installations, which sometimes show goods spilling out of crates, boxes and trucks. His ceramic and porcelain and plastic works are centered on China's modernization. Lu Hao (1969) Lu is well known for his models of Beijing, his playfulness with architecture and geographical images in rapidly evolving modern China. He is also known for his crystal palaces, his elaborate installations and his use of plastics to recreate stone and steel objects. He studied at
the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and now lives and works in Beijing. Lu Xinjian (1977) Having specialised in graphic design at Nanjing Arts Institute, China, Lu moved to the Netherlands and graduated with a MFA in Interactive Media and Environments. In 2006, he was awarded the Chaumont Studio prize at the International Poster Festival Chaumont in France. Lu has been widely published, with a number of solo and group exhibitions in China and around the world. Lui Chun Kwong (1956) With over 25 years' experience as a Fine Arts teacher at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Lui has been a mentor to many leading artists in Hong Kong as well as an established abstract painter in his own right. He has also witnessed the city's evolving art scene, from the early days as a British colony to the post-1997 concern with local identity, and finally to the "completely frivolous subject matters" of the current generation of artists. Lui's own artistic production has remained consistent - his signature abstract paintings of vertical stripes can be found in public and private collections worldwide.
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Ma Qiusha (1982) Ma's diverse portfolio of works range from painting, photography, video, installation and performance. With her debut in the "1+1" project at the 1st Triennial of Chinese art, Ma's style continues to break away from traditional art education. After graduating from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2005, she went on to study electronic integrated arts in the US. Ma's works are typically very private and more attuned to the expression of her own opinion. At the same time, she does not criticise but simply interacts with her audience in self-expression. As a result, her works carry tender but anxious undertones.
Ni Youyu (1984) Since graduating from the Fine Art College of Shanghai University in 2007, Ni has had numerous exhibitions around the world, including Kunstmuseum, Bern and the Greek State Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens. In the tradition of the literati of the Ming dynasty, Ni's creations focus on the nuances of art itself, exploring the aesthetic language and art historical concepts.
Pak Sheung Chuen (1977) Born in 1977, Fujian, educated and living in Hong Kong, Pak works across all media, including installations, photography, painting, and video. As an artist who has matured in terms of methodology, he focuses on the realities of everyday life, revealing their uniqueness and eccentricities, which in turn enable the exploration of life's uncharted potential. Consequently, these possibilities of everyday life, suppressed by the grand narratives of modernity, become the centre of artistic expression and assume new meanings. Pak won the Best Artist award at the 2012 Chinese Contemporary Art Awards (CCAA).
Peng Hungchi (1969) Peng creates humorous drawings, sculptures, interactive installations, performances and videos mainly featuring the dog, as the dog becomes the metaphor for us. Peng previously worked with wind-up toys - shiny, plastic, absurd, obsolete, throwaway – to convey themes of futility and pessimism to reflect on the current global economic situation. Toys are common and represent the majority voice, yet are also receptacles for one's hopes and feelings. And for a child, the toy, just like the pet dog, creates a link to the world of pure innocence, a complete unadulterated place, which Peng craves to recapture through his art.
Qiu Anxiong (1972) Qiu is one of China's emerging new media artists. His inspiration often comes from Chinese classical texts and the effect of traditional culture often resonates in his works. He completed a series of abstract oil paintings in the ink-and-wash style that carry the same feeling as traditional Chinese classical landscapes. For Qiu, “to paint the landscape on canvas is to be symbolized by business.” Qiu was a student of Zhang Xiaogang and Ye Yongqing in Sichuan. In addition to these two artists, he is also influenced by the works of South African artist, William Kentridge, and the animation studios at the University of Kassel.
Pan Jian (1975) Born in Heijing County, a relatively "multi-cultural" region (Mongolians, Uygurs and Kazakhs are close neighbours), Pan's childhood memories are not typically "Chinese". Rather, they are peppered with visions of the Gobi Desert, donkey carts and poplar trees. Pan moved regularly throughout his life and this unsettled quality is reflected in his works. A lot of the artist's personality comes through his paintings; many of his monumental-sized works have the impact of wide-screen cinemas - Pan has always loved the movies to the extent that he even worked as a film editor during the late 1990s.
Peng Wei (1974) With a BA in Oriental Culture and a MA in Philosophy, Peng is a multi-talented artist who also worked in Beijing as editor of Art Magazine between 2000 and 2006. Currently a court artist with the Beijing Art Academy, Peng is best known for her delicate ink colour paintings of ancient Chinese costumes, a symbol of China's cultural heritage. Her lyrical combination of literati painting with modern forms evoke memories of a bygone era and represent a search for a new cultural identity in contemporary society.
Qiu Jingtong (1980) Qiu is becoming increasingly well-known for her insightful sculptural works, commenting on Chinese changing values. In addition to various group exhibitions around China, Qiu has also been collected by Today Art Museum in Beijing.
MadeIn Under the moniker MadeIn, Shanghai-based artist Xu Zhen employs a pool of young artists to conceive and execute vast quantities of work in a range of media. Since the group’s inception in 2009, MadeIn’s paintings, sculptures and installations have frequently been shown in both solo presentations and group exhibitions. The group’s inaugural show, "Seeing One’s Own Eyes", sought to emulate the appearance of a collection of contemporary works by imaginary artists from the Middle East. The fact that these works teeter on the border between the genuine and the unbelievable, providing a challenge to viewers’ perceptions, is MadeIn’s key conceptual strategy. Miao Xiaochun (1964) Miao is renowned for his photographs of contemporary China, vast cityscapes which record technological development, painting an alien view of his homeland and envisioning a new dynastic era. Typically printed in black and white, Miao’s photos are at once enchantingly serene and threateningly industrial. Miao uses photography to engage the viewer in an ultra-modern way. By using digital process to create his subject ‘from scratch’, Miao’s photographs authenticate a virtual world rather than document reality. Similar to video game graphics and ‘screen shots’, Miao’s images involve the viewer by casting them as ‘avatars’ within the action.
Nie Zhengjie (1982) Nie graduated from Chongqing University in 2006 and over the past seven years, he's participated in numerous international biennales and group exhibitions, including "China - The new generation of artists" at Museo Della Permanente Milan (2008) and the 12th World Chinese Art Conference in Hong Kong (2010) . In 2012, Nie was the winner of the prestigious John Moores Painting Prize for his work, "Being".
Pei Li Pei, a recent Hangzhou graduate, burst onto the scene in Beijing with a graffiti and punk rock performance piece, but her first solo exhibition Taikang Space, Beijing in 2010 is a poignant glimpse of old China in the rear-view mirror. Pei frequently appears in her own work as if she is searching for her own identity through the persona she adopts. “Our generation is independent, thinking but isolated and lonely. We never tell our parents what we actually think. Nothing about our hopes, aspirations, desires or fears. We have freedom and, at times, mess around with our life, but have no compass to steer us.” Thus the search for meaning resonates throughout her work.
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Qiu Zhijie (1969) Since 2003, Qiu has been developing the concept of "total art", which is defined as an artistic practice based on cultural research, turning specific sociocultural evenets into catalysts for art-making, with the aim of proactively affecting the viewer's daily life. This total art aspires to create works that challenge mainstream conventional values in order to offer new perspectives on life. Qiu's concept emerged from his extensive experiences as a curator, artist, critic and art historian. Similar to Joseph Beuys' "social sculpture" in Germany, Qiu is akin to a cultural archaeologist who not only digs into the past and present, but sculpts towards the future.
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Rong Rong (1968) Rong Rong belongs to the famous generation of artists that represents the birth of experimental art in China. After the Yuan Mingyuan was shut down by the authorities in the early 90’s, different artists of this avant-garde art community scattered to different parts of Beijing. Rong Rong belonged to the core of a group which settled in the ‘East Village’. Today the ‘East Village’ is better known as Da Shanzi or 798 Factory Art District and is considered to be the most dynamic art zone in China. Rong Rong is known for documenting the unique life-style of the East Village community with famous landmark performances such as Zhang Huan’s ’12 Square Meters Head (1994). Rong Rong’s photographs are an autobiography of a certain lifestyle as well as landscape of Beijing. Images of dilapidated buildings, bleak walls, rubble and dust are a metaphor of the collapse and reconstruction of a modern identity and state of mind. The parallel between architectural and human transformations carries a lyrical sentiment which highlights and distinguishes Rong Rong’s work as a landmark in Chinese contemporary photography.
Sha Yeya (1970) Another founding member of the Yangjiang Calligraphy Group, Sha regularly collaborates with Zheng Guogu on various art projects and have also built three postmodernist buildings in Yangjiang. In addition to his architectural projects, Sha's artistic output centres around contemporary calligraphy. His works are typically based on news articles, tabloid headlines and even TV newscasts, to create his own version of ink brush writing. Shang Chengxiang (1985) One of the youngest artists in the collection, Shang graduated from Luxun Academy of Fine Arts in 2008. Over the past few years, he has had a number of exhibitions around China and his work can also be found in several public collections, including the United States Consulate in Shenyang. Shang's poetic scenes are painted with such skill that they appear almost photographic; at the same time their depth of emotions and poignancy belie the artist's youth. Shang Yixin (1980) A graduate of the China Academy of Arts, Shang now lives and works in Hangzhou. Since 2006, he has had numerous group exhibitions around China and his first solo show took place in Shanghai in 2007. A contemporary take on Op Art, Shang's paintings explore the perceptual and experiential aspects of art. Shen Yuan (1959) Shen became involved in radical avant-garde art movements in Xiamen in the late 1980's. Living and working in Paris with her partner, Huang Yong Ping, since 1990, she forms part of a generation of artists who left China to pursue their artistic practice. Shen frequently focuses on everyday objects, examining the metaphorical meanings behind them and conceptually shifting the physical relationships between them. Such a quality is expressed best when she writes, "Art for me is a way of "finding reincarnation in another's corpse”.
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Sheng Qui (1965) Sheng came to public attention in 1985 as a key member of the "New Art Movement" in China, which involved the participants painting their bodies or wrapping themselves in white cloth while running on the Great Wall, cycling, doing martial arts and other symbol-laden activities. Sheng left Beijing for Europe and in a ceremony marking his departure, he cut off the small finger of his left hand and buried it in a flower pot. Today, Sheng's works centre around issues of identity, sexuality and communication. Many of his recent photos feature the artist himself wearing a military shirt (pinned with a red ribbon), his head covered in red silk, and a bird or butterfly attached by a string to his penis which is bound in white bandages. Another common feature of his work involves asking people to shake his mutilated left hand. Shi Guorui (1964) Having graduated from Nanjing Normal University specialising in photography, Shi has exhibited in solo and group shows domestically and internationally since 2001. As a master of camera obscura, Shi typically works in large formats, with works spanning over 4 metres in length. "The Great Wall" (one is now in the collection of the Pompidou Museum, Paris) and "Shanghai waterfront" are among his two most recognised projects, each requiring 6 months of planning and execution. The work in this collection, "Himalayas Everest", forms part of this third project, which focuses on Mount Everest. Song Kun (1977) Hailed as the most promising young female artist during the 2005 Triennial of Chinese Art, Song's work examines the minutiae of daily existence. The artist portrays an inherently individual perspective, collecting on canvas the concerns, fears, desires, growth, happiness, and confusion of daily life: the fleeting, innermost feelings of her generation. The meaning of her paintings lies in both their description of the physical and the emotional; they represent, perhaps, a sugar-coated protest against contemporary life. While her paintings are less overtly political than many of her predecessors and contemporaries, she uses her own unique visual language to give
expression to the concerns and desires of everyday life, building an archive of those moments of peak emotion, cognition, and memory. Song Yuanyuan (1981) Song graduated from Luxun Academy of Fine Arts in 2005, specialising in photography. Since then, he has had a number of group shows around China. Recently, Song has expanded into painting as a medium, with his first solo painting exhibition in early 2011. The subjects of these paintings are typically derived from images downloaded from the internet, rather than the artist's own photographs. Sun Xun (1980) Sun creates animations that combine hand-drawn renderings and traditional materials with new media. He studied printmaking at the China Academy of Fine Arts, but a burgeoning interest in moving images led him to found his own animation studio in 2006. To create his meticulous animations, Sun produces a multitude of drawings that incorporate text within the image. His subjects range from elements found in world history and politics, to natural organisms. He then films the drawings, sequentially one at a time, to create a sense of movement and suggest the passing of time, the machinations of history, and the beauty inherent in simple forms. Sun’s work plies the uncontested surface of politicized truth. By tying together the tenets of academic drawing with political cartoons and projecting them into the realms of installation and film, he manifests his multifaceted imagistic world as improvisational theatre. Sun Yuan & Peng Yu (1972/1974) With their sardonic humour, oblique metaphors, and fearlessly iconoclastic approach to genre, media, and subject matter, Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, a Beijing-based duo, have rapidly become the most closely watched artists in Chinese art. In the late 1990s, they took the Beijing art scene by storm with their underground performances and installations, confronting conventional moral codes and values, often employing blood, human and animal cadavers, exhibiting a fully antagonistic approach the viewer's presumed moral complacency. Since then, Sun and Peng's
unforgettable works could be found in the 5th Lyon Biennale in 2000, Yokohama's 2001 International Triennial of Contemporary Art, the First Guangzhou Triennial in 2001, and in the China Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005.
Tang Song (1960) One of the older artists in the collection, Tang graduated from Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now China Academy of Art) in 1989. Tang is perhaps best known for his participation in the "gunshot incident" at the China/Avant Garde exhibition at the National Art Museum of China in 1989, which was itself a turning point in the development of Chinese contemporary art. Over the intervening years, Tang has developed a unique and independent artistic language, creating works across a range of media (painting, installation, and performance). Tsai Charwei (1980) Tsai graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design (USA) in 2002 and completed her postgraduate degree at L'Ecole Nationale Superieure des BeauxArt (Paris) in 2010. Now living and working between Taipei and Paris, Tsai’s practice draws on an interest in calligraphy and her study of Buddhism, in particular the ideas of transience and impermanence that are at the heart of Buddhist philosophy. Tsai’s choice of materials reflects the location in which her work is made; the materials create direct and intimate connections with the audience, and the writing of the texts upon them is incorporated into the works as a form of performance. Over the years, Tsai has been exhibited in many leading international museums and institutions. Her works are also part of the permanent collections of Mori Art Museum (Tokyo), Queensland Art Gallery (Brisbane, Australia) and Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation (Sydney, Australia). Tsang Kin Wah (1976) Tsang studied at Camberwell College of Arts (London) and Chinese University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong). He has had solo shows at Yvon Lambert (New York), and more recently at Pékin Fine Arts (Beijing). He has also exhibited at the Xth Lyon Biennial, MOCA Shanghai, National Museum of Art (Oslo), KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art (Helsinki), Louis Vuitton: A Passion for Creation at the Hong Kong Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art (Moscow), among others.
W Tsang Tsou Choi (1921) Ever since Tsang, self-professed "Kowloon Emperor," passed away in 2007, the corpus of works and stories he has left behind has spawned a host of reactions and a spectrum of implications within the Hong Kong community. In a postmortem surge of popularity, Tsang has been touted an icon of cultural preservation and the embodiment of the city's collective memory. In contribution to the longevity of Chinese traditional arts, Tsang Tsou Choi has wielded his ink brush all over the city. His textual graffiti has been seen on much of Hong Kong's "public furniture," the content reading of his own thoughts on the colonial government. Tsang first began covering bridges, electrical contractors, postboxes and others with his calligraphy when he was 35. In 1997, Hong Kong Arts Center and Goethe-Institut collaborated in a historical exhibition "The Street Calligraphy Of Kowloon Emperor" in hopes of instigating a re-evaluation of the artistic value behind the Kowloon Emperor's work. The earnest effort reached its pinnacle in 2003 when Tsang, the very first Hong Kong artist to have been bestowed with the honour, was invited to participate in the 50th Venice Biennale. Subsequent to his passing away in 2007, much of Tsang Tsou Choi's calligraphy has been eradicated save a single pillar at the Tsim Sha Tsui Ferry Pier. Tseng Yuching (1978) Tseng belongs to the new generation of Taiwanese artists specialising in video productions and mixed media installations. Focusing on the inner psychology of ordinary people and largely based on personal experiences, Tseng's videos explore issues such as memory, consiousness and feelings such as grief, sadness, shame and love. Tseng has had numerous exhibitions around the world and also represented Taiwan at Documenta 12 in 2007.
Wan Zhenyu (1979) Wan (also known as Li Cheng) graduated from Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication in 2005. Since then, he's had several group exhibition and his first solo show took place at Art Seasons, Beijing in 2011. The show, "Future Supreme", was very well received and has earned him critical acclaim. Wan's oeuvre is characterised by lively, futuristic imagery juxtaposed with realistic figures. "Unconscious creation" is a key feature of his works - Wan arranges realistic images within fantasy spaces to create a visual experience that is oddly familiar yet surreal. Wang Du (1956) Wang is a contemporary Chinese artist who focuses on threedimensional painted objects. Traditionally trained in Guangzhou, he now lives and has his studio in Paris. His works show strong influences of contemporary Western art and culture, and represent his own notions of modernity and development, and his personal relationship with both China and the West. His latest works have turned to large-scale sculptures representing crumpled up newspaper, either en masse in trash cans, buildings or other repositories, or individually, in giant exploded versions of ordinary, everyday trash. Wang Gongxin (1960) Today, Wang is one of China's most respected video artists. Wang made his first video, "The Brooklyn Sky"(1995) as part of an installation he set up inside his Beijing courtyard home. Playing on an American saying that if you dig deep enough you will reach China, the piece expressed Wang's nostalgia for Brooklyn, but also suggested a new exchange of information between China and the West. While Zhang Peili was the earliest pioneer of video art in China, Wang was instrumental in advancing the movement in China. "Wang Gongxin brought two things to Chinese contemporary art," says Pi Li, renowned Beijing-based art critic. "The first is that he emphasized technique. And the second thing he brought was a logical method for bringing a concept into reality."
Wang Guangle (1976) "If I am to paint, I will paint the passage of time itself…which concerns the essence of my life." According to Wang, people in northen Fujian used to buy a coffin when they turned 60. They kept it at home and each year painted it with red lacquer to celebrate their survival and remind them of their impending death. Each year they’d add another layer, until they died. As a child, he saw his grandfather painting his coffin, and the memory inspired his Coffin Paint series. Wang Jianwei (1958) After receiving his master's degree in oil painting at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts and developing a career as a painter, Wang shifted his practice to performance works, video installations, playwriting, and documentary filmmaking. He applies an anthropological method to his work through which he builds a visual inventory of Chinese urban society and its evolution. Wang's documentaries are considered, skeptical reviews of microlocal phenomena, such as the increasingly brutal effects of contemporary urban development in Chinese metropolitan centers. In 1997, Wang was the first Chinese artist to participate in Documenta in Kassel, Germany. Wang Jin (1962) Wang is is a skillful photographer, sculptor and performance artist. His works are filled with social commentary. In Henan province he created huge blocks of ice and placed toys and consumer goods inside -- allowing residents to hammer and chisel away in a mad frenzy that said something about the consumer madness sweeping China. He has also sculpted huge porcelain bones and manufactured ancient Chinese clothing with modern techniques and materials. Much of his work defies easy explanation or categorization, except to say it is provocative. Wang studied Chinese painting at Zhejiang Academy of fine arts and graduated in 1987. He lives and works in Beijing now.
Wang Keping (1949) Wang is one of China's pioneering artists. Wang was a member of the experimental Stars Group of artists that formed in 1979, breaking with China's propaganda art and setting the stage for avant-garde art in China. Huang Rui and Ai Wei Wei were also members. Wang's unique wooden sculptures, including one that featured a Buddha like Mao figure, shocked the art world in Beijing. Today Wang lives in Paris and continues to work in wood. His figures are of a powerful vividness, although they also have a touch of melancholy. In one string of his work, Wang is particularly interested in exploring and negotiating the possibilities of how to artistically render the female body. Visually informed by an amalgam of prehistoric ice-age statuettes and 20th century artists like Constantin Brancusi, his preference is for exaggerated proportions. Wang Qingsong (1966) Wang first won recognition as a painter in the mid-1990s through his membership in the Gaudy Art group, a movement influenced by the work of Jeff Koons and championed by China’s most influential art critic, Li Xianting. Since turning from painting to photography in the late 1990s, Beijing-based artist Wang has created compelling works that convey an ironic vision of 21stcentury China’s encounter with global consumer culture. Working in the manner of a motion-picture director, he conceives elaborate scenarios involving dozens of models that are staged on film studio sets. The resulting color photographs employ knowing references to classic Chinese artworks to throw an unexpected light on today’s China, emphasizing its new material wealth, its uninhibited embrace of commercial values, and the social tensions arising from the massive influx of migrant workers to its cities. Wang Tianxuan (1984) Belonging to the latest generation of painters to emerge from China, Wang studied at Luxun Academy of Art, under the mentorship of renowned artists including Li Dafang and Gong Ligong. Wang has held a number of exhibitions around China and many of his works demonstrate his personal fascination with Buddhism.
X Wang Xingwei (1969) Wang is a well regarded painter known for his continuous bold reinvention of styles and clever techniques. Wang attained stardom in the 1990s by recycling recognizable icons and imagery from art and cultural histories, weaving his own portraits and life scenarios into the international visual canon. A skilled draughtsman, Wang deliberately gave these classics a rugged look and dark mood. Wang has recently reintroduced narrative elements into his works, portraying contemporary Chinese professionals such as a nurse or soldier, with glaring eyes and angry expressions. His latest series of works makes apparent and ingenious reference to a whole range of movements and genres in art history, including cartoon illustration, hard-edge painting and constructivism. Wang Yuyang (1979) One of the leading new media artists working in Beijing, Wang regards technology as his primary medium. “I am curious about how machines are made...I want to see the hope and life in ordinary objects, to make them breathe so the whole world will breathe with us.” His works, which range from highly conceptual installations to paintings, photography and video, explore the traditional Chinese philosophy of yin/yang, the relationship between 0 and 1, black and white, on and off. Over the years, Wang's works have been exhibited in musems and triennials in China and Europe. Wong Adrian (1980) Born in Chicago and graduated with a BA in Art History and MA in Developmental Psychology from Stanford University, Wong's Western upbringing sets him apart from other artists in dslcollection. Having moved back to Hong Kong in 2005, he now splits his time between Hong Kong and Los Angeles. Wong began exhibiting his works in San Francisco while completing his master's thesis on developmental psychology. Through a variety of media and subject matters (installations, sculptures and videos), Wong explores the intricacies of his relationship with the environment (culturally, experientially and historically), set within fictionalised contexts. Wong is the co-founder of Embassy Projects and currently teaches sculpture at Virginia
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Commonwealth University. His recent exhibitions include the traveling exhibition “Troglodyte See the Light,” “A Passion for Creation” for the Louis Vuitton Fondation pour la Création, and the Hong Kong Sculpture Biennial. His videos have been screened internationally at the Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Bangkok Experimental Film Festival, LOOP Media Art Center, and Kunsthalle Wien. Wu Chi Tsung (1981) After 11 years of fine art education in painting and sculpture, Wu began experimenting with video in 2002. In his senior year at Taipei National University of Arts, he won the Taipei Arts Award and in 2006, he was nominated for the Arts Mundi Prize, the most lucrative prize in the international art world. Now at the age of 31, Wu's career path is representative of the entire younger generation of artists artists who have been able to express themselves freely, having been exposed to more diverse influences. Over the past ten years, Wu has been invited to participate in more than 50 international exhibitions. Wu Shanzhuan (1960) Wu rose to prominence in the 1980s as a conceptual artist known for his experimental works with language, the use of big character posters and other textual pop references, a kind of precursor to Gu Wenda and Xu Bing, who are masters at toying with language and meaning. Wu’s pivotal 1986 installation, Red Humour International, laid the foundation for his highly idiosyncratic and sophisticated approach to painting, which forgoes image in favour of political jingoism, religious scripture, and advertising slogans. Wu’s canvases appear as a combination of graffiti and expressionism. Rendered with painterly spontaneity, words, symbols, and diagrams battle for space in a virtual terrain between conveyed meaning and pictorial abstraction. Wu continues to collaborate with Icelandic artist, Inga Thorsdottir, on a number of projects. Wu Yiming (1966) Wu's concern with individual identity is so astutely captured in his works that it would not be an overstatement to say that that he has found, within portraiture’s limits, the most adequate aesthetic style. A combination of individuality and anonymity informs his subtly
poignant paintings. The figures depicted are presented as both intimate and mythic. The most significant feature of his characters is a paradoxical notion of blankness: his portraits lack facial features and any indication of individuality, alluding to an escape from or intrusion into an unwanted reality. Wu's works go well beyond a simple analogy to the present state of Chinese society, with its frenzied development accompanied by estrangement and identity-loss. Instead, the images suggest a strong engagement with themes of cultural amnesia.
Xiao Xu (1983) Xiao graduated with a MFA from the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in Chongqing in 2010. Currently living in Beijing, Xiao represents a generation of younger artists predisposed to explore the solitude and fantasy found in Chinese literati painting. Specialising in elaborate ink paintings that are filled with nostalgia and mystery, many of Xiao's paintings appear to be enshrouded in mist and fog, metaphors for the search of meaning and longing for another world. Xiao applies delicate layers of ink wash to his works, creating a semi-transparent depth into a dreamlike world. Xie Molin (1979) "A graduate of Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Arts, Xie has been experimenting with new methods of painting for over ten years. His focus is on expanding the visual possibilities of painting through innovative technology and materials. Following the mechanics of a cutting plotter, Xie invented his own painting machine, which traces and scrapes his uniquedesigned patterns onto thick layers of paint. Each of Xie's abstract paintings is executed with absolute precision and symmetry. The main characteristics of my painting are personal aesthetics and the accuracy of machine control. In this way, more focus is possible on the exploration of the depth and visual appeal of the painting. - Xie Molin" Xu Qu (1978) Xu graduated from Nanjing Art Institute in 2002 and completed a postgraduate program under Prof. John Armleder at the Braunschweig University of Art in Germany. A member of the art collective, GUEST, Xu's solo career has also gone from strength to strength, with numerous exhibitions around the world. Xu's oeuvre is characterised by their physicality: for his highly acclaimed video work, "Upstream", Xu and a friend navigated a rubber dinghy along the canals in Beijing, ending near the central government's headquarters where they were stopped by the police. Such deliberate and symbolic action is a key method of expression in the artist's work.
Y Xu Tan (1957) Xu’s work deals with the hidden motivations and intentions of individuals through a high-tech analysis of their vocabulary. “Searching with Keywords” is the New York leg of an ongoing project which the artist launched in 2005. It began with a series of interviews of different groups of people who are active in Chinese society: a first set of interviews were carried in the Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park, a sort of Silicon Valley near Shanghai, a second set covers different cities and people from all walks of life, from writers, to real estate developers, to Buddhist monks, to businessmen; and a third was conducted among the artistic community in China. The video interviews were then carefully analyzed, and Xu Tan has identified 100 keywords based on meaning (social values), frequency (repetition), sensitivity (political), and popularity (trendyness). These Keywords reveal much about the values and motivations of contemporary Chinese society, they give a pulse of the current social climate, and present an insight into the collective social consciousness of China. Xu Zhen (1977) Xu's art-making has crossed over various disciplines, from installation, photography, video to performance and painting. Executed with a critical intelligence, low-tech subtlety and often in forms of theatric pranks, Xu’s work focuses on human sensitivity (Rainbow, 1998; In Just a Blink of an Eye, 2005–07) and dramatizes the humdrum of urban living (ShanghArt Supermarket, 2007). His recent pieces have employed more provocative lexicons and social interventions so as to confront sociopolitical issues and taboos within the context of contemporary China.
Xue Song (1962) Xue (nee Weng Xuesong) graduated from the Painting Department of Chongqing Fine Arts School in 1985. Learning to paint from a very young age has prepared for him a well-grounded modeling skill. After experimenting with various contemporary art forms, he has recently returned to oil painting to explore the "vividness" and spirit pursued by the ancient Chinese literati. Garden rock and animals are two of his key subjects, in which he unveils a spiritual world where the atmosphere created by the painting is conversational with the soul of its creator. Following neorealism, pop political, gaudy art and art brooding in the consumption and digital era, Xue’s painting represents a unique artistic style featuring the nature and individuality of Chinese culture. His signature series “Garden Rock” embodies the traditional and contemporary Chinese humanistic philosophies as well as high wisdom and essence of life.
Yan Lei (1965) Graduated from the print-making department of the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in 1991, Yan is considered one of the bad boys of China's contemporary art scene. Best known for his daring and psychological portraits of blurry and confused scenes, Yan borrows from the surrounding art world, but also rails against it in his portraits and his public appearances. His images are sometimes psychedelic, like his colorful, shimmering wheel portaits. In one newsworthy prank, fellow artist, Hong Hao, and Yan created fake invitations to Documenta and sent them to Chinese artists, who were unaware that they were being taken in. Yan is also known for his videos and installations. Yang Fudong (1971) Yang's films and photographs articulate multiple perspectives. His works investigate the structure and formation of identity through myth, personal memory and lived experience. Each of his works is a dramatic existential experience and a challenge to take on. His work is open-ended and inconclusive, therefore open to individual interpretation. Each film and video is about the human condition. He mostly portrays his own generation of individuals in their late 20’s and early 30’s, young people who seem confused and appear to hover between the past and present. Yang's work epitomizes how the recent and rapid modernization of China has overthrown traditional values and culture. He skillfully balances this dichotomy to create works endowed with classic beauty and timelessness. He seeks through multiple vignettes to offer the poetics of place and people as an alternative to the prominent politics of power. Yang Jiechang (1956) Yang belongs to a generation of artists who left China to Europe in the late 1980s and built up a successful international career. Yang made his reputation with large monochrome black ink paintings, the “Hundred Layers of Ink” series (1989-98), which was unveiled to the public at the “Les magiciens de la terre” exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in 1989. These meditative works combine eastern tradition and spirituality with modern and post-modern concept. More significantly, they reflect Yang’s training in calligraphy and Chinese ink brush painting during his studies at the Foshan Folk Art Institute (19741978) and at the Guangdong Fine Arts Academy (1978 to 1982). Applying layers and layers of ink
on rice paper Yang created mental landscapes such that even the black is full of light while the two-dimensional plane shows great depth. The inevitable connotations of blackness – mourning, death, the void – are juxtaposed with refracted light, suggesting renewal, resurrection and the full. Yang Liming (1975) Now working and living in Beijing, Yang's mesmerising “monochrome” paintings communicate the meditative powers of music and art. Known for his habit of listening to classical music while working, it is not difficult to see the melody and rhythm in his works. With their intense palette and dense calligraphic lines, the paintings seem to vibrate from within the canvases and echo into the viewer's world. Since graduating from the Art College of Sichuan University in 1999, Yang has had numerous exhibitions worldwide. Yang Yong (1975) Yang moved to Shenzhen after studying oil painting in her hometown of Sichuan. After arriving in Shenzhen, one of the fastest growing cities of the south coast of China, Yang started to work with video using the style of Warhol/Paul Morrisey; then by keeping the use photography, she documented the underground scenery of Shenzhen using Nan Goldin s style. Yang is of a generation of artists with no memory of either Imperial China or the Cultural Revolution, and the mostly 20-something women depicted are part of her generation. Her most extraordinary and controversial work has been her portraits of prostitutes. ‘Identity’ in the context of a contemporary Chinese city such as Shenzhen can only be understood in terms of an accelerated modernity and the impact of global and globalizing media. Yang Yongliang (1980) Yang is a young artist from Shanghai who studied traditional Chinese art such as shui mo painting and calligraphy from his early age. His teacher was Yang Yang who is the professor of traditional art at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Yang Yongliang cleverly recreated "Cun", the main representation of Chinese Shanshui paintings by using a camera, the contemporary visual device, to express his creativity for the subjects he is concerned with. He combined the traditional Chinese paintings with the modern
Shanghai city life and the details reveal current urban culture. The scenes of construction sites, large cranes, traffic signs and fly-overs those all Shanghai citizens are familiar with and all have become critical elements in his artworks. Yang Zhenzhong (1968) The desire to challenge normative notions of social behavior informs the practices of Yang Zhenzhong's work. He is preoccupied with China’s intrinsic disharmony and extreme discrepancies and often touches upon taboos such as death and out-dated social norms. His approach is metaphorical rather than narrative. His videos often start from witty ideas, employing image repetition and rhythmic coordination of sound, language and image. Ye Linghan (1985) Since graduating from China Academy of Art in 2009 where he studied traditional mural painting and drawing, Ye lived and worked in Shanghai and recently moved to Beijing. In the few short years since graduation, he has exhibited extensively in China and overseas, including MOCA SHanghai and Ben Brown Fine Arts, London. Ye Nan (1984) Trained under Qiu Zhijie of the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, Ye engages us directly with great, sometimes imponderable questions. Distinguished by his use of a deep red palette, Ye's works indicate a strong sense of curiosity and acceptance towards new things. Yeung Tong Lung (1956) Yeung moved to Hong Kong in 1973 as a teenager. In addition to painting full-time, he had previously worked as a mural artist and set painter for interior designers, photographers and film directors. Despite not having any formal qualifications, he is considered one of Hong Kong's best oil painters, with works exhibited in the HK Museum of Art and the HK Economic and Trade Office in Geneva. Yeung's works deal with the landscape and the space of people in both physical and psychological states. Yin Zhaoyang (1970) Graduated from the print department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1996, Yin's work, while squarely situated within the context of contemporary Chinese painting, directly references the western tradition of the 1960’s and 1970’s – recalling the work of Gerhard Richter and
Andy Warhol. Unlike the genre of political pop, gaudy art, or kitsch, within which the image of Mao is so often positioned, Yin presents these powerful images within an atmosphere of memory and ambiguous reflection. Working from photographs of the living Mao, both official and unofficial, as well as from images of memorial monuments, Yin explores the distanced relevance of Mao Zedong to a society that has largely repudiated the policies of the Great Leap forward and the Cultural Revolution. Yu Aishan (1981) Currently living and working in London, Yu holds an MFA from the Slade School of Art in London and a BA from Sichuan Academy of Fine Art in China. Her work has been shown in numerous group exhibitions throughout China and UK. Yu's recent paintings intuitively explore her personal interest in photographic realism and non-representational textures. She explores the field of portraiture through this combination to express the inner emotions of modern day humanity. Chromatically muted but melancholically seductive, her paint touches wood only to reluctantly register some ghostly presence. Time appears suspended, held in some precarious balance between the different realms. Yu Hong (1966) Yu graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Oil Painting from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 1988, and completed her Masters degree in 1995. Her artistic practice revolves around her personal experience as a woman, taking inspiration from both her own life and the lives of others around her. The world that she creates through her art encapsulates a sense of time and memory that is intermingled in the delicate, often domestic scenes that she portrays, resulting in large-scale works that are personal and emotionally reflective. Only rarely in the entire history of Chinese art has the female point of view been depicted in such an understanding and understated manner. Yu regularly appropriates iconic western and eastern classical antiquity in the attempt to create artworks that are universal, transcending all cultural barriers. Her autobiographical approach to the art world, friends, family and personal experiences against the upheavals of recent Chinese history, give worldchanging events a more human significance and puts private
Z milestones into a much wider context. As one of China's most renowned female artists, Yu has exhibited extensively around the world and her works can be found in leading public collections, including Ludwig Gallery (Germany) and Singapore Art Museum. Yuan Yuan (1984) Yuan presents intimate canvases in frames, "Polaroid inspired paintings", made from Jindezhen porcelain, a borderline kitschiness that’s only exacerbated by the subject matter: young Chinese girls, many posing with flowers or balloons or, in one case, a camera. Yuan translates photographic elements — like the washed-out white shock of a camera’s flash — in a way that can be interesting, but ultimately she excels when she leaves human beings out of the picture entirely. Her larger, abstracted landscape works such as "Castle" are aesthetically more intriguing than the sentimental portraits.
Zeng Fanzhi (1964) Zeng's paintings are immediately recognisable by their signature expressionistic style, an effect that lends provocative sensations of underlying violence, psychological tension, or supernatural aura to his lavishly rendered canvases. With subjects ranging from portraits and rural landscapes to politically charged motifs, Zeng infuses the everyday veneer of shared experience with an ambience of transgression, reflective of both the rapidly changing terrain of contemporary Chinese culture and the negotiation of personal identity within this societal flux. Zeng's magnificent landscapes express the vast conceptual gulf between individual cognition and the actuality of environment. Painting with two brushes simultaneously, Zeng uses one to describe his subject, while the other meanders the canvas, leaving traces of his subconscious through processes. Through this combination of painterly realism and 'automatic' expression, Zeng's landscapes are transformed into near abstract fields; the depicted people and places merging both memory and imagination. Zhang Chunhong (1971) "To me, Chinese contemporary art is like a bird let out of a cage." The daughter of art teachers whose two sisters are also artists, Zhang was schooled from an early age in the rigours of gongbi, the classical ink brush technique rendering subjects with intricate precision. Now living in the US, Zhang has been widely exhibited in China and internationally. Zhang Dali (1963) Zhang's work actively engages with the rapidly changing environment in China. Zhang started working in portraiture as one of Beijing's first graffiti artists, spraying and carving heads into the walls of the hundreds of buildings scheduled for destruction. Working across a wide variety of media - from urban art, to archiving photographs of Mao, and large scale installations - Zhang's portraits document a contemporary social history of a culture in radical development and flux. Chinese Offspring is one of Zhang's best known works. Consisting of 15 cast resin figures suspended from the ceiling, each sculpture is a representation of a
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migrant construction worker, a vast underclass who contribute to the modernisation process at it most visible level. Since 2003, Zhang has made 100 of these effigies in tribute to their unsung heroism. Zhang's work not only champions the individual plights of these transient labourers, but also records the one of the most important phenomena of new Chinese order: the growing schism between poverty and wealth. Zhang Ding (1980) Mixing installation and video-art, Zhang is quickly emerging as one of the most provocative and intriguing of China's new generation of artists. Unapologetically voyeuristic, Zhang's installation ”Pry” (2005ongoing) explores the relationship between the viewer and the viewed, superiority and inferiority, exploiter and exploited. This is done with rare sensitivity and nonjudgmental loyalty towards featured destinies, all of which share a common denominator of difference. These differences are manifested sexually, religiously and politically, and often with severe consequences to the protagonists. The installation, which also incorporates photographs, belongs to the tradition of socially conscious documentary film. Zhang Ding’s interest in the personal stories of anonymous individuals can be seen in his archival project on missing persons. Here, he appropriates the visual imagery of missing people by photographing missing person flyers, often spotted in nearby public spaces. He paradoxically stresses the uncertainty while manifesting the image of the lost person through a second representation. It is an archival impulse that reveals an interest in memory, loss and personal narratives. Zhang Enli (1965) For Zhang, painting is a process that stems from his own memories and the complicated experiences of aging. In his works, Zhang takes familiar objects and forces us to look at them again, like revisiting an old photo album. His brushstrokes are slightly exaggerated and cartoonish, yet they seem reminiscent of a classical Chinese style. The objects in Zhang’s paintings he finds inspiration for in many different places, such as
pages torn from magazines or things in shops. More interestingly though, Zhang often uses a camera that he carries with him everyday to capture images he wants to paint. Zhang Huan (1965) Zhang's works are both highly personal and politicised, dealing with complex issues of identity, spiritualism, vulnerability, and transgression. His practice focuses on no one particular media but rather incorporates a wide variety of tactics – from performance to photography, installation, sculpture, and painting -- utilising each method for its physical and symbolic associations. This unique approach to making reinforces the interconnectivity of the concepts and recurrent motifs running throughout of Zhang's work, and mirrors an underlying sentiment of shared human experience and bond. Zhang Jiebai (1980) Now living and working in Beijing, Zhang graduated from Paris' renowned Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 2008. Despite his youth, Zhang has already gained international recognition, with several solo shows in Geneva and Paris even before graduation. The most salient characteristic of Zhang's paintings is their haunting pallor. With a restrained palette of greys and whites, Zhang's deliberately muted works strike a delicate balance between abstract and representational. Zhang Peili (1957) Widely regarded as the "father of Chinese video art", Zhang was the first Chinese artist to create a video art work in 1988, taping himself washing a chicken, over and over again, as an example of the absurdities of modern China. His works is often infused with sharp social and political commentaries. Another well known piece“Water: Standard Pronunciation,” tapes a former television news broadcaster reading all the words in a Chinese dictionary that start with water into the camera like a newscast. The piece was widely viewed as a critique of the official news media in China and how the nation’s broadcasters jabber endlessly without saying much, yet the viewer is awash in an ocean of words.
Zhang Wei (1985) Born in Inner Mongolia, 1985, he currently lives and works in Hangzhou. Graduated from Chinese academy of fine arts with a master‘s degree. His work includes paintings and installation works, which focus on the similarities and differences of various performance media. Zhang Zhen Xue (1982) One of the rising stars from the new generation of Chinese artists, Zhang graduated from Sichuan Fine Arts Academy, specialising in oil painting. Zhang has had a number of exhibitions across China and was awarded the John Moores New Painting Prize in 2010. Zhao Xuebing (1967) Zhao started painting at an early age but it was after spending seven years living and working in Paris (2002-07) and New York (2007-09) that his international recognition really took off. During this period, Zhao exhibited in a number of biennales and institutions including the Salon de Montrouge (France, 2006), the Senlis Biennale of contemporary art (France, 2007), and Pierogi Gallery New York (USA, 2008). Zhao is best known for his masterful representation of light and dexterity on lines. Zhao Zhao (1982) A graduate from the oil painting department at Xinjiang Institute of Arts, Zhao quickly realised that his aesthetic language is best expressed through performance. He understands art as a "performative, gestural way to provoke as well as mediate alternative realities in pursuit of new subjectivities." Zhao's first performance piece was conceptualised while he was still an art student in Xinjiang. Since then, he has exhibited in numerous galleries and institutions around the world. What sets Zhao apart from his peers is the diversity of his skills it is almost impossible to define Zhao's oeuvre in terms of a certain style or medium. Zheng Chongbin (1961) For over twenty years, Zheng has been exploring two issues that mesh in his works: how can the possibilities of ink as a medium be extended, and how can a new expression of depth and structure be incorporated into ink painting?
In 1986 he discovered a pair of materials that, in combination with ink, brought new visual interest as well as new technical possibilities to ink painting: white acrylic paint and fixer. In addition to adopting unorthodox media, Zheng Chongbin has been using the paibi or broad brush in place of traditional brushes. He has found that using the broad brush changed his painting behavior: "in terms of understanding space, qiyun (spirit resonance) is essential." Over the years, he has found inspiration in both early Chinese landscape compositions, and in Western contemporary and Baroque figure painters, as well as abstract expressionism.
childhood memories of watching his family through the patterned glass, which was found in almost every home in China during the 1970s and 80s. Sadly, most of these old houses have been demolished and replaced with modern high rises. As with his first Sudden Ego series, Zheng's works represent his quest for self-identity and security in this rapidly changing, chaotic world. Zhou Ming (1961) Zhou's work is a critique of China’s New Middle Class’s tasteless manners. The New Middle Class in China have attempted to use “good taste” as a means of distinguishing themselves from the masses. However, that “good taste” has been usually associated with certain status symbols, in particular famous Western brands and popular leisure activities. China’s New Middle Class would blindly mimic things from the West in order to present themselves as members of the middle class. Meanwhile, they would pay no attention to the deeper, spiritual aspects of our traditional Chinese culture. Rather than simply satirising the New Middle Class with exaggerated, kitsch references, Zhou's work attempts to expose the difference in tastes, manners and values across the Western and Chinese cultures.
Zheng Guogu (1970) Zheng is a versatile conceptual artist who works with a variety of media, including photography, installation, painting and sculpture. His artistic output dwells on the media, consumerism and the rapid changes in China. What is interesting about Zheng is that he belongs to a generation, which grew up with Coca-Cola, Kung Fu movies, pop music, and TV games. Different from those older generation in the uncertainty of Cultural Revolution of the 70s, and in the optimistic Utopia of the 80s, there is no ideology and idealization among this new generation. His sculptural work often combines enduring and imperious materials with unorthodox and fragile substances, the physicality of his forms operating as both tactile and symbolic matter. His sculptures often make reference to China's fast expanding economy in relation to its millennia-old history, humorously posing the transient icons of commodity culture and frivolous indulgence as indestructible antiergonomic ballasts.
Zhou Tao (1976) Zhou graduated from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts with an MFA degree in 2006. He works with video and mixed media. One of Zhou's best known works is Mutual Exercise, in which he carries, performs with and is carried by an identically dressed friend around Guangzhou. Interacting with the people in the streets, the audience enters into a doppelganger situation exposing the binary nature of living in a city.
Zheng Jiang (1972) A graduate from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, Zheng was taught by well-known avant-garde artist, Liu Xiaodong, whose influence can be seen in Zheng's painting technique. Breaking away from the conventional way of viewing, the subjects in Zheng's paintings become increasingly clear the further away the viewer stands. The work in this collection is part of the ""Begonia Patterned Glass"" series - inspired by Zheng's
Zhou Tiehai (1966) Zhou's conceptual projects represent the artist’s vengeance and attitude towards the selfabsorbed art market. His work’s power to amaze and provoke is the result of a host of strategies that mix antagonism with sincerity. The key ingredients that drive Zhou’s unsettling yet amusing practice includes appropriating classical imagery, generating ironic projections, proclaiming laconic yet heartfelt discourse and actively subverting painterly craft. He takes
on the role of both artist and patron since many of his airbrush paintings are rendered by assistants under his supervision. He permits himself to ‘play’ with art’s historical baggage by making paintings that are simultaneously self-aware and self-abnegating, virtuosic and pop all within a single canvas. He manipulates acclaimed magazine covers for his own purposes and articulates the notion of ‘artistic agency’ within current conditions of the art world and global economy. Using iconic works by da Vinci, Goya and Ingres as well as contemporary stars like Jeff Koons, Richard Prince and Maurizio Cattelan as his models., Zhou makes selfpromotional images that subvert the established notion of how artists should look and behave. Zhu Fadong (1960) Zhu's works question the relation between men and consumer society and what is possibly left of our own identity. Inspired by the feeling of having lost in his identity to urbanization and modernization, he created “Looking for a Missing Person” (1993), in which Zhu’s ID photo and words, cut out from magazines, are printed on commercial posters and hung on walls in Kunming, expanding the piece from himself to society. The work helped Zhu establish his reputation after its inclusion in The 1st Biennial Exhibition of Chinese Art in Guangzhou (1992). In his latest series 'Celebrities', Zhu has decided to break multinational logos into minuscule fragments – a technique reminiscent of embroidery. Zhu Jia (1963) As one of earliest video artists in China, Zhu has always tried to record the ordinary things through different ways. His photography and video works emerged at a time when China was entering a sensitive period of transition, after the idealism of social transformation at the end of 1980s, marked by events like the China Avant Garde exhibition in Beijing’s National Art Museum of China and Tiananmen student movement in 1989. Over the years, he has developed an outstanding personal language – minimalist but intense, oscillating between dazzling movements and silent static-ness – to confront, testify and intervene the constantly agitating and mutating
reality. In his work, there are two distinct but organically related and complementary systems of recording and presenting images that manifest the very particular relationship between the beholder and the world. Zhu Xinyu (1980) Graduated from LuXun Academy of Fine Art in 2004, Zhu belongs to the new generation of artists who has never experienced any dramatic social changes and life has been generally peaceful. Paradoxically, the mature sensitivity and inner turbulence of his paintings might suggest otherwise. With a delicate and evocative painting style, Zhu creates scenes that are deceptively tranquil but are actually layered with intense emotions. Drawing from personal feelings and memories, Zhu's works challenge conventional perceptions while advocating the importance of authenticity. Zou Tao (1984) Graduated from the Luxun Art College in 2009, Zou mainly works with easel painting. In 2007, he obtained the Chinese New Star Art Prize and in 2010, he was awarded the John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize.
The adventure began over seven years ago. Creating the dslcollection allowed us to make many new and amazing acquaintances. It helped us discover one of the richest cultures in the world.
Final words
dslcollection is not meant to be a survey of contemporary Chinese art. Many artists are missing and many more young talents are yet to discover. To collect is to choose. A collection is never complete, but it is precisely the aspects of incompleteness and openness that constitute its beauty and uniqueness. It is the very elusive quest for perfection that keeps passion and curiosity alive. For us, the joy and pleasure we experience through this adventure are crucial.
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Artists Name
Curating an exhibition in the virtual world by Martina Köppel-Yang* * Martina Köppel-Yang is an independent scholar and curator with a PhD in East Asian Art History from the University of Heidelberg. She has been involved in contemporary Chinese art since the mid-1980s when she studied at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. In addition to curating and co-curating exhibitions, she has written extensively on the subject of contemporary Chinese art, most notably Semiotic Warfare – The Chinese Avant-garde 1979-1989 – a Semiotic Analysis, Hong Kong, 2003.
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Yang Yongliang 220 Yang Zhenzong 224
Aisha 234
Zhu Jia 235
If you have a QR Reader on your mobile device, then simply scan the QR codes opposite to view the artist’s videos. If not, then follow the steps below: Step Step Step Step
1: 2: 3: 4:
Download a QR Reader onto your mobile phone or iPad (from the App store or http://www.mobiletag.com/download-en.html) Launch the QR Reader on your mobile device. Hold your mobile device over one of the tags on the opposite page. The tag will automatically be scanned and link you directly to the artist’s video on youtube.
Zhang Ding 244
| The Shard |
What was secret police of East Germany? | Dsl collection tome 2 by Sylvain Levy - issuu
issuu
dsl_cover_paperback_2_Layout 1 11/12/2013 10:24 Page 1
dslcollection a collection of Chinese contemporary art
dslcollection www.dslcollection.org [email protected]
This book is available as a FREE download from Amazon.
Helen Ho
a collection of Chinese contemporary art
dsl_cover_paperback_2_Layout 1 11/12/2013 10:24 Page 2
Book design by Terence Beedham at iwd
A special thank you to Martina Kรถppel-Yang for assisting with the conception and editing of the book.
“A collection is the work of a person. It is its limit and its greatness. It has to awaken the curiosity and the emotion. It is an artistic adventure.� Monique Barbier-Mueller
The concept of an adventure is very much key to the spirit of dslcollection – from the artworks that we collect to the way we share the collection through digital technology – everything is aimed at bringing different experiences for people to connect with art. For this reason, we have chosen to present this second edition of the dslcollection catalogue as a fusion between a book and a magazine.
Foreword
To enable our readers to fully appreciate and experience the diversity in China’s contemporary art scene, and more importantly, to create their own adventure, we have decided to “curate” this 2nd edition, arranging our artists and artworks according to their specialities and positioning them in different chapters, similar to a series of rooms in an exhibition. Our aim is not to be an encyclopaedic collection, but just to open a few doors to China’s contemporary art scene. As a start, Chapter 1 focuses on the earlier generation of contemporary artists, those who were already active around the Chinese Avant-Garde Exhibition in 1989. Caught amidst one of the most turbulent periods in China’s modern history, many of these artists had to create outside the formal system, or “machine”. The next few chapters are arranged according to regions – Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. We dedicate a chapter to new media artists and end with a survey of the latest generation of Chinese artists, many of whom are relatively unknown in the West. At the end of the book, you will find a certain number of tags that enable you to watch the videos of the collection or to experience the virtual exhibition curated by Martina Köppel-Yang. This catalogue has been produced with the aim of sharing, as much as possible, the adventure and l’esprit of dslcollection. – Helen Ho
2
With their thoughtfully researched Chinese contemporary art collection accessible online and promoted on Facebook, Sylvain and Dominique Levy redefine collecting for the digital age. Extracts from article by Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop (Published in BLOUINARTINFO.COM, Asia Edition, September/October 2013)
“We started as a young couple, going to flea markets and buying works to decorate our house, primarily 1940s furniture,” Dominique says. “Neither of us came from a family of collectors, though we had an eye trained for beautiful things.” Their aesthetic training was centered largely on fashion. Dominique’s mother, Rose Torrente-Mett, founded Torrente, a French haute couture and readyto-wear label, and her uncle, Ted Lapidus, was a highly influential designer in the 1960s. Sylvain used to run French fashion house Caroll before turning to real estate development.“ After the first furniture, we started worrying about the walls, and I remember the first painting we ever bought was a beautiful sunset by Dupuy Godeau, not the best artist, nor his best work,” she recalls, laughing. In the early 1990s, the couple started buying Western contemporary art, with works by Robert Rauschenberg, Manolo Valdés, and Antoni Tàpies decorating their home, but they
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Artists Name
concede there wasn’t a cohesive approach to the budding collection and the works were bought “more as trophies.” “We only started to collect seriously with contemporary designs in the mid 1990s,” says Dominique. “We had friends who owned the Gallery Kreo and at the time, pieces by Ron Arad and the Bouroullec brothers were really accessible. No one wanted them. That’s when we started to buy, not just to decorate our house, and we had to take up storage space. But when you’re no longer constrained by space and size, that’s when you can really have a lot of fun.” The couple eventually turned away from design. “It became too hot and expensive, and you had to be put on a waiting list to get a piece, and frankly I prefer to play golf than have to do that,” explains Sylvain. Their flat is still a treasure trove of 20th-century design with a range of interesting pieces, including a 1998 Zenith chair by Marc Newson, a 2001 Grappe carpet by Ronan and
Erwan Bouroullec, and Ron Arad’s 1996 round bookcase and 2001 Pappardelle chair in bronze. “The flat is very much a reflection of our life as collectors and our personal taste, which is very eclectic,” Dominique says. “This is not a show flat—the children used to sit on this Ron Arad chair, and all the furniture is there to be used.”
dynamic French couple has. They’ve also embraced 21stcentury technologies—not only to digitize their collection of about 200 artworks to make them available to all on the Internet, but also to create iPad apps and reach out via social networks like Facebook with pages in English and Spanish. That’s not to say they’ve eschewed traditional media; they’ve published books in English, Spanish, and Chinese.
approaches. “Previously, it was a more traditional approach to collecting with no real coherence: we would buy an object because we liked it,” he explains. “But when we started our collection on contemporary Chinese art we deliberately decided to do things differently because from the start we knew we wanted to open the collection to the general public using the Internet and social media.”
Philip Tinari, director of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, notes that the DSL Collection has been a “very public advocate for the field in general, as well as a pioneer in trying to apply the Internet and social media to the running and promotion of a private collection.”
For the Levys, it was extremely important that their collection had, as Dominique puts it, “a soul, as well as an image,” which they thought could only be created by following rules such as keeping the collection relatively small and within certain limits.
Their current passion for contemporary Chinese art started in 2005 when the couple visited Shanghai and met Lorenz Helbling, founder of ShanghART Gallery, and also toured artist Ding Yi’s studio. They quickly started to acquire works by Zhou Tiehai, Zeng Fanzhi, and Zhang Huan. They also bought works by Yang Jiechang and his wife, Martina Köppel-Yang, after meeting them in Paris and started to focus on the young Cantonese art scene, from the Big Tail Elephant Working Group to the Yangjiang Group.
“They have collected some of the most important figures of the Chinese avant-garde over the last three decades and have been generous lenders to exhibitions around the world, including at UCCA,” he says, noting that the collection is rooted in the “same basic understanding of contemporary art history as other major collections,” including those of Uli Sigg and Guan Yi. “While it is smaller than these other collections, DSL manages to feel alive rather than archival in its selection of particular works.”
Few collectors have published their own collecting manifesto, but the
Sylvain points out that over the years the couple has had different
“It must be niche to give your collection a clear image,” Sylvain adds. “We wanted to work on big formats because Chinese artists have always liked to express themselves via those.... The difficulty when you start collecting is to have access to quality, and if you focus on big formats, there are very few people in that sphere, and you can have some beautiful pieces. Of course we can’t have them in our living room, but the day we decided to have a museum-like collection, we had gone beyond buying art to decorate our walls.” “By limiting ourselves, we know we have to be much more careful in our selection, take the time to
research and select each artwork,” says Dominique. “Early on we also decided that if we’d made a mistake we would be able to let go of the work. There are a lot of collectors that are in an accumulation phase, especially with Chinese art, because they want to open big museums. Our approach is very different.” The Levys believe that a collection should be first and foremost a private story, “our own story as collectors, as well as the meetings with different people,” Sylvain says. “Each of the artworks is a bit like the words that help us write a story, our story,” he adds. “Some are stronger than others. The idea is to create something that has a real soul. We can collect works by artists completely unknown, but these represent, for us, something very interesting in the story we’re telling.” The result is a highly personal, scrupulously crafted collection—though the Levys joke that despite similar tastes, curating doesn’t always come easy. “That’s the interest of this adventure; it has taught us to compromise, which is a very good thing for a couple,” Sylvain quips. “I guess I am the adventurous madman and she is the reason.”
Less is more
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Artists Name
A collection just limited to 250 works. Works come in and go out to continuously regenerate the collection.
A book This book reflects the desire of the founders of the dslcollection, to look systematically at the collection they are creating of contemporary Chinese art. Beyond a simple idea of accumulating works of art, it is their wish actively to conceptualise the collection, treating it as an ongoing project with the ability to further the field of which it is a part. This book offers an opportunity to consider the dslcollection from its beginnings to its current stage, and to think about the road ahead in awareness of the contexts surrounding and influencing it, and upon which it has the potential to exert an effect. In so doing, this book may present more questions than it is able to answer; at the heart of the exercise is active engagement with the question of what it means to be an art collection in the 21st Century. By Iona Whittaker The book is also available in Chinese and Spanish. The Spanish edition was translated by Ofelia Botella
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Artists Name
Facebook With over 29,000 likes on our Facebook page and a high degree of daily interactions, dslcollection has placed itself well ahead of other private collections despite not having a physical exhibition space. We have also recently launched a Spanish version of our Facebook page which is aimed at increasing our visibility in Spain and Latin America. Ilma Nausedaite is in charge of our English Facebook page, and Ofelia Botella is looking after the Spanish version.
Being shareworthy
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Artists Name
Linkedin With over 15,000 connections spread across 200 cities around the world, dslcollection continues to engage with the public on a very personal basis, sharing our artworks and knowledge of Chinese contemporary art with professionals in the art world as well as interested amateurs. The level of endorsements and the successful collaborations that have resulted from our connections have proven the power of social networks as a communication tool. Artstack Launched at the end of 2011, Artstack is an innovative social platform for users to find, share, and discover art, design and video. While sharing similar social functions of Facebook, Artstack is an exclusively artistic community; hence recommendations, comments and dialogues are much more focused. Dslcollection has been sharing our artworks through Artstack since it was first launched at the end of 2011. We now have over 38,000 followers, many of whom are new to the Chinese contemporary art scene.
A bricks and clicks collection
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Wang Yi 454 Wang Yuyang 456
Yu Aishan 470
Zhao Zhao 482 Zheng Jiang 488 Zhou Ming 490 Zhu Xinyu 492 Zou Tao 500
1 OLD GHOSTS NEW SPIRITS 20
This section looks at the controversial and provocative figures of the Chinese art scene from the 1980s to the early 1990s. Regarded as the first decade of contemporary Chinese art, the 1980s, a decade of general opening and relative liberalism was a period of exceptional creative fervour and artistic experimentation. An unprecedented access to a range of newly translated and published Western literature, philosophy and art, as well as to re-editions of traditional Chinese books allowed the artists to develop new languages and concepts. Using their new stylistic and conceptual tools the artists dealt with their “old ghosts�, like for example recent history, in particular the Cultural Revolution, or with socialist realism and what they called the excess of meaning, the semantic redundancy of their culture. They developed their individual utopias alongside the official utopia of the modernization of Chinese society and culture. The resulting proliferation of artistic activity makes it difficult to generalise this period, particularly since it was a nation-wide, decentralised movement with groups of artists coming together to exhibit works in areas as diverse as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Hunan, Hebei, Hangzhou or again Xiamen. Yet, the artistic endeavours of this decade share a common ambition – to break away from traditional norms and to develop a new culture: Old ghosts making their way for New Spirits.
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Artists Name
Language 路 Communication 路 Man, 1988, Performance. Image courtesy of Yang Jiechang, Hou Hanru, Chen Tong and Tang Songwu
This chapter reunites works developing autonomous artistic positions, positions of resistance, difficult to digest within the general system. Even though these positions often act from the margins, they have the potential to change the longterm behaviour and the conditions of the system. They represent a kind of erratic factors, unpredictable apparitions, mistakes - ghosts - modifying in the end the course of events.
To create this work, the artist pinched a piece of pork every day, taking a photograph of the moment until the pork finally became too dry. The viewer is led to imagine Gu, a man full of life, sitting there pinching the "water" and "blood" out of a dead life, experiencing the constant contact between life and death. However, what the viewer experiences is only the elegance of false pretences and the ritualistic scene in a temple-like space. The photographs of hands pinching the pork are neatly arranged, like a series of abstract paintings. The pieces of dried pork are laid on a table in the middle wrapped in red cloth, like the remains of the deceased waiting for others to pay their last respects. Gu has deliberately created a distance between what the viewers had “seen” and the real “meaning” that he had obtained in creating the work, so as to conceal what only he had experienced. What Gu created was only an inflammatory scene, a tentalising hint at the true significance. Meat C-print. 10 works (163x149 cm each). 1997-98.
GU DEXIN
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2005.03.05 is a single project that comprises a series of different artworks. The use of the opening date as the exhibition’s title signifies the handover of the exhibition by the artist to the general public. Using a large number of apples, bananas, and artificial materials for various site-specific installations, Gu encourages the audience to participate in the exhibition. The audience can consume the fruit at will and thus become included in the process of reshaping the artwork as the exhibition progresses. Deliberately placed inside gallery’s atrium is a large-scale plinth. A close examination shows that the plinth was conceived with the proportion of the whole atrium in mind. One would normally expect to see a classical sculpture on the top of it to sanctify the architecture of that space. Gu subverts such a trope by painting the plinth with bright red paint, thereby making the object self-referential. Furthermore, Gu deflates the imposing spectacle of such an out-of-proportion plinth by placing a "sea" of bananas on the marble floor. Within a short time, the rotting bananas have left their marks on the marble floor. If the very identity of the atrium is derived from the art object, Gu’s strategy is to counter this architectural conceit with a completely natural phenomenon. The viewer is confronted with a sense of helplessness, witnessing thousands of bananas gradually rotting away. 2005.03.05 (left) Installation, Canvas - H: 350; Base - 150, W: Canvas - 250; Base - 150, D: Base 150 2005.
Artist statement "The way the audiences perceive an artwork or an exhibition should not be confined by the use of language. From my personal perspective, the inscription of a date also signifies the opening or closing of an event. For me, this date is a closing. But for others, it is a beginning." 2004.05.09. Installation. 10,000 porcelain vehicles. 2004. 26
Gu Dexin
A simple wooden chair that could have been found in any ordinary room; painted in bright red with a black rubbish bag carelessly crumpled on the seat. The entire front of the chair and rubbish bag appear to be encrusted with red molecules. It is only on closer inspection that one notices the shape of the rubbish bag. Contrary to initial glance, the bag forms the shape of a woman's breasts. Strategically covering both breasts, the red droppings also form a distinctive bikini-like shape that flow over the edge of the seat. Using his characteristic combination of shock and humour, Gu is raising an existential question about the female body and sexuality. Chair, Installation. Mixed media. 151 x 100 x 100.
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Gu Dexin
Showing China from its best sides’ 95 Oil on canvas. 120 x 260cm. 1995
A room filled with grey industrial bins, at the centre is a large green beanbag/cushion with the sign "Wuquan - Wuzhi de lichuang" printed on it. The sign translates to "the right of objects - the power of ignorance". This installation is derived from a revised version of the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. In 1994 Wu and Inga Svala Thorsdottir redrafted their version of the Declaration to include rights for living and inanimate things, i.e. humans, animals, plants and in short, everything. They then arranged for labels proclaiming "Thing’s Rights" in English and Chinese to be affixed to garbage bins, which can be readily adapted to different exhibition settings. Thing's Rights and Power of Ignorance Installation. Mixed media. 2006.
WU SHANZHUAN, INGA THORSDOTTIR 30
61 little figurines positioned over a large map of China (800x500cm). Inspired by children's toys and the popular chocolate, Kinder Surprise, Shen has created an endearing installation with much deeper social relevance. A large chocolate egg stands at the back with its top cracked open: this symbolises birth. The chocolate melts away onto the black soil of Chinese land. Little, sweet figurines dressed in typical Chinese costumes, are seen running away from the chocolate egg. This is the artist's analogy for the issue of Chinese immigration. The Dinosaur's Egg: A Kinder Surprise Installation. Fibreglass figures (group of 61. each measuring 45 x 50 x 55cm). 2001.
Seven frozen tongues are suspended from the wall, which gradually melt away. Beneath the tongues are traditional Chinese spittle bowls, which collect the dropping liquid, representing the need to prevent wastage. After some time, menacing knives appear from behind and slowly slice through the now frozen tongues. This rather aggressive performance represents the artist's response to the loss of communication between people, and the difficulties of being immigrants in a foreign land. Wasting one's spittle Installation. Mixed media. 1994.
SHEN YUAN
PENG HUNGCHI
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Diminutive god statues became very popular during the gambling craze in Taiwan during the 1980s. These statuettes were believed to be able to come up with the winning numbers. After failing to deliver these winning numbers, many of the "gods" were dumped at recycling centers, similar to abandoned dogs being sent to pounds. Thus, in what seems a rather extraordinary reversal of fortune, humankind has taken the liberty to punish the gods, seemingly without fear of retribution. For this work, Peng filled the entire gallery space with 606 statuettes. In a projection on the wall, a dog recounts the tale of the deities’ passing from idolized vessels to abandoned remains, reminding us of the parallel between the god pound and its canine counterpart. God Pound 1300 abandoned statues and a single-channel video “The Chronicle of the Misfortune Deities�. 2006.
Lim expresses his conceptual art through painting, installation and self performance. His work highlights his interest in, and critique of, the dissimilation inherent in the everyday living reality of consumerism. Details about the further adventures Painting. Mixed media on panel. 250 x 350cm. 2009.
LIM H.H.
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YANG JIECHANG
Yang's expansive series of ink works on paper aims to point to the relationship between the material and the immaterial. Deceptively simple, it is impossible to take these works in at once, which is precisely the artist’s intention. Rather, the viewer is forced to move around and in-between the stretched frames with their dense yet reflective ink surfaces. The structure of the paper, infused with medicinal herbs, further impacts upon the effect of the ink, imbuing the surfaces with unexpected patterns that resemble rivers running through mystical terrain. These surfaces eventually give way to shimmering, undulating silvery marks, with an effect similar to that of the special Buddhist genre of black thanka paintings—a connection Yang makes himself with folds resembling the robes of Buddhist monks. 100 layers of ink Ink on paper and gauze. 300x400cm. 1989-90.
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Artist statement - "When I was three years old, my grandfather began to teach me to calligraphy. Very often he was writing on a leaf fan, thereafter he would blacken the fan with the help of a kerosene lamp, then wipe away the traces of ink, so that the originally black characters turned white. I grew up with my grandfather. When I am writing calligraphy today, I too, rarely do it according to the rules. Even though I studied calligraphy for more than thirty years, I do not apply all these strict rules in my work. There is not one brushstroke that is not a mistake, all are wrong, not one is good, which makes them all harmozing in the end. I used this method to write several thousand names; names of people I have met during my life-time, and who left a deep impression in my memory. To write a name, I just need a few seconds; but in this short moment, the most characteristic features of this person - his appearance, his voice and conduct appear in front of my eyes and under my brush." I still remember Ink on paper. 6 panels (300x173cm each). 1998-2006.
Drifting Metropolis. Ink and mineral colours on silk mounted on canvas. 8 panels each 280 x 150cm. 2008/2009. 40
Yang Jiechang
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Artists Name
The fourth work in Yu's new "Wrestling" series, which made its debut in her solo exhibition "Golden Horizon" at Shanghai Art Museum in 2011, this large composition draws inspiration from both classical Chinese painting and Western art, in particular the form and composition of Catholic altarpieces. All the figures are carefully rendered in colourful detail, depicting each individual's spirit and strength. The "Wrestling" series represents a snapshot of everyday experiences, with a focus on exploring how the younger generation maintains the fine balance between tradition, family values, career and social expectations. With the gold-foiled canvas as a backdrop, Yu has elevated the ordinary into the sublime. Wrestling 4 Painting. Gold and acrylic on canvas. 250 x 300cm. 2011.
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Artists Name
Central Park No. 10 Painting. Oil on canvas (2 parts). 195 x 350cm. 2013
"Zhao started his ""Central Park"" series in 2011, inspired by his fond memories of the park's natural wilderness amidst the urban life of New York City. At first glance, the haunting landscape appears out of focus, reminiscent of the early stages in photography where the captured image could just as easily fade away. However a closer look reveals the intricate details that have been carefully defined with fine, feather-like brushstrokes. “Lines have characteristic of freedom and energy, and at the same time require thoughts and compositions. I like pure lines and the relationship they have with each other.� Zhao Xuebing"
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Zhao Xuebing
For this video installation, Xue uses a highspeed camera to capture the dynamic details of real bamboo under various manmade environments. Through the contradiction of real and fake, abstract and concrete, the video explores the inner and outer world of human beings. This large-scaled video installation epitomises the artist's aesthetic style and creative inclination. To portray nature in the mind of an artist in an exquisite and vivid manner, not only matches with Chinese’s
literati’s tradition of “depicting things”, but also expresses the common concerns of contemporary art. The materials for the video clips were all drawn from real life, and they morphed into a bamboo forest from the artist's mind. Through the contradiction of real and fake, concrete and abstract, the video triggers the thinking about the outer and inner world of human beings. Bamboo Installation. Seven screen video installation. 2013
XUE SONG
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Artists Name
This work is allegorical in its reference to historical events, which gradually leads into recent post ‘9/11’ events thinly masked as a fantastic tale. Looking at a distance into today’s world relieves the viewer from claustrophobic identification, and sets him adrift in the strange universe of contemporary life. Qiu seems to suggest that very few advantages have been gained by populating the world with all the monsters we have created. The New Book of Mountains and Seas Video. 26mins. 2006.
QIU ANXIONG
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"Black-and-white film shows a tormented Chinese history in a succession of bare landscapes, snow-capped mountains, dark cityscapes, a single beautiful girl playing the banjo by the water, a sick man and surging masses. Portentous clouds fill the screen, the landscapes flow out and we see more and more images of war and decline. Where have the good times gone?" - Qiu Anxiong Minguo Landscape Video with ink animation. 14'33". 4:3. 2007
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Qiu Anxiong
Exhibited in one of the collateral events at the 54th Venice Biennale, this installation consists of 6 black and white video projections. Each video depicts a portrait that changes regularly at a fast pace, its features morphing into different persons, animals and symbols. The premise for this work is that there are many hidden facets behind each face and each person. Everyone has a dark side, a “beast� side, and his life is built layer by layer through his own personal and different experiences. Cover and Clean Installation. Multimedia. 2011.
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Qiu Anxiong
SUN XUN
Comprising 150 small paintings and drawings on old newspapers and books, Sun's extensive series is an intimate look at time, narration, and history. Clocks and pendulums, drawn in the style of Dali and other Surrealists, appear on old magazines such as People's Liberation Army Pictorial or the Xinhua Daily, which were once the only publications that were freely available to the public. But how would today's audience view them now? The Shock of Time Installation. Multimedia. 300 x 600cm. 2006.
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Sun Xun
The installation work of “21G” was originally a part of site-specific exhibition of “21G” animation. It is a mechanical animation installation, which makes use of stroboscopic light and small pieces of sculptures, producing a number of animation clips through the rotation of gears. The original choice of wood is pomegranate which is now extremely rare. Thus, this project remains to be drawings, and has become only a work of imagination. 21G Painting, drawing, chalk, charcoal, pencil on canvas. 216x195cm. 2007.
"Some Actions Which Haven’t Been Defined Yet In The Revolution" Mixed media. Single-channel video (12 min. 22 sec), Wood Printing Block (14 pieces). 2011
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Sun Xun
According to the artist, this work can be likened to a Taoist temple - the water buffalo has long been associated with Lao Tzu, a legendary Chinese sage who was also the founder of Taoism. "Un immigrant sans papier" was the result of a group exhibition tour to Kunstvereniging Diepenheim in the Netherlands. Like many small European towns, there were no immigrants in Diepenheim and the town appeared insulated from the outside world. Similar to many of Huang's works, this piece is a comment on the loss of identity and an individual voice as a result of globalisation.
Un immigrant sans papiers Installation. mixed media. 2005.
HUANG YONG-PING
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First exhibited to wide acclaim at the Saatchi Gallery in 2008, "Angel" is a life-size sculpture of what appears to be an angel, lying face-down on the exhibition room floor. The figure appears oddly human, and exhibits none of the ethereal, pure qualities of the "angels" of popular imagination. Instead he has a blunt, crude materiality. He is old, with weathered features and sunken muscles. His white mane falls loose and unkempt. His supple diaphanous robe has collected above his knees, presumably from a fall, revealing an unflattering view of his spindly legs. Oddly protruding from his gown are his 'wings', which more closely resemble large de-feathered chicken wings. Sun and Peng's works have always begged questions of mortality. Here their beguiling humour masks this continued interest while potentially raising even wider philosophical questions. Angel Life-sized sculpture in fibre-reinforced polymer and silica gel. Cage size 800x400cm. 2008.
SUN YUAN & PENG YU
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Reminiscent of the 1920s-30s sculptures of German artist, Ernst Barlach, Wang's wooden sculptures are instantly recognisable. Made of large logs of wood, the surface may be smooth and highly polished or showing some cracks, the colour may be a warm brown, close to black or nearly blue. Whether the works mean to represent one figure or two or a head only, they are always highly stylised and readily accessible to the viewer. Couple Sculpture. Wood. 52 x 25 x 31cm. 1997.
WANG KEPING
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To make "12 Square Meters", Zhang spread on his body a visceral liquid of fish and honey to attract the flies in the public restroom in the village. He sat on the toilet, almost immobile, for an hour. Eventually, his body was covered with flies. As with the rest of Zhang's works, this "performance" also relates to the individual and to society, to human tenacity and to human vulnerability, to the conceptual reduction of beings into nothingness and to the complex relationships interwoven between what we are and the awareness of what we are. "I prefer to put my body in physical conditions that ordinary people have not experienced. It is only in such conditions that I am able to experience the relationship between the body and the spirit".- Zhang 12 Square Metres C-print. 152.4x101.6cm. 1994.
Fifteen photographs of identical size, each showing a close-up of Zhang, whose face is covered with soap foam while a small photo peers through his open mouth. Although well known for his range of artistic practices, many of Zhang's works are in fact composites. "Foam" drives this approach further by actively deceiving the viewer. What looks like the documentation of a performance was in fact especially staged for the series of photos. Zhang holds on to his method of captivating his audience through a sense of discomfort. The foam on his face is open to a range of unpleasant inferences, while the photos of his family in his mouth could be interpreted as devouring his history, just as the soap may be washing away his past. Foam (right) C-print. 15 works (152.4x101.6cm each). 1998.
ZHANG HUAN 70
Artists Name
This work consists of a six-meter-tall seated skeleton of a Buddha. The figure has a tailbone and is holding a one-meter-high stone figure of Zhang. The rib cage of the Buddha is made of pear tree, which Zhang had found in Shandong, and together with local farmers, he'd cut and dried the wood to be used for the sculpture. The whole process took over nine months. The premise for this work is the traditional faith in the Big Buddha people visit temples to pray and make wishes in front of Buddha sculptures. Here, Zhang is questioning this deepseated faith - is the Big Buddha still helping people? Of equal significance is the choice of materials. For the body of himself, Zhang chose stone, which is a dead material. For the skeleton of Buddha, Zhang has chosen a living material, a tree. Big Buddha (right) Wood, steel, stone. 590x400x300cm. 2002.
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Zhang Huan
When discussing his works, Zhang often quotes the passage of "Samsara": "Buddha is human, human is Buddha". This work is one of several paintings and sculptures that Zhang created in Shanghai, made from the ash of burnt offerings and incense collected from a nearby Buddhist temple, which are then sorted according to colour and grain consistency. Like all of Zhang's works, the choice of ash as a material is significant: while tradition dictates that ash be buried or scattered into lakes, contemporary society considers ash as a pollutant. As a result, ash is treated as rubbish. Samsara Incense ash on canvas. 400x250cm. 2007.
"The body is a proof of identity and also a kind of language." In a performance reminiscent of Josef Beuys at the Hamburg Kunstverein, Zhang covered his entire body in honey, then sprinkled on sunflower seeds. He then entered a cage that he'd designed using wood and chicken-wire, and in which two wooden crates were stacked in front of a leafless maple tree. Once inside, 28 doves were let in slowly, some settling on the artist's body. To the sound of music by Wang Guotong, a contemporary Chinese composer whose compositions blend Asiatic and classical Western traditions, the audience witnessed an act as simple as it was symbolic- when all the doves were in the cage, the artist released one of them. The message is one of hope - that the sunflower seeds might one day sprout into plants - a promising thought that suggests hope throughout all cultures. Seeds of Hamburg C-print. 12 works (152.4x127cm each). 2002.
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Artists Name Zhang Huan
For "Peace 1", Zhang created a large bronze bell based on Tibetan temple models and inscribed it with the names of eight generations of his ancestors. Beside it, a large and detailed cast of his own body is suspended horizontally. The figure of the artist, which was cast directly from his body, has an intimate realism that includes goose bumps, fine lines and raised veins from the artist's clenched fist. Without the viewer's intervention, the surrogate hangs statically, a hand's length from the bell. But pushing the figure by the side or feet, however, the viewer changes from audience to participant, from spectator to accomplice. As the bell sounds and continues to resonate, "Peace" comes to life, radiating low tones and, through them, strata of the artist's history. This work tells Zhang Huan's story and gestures towards that of the immigrant and the artist at large. Peace 1 Sculpture. 335.3x365.7x243.8cm. 2001.
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Zhang Huan
It's awe-inspiring to wander among this huge installation of oversized figures of blue-haired women in very short skirts. Every one of them strikes the same, slightly uncomfortable pose - half kneeling and half gyrating. Their long legs end in heavy black shoes, which disappear into the floor. Modelled on images from an internet porn site, these figures were meant to be subjugated to the viewer's leering gaze. Here, the oversized female figures clearly dominate over the viewer. This act of a re-orienting an original gaze-intention is a good illustration of Wang's artistic practice. Wang refers to his work as threedimensional images rather than sculptures. He is not interested in dealing with specific discourses. The overarching theme of his work is the global situation of a thorough information and media overload, where no society in the world is safe from the political and social impact of mass-media. Enter Sculpture. Plastic. 260 x 170cm. 2004.
WANG DU
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TSAI CHARWEI
"My interest in Buddhism is intertwined with my practice in art. For me, art and spirituality are inseparable. Through art, I am able to reach a purer state of consciousness that I cannot do through the chaos of daily life. However, I do not consider myself religious as my appreciation of the religion is merely based on a philosophical approach…. In any case, my exposure to Buddhism and to contemporary art in New York around that time led me to start the ‘Mantra’ series." - Charwei Tsai
Mushroom Mantra Mixed media. Black ink on fresh mushrooms. 2005
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Artists Name
The deconstruction of meaning generating structures, such as the Chinese script and language, Chinese traditional culture or the legacy of the Chinese revolution was the main subject of the Chinese avant-garde of the mid-1980s. Once the culture at hand was freed from redundancy it was ready for appropriation and reinterpretation.
Floating across a washed, grey picture surface that vaguely resembles a traditional Chinese landscape painting are no more than eight Chinese characters. Despite their relatively large scale and proper calligraphic brushstrokes, the characters are themselves meaningless and unintelligible. "Deformed Characters" is the fourth painting of Gu's "Pseudo-Character Series" (1984-86); in deconstructing these familiar characters, Gu strives to empty them of any meaning, distancing the viewers from their comfort zone. Taking into account the significance and sanctity of the visual language to China's ruling elite, Gu's work invites independent thinking, which is in turn a serious challenge to the dominant power. Mythos Of Lost Dynasties - Tranquillity Comes From Meditation, No. 4: Deconstruction Of Words Splash ink calligraphic painting. wenda gu studio, zhejiang academy of arts, hangzhou, china 1984-1987. Ink on rice paper, silk boarder mounting. 280 X 178cm.
GU WENDA 84
ZHENG CHONGBIN
Based on a unique visual language of only black and white, Zheng's ink painting has been able to capture the essence and deeper meaning of what colour can express. With every element reduced to the simplest tones, the most profound ideas of humanity and the loftiest, darkest aspects of nature can be experienced. Stained No.1 Ink, acrylic. Wash on paper. 369 x 290cm. 2009.
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CHEN WENBO
Since 2000, Chen has moved away from his figurative works of the 1990s to landscape pictures and objects of everyday urban life. In sharp contrast to elaborate architectural masterpieces, Chen has chosen to depict practical, anonymous structures such as passages, tunnels and bridges. In this painting, Chen depicts a thoroughfare from the highway to the airport, which passes through Siyuanqiao, an area notorious for its countless garages and counterfeit spare parts stores. Chen's typical smooth technique, the absence of brush marks and cool atmosphere reflect the facelessness of new urbanism in China. It represents a comment on the artificiality and anonymity of the metropolis and forced modernism. The unnatural reflections of light hint at the artificiality all around us. The monochromatic palette across a vast canvas leaves the viewer with a strong sense of despondency and isolation. No. 88 Painting. Oil on canvas. 440 x 280cm. 2003.
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Part of his latest series of large cityscapes, Liu has painted a truly futuristic metropolis. As the title suggests, this work shows a city enveloped in a purple glow, possibly hinting at the pollution that hangs over our cities. Here, Liu has woven an ageold Chinese Tao myth of origins, where the phrase “purple air� was used to describe the energy/life force that opened up the universe. In his expansive panoramas of congested building clusters, one finds gigantic structures resembling space ships: designed ready to launch. Some so enormous that they are cut-off at mid-point – towering into the stratosphere. The shapes of these megalopolises are like supermarket bar codes, suggesting that cities could be scanned like any commercial product. Liu's work begs the questions: where do we come from, where we are now and where we are going.
Purple Air Painting. Oil on canvas. 300 x 540cm. 2006.
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Untitled Books, crate, steel. 85 x 107 x 200cm. 2011.
Light Year Oil on canvas. 160 x 750 cm. 2006
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Liu Wei
Liu began working in the three-dimensional around 2006 and Capacity II is one of the best examples of his works during this period. Five oversized pill capsules in a stainless steel casing, variously filled with miniature toys in the form of fighter jets, tanks, astronauts, rockets and female manga figurines. Liu's use of cheap plastic toys (all products of China's low-end manufacturing industry), combined with his characteristic wit and visual playfulness, acts as a critcial commentary on the country's consumerism and insatiable appetite for power. Capacity II Mixed media. 132 x 314 x 34.5cm. 2006
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Liu Wei
Part of Shi's third large scale project, "Mount Everest", this work captures the haunting wonder of the world's tallest mountain. From a technical perspective, this series presented Shi with the greatest difficulties, requiring numerous trips up the mountain to pick the perfect position. The final result was a series of works that captured the complete harmony and infinite power of nature. Himalayas Everest 8844.43M Nov.20.2005 Photography. Silver gelatin print. 400 x 129cm. 2005.
SHI GUORUI
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"I am making use of the symbol for love, using colors and composition to give free rein to the energy of this symbol. I believe that emotions are powerful and that art is formidable. I will continue to duplicate this symbol for love because love is what society lacks the most these days." - Ai Jing Gold in Love Painting. Acrylic on canvas. 120 x 120cm. 2008
AI JING
NOV 2012 “I LOVE AIJING: AI JING COMPOSITE EXHIBITION”, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF CHINA, BEIJING
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TANG SONG
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"A visual Chinese epic poem" Tang's latest series of large-scaled abstract works has been five years in the making, and pays homage to Hans van Dijk, the renowned Dutch art historian and curator, who had a profound influence on Chinese contemporary artists from the late 1980s and 1990s. It was van Dijk who introduced the concept that art should be ""real"", rather than a mere representation of a reality outside of art itself. 1989631 is a prime example of van Dijk's teachings - built up with repetitive monochrome lines, the work references classical Chinese ink painting, modern abstraction and action painting. The work is a dramatic manifestation of a process." 1989631 Painting. Mixed media on canvas. 250 x 600cm. 2013. Shooting Incident (Below)
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Tang Song
Qiu's works are typically filled with multiple images layered with different interpretations, forming a bridge between historical events and present-day occurences. In this series of paintings, every object has an associated meaning, but while playing on these specific associations, Qiu is simultaneously stripping away their intrinsic symbolisms. According to Qiu, "In my mind, coal is raven or raven is butterfly, and butterfly is ink, and ink is coal." A lot of trees to make a piece of coal Mixed Media. Cast paper assemblage. 214 x 168 x 10cm. 2010.
QIU ZHIJIE
Legacy: ghostly manifestation in a new society 108
Artists Name
The Chinese modernity is one intrinsically linked to revolution and to MarxismMaoism; and the imagery and narratives, the legacy of this revolutionary modernity, constitute an important cultural pool from which Chinese artists of all generations draw inspiration until today. Its manifestations persist in the culture of the post-revolutionary and post-modern China.
"Sometimes, I enjoy the excitement brought about by a matter of fortuity. 2006 is the year of the Dog in China. I happened to see some images of Cao Fei's work where men were dressed up as dogs, behaving stupidly docile. Sotheby's also organized the biggest Chinese contemporary art auction ever. These few events collided I combined them in one painting and called it New York, Dog Year." Yan Lei
Looking at the subject matter, it would be fair to assume that Yan's painting is yet another critique of China's social changes in recent years. Instead, Yan has re-worked the well-known painting "Divert Water from the Milky Way Down" (1973-4) by Sun Guoqi and Zhang Hongzhan, to illustrate the potential variations of artistic creation. The near psychedelic palette is a characteristic of Yan’s paintings. Part of the "Super Light" series, these works are inspired by a brand of nicotine-reduced cigarettes, and denotes the artist’s practice of borrowing other artists' works and “making them lighter through re-working”.
Super Lights - Dog Year New York (Left) Painting. Oil on canvas in two parts. 200 x 267cm. 2006
Divert water the Milky Way down Painting. Acrylic on canvas. 199 x 359cm. 2005.
YAN LEI
WANG XINGWEI
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The composition of this work clearly recalls Cheng Conglin's "A Snowy Day in 1968", a now iconic work from the "Scar Painting" movement (1979-82), which aspired to turn the then-popular Socialist Realist style back onto itself, highlighting the destruction left by the previous decades. The "No U-turn" signs that are strategically placed around the picture plane refer to the ground-breaking exhibition, "Create History: Commemoration Exhibition of Chinese Modern Art in 1980s" held at the National Gallery. At the time, the "No U-turn" sign represented a symbol of the new China trying to burst out from the old one. There was no turning back, as the sign implied. Untitled Painting. Acrylic on photos. 400 x 400cm. 2006.
Games feature prominently in Li's work and ping pong is one of his recurring themes. As the most popular sports in China, it is also a metaphor for international politics, especially in the case of Chinese and American political relationships. In this particular work, the viewer is confronted with two figures of Mao one figure is from the early days before the founding of People's Republic of China, and the other after it. Mao in these two periods is clearly very different people. They are playing a game of ping pong and the scene unfolds as a live show on TV. By juxtaposing two similar subject matters in mismatched chronology, Li has succeeded in creating a tension and connection between the two. Ping Pong Oil on canvas. Diptych (150x200 each). 2007.
LI QING
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Li sees himself as a director, composing mildly absurd scenes with realistic backgrounds and human figures performing unusual tasks. To Li, a work's subject, title and imagery form an inseparable whole. This is exemplified in "Twang", a work that can only be understood knowing the story behind it. It is about two friends who lived far away from each other and kept in touch by playing the Chinese zither, guqin. The caption reads “Kang Qi come over” “I don’t know”. Kang has been the given name of Xi Kang, a famous musician of the fourth century and author of a long poem on the guqin. The story is also reminiscent of a Chinese historical myth about music and friendship (Yu Boya and Zhong Zhiqi). Unlike Li's other paintings, which are clearly located in the present, "Twang" is timeless. What one sees could happen anytime anywhere. It is a perfect example of the working style of Li, who alludes to legends to communicate his complex semi-real inner world, while at the same time offering the viewer a space of his own within this world. Twang Painting. Oil on canvas. 300 x 480cm. 2003.
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LI DAFANG
"Surface could be interpreted as the community of surface - neither inner, middle, nor behind." - Wang Jianwei
Surface Painting. Oil on canvas; triptych; 162 x 112, 200 x 300, 162 x 112cm. 2012
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Jia wants viewers to step out of their worlds for a moment and to feel the anguish and isolation that engulfs his painted world. This desire accounts for the enormous scale of his paintings, which ultimately draws viewers close to the solitary soul that Jia inserts in the vast landmasses that set the stage for his synoptic psychological dramas. In this work, "Untitled", a forlorn figure stands with his head bowed low in front of a giant propeller, which is partly stripped of its outer casing. This could be read with reference to the cold, social landscape of Shenyang (where Jia lives and works), where most of its local steel plants and heavy industry factories were forced to close during the 1980s and 90s. Set against a cold, grey background reminiscent of an abandoned hangar, the lone "shadow" of a figure, depicted with soft, painterly brushstrokes, appears even more insignificant. Untitled Oil on canvas. 296 x 400cm. 2007/8.
JIA AILI
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After two years of painting and repainting, Jia's five-panel monumental masterpiece is as close to being finished as it'll ever be. Images of industrial debris and lone figures, recalling the global powers' space exploration programmes of the 1980s, capture moments of solitude that are ambiguously filled with regret and hope. His subdued palette of grey and blue hues conveys lonely moments felt at the end of a day or even an era. Indeed, the scene appears to be the aftermath of some disastrous event. As the title implies, this is a work aimed at capturing the understanding of our time through the eyes of a hopeful pioneer ready to explore, or even create, a beginning of a new world, our century. We are from the century Oil on canvas. 600 x 1500cm. 2008.
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February’s Talk Now Painting. Oil on Canvas. 3 panels. 300 x 500 cm.
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Jia Aili
ZENG FANZHI
Although less recognised than his iconic Mask paintings, the "We" series (2002) is perhaps of even greater historical significance, both aesthetically and culturally. This series, of which "We no. 8" is a part, marks a critical turning point in Zeng’s artistic development. Using two or more brushes at once, Zeng simultaneously “creates and yet destroys.” What truly distinguishes this series is its timelessness – the works are very much “of the moment” but at the same time, they exist beyond the present. We no.8 Painting. Oil on canvas. 400 x 400. 2003.
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Unlike previous generations who lost their identity in their fervent worship of Mao, Yin's art is far from reverential. In this work, Mao is depicted as an ailing man, almost drawing his last breath. The expression on his sunken face is one of anguish and pain. The sense of doom resonates from the cold, somewhat luminiscent blue palette. This work could not be further from the vibrant, heroic portrayals of Mao that was widely plastered across propaganda posters. Mao Painting. Oil on canvas. 200 x 250cm. 2007.
YIN ZHAOYANG 128
CAI GUANGBIN The chief purpose of this artwork is to highlight the poor living conditions in China, and the palpable sense of dislocation felt by its people as a result of the country's rapid process of urbanization. Tremendous city crowds have destroyed the old structures of residential distribution which was popular in the 1990's. The process of making a new living in "new China" has created a lot of problems and contradictions. It has also broken the principle of "harmony of man with nature", a philosophy that remains crucial in Chinese cultural values. Tide - Repeat and Strangeness Ink on rice paper. 240 x 170cm. 2002.
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This triptych represents portraits of the artist and her two sisters. According to Chinese culture, a young woman's long hair is associated with life, sexual energy, health and beauty. The image of hair can symbolise intimate feelings and emotions and Zhang's depication of exaggerated scrolls of hair adds a universal theme to this very personal story. The triptych composition and its title clearly references the iconic image of "Three Graces" during the Renaissance period. The eldest sister is shown in the larger centre piece, flanked by the younger twins on either side, reminiscent of the centre position of Chinese emperors in classical paintings. Three Graces Works on paper. Charcoal on paper. 90 x 730cm. 2011.
ZHANG CHUNHONG
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This long handscroll epitomises Li's painting style. Using the traditional medium of Chinese ink on paper, Li's technique is modern and innovative, achieving extremely expressive faces with a minimum amount of lines and colours. He breaks an image down to its minimum; the background is empty and unpainted, leaving just the colour of the paper he paints on. Li doesn't just portray the human form with all its imperfections and blemishes; instead he celebrates them. Garden Works on paper. Ink on paper. 53 x 470cm. 2011.
LI JIN
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In this work, Wang posed a male and a female model in the pose of Russian-style painting (as taught in most art academies) simply to show the provocative spread of education as a business to make money in China. Artist statement - "Children who are less capable of going to universities due to higher grades are given the opportunity to pay a lot of money to go to art schools. So how to make these children pass exams to art schools is a huge industry. This is what I am critical about." MOMA Studio Photography. C Print. 170 x 300cm. 2005.
WANG QINGSONG
Made in the summer of 2005, this triptych required 800 models, 5 trucks, 8 buses, 5 trucks filled with garbage and Wang's team of assistants. The three panels depict different scenarios on the same stretch of dirt road. By giving the viewer three very different scenarios on the same road, Wang raises questions regarding time, history and changes. Historical events come and go, but the only thing that always remains is the chaos and destruction afterwards. Come come come Photography. C print (set of 3). 170 x 200cm. 2005. 136
Every few centuries, an artist is compelled to revisit Gu Hongzhong's ''Night Revels of Han Xizai,'' the 10th-century scroll painting about a disillusioned government official, who turned into a party animal after failing at imperial reform. Now comes Wang's almost 1 km long photomural, ''Night Revels of Lao Li". Here, the figures of Han have been replaced by one of China's most eminent art critics today, Li Xianting, who is well known for championing risque artworks. Wang's story unfolds across five scenes. In Li's final appearance, he gazes sternly at the prostitutes whose tasteless outfits are clearly referencing Gaudy Art, China's version of Pop Art, of which Li was a
keen supporter. Wang, a former member of the very same art movement, has self-referentially cast himself whispering into a mobile phone. Through his multi-layered combination of the classical and the cutting edge, Wang is clearly questioning the role of the intellectual in China from past to the present. Night revels of Lao Li Photography. C Print. 120 x 960cm. 2000.
Wang has regularly produced risque works featuring mass nudity, but "Yaochi Fiesta", staged as an idyllic, "classical" Chinese landscape, is one where he consciously addresses the growing indifference to nudity in China. Here is a mythical scene of paradise, but the scores of nude Chinese figures simply look distressed. With legs crossed, pursed lips, and some with crossed arms, they appear ashamed by what was meant to be a delicious fantasy. This work is another example of the artist's wry approach to chronicling China's rapid cultural and social changes in the face of newfound wealth. 138
Wang Qingsong
Yaochi fiesta Photography. C Print. 127 x 410cm. 2005.
An epic production even by the artist's standards (15 consecutive days), this truly monumental photographic sees Wang's conceptual genius reaching new heights. With his characteristically elaborate visual reshuffling of art historical icons, Wang has recreated a parade of the most celebrated classical sculptures, including "Laocoon and His Sons", "The Winged Victory", Rodin's "Burghers of Calais", a seated Buddha, Degas' ballerina and an assortment of Roman portrait busts, discus throwers and archers. This 42 metre bas-relief work is intended as a satirical commentary on the Chinese public's new-found enthusiasm for masterpieces, regardless of region or period. The idea for this project came to Wang while watching the printing operations in a Beijing digital lab. He became fascinated with the long sheets of paper being churned out from the machines. Recalling Chinese classical handscrolls, Wang decided to create a sweeping panorama of the greatest sculptures of the past centuries.
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Wang Qingsong
The History of Monuments Mixed media. Print, installation and 30-minute documentary video. 125 x 4200cm. 2009.
LI ZHANYANG
This monumental work intertwines two stories - one based on the historical legend of Liu Hulan, a famous Communist party member who was tragically killed at the age of 15; and the other, the factual incident of Li Baozhu, a farmer found guilty of raping a young girl. The story of Liu Hulan has tremendous cultural significance to the Chinese audience and by interweaving it with a contemporary incident, Li is commenting on the changing values in contemporary society. Liu Hulan 2008 Fibreglass installation, unique edition. 500 x 70 x 125cm. 2008
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ZHANG DALI
As part of his "Dialogue with Demolition" series, Zhang spraypainted silhouettes of his head on walls of half-demolished traditional houses in Beijing and hired workers to chip away the bricks within the silhouette so that people could look through the hole at urban architecture-in a sense, “reading his thoughts� regarding the replacement of the old with the new. By applying a "modern" technique such as graffiti onto the ancient walls of Beijing, Zhang is commenting on the cost of modernity to China - destruction of tradition and in turn loss of identity or rebuilding for a better future?
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Demolition: Forbidden City, Beijing Photography. C Print. 159 x 100cm. 1998.
One of Zhu’s main artistic concerns is the plight of the millions of agricultural workers who illegally flock to China’s cities in search of manual jobs. In this performance, Zhu re-enacts the daily routine of a typical labourer who leaves home everyday, dressed in a Mao suit, black leather shoes, and carrying a briefcase. On the back of his jacket is a white cloth label with Chinese characters written in red. The phrase translates to “This person is for sale; please discuss price in person". The work in the dslcollection includes the blue cotton jacket that Zhu wore for the performance’s duration, and the white cloth label framed under glass. Person for sale Fabric sign with acrylic and graphite framed under glass. 95 x 75cm. 2009.
ZHU FADONG
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This work is part of the large-scaled mural created by Liu in collaboration with JR, a world-renowned French street artist. The multilayered art project was executed in several stages, which began with a photograph taken by JR of Liu's eye and fingers. The photo was then enlarged to fit onto a double garage door at 11 Spring Street, New York City. The building itself is significant as the site of a massive street art extravaganza organised by the Wooster Collective in 2006. Liu then used his signature technique to camouflage JR into the mural. JR through the eye of Liu Bolin is the result of this elaborate collaboration between the two artists. LIU BOLIN
JR Through the Eye of Liu Bolin Photography. Edition 7 of 12. 146 x 200cm. 2012
YANG
YONG
The initial impression of Yang’s photograph is one of selfconsciousness - a woman posing in a fictional urban setting. What is interesting is that the work does not suggest a narrative - it is not simply an out-take from a bigger story. It simply shows the relationship between the photographer and the model herself. Like most of Yang's photographs, this is taken in Shenzhen, one of China's Special Economic Zones. The forced nature of this development (an imported population, inorganic growth of an urban infrastructure) has produced the sense of artificiality that underlines Yong’s photographs. The Cruel Diary of the Youth Photography. C Print. 115 x 76cm. 2000.
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Cui is well-known for her unusual focus on the theme of sexuality - a delicate theme that remains taboo in China today. This video is an intimate look behind the scenes of a ladies’ room in an expensive Beijing night-club. What appear to be ordinary girls enjoying an evening out are in fact prostitutes at work. "Like hell in heaven, or heaven in hell." While avoiding any commentary or judgment on the scene, Cui offers a rare insight into a hidden facet of the muchacclaimed China boom. Ladies Room Video. 6' 12". 2000.
CUI XIUWEN
FENG MENGBO
FENG QIANYU
One of China's leading new media artists, Feng has created Q4U, a customized version of Quake 3, the popular Internet game whose plot is simply kill or be killed. Q4U is extensively customized featuring a 3D likeness of the artist holding a video camera in one hand and a plasma rifle in the other. There are three play stations in the gallery and Feng himself in China engages with players from around the world via the Internet throughout the performance. Given the dynamic audio-visual of contemporary video games, Q4U is formally stunning. It is projected over three large screens, each featuring a different point of view.
"Combine the nobleness humanity paintings with the network that is fickleness and eager for quick success and instant benefit to form the tension. And the base for the antinomy and unification among them to go consistent is the rapid change of nowadays humanity environment." - Feng Qianyu
Q4U Interactive video & internet installation. 2005.
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Network Shuimo Multimedia. 210 x 210 x 210cm. 2006.
SONG KUN
‘It's My Life' comprises 365 miniature paintings, with one work executed each day over a year. What makes it interesting is that Song was sometimes lazy – the way we often are when we keep a diary – such that some canvases are left blank or unfinished. The secrets depicted in this visual "diary" are not particularly revealing. What Song has achieved is a delicate weaving of personal revelation, history and fantasy. While drawing on the self, she has also drawn on the momentum of life in Beijing. The ultimate beauty of the work is how seamlessly the artist has blended an inner psychological landscape with the porous, gritty landscape of the Chinese capital. It’s My Life Oil on canvas. 90 works (35x25cm each). 2008.
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Alchemies: body and material
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Beginning from the late 1980s, the body and the interest in material and its transformation became important subjects for the young generation of artists. Performance art and with it, photography and video, documenting the performances, developed into a new and key domain of contemporary Chinese art of the 1990s and beyond. The focus on the alchemy of the body and of material was linked to the search for these other forces, other than political and social, determining the life of the individual.
CHEN CHIEH JEN
"The film is based on the famous 1905 photograph of a man being punished the Manchu way, by being cut into pieces for the crime of murder. His ecstatic expression is attributed to opium, which was administered to prolong the torture. Philosopher Georges Bataille discussed this photo extensively in his book The Tears of Eros and noted the correlations between the beauty of religious eroticism, divine ecstasy and the shocking horror of cruel torture. Chen's cinematic close-ups of the victim's face bring to mind images of blissful euphoria, homoeroticism, and religious crucifixion. Slow motion close-ups of a hand holding a knife, the grim expressions of the crowd of ponytailed bystanders, blood dripping down the crowd's legs and flowing into the ground are eerie, but surprisingly not as violent as what one might expect considering Chen's topic. The film is oddly un-sadistic, even though the content is of death by dismemberment. Interspliced with the staged reenactment of the torture scene are scenes where the camera slowly pans above a crowd of silent women. These women are factory workers in Taoyuan, and due to various tragic events such as occupational hazards or unemployment, they no longer are able to work. Chen links these contemporary women to the 1905 victim. Due to the women's circumstances, which are often beyond their control, they are also suffering a long torture, but without any bliss. Chen came to international prominence with his large computer images of similar torture scenes. However, this film is a departure from those past works. By linking the historical with the contemporary social and economic situation in Taiwan, Chen has created an extremely powerful work that links the past with the present, the fictive with the documentary. He is also specific to the local situation, while remaining universal."
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Lingchi — Echoes of a Historical Photograph Video. black and white video, 25 minutes.
"Memoirs (Me)" is part of a series of largescale photo prints of Sheng's left hand in the palm of which he holds various small images. Using what he calls “found images”, like old family photos, newspaper cut outs, historical images, political or pornographic photos, Sheng creates “image-within-an-image” situations. By reducing the images’ size and presenting them in his un-proportionally large hand, he cuts off their recording function as he once cut off his finger. This act of de-contextualization transforms the images’ original political, cultural or social content, reducing them to their aesthetic and entertaining function. Memoirs (Me) Print. C Print. 150 x 200cm. 2000.
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SHENG QI
RONG RONG Four panels of equal size, grouped in pairs, show a simple scene: a bald man slowly walks into a pond until he vanishes and the only visible sign of his presence are the concentric rings of water that remain. Rong Rong achieved prominence in the 1990s for his gritty depictions of life in the East Village of Beijing. A recurring subject is fellow artist, Zhang Huan. These 4 panels capture Zhang Huan walking into the local pond to clean himself after the now famous performance piece where he sat on a public toilet in Beijing, covered with honey to attract flies. In addition to being an important work for Rong Rong, this piece also raises many questions regarding art, authorship and authenticity. Who owns the creative act? Which is the real creative act: Zhang Huan's performance or the photographic documentary? These questions go to the very heart of contemporary art practices. Untitled (Beijing East Village Series) Photography. Set of four. 45 x 65cm. 1994.
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This triptych is a 2001 copy of a set of photographs documenting a performance that took place 15 August 1994 in Taixing, a remote place in Henan province. Standing on the bridge, Wang poured 25 kg of organic pigment into the canal, creating a 3 km long stream of deep red water. The bridge is of particular significance as it was constructed under primitive conditions during the Cultural Revolution to demonstrate the people’s determination in promoting socialism. Against this background, Wang’s artistic act gains meaning. Obviously red is the colour of socialism and the Cultural Revolution. It also refers to the blood that was spilled during those violent years. Red is also the colour of happiness and wellbeing in Chinese popular culture. Wang’s performance invites the viewer to consider the multiple meanings associated with a blood red muddy stream beneath a bridge that was built by people whose hopes had been sourly disappointed in the very process of their work. Red flag canal Photography. C print (set of 3). 197 x 127cm. 2001.
WANG JIN
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Created for the 6th Shanghai Biennale in 2006, this work consists of 4 traditional Chinese earthenware wine vessels with their typical brown glaze and bulky form hanging suspended from the roof beams of a lofty room, which itself has the appearance of a traditional Jiangnan building. The wine jars are held by thick ropes and contain LCD monitors playing videos. According to the artist, "Story is the way we transform ourselves and how history is left to tell the story. When we tell our story, we temporarily leave our daily life. It was through this work that I have dissociated myself from my daily life as well as my history. As a result, I can examine the past and explore the relationship between past and present, Eros and Death, being and nothing." Story Installation. Video.. 181 x 434cm. 2006.
GAO SHIQIANG As the title implies, "Red" takes the social and cultural implications of the color red. As the scene unfolds, flags representing different territories can be seen aligned by a grey riverbank. As the camera pans to the left, the flags turn red. Following the same slow pan, an interior scene emerges in which red buttons, red books from the Cultural Revolution, and red cigarettes are revealed in a darkened atmosphere, lit only by candlelight. A picture of Mao stands on the table, his face unusually ruddy and red against a green background, echoing the green suit and red armband worn by the protagonist. This color combination repeats itself as the camera takes the viewer along a rock wall that is green and red with mould. As the camera slowly rounds the end of the wall, we see the same picture of Mao, hanging on the outside of a building. The natural phenomenon of the coloration of the rocks is a patina built up over time. This patina serves as a natural indicator of passing time and seasons gone by, alluding to the now historical position of the iconic Mao. 168
Red Video. 50’6�. 2008.
Lu's choice of material is key to this artwork. With a deceptive similarity to crystal or glass, this bed appears fragile and precious. Yet, acrylic is simply plastic, a man-made material that is cheap, practical and hardwearing. It's certainly not known for its aesthetic beauty. By using such an ordinary material to make an antique wedding bed, which is itself a symbol of Chinese cultural history, Lu points to the vulgarity of contemporary consumerism and the continuing backwardness in China. Wedding bed I Installation. Acrylic glass. 250 x 150 x 230cm 2001.
LU HAO
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LIU JIANHUA
Liu’s use of porcelain is strategic, emphasising its contrasting characteristics of purity and fragility. The material also adds to the artist’s commentary on the human cost of capitalist developments and the instability of ordinary life. However, the significance of Liu’s work extends beyond his chosen material. It is the artist’s intricate yet unrestricted representation of his subject matter that encourages viewers to create their own interpretations and narratives. This installation was the result of a visit to Jingdezhen in September 2003. There, Liu witnessed the bulldozing of many beautiful old trees as the city was undergoing a massive urban reconstruction to celebrate its one thousandth birthday. Blocks of cut tree trunks were found everywhere on the streets - a desolate sight that continues to haunt the artist.
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Transformation of memories Installation. Porcelain. 2003.
"Part of his ongoing ""Nature Series"" featuring silkworms, Liang's inspiration for this installation came from watching silkworms dangle down from a roof on their own filaments. “It's a moment when life hangs by a single thread, as those little worms climb with great determination along the filament secreted from their own glands, back up the trembling thread. Milan Kundera's novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being reminded me of the tremendous weight and tremendous lightness life can have. The two are counterposed, antagonistic, but interconvertible.� - Liang Shaoji
LIANG SHAOJI
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Chain: The Unbearable Lightness of Being/Nature Series No.79. Installation. Mixed media. 2003
Lin created her first series of prints in 2006 at the invitation of the Singapore Tyler Print Institute. Lin's characteristic technique of creating gradual changes with a subtle palette of black, grey and white is reflected in this set of prints. Other distinctive features include uneven surfaces resembling scars and winding threads. Although print is typically regarded as a two dimensional art form, she has manipulated the medium to create richly textured works - a testament to her artistic innovation and originality. Seeing Shadows Prints. Silk screen prints. 123 x 347 x 8cm. 2010.
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In some of Lin’s more recent work, she has further pushed the investigation between the pull to modernity and nostalgia for the past. Using technological mediums such as video and photography, Lin intercuts, interlaces and weaves over, under and beside images, using traditional women’s craft techniques. Focus series Works on paper. Cotton thread on printed cotton paper mounted on aluminium. 179 x 150cm. 2002.
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"“All animals, no matter how small, have roughly the same number of bones as the most massive of animals. The complexity and intricacy of the skeleton does not decrease with size.� - Lin Tianmiao Lin's most recent series, The Same, explores the concept of equality things may look the same from a distance but as you get closer, everything could be different. Against a cavernous monochromatic setting, hundreds of objects in various shapes and sizes (eg. miniature tools, animal skeletons and bones), hand-painted in bright colours, are grafted together with silk threads to create a visually stunning new world. The Very Same is a celebration of gold, the universal symbol for wealth and opulence. But the dazzling splendour goes far beyond visual stimulation - on the contrary, it is a provocative display of the underlying human fragility in modern-day life." The very same Installation. Synthetic skeletons, animal skeletons and gold leaf. 1,500 pieces. 2011
A monumental work in size and subject matter, Superstition is characteristic of Gao's sardonic manipulation of iconic imagery and classical forms. As a symbol of Western architectural and cultural achievements, few can rival the Parthenon; yet here the grand structure stands merely as an etching within a large foam wall, itself a modern creation of little value. With his usual dark humour, the artist reminds the viewer of today's shifting political and economic powers. And more importantly, he questions the veracity of collectively accepted truths that a time-honoured icon such as the Parthenon is important and powerful because we have been told it is.
Superstition Mixed media. Foamboard relief. 420 x 900cm. 2011.
Arc de Triomphe 300 x 240 x 30cm. 2013
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GAO WEIGANG
"Reading and learning are usually beneficial, but also a form of control, like a drug. In Chinese, reading and drugs is same pronunciation." Gao Weigang Poison (Left) Installation. Acrylic paint on books, paper, wood. 230 x 208 x 33cm. 2008 Vice (Below) Installation. Acrylic paint on canvas and mirror. 350 x 1200cm. 2012 Superstructure (Right) Installation. Stainless steel, titanium. 175 x 120 x 12cm. 2010
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Gao Weigang
Comprising 50 pieces, this work is bound together by interlocking steplike forms, suspended at various heights and angles, literally stretching across the majority of the gallery. Held in place by thin metal wires which possess a threatening precariousness as if Gao is playing with contrasts of heft and weightlessness, the imposing presence of unexpected symmetry transforms an arduous process into visual poetry. Biding their time, the intricate modular structures have effectively colonized the main areas of the gallery – if not just yet the sky. In these long undulating swathes of mirrored stainless steel, punctuated by the diffusion of its golden hue, Gao has extended one of his signature motifs, the stair, as a point of reference, not only by alluding to the exhibition title but also by exploiting the dialectical relationship between opacity and transparency. 188
Gao Weigang
NO WAY! 50 stairs, stainless steel, titanium. 2013.
2 CANTONESE CONNECTION
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Artists Name
Loosely grouped as “The Cantonese Connection”, this section focuses on contemporary artists living and working in China’s Guangdong Province.
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Artists Name
Big Tail Elephant Working Group is an artist group from Guangzhou consisting of Lin Yilin, Chen Shaoxiong, Liang Juhui and Xu Tan. Although each member has developed his own artistic style and focuses on different concerns, all of them draw their inspiration from Guangzhou, one of the earliest cities in China to undergo the dramatic economic reforms brought about by Deng Xiaoping's Open Door policy. The core theme of their artistic projects revolves around the cultural, intellectual, social and political rifts in urbanised China. The Big Tail Elephants often directly intervened in the urban environment as a kind of guerrilla warfare, creating through their interventions an aesthetic and conceptual distance with the urban environment and everyday life. Their interventions unmask the often absurd and risky conditions of the rapid change of Chinese society. The Group was particularly active between 1991 and 2003, with almost annual exhibitions in the form of performances and large-scale installations. They were also included in the Venice Biennale in 2003.
Viewed from a distance, the installation looks like a Babylon tower. A closer look shows that the little windows are in fact small video screens and that a similar installation is repeated inside the construction. The Babylon tower metaphor offers various approaches to the understanding of Liang's installation. Today China is one of the countries with the highest number of skyscrapers worldwide. While highrise buildings have drastically changed the cityscape, digital media have similarly altered the living habits of its population, with mobile phones, DVD-players and the Internet now an inseparable part of life. Furthermore, people from all over China and the world have flooded into the major cities - foreigners, local professionals, and migrant labourers. This stockpot of latent civil unrest, architectural developments, linguistic alterations and globalisation is forced within a teetering construction of wood and electronic equipment. City Installation. Mixed Media. 800cm. 2003.
LIANG JUHUI
Entering the project Installation. Wood board, mirrors, pictures. 105 x 360 cm
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Liang’s “One Hour Game” is intended to disrupt the normal process of vertical urban expansion. In an elevator of a skyscraper being constructed in Guangzhou’s new town, he sets up a video game and plays the game for an hour while the elevator continues to move up and down, carrying workers to work. The usual path of construction is hence disturbed. What is more interesting is that, here, there is a detournement of the metaphoric significance of the elevator through the intervention of the game. The elevator has become more like a sight-seeing elevator in an amusement park than a serious construction tool. One Hour Game Installation. Video. 1996.
The "wall" has always been a central part of Lin's work. This installation, made of steel bars and bricks, highlight the impenetrability of sight and movement created by buildings a reference to the overdevelopment in Chinese cities. The raw bricks and steel bars are hardly "ideal residences" as the work's title suggests. More appropriately, they serve as barriers: the question is whether they create security or simply restriction. Standard series of ideal residences Installation. Mixed media. 1991.
LIN YILIN
Biennale.com 2002 (previous page and above) C-print. 280x400cm
XU TAN
This work reflects on the rapid social changes in southern China during the 1990s. The toy cars zooming past at different speeds and directions refer to the social upheavals at the time. The backdrop to these speeding toy cars is a Song Dynasty painting, which again raises the question of Chinese historical values and the cultural contexts behind today's consumerism. Together with its accompanying piece, "Uniform Velocity, Variant Velocity 1", which included food and other everyday objects, Xu continues to address the issue of contemporary materialism in modern China. Uniform velocity, variant velocity 2 Installation. Mixed Media. 1992.
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Uniform Velocity, Variant Velocity 2 Guangzhou, China Installation (toy car run on a board which painted Chinese ancient (Song dynasty) painting and hand writing). 1992.
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Collectivity memory - Shanghai, the Bund Ink on paper. 170 x 300cm. 2006.
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CHEN SHAOXIONG
Urban lives leave different memories for individuals, not only for local citizens, but also for foreign visitors. The emergence of cities symbolises national power and economic growth which is itself part of a collective creation. The thousands of thumb prints on this work represent such a collective memory. Chen's painting technique (using fingerprints to emulate digital photography) is almost pixel-like, symbolising the meshing of people's lives and the landscape.
This video work was filmed at Red Ant Bar in the southern city of Guangzhou in 1993. Originally intended as a 5-hour video, the session was cut short by police after only 2.5 hours. All of Chen's works between 1991 and 1993 are titled after units of time. The concept behind these works was to temporarily remove the concept of reality and the passage of time. For Chen, the artwork represents his quest into the definition of art. 5 hours Installation. Photographs, video and documentation. 1998
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Chen Shaoxiong
4 Shanghai Style new bohemian vision and the imaginary This section focuses on contemporary artists from Shanghai, a region that, over the past decade, has become the hub for abstract painting and new media, often expressing a kind of new bohemian narrative.
SHANGHAI STYLE
As one of China’s earliest and most developed port cities as well as its colonial history, Shanghai has always been an outward-looking and internationallyoriented city. It is hardly surprising that early Twentieth Century China’s first art institute, first instance of life drawing, first modern art society, and even the first national art exhibition all took place in this vibrant metropolis. The first awakening of the abstract art movement following the Cultural Revolution began in the 1980s, with the exhibition “Experimental Exhibition of 83 Phases of Painting” at Fudan University marking the first successful recognition of Shanghai’s abstract artists. Considered the golden age in Shanghai’s burgeoning art scene, a large number of young and middle-aged artists bravely broke away from realism to engage in abstract experimentation. The representative figures of this early abstract art movement include Yu Youhan, Li Shan, Chen Zhen, Zhang Jianjun and Qiu Deshu. Among the 14 artists invited for the first time to the Venice Biennale in 1993, there was only one abstract artist, Ding Yi, who is also our collection’s first ever acquisition. That same year, his abstract work was also exhibited at “Chinese Avant-Garde Art” hosted by Berlin’s House of World Culture as well as the First Asia-Pacific Triennial in Brisbane. In the 1990s, Shanghai artists became forerunners in the field of new media, video art, photography and interactive video installations. Yang Fudong, Yang Zhenzhong, Xu Zhen, Hu Jieming and Jin Jiangbo are among the most successful and progressive in this domain. The 1990s saw further emergence of a truly particular “Shanghai style”. The distinctive qualities of inner restraint, lucidity, delicacy, detachment and elegance found in Shanghai abstract art are also present in new media works. This style embodies the cultural connotations and fashionable sensibilities of this metropolis, in which the new classes of "white collar" workers and urban bourgeoisie constitute an important part of the population.
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DING YI Viewed from a distance, the surface of the painting appears plain yellow. It is only up close that one detects a regular pattern of small X's. Ding started to use the X while searching for ways to free himself from the burden of cultural meaning, which had been so prominent in classical Chinese painting and later, in socialist art. Though fascinated by tradition, he could not accept an art consciously made for a social elite, explicitly excluding the rest of the population. His solution is to concentrate on the pure act of seeing, regardless of the viewer’s cultural or educational background. Choosing the universal shape of the X serves his intent to be visually intelligible beyond national and cultural boundaries. Over the years, Ding's artistic language has evolved from the very strict geometric designs in mute colours to images that are enriched with colour and ever more complex patterns. However, one thing always stays the same - the X. Appearances of crosses (triptych) Acrylic on tartan. 3 works (260 x 140cm each). 2001.
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Details of appearance of crosses.
The First Intellectual (right) Ink on paper. 170 x 300cm. 2006.
Filmed over five years from 1997 to 2002, Yang's first black and white movie tells the story of Zhuzi, a young intellectual, who has consulted countless doctors over his "illness". Without any physical symptoms pointing to a definitive diagnosis, one is led to assume that the character's illness is far more deep-seated and psychologically driven. A central theme of Yang's work is the urban intellectual's psyche, the generation who is old enough to remember life before the re-opening of China's economy, while spending their formative years in a modernising China. For many, these rapid changes left them feeling estranged from society. The unclear symptoms of Zhuzi refer to this disrupted inner balance - the constant pressure to adapt, which in turn causes a restless dissatisfaction that finally results in an intense but silent psychological drama. An Estranged Paradise (far right) Video DVD. 76 minutes. 2002.
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YANG FUDONG
An earlier work of Yang, this photographic triptych shows an urban intellectual. The viewer sees an injured man in a business suit, threatening to throw a brick, but his target is unclear. The man is in fact alone on an empty street, which amplifies his sense of restless futility. According to Yan, "the First Intellectual is the expression of a psychological condition of confusion as a result of materialism and the situation of the individual in a big city. It is about somebody who gets hurt, but he does not know where the injury comes from." Yan's later works continue to document this social "disease" which has plagued the Chinese intellectual society since the economic reforms.
YANG ZHENZHONG
The proud father, the caring mother and a flock of well bred siblings. Quite an ordinary family photograph, were it not for the fact that they are all chickens - in fact a huge extended chicken-family portrait, neatly lined up for the camera. This work is an excellent example of the light-hearted work characteristic of Yang. The last of the "Lucky Family" series, this work shows the ironic image of an extended Chinese family, with its supreme patriach, matriach and countless offsprings. Yang's reference to "lucky" is a satirical comment on China's longstanding problem of family politics. Lucky Family 4 Photography. C Print. 120 x 200cm. 1995.
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Unlike other video artists, Yang's works are more akin to the styles of Fluxus and performance art. In this work, a male figure’s movements appear in 12 different orientations on 12 monitors. In some of the images, this movement is defined by the blurring of light and the play of shadow on the moving figure. The notion of contradiction occurs here between the figure’s speech and action—each figure moves and, at the same time, utters, “Don’t move.” What is fascinating about this incongruity is that each figure, with eyes closed, appears to speak to himself rather than to the viewer; his utterance resembles self-talk. When the 12 monitors show close-up views of the performers’ heads moving in different orientations, each image against its dark background creates a ghostly effect. The result is an intense, melodramatic eeriness for the viewer. Don’t Move Installation. 12 Video screens. 2006.
What looks like a broken toy, turns out to be a carefully executed painting of a man in an old-fashioned railway uniform, standing on a trolley rail, whose wheels are almost a figment of our imagination - they are pencil sketchings. Pasted around the canvas background are various newspaper and film cuttings, the whole picture is crowned by the slogan "Dianying jiushi nian", which translates to "90 years of cinema". This work was created at a transitional period of Zhou's career when his focus shifted away from exploring domestic issues to the more pressing problems with the globalised art world. 90 years of Chinese cinema Gouache and paper collage on canvas. 245 x 270cm. 1996.
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ZHOU TIEHAI
A camel wearing cool sunglasses, dressed in a bright red coloured 18th century formal costume, complete with medals and sword, nonchalantly leaning against a pillar. Yet, the architectural structure in the background is curiously reminiscent of the balustrades at Tiananmen Square, where Mao had proclaimed the founding of the PRC in 1949. The character of "Joe Camel" was created at a time in the early 1990s when Zhou had yet to become an auction favourite. The Camel's name consitutes a double-entendre: "Joe" is very close to the Chinese pronounciation of "Zhou" and it is a clearly American-sounding name. Over the years, the character of Joe Camel has re-appeared in various guises in Zhou's oeuvre. The Dense Cloud Dark Works on paper. Gouache aon canvas. 307 x 520cm. 2000.
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Zhou Tiehai
The proud lion of San Marco with a halo around his head, his paw resting on an open codex with the sentence "CALUM CONANS COMESSE LEO IESE NULLO ALATERE DEVORARE POTEST". Quite unexpectedly, the entire scene is painted beautifully on a surface made of old newspapers, turning the work into a mixed media collage. Throughout Zhou's artistic career, a key preoccupation has been the hierarchical ranking within the international art scene - despite their centuries-old cultural heritage, Chinese artists are typically labelled as "emerging" or "developing". Defying the establishment, Zhou has always avoided presenting himself as a Chinese artist; instead he's adopted the visual language of Western art, as evidenced by his alter ego, Joe Camel. This present work is another manifestation of Zhou's preoccupation. The lion wants to eat the sky, but he doesn't know how to swallow it. Works on paper. Gouache and collage on canvas. 307 x 520cm. 2000. 274
Zhou Tiehai
XU ZHEN
Known for his humorous commentary, the irony of this work's title ("Comfortable") cannot be lost on its audience. Mini buses form the arteries of China's transport system, connecting villages and towns. The tri-coloured plastic bags carry personal belongings of the workers who commute across the country for work; workers who are not privileged enough to enjoy the fast life of China's newly developed, glamorous cities. The washing machine is a symbol for people's private daily lives. By dragging it out into the open, Xu is commenting on the social discrepancies in China's economic growth - the fortunate and the less fortunate. Comfortable Bus. 500 x 250 x 250cm. 2007.
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As a social commentary on the rapid modernisation of China and the resulting loss of traditional values, this series of photographic works document the underworld of Shanghai’s nightlife with blurred, almost faded images of Karaoke bars and nightlife in general. Each of the pictures is constructed of texts from virtual conversations taken from the Internet, and they are sometimes incredibly explicit in their pornographic content. Super Absorbent Photography. Set of 6. 100 x 117cm. 2006.
Using a hidden camera, “Shouting” is a multi-channel video installation with footage of 40 sites around Shanghai, capturing the moment when unsuspecting pedestrians on busy streets are suddenly disrupted by a loud scream. The work explores the instinctive and universal human response to the unexpected; the work was positioned at the entrance of the China Pavillion, which also acts as an “awakening”. Shouting Video installation. 8 channel video synchonised. 2005.
At the Venice Biennale.
Spread B-029 Collage. 500 x 300 cm. 2010.
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MADE IN
Launched in 2009, "Spread" is an independent art program developed by MadeIn. The principle of this project is to use cartoons from around the world to create new collages. In this work, references to current social events are explicit but their gravity is downplayed by the work's cartoon qualities: multiple parodies of "Superman", a truck marked "US Economy" going off the road, a giant wreath that reads "OIL", all awashed with black oil. This work represents a satirical comment on the globalised society.
"Under Heaven is a subtle formation relation between material and support, where layers and space are passively represented but cleverly interact with a reflection on painting and activism." - MadeIn
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MadeIn
Under Heaven - 20120730 Painting. Oil on canvas, spray paint, aluminium board. 200 X 140 X 15cm. 2012
Under Heaven - 20120815 Painting. Oil on canvas, spray paint, aluminium board. 420 x 254 x 15cm. 2012
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MadeIn
This installation piece consists of a floor full of broken bricks, debris, dust – it is a sight of a human shelter that lies flattened beneath you. Nothing is there, besides a yawning emptiness of destruction. Looking closer you can see the debris moving up and down in soft, slow waves, there is no calmness after the bomb.
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Artists Name MadeIn
This highly-acclaimed work is loosely modelled on Theodore Gericault's 1819 historical painting of the same title. Hu draws a parallel between the social demise portrayed in Gericault’s “Medusa” and the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Hu's “Medusa” is far more than just a reference to the past; the photos allude to today’s excess consumerism and advertisement imagery. Pictures of contemporary youths engaging in hedonistic acts are juxtaposed with dull grey pictures of suppressed people in traditional Mao uniforms. These compositions using images appropriated from different socio-political realities signify a strong critical engagement with both history and the present – it is a concern that ranges beyond pure private considerations. Raft of Medusa C-print. 3 works (125x177cm each). 2002.
HU JIEMING
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A cloth thrown casually over a few chairs. These very ordinary objects are recurring motifs in Zhang's paintings. Through his careful observation, Zhang guides the viewers' gaze towards the incidental, towards that which is often overlooked. His gaze is focused on particular details, which are rendered from unusual perspectives that evoke photographs. In the tradition of the still life, Zhang precisely directs our attention to the gloss of a table's surface or in this case, to a piece of cloth covering two chairs. Human figures are completely absent from his paintings, but it is exactly this absence that alludes to their potential presence. The Furniture be Cover by Cloth Oil on canvas. 200 x 250cm. 2007.
ZHANG ENLI
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WU YIMING
Filled with ancient characters, Wu's works have the distressed appearance of stained old scrolls that have been locked away for generations. However, they are anything but nostalgic redrafts of old myth. Here, the female subject, possibly a courtesan, based on her short skirt and open blouse, is vaguely contemporary but her face is characteristically blank. The antique world is entirely present, yet completely unapproachable. Like all of Wu's paintings, this female character is in many ways, a phantom. Untitled Works on paper. Watercolour on paper. 300 x 195cm. 2005.
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The first part of the video consists of an old woman sitting on a bed combing her hair. Fireworks are shot outside of the window and everything becomes surreal: plants start growing in the room from the floor, as in a peaceful field; soon only the fireworks illusions and their ephemeral beauty remain, real, fake or imagined. Some men are spying on the scene from outside of the window; perhaps they belong to this old woman’s thoughts, just as in the fairytale of the "Little Match Girl". As the fire goes out, the men disappear and the whole scene settles back into a boring, lonesome night again. Fireworks Video. Single channel video 5'7".
LI MING
ZHANG DING
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In this video, Zhang adopts the film style of Fellini to compare the dreams with the realities of the hundreds of thousands of migrant workers who come to Shanghai in search of wealth and opportunity. Red velvet theatrical curtains open to reveal the mis-enscène of Pudong, Shanghai's vast new district built on former rice fields. A man in a white satin tuxedo, our "knight in shining armour" walks on stage. He picks up a bicycle with a stuffed horse's head mounted on the toolbar and a horse's saddle and rides off into the night. The film progresses in a series of tableaux, with the white knight always returning
to an empty intersection. The film ends with him returning to the Pudong stage, leaving his horse-bike and walking away. As with many contemporary Chinese artists, Zhang is examining the far-reaching consequences of China's modernisation. This video in particular shows tremendous sympathy for the plight of migrant works who have come to the cities in search of a better life. Great Era Video. 14 mins. 2007.
Buddha Jumps over the Wall - Painting no. 1 Painting. Acrylic on canvas. 400 x 280cm. 2012
Recalling elements from the "Garden of Eden", this painting features a rather androgynous nude female emerging from a jagged, thistly grove, her naked flesh rolled up into a red-and-white life preserver. The perspective is slightly deceptive, giving the viewer the impression of a 3D digital drawing. It is only on close inspection that one notices the texture of the acrylic paint. To truly appreciate the significance of this painting, it is important to note that a section of the canvas also appears in the exhibition space: a strange roofless pavilion - decorated only with oyster shells atop its pillars - is home to a red-and-white life preserver, sliced open next to a tree branch that stretches upwards. This work is part of Zhang's "Buddha Jumps over the Wall" solo exhibition at TOP Contemporary Art Center, Shanghai in 2012. Named after a famous Chinese dish, the painting and related performances demonstrate the artist's mastery at arousing all of the viewer's five senses.
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Zhang Ding
Liu's paintings and themes speak to the anguish of modern man. There is something unsettling and uncanny on the canvas, suggesting that there is much more at stake than what is visible on the surface. He elaborates on the notion of space, both interior and exterior, and how these spaces seem to construct their own intriguing narrative. Despite the rich palette, "In the wild" is another generic field laden with anonymity and vastness.
LIU WEIJIAN
In the wild Painting. Acrylic on canvas. 180 x 220cm. 2010.
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ZHENG GUOGU
This work is part of Zheng's ongoing and ambitious "Age of Empire" project, which is part land art, part playground, and part social experiment. Inspired by the computer game series, Age of Empires, Zheng is gradually transforming an agricultural area on the outskirts of Yangjiang city into a real-worldreplica of the game’s virtual community. Zheng has created an entirely new landscape that includes hills and mountains and a small village area, all surrounded by a stone wall. "Age of Empire" is a project that does not concern itself with making a finished artwork—to date not a single building has been completed—rather, it functions as an exercise in turning the fictional into reality. Although ostensibly meant to house an artist studio, a small museum, and living and entertainment quarters, the real achievement of Age of Empire lies in its integration of life and art. Waterfall (Landscape of the Age of Empire) Painting. Oil on canvas. 210 x 311cm. 2006.
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This work is one of Zheng's collaborative projects after forming the Yangjiang Calligraphy Group. The group tests the boundaries of calligraphy in a contemporary context, often extracting the characters from their traditional setting and turning them into sculptural objects. For "Garden", Zheng has created an ornamental Chinese Garden complete with a vibrating lake made of crumpled up calligraphic drawing and footbridge. Garden Sixty banana trees, one calligraphy pond with thousands of calligraphies, bridge, one waterfall, two written calligraphy paintings by the artist. 2005.
In May 1994, Zheng spent an extensive period with a mentally handicapped man in Yangjiang, following him around and photographing him in various places at different times. These pictures became a major part of this poignant work, "Me and My Teacher". In Zheng's view, the essence of art may well lie in those people who, because of their so-called “abnormality�, are in some sense free from social and cultural constraints. In one of the photos, both he and his companion appear possessed by innocent and spontaneous laughter, which is perhaps the most natural and touching moment among these images. 210
Zheng Guogu
Me and my teacher Photography. C Print. 180 x 270cm. 1993.
JIANG ZHI
This video depicts Chinese leaders Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, and Jiang Zemin, running, one after the other. Not only do the running leaders represent themselves, they symbolise the entire Chinese nation. Their action of endless moving depicts faith in progress, summed up in the popular slogan, “ As long as we are running we are always advancing,” while emphasizing that the concept of fate is deeply rooted in this society. Onward Video. 2006.
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“Objects in Drawer” was made in 1997. Pieces of personal belongings and damaged human body parts were installed together in three opened drawers. "Life is a course of losing. Time rushes away memories, cutting bodies apart. The pain of losing time projects itself on objects. Memories attach on personal belongings, giving them individual lives and feelings." Objects in Drawer C print (set of 3). 150 x 100cm. 1997.
Sucker is a virtual world crafted from video, installation, music, and writing. The artist imagines a new kind of humanity, which can attain knowledge or interact with people just by sucking in. “Sucking and being sucked” is a concept that illuminates the complicated relations among individuals, and between society and the world. The artist tries here to give form to a virtual society. The installation includes: wooden structure of a room, 60 photos of various sizes, a spinning light pole, a round light box installation (on the ceiling), a CD playing Sucker’s national anthem, a book “Sucker”, and the Sucker’s national flag (color jet print on nylon fabrics). Sucker Installation. Multimedia. 370 x 160 x 180cm. 2003.
"Part of a new painting series, ""A Thought Arises"", which began in 2010, this work is particularly significant in reuniting the artist's personal interest in the expressive quality of traditional painting and digital media. Based on an original screenshot from the computer, every pixel of the ""wave"" image is then realistically painted onto canvas; the result is a truly unique work that breaks down all boundaries between abstract versus representational, man-made versus natural, and digital versus substantial. ""These visual results form another spectacle that derives from an inner and abstract world of the computer. It is a stimulated momentary world that can be easily changed and reshaped, and seems to be even more vulnerable, accidental, unreliable and transient.� - Jiang Zhi" Untitled Wave No. 1 Painting. Oil on canvas. 350 x 240cm. 2012
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Jiang Zhi
Created as inscriptions for the "5th Ink Painting Biennial: Ink, Life, Taste" in Shenzhen (December 2006), these four calligraphies describe ways to make a quick profit in contemporary Chinese society. Sha's critique of contemporary Chinese values is written in a coarse script, reminiscent of graffiti. Yet, its overall appearance is closer to the literati tradition of elegance and refinement. The witty combination of classical aesthetics and form with contemporary philosophies is also evident in the red seal marks: the work's title is printed as a big square relief seal, while the second seals resemble mobile phone batteries. Small Investment, Big Profit Works on paper. Ink on Xuan paper. 60 x 110cm. 2006.
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SHA YEYA
A tall structure on wheels that vaguely resemble a wardrobe with 4 doors. The doors open to reveal multiple stairways, reminiscent of a three-dimensional M.C. Escher work with its explorations of infinity and architecture. On the side of the doors are connecting cables resembling basic circuit boxes. With a simple, geometric structure that recalls 20th century European Modernist architecture, this installation demonstrates Sha's keen interest in spatial development. Small Investment, Big Profit Installation. Multimedia. 375 x 120 x 120cm. 2003.
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Sha Yeya
ZHOU TAO
Zhou created this video work "1,2,3,4" for the 7th Shanghai Biennale, which took place at the Shanghai Art Museum in Shanghai, China in 2008. He created this work in the immediate vicinity of the museum, People’s Square, by recording morning staff meetings in over forty area shops and companies. The groups include dozens of young women wearing immaculate corporate uniforms, cooks, and salesmen, and a small group of tee-shirted teenagers. Regardless of occupation, the employees count off and move in step to the rhythms of their companies’ corporate songs (or chants), which are meant to build team spirit and corporate loyalty. Humorously, Zhou edited the clips to allow the rhythm of these recitations to steadily increase in intensity and build to a crescendo.
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1234 Video. 3 mins. 2008.
RMB City is an art community in the 3-D virtual world of Second Life and was realised by Cao Fei as a public platform for creativity. Second Life is an online platform for participants to create a parallel reality in which to live out their dreams and has amassed 14 million registered users. Each user is represented by an avatar, a digital figure that they can customise and control. Reflecting on China’s recent urban and cultural explosion, the architecture of RMB City is an amalgam of ancient and modern Chinese icons from the panda to the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Olympics. RMB City Interactive multimedia. Installation. 2007.
CAO FEI
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A black and white vignette reminiscent of early Chinese movies with its grainy screen shot and 1930s jazz background music. Cao found her subject on the street in China: an innocent and otherwise ordinary man, dancing to music in his head and blowing kisses at passers-by. Completely oblivious to his surroundings, the man is happy in his own little world. Although Cao’s work appears light-hearted and playful, it is actually based on a much darker and bleaker reality. With rapid urbanisation in China, there is simply no room for this man. Where he once stood is now a large apartment block. There is no space left in China - physically or spiritually. Give me a kiss Video. 5 minutes. 2002.
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Cao Fei
With a cast of dogs as a metaphor for office workers, Cao's video is a fresh and playful take on the herd mentality in today's society. In the video, men and women masquerade as dogs in a corporate setting, acting out various scenarios of office politics with a canine twist. Despite their dog-like movements, their human characteristics easily come through the satirical veneer. Besides the usual social commentary on modern China, what distinguishes Cao from her contemporaries is her attention to broader cross-cultural issues. Rabbit dog Video. 8 minutes. 2002.
DUAN JIANYU
"I love looking for trivial, fragile things on surfaces and in installations, things of no consequence. I also love secretly describing the details of life, apparently rationally and politely, calming them with fakes, falsities and untruths." This assertion by Duan points to the philosophical nature of her art. Concerned about social reality and localization within painting, she also draws from traditional and contemporary Chinese culture. Guilin Scenery, ancient birds and flowers, and Dai women are combined with Duan’s personal feelings and Chinese characteristics. This painting is part of the Sister series (15 works in total). Sister no.14 Oil on canvas. 181 x 434cm. 2007.
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CHEN TONG
Having trained in traditional Chinese ink brush painting, Chen has long had an affinity with the literati. With his strong interest in French new realism, his works are characterised by keen observation and precise documentation. His paintings appear extremely authentic and neutral, yet with a critical stance that belies the artist's cultural and political views. “Taliban� comprises ten portraits of young Taliban soldiers, in which Chen’s mature style is clearly demonstrated: extreme visual understatement of artistic form as well as simplicity of technique to express a critical and alert perception of our world. Chen has certainly found his place among the great Chinese literati painters.
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Talibans Ink on canvas. 10 works (60 x 40cm each). 2007.
Chen conceived this "reinforced" bicycle within a very short time, inspired by Dr Norman Bethune (member of the Communist Party of Canada), Picasso as well as his childhood memories of village life in the Chinese countryside. The books inside the bookcase are entitled "The idea of the uselessness of study"; this paradox represents Chen's comment on the role of learning in contemporary society. Bicycle. Installation. Bicycle and bookcase construction. 165 x 340cm. 2007.
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Chen Tong
5 NEW MEDIA
This section focuses on Chinese artists specialising in New Media and video art. The new millennium brought along a newfound vitality and interest in the world of new media art, a form of art that is mediated via the digital world, typically with the Internet as its platform. Once considered an emerging art, it not only challenges traditional creative media and ways of thinking, but also raises new questions and concerns about contemporary life and the globalised society. This is particularly fascinating when seen from the perspective of Chinese new media artists. Having undergone one of the greatest economic, social and cultural changes in recent decades, China’s artists have been especially quick and adept at adopting digital technology. With ever-increasing access to information, these artists have rapidly absorbed and reinterpreted the most innovative concepts, using them to express the unique realities of life in contemporary China. Our collection of New Media artists is merely “a drop in the ocean� among the incredible talents in the Chinese contemporary art world. The works collected are by no means a complete picture of media art created in, or responding to, contemporary China. It is very much our personal take on a medium that has virtually no boundaries.
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Created for the 48th Venice Biennale, this video installation comprises 10 monitors with different Chinese people, old and young, singing the age-old "Happy Birthday" song in Mandarin. Despite the joyous sentiments of the tune, the singers look somewhat awkward and unnatural. Characteristic of Zhang's wit, this work neatly captures a critical period in contemporary China. While the Chinese population is anxious to "catch up" with the West, certain practices and concepts are simply foreign. It is a clash between domestic and external ideologies, with contemporary Chinese society standing precariously on shifting sands. Just For You Installation. 10 video monitors. 20 mins. 1998.
ZHANG PEILI
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Artist statement - "I wanted to stop movement, like a video freeze frame. This problem of fixing the moment, I wanted to master it. I wanted to show what I saw, but which didn't exist..." In this work, a pair of melancholy eyes stare outward from a blurred black and gray field, recalling both the monotone faces that launched the grey humour movement (and therefore quoting also the early influences of video art) and tradition of painting from photography in general. It is this collusion of media that floats to the fore here: painting is betrayed as a mechanism for the production of affect within the temporal frame of video. Face No. 13 Video and painting. Betacam tape (25 minutes) and oil on canvas in 2 parts. 170 x 195cm. 2007.
LI YONGBIN
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Yellow Signal. A four channel video installation. Channel one, 4' 53'' Channel two 17' 30'' Channel three 5'25'' Channel four 4'28''
WANG JIANWEI 308
Projected on three long hanging screens, reminiscent of classical Chinese hanging scrolls, are various scenes and close-ups of Beijing street life. With multiple screenshots that flow across the screens, the viewer could almost be experiencing the walk on the street. These works demonstrate Zhu's keen sense of observation that is devoid of any judgment or criticism. His artistic skill is shown through the tension created on screen rather than the actual subject matter. Passages Installation. 3 channel video. 2001.
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A suspended projector, hanging from the ceiling, projects images of facial expressions of six adults onto a cradle: images of the parents, the paternal grandparents and the maternal grandparents, teasing and playing with a baby. The cradle is actually a mini pool filled with milk. In the middle of pool there is a circulatory system which pumps and drains the milk. The only sound we can hear is the running of milk. According to Wang, "The milk symbolizes the food for the baby who is absent in the video and yet the images of the six adults on the surface of the milk also suggest his presence. The changing expressions of the six adults and the constant running and draining of milk not only suggest a sense of impermanence, at the same time, they also signify the continuity in life.� Baby Talk Insallation. Video. 1996.
WANG GONGXIN
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LI SONGHUA As a political commentary, this video work shows the image of a small Chinese boy reading the bombastic text of a speech on China’s glorious economic future. It is a timehonoured tradition for Chinese artists to respond to the pressures of intense cultural change through their creations. Li's manifestation is through his video work. Speech (left) Video. 24mins. 2005.
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Artists Name
DU ZHENJUN
The work's title is a play with words on several levels, similar to the ambiguity of the installation itself. The part-human, part-dog figure on the screen clearly relates to the title of "dog-man". Yet, the layers of meaning can be further broken down to a phonetic one that is also visually reinforced. At a quick glance, "Chienman" could easily be read as "Chinaman". The saying goes that in the pre-1949 years, a sign that said, "No dogs and Chinese allowed", could be found outside a park near the Bund. Though the sign might never have existed, the multiple uncertainties of this work tell us something about a Shanghai-born artist living in a foreign society, abandoning his classical training to practise a completely new medium that is just beginning to be accepted by today's art establishment.
Chienman Interactive multimedia installation. 1997 .
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In this later work "Disturbance", individuals on the screen go about their daily business, engrossed in their work. Posted on the wall is a number that the viewer can call that activates everyone’s cell phones on screen. People stop working, snap out of their reverie and scramble to find their cell phones. This “disturbance” also causes cows to moo, cats to hide and babies to cry on-screen. It is an ingenious way of allowing viewers to control a virtual space through a seemingly everyday object (the cell phone); it becomes the “remote control” for the piece. Disturbance Interactive multimedia installation. 2005.
This installation is a relatively low-tech project for Jin. Comprising a huge sculpture of a roaring dinosaur with a viciously thrashing tail, this animal represents China's volatile economic boom. 'Dragon' and 'dinosaur' are the same word in Chinese, denoting both the creature in Chinese mythology as well as the bones of the dinosaurs found in the Gobi desert. Chinese Tyrannosaurus Installation. Multimedia. 600 x 250 x 100cm. 2005.
JIN JIANGBO 318
Jin's work revives the theme of information overload in the digital age, and the growing complications of self-realization within the globalised society. The video and sculpture installation shows a man slumped over a flat screen monitor that rests on a table. Above him hang 20 other monitors showing different Web pages. Is the man dreaming of the monitors or are they the cause of his catatonic state, or both. 320
Jin Jiangbo
God, Go ahead with chatting Installation. Multimedia.. 400 x 400 x 300cm. 2008.
This work comes from a series of digitally modified panoramic vistas of New Zealand which was taken during Jin's residency at Auckland University. Brilliant features a view of Arrowtown in bright, almost psychedelic colours that pulsate across the wide surface. The complex layering of the landscape is characteristic of Jin's ingenious digital treatment of his subjects. Brilliant Photography. Pigment ink on photo rag, edition of 6. 40 x 200cm. 2011 . 322
Jin Jiangbo
Also from Jin's New Zealand series, Illusion is a far more subtle, romantic image. A silvery haze shimmers across the surface, further accentuating the sublime quality of the snowy mountain slopes. Illusion Photography. Pigment ink on photo rag. 74 x 100cm. 2011
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Jin Jiangbo
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HU JIEMING Hu’s latest project, "100 Years in 1 Minute", is a video and sound installation of monumental scale. The 1,100 videos (comprising deconstructed excerpts of the most iconic images in art history) were produced in a collaborative effort by Hu and 18 team members, each bringing his individual concept of time and cultural interpretation. The installation’s audio component, broadcast from 120 loudspeaker, consists of 30 pre-recorded sounds, and a live soundtrack that is recorded and instantly replayed through in situ omnidirectional microphones.
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100 years in 1 minute 10-channel video installation with 1-minute audio playback. Height 300cm. Variable site size (ideally 300 sqm). 2010.
YANG YONGLIANG As part of a commission by China Environment Protection Foundation, Yang created three print advertisements using Shan Shui style art to raise awareness of the serious pollution problems in China. This work in the dslcollection is an animated film version which was played in People Square Subway Station. The three paintings, "Let the Hills be Hills and the Rivers be Rivers", "Leave Nature Alone", "Don't Let Nature Come to an End", show the impact of factories, cars and buildings on the environment. Shanshui Video. 2009.
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Cement Landscape Painting. Acrylic color, Cement, Sand, Resin paint on canvas. 250 x 800cm. 2010.
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Yang Yongliang
WU CHI TSUNG "To my mind, the Souvenir of Mortefontaine [by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot]... is very similar to Chinese landscapes, but I can't explain why. Perhaps they share a common spirit. Perhaps the undisputed differences or boundaries between different cultures are not so undisputed after all". - Wu Chi Tsung Landscape in the mist - 001 Video. Single channel video 9'15". 2012
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MIAO XIAOCHUN
Countless numbers of naked, bald figures pushing against one another as they rush amidst the clouds. A closer look reveals to the viewer that these figures are identical and autobiographical, although void of any expressions. Miao developed his plastic alter ego as a reaction to the feeling of alienation in a different culture when he was studying in Germany between 1995 and 1999. This particular work was inspired by Michelangelo's "The Last Judgment" in the Sistine Chapel, and is the last part of Miao's "The Last Judgment in Cyberspace" series. The Vertical view Photography. C print (6 panels). 244 x 720cm. 2006.
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Comprising nine panels, this installation is modelled on Hieronymus Bosch's 15th century masterpiece, The Garden of Earthly Delights. "Microcosm" is an imaginative reinvention of the sumptuous landscape of sin, salvation, and tawdry visions of those who never made it to paradise. While preserving Bosch's original narrative, new digital technology has enabled Miao to explore a contemporary visual vocabulary. Abandoning the traditional fixed single-point perspective, he adopted the Chinese tradition of multiple viewpoints across a single landscape. By employing these different
views to create a three-dimensional transposition of The Garden of Earthly Delights, Miao has created a tangled and complex structure across the nine panels. The relationship between six side wings and three front panels means the viewer can view hell from heaven, and can also see heaven from hell. The spectator is encouraged to physically move about the work and discover hidden pleasures from new vantage points. Microcosm Photography. C print (9 panels). 300 x 1246cm. 2008.
Microcosm - 3D computer animation Animation. Duration 15'56". 2007-8.
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Miao Xiaochun
In post-war Japan, unwanted babies (often of mixed races) were frequently left by their unwed mothers in coin lockers, which being landmarks of every train station in Japan, are themselves culturally significant. However, these coin lockers were eventually removed due to fear of being used as bomb deposits by terrorists. Based on these historical references, the "Locker Baby Project" was born. This work in the dslcollection is the 2nd instalment of the project. Commissioned by the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, it was first exhibited at Palais de Tokyo in Paris in 2005. The installation comprises 6 large teacups, each occupied by a clone baby, each linked to a net depository of popular love songs. "Baby Love" positions the audience and each cloned baby in a perpetual spin of a fairground teacup ride. With its varying speed, the swirling teacups hint at the inevitability of a crash. Baby Love. Mobile wifi installation. 6 large teacups (170cm diameter), 6 clone babies (70cm tall). 2005.
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CHEANG SHU LEA
6 “The skill is to see the strength of the grain, not only the grandeur of the tree”
YOUNG TALENTS
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Artists Name
This section focuses on the dslcollection’s most recent acquisitions, represented by the latest generation of Chinese artists and their art. In China’s contemporary art scene, artists born from the 1980s have grown up with far greater exposure to Western culture, and are well accustomed to the effects of globalisation. With unprecedented access to information and technology, these young artists are concerned with subjects that differ greatly from the concerns of earlier generation of artists. It follows that each of these young talents has also developed his unique artistic language. Since the publication of the first dslcollection book, we have spent an enormous amount of time visiting artists’ studios, graduate shows, galleries and museum exhibitions all over China. Many of the artists we have chosen are only in the beginning of their careers, and some of them may simply be “shooting stars”. Nonetheless, a key mission of our collection is to reflect China’s contemporary art scene. We can reach this goal by giving as much visibility and exposure to the new generation of artists as possible. In deciding on which artists/artworks to collect, we had no prejudice, nor age limit. Our young artists have been chosen simply by merit – a brilliant vision, virtuoso technique – an amazing work of art.
CHEN FEI Xiao Wu Ji Painting. Acrylic on flax canvas. 180 x 240cm. 2012
Showing strong influences from anime with its bold colours and "superflat" representation, this work is characteristic of Chen's creative style and subject matter, drawing inspiration from his everyday life. “Xiao Wu Ji lies at the intersection of the city of Beijing and the countryside, and I occasionally stroll by and stop at
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Only fools feel sad Painting. Acrylic on flax canvas. 180 x 130cm. 2010
its supermarket. Xiao Wu Ji seems surprised to discover the Beijing of 2012 - it’s still using the grey cement and green roofs of the 80s; it’s as if time has stood still. I like to think that we can’t possibly imagine a life that good. This piece depicts a girl who cannot aspire to be elegant, she has many dreams and isn’t
content with the status quo, but she’s helpless under all kinds of restrictions. All she can do is work at things she doesn’t like in Xiao Wu Ji just seeking basic nourishment and shelter. I’m painting her but also painting myself.”
This painting comes from Chen's "Bad Taste" series, which was inspired by the artist's belief that a preference for ugly or less pretty things do not have to be considered as "bad taste". "I have my own set of system, values and philosophy, thus this series of 'bad' taste will be revealed in my work from time to time."
With Chen's characteristic vignette technique, the viewer is presented with an ambiguous scene - two men, dressed in identical grey suits, each isolated in his cubicle. From the attentive gaze of the man on the right, they seem to be listening to something, although the man facing the viewer on the left appears to have dozed off. Like a snapshot from a film, the viewer is only privy to this scene and is left with many more questions. Two Men Painting. Oil on canvas. 200 x 250cm. 2013
CHEN HAN
CHEN WEI
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Just a worn hat lying on a concrete ground‌the simple yet poetic narrative of this work creates a strong visual impact that truly distinguishes Chen's oeuvre. The eccentric imagination of Chen's photography marks a definitive departure from the previous generation of artists who were focused on political history and social concerns. The spirit of Chen's works points towards a newfound focus on personal experiences and intellectual freedom.
Tiny shards of shattered glass from a pair of reading glasses‌this unassuming scene is characteristic of Chen's contemplative style. It requires little explanation and allows viewers to draw their own conclusion. Every element is meticulously planned and laid out; the end result is such that the process of assembling and positiong the objects (rather than the photographic session) becomes the primary creative output.
Mister in the corner (Opposite, top) Photography. Archival inkjet print. 75 x 100cm. 2011
Fragile (Above) Photography. Archival inkjet print. 75 x 100cm. 2012
Nothing in Chen's photographs is ever left to chance. In this work, the pointed ends of the chair legs rest precariously on four brightly-lit light bulbs. With its dramatic cinematic setting and surreal quality, the work is reminiscent of western masters such as Cindy Sherman and Gregory Crewdson. A chair and four 100 watt bulbs (Left) Installation. Wooden chair, bulbs, rug and cables. 120 x 120 x 100cm. 2010
CHEN YUJUN
“Through this specific spatial format [of a minimally furnished room], I am trying to depict a unique domestic space and the alienated identity of its occupant.” - Chen Yujun Temporary Family - The Room That Doesn't Exist No. 2 Painting. Acrylic on canvas (3 parts); 200x300cm, 40x60cm, 220x80cm. 2011-12 348
At first glance, the video seems to be depicting the sublime beauty of the moving sun. The suspense and drama gradually build up…as the audience realises that the video actually features the hypnotic light effects created by vibrating cymbals in a music studio. The eclipse Video. 3 mins. 2011
Quoting iconic images and tunes from two of the 20th century's cult classics, A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971) and The Million Dollar Hotel (Wim Wenders, 2000), Cheng's video explores the themes of marginalisation and self-value in today's complex society; themes inspired by childhood memories of pirated DVDs, the internet and secondary news filtered into China. The video features a troubled young man who eventually throws himself off a rooftop, thus reconciling conflicting viewpoints from the two original movies. "They are not related but I couldn't help wondering what effect combining them would have. It's like the time a friend handed me a pirated DVD in which another movie follows the first one. This was a mistake but the two movies became somehow related." 1971-2000 Video. 7 mins 43 sec. 2012
CHENG RAN
"Anonymous - Imagining and Imitation of Man Ray's Tears (1930)" Single channel video with sound. 15 min. 2010
CUI JIE "Pipes started on an old piece. I used the gradient patterns as the ground that covered the original paint but kept the previous texture. The pipes and building in the painting are what I spotted in Beijing’s neighborhoods. Very small parts of the pipes are exposed outside the building, the most hidden inside. I was imagining the pipes twisting and extending at certain rhythm and eventually reaching another space. The hidden pipes are usually understood with the perspective theory knowledge, but not visually perceived. I was attempting to address such relationship between the exterior and the interior." Cui Jie Pipes Painting. Oil on canvas. 150 x 200cm. 2010
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"I understand the world through the window of China. With globalisation, the whole concept of Chinese characteristics has been blurred. But even though I don't emphasise them, there are definitely some Chinese symbols that I've been exposed since birth. Whether these symbols come out in my work is something the audience needs to decide." Cui Jie Ne Zha (Jigsaw puzzles) Painting. Oil on canvas. 280 x 200cm. 2008
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Cui Jie
FANG LU
In her latest and exceptional work Cinema, the artist explores in a meticulous yet almost casual way of how “the self” in our today’s life is a controlled and staged construction of oneself. What appears at first sight to be a not unusual performance of selfchoreography, becomes at a second glance a disturbing portrait of a female persona brought to life under contemporary conditions of attractiveness, anxiety and narcissism. Unlike her previous works, which focus more on the internal human conditions, this new video elevates the individual relationship with its environment to a more recognizable and appealing set of behavioural actions of selfawareness and self-inflicted anguish. Cinema, as a “portrait,” is staged in the fashion of creating a self-image in the guarded societal arena of surveillance. In this media oriented process of constructing a self-image, one experiences over time the loss of one’s, authentic, identity. In that sense Cinema is a “melancholic” portrait. Cinema Video. 7-channel video, 19'19". 2013
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Artists Name
"I use the ink on paper not for emphasis, but to achieve a particular gradation of grey. The ink seeps into the water and color, injecting into the picture a sense of the accidental, of that which is beyond our control, but in a way that is not overwhelming." Fang Wei Huangshan mountain Painting. Oil on canvas. 200 x 300cm. 2011
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"The black torso of a diver rotates from a fan above a white octagonal kiosk; inside, a bright blue and yellow parrot perches above the diver's legs; pairs of clear acrylic feet variously stuffed with syringes and other instruments rest on the exterior wall panels. This is the metaphorical cage that the artist has created between the audience and his work. ""When I build the cage, I feel the work will be equal to the audience and they will be forced to be in the cage...I want the parrot to be the watchman, the inspector. From the parrot's perspective, the audience is trapped in this white space, surveyed or inspected by him."" - Gao Lei" The principle Installation. Multi-media . 2011
GAO LEI
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G72 Installation. Stainless steel, velvet. 580 x 170 x 170cm. 2011
"G72 explores the optical illusion of a vertical mirror image. Due to the force of gravity, the velvet rope around the balustrades will inevitably fall downward; the balustrades appear to be fixed to the ceiling but in fact they are suspended in the air, forming a standard of absolute vertical." - Gao Lei
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Gao Lei
GE GUANZHONG
Artist statement - "Upon the completion of the ambitious 4-panel work after months of diligent work, what I feel the strongest about is how to grasp and express contradictions. First and foremost is the subject matter. The interspersion of men and mountain landscapes indicate the conflicts and contradictions between society and nature, and the strong color scheme further strengthens the opposition between chaos and order. Secondly, the magnificent mountain landscapes and the dim-colored uniforms form a deep contrast, underlying the consequences of human activities on the environment and the worrying conditions of the masses at the bottom of social echelon. Corrupt practice and lack of balance in the social structure are main themes for the creating this work. Blind-folded men holding sign boards symbolize big-power and hypocritical politics, whereas men trapped in the mountains are trying to change themselves. For them, it is either falling to corruption or struggling to survive. The Coke-cola can became magical tokens from the Chinese gods – a self depreciating irony of the pervasive impact of foreign cultures in China. These intricate contradictions constitute the final work of Red Soil."
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Red Soil Ink and colour on paper. 230 x 560cm. 2008.
Inspired by the theatrics and fantasy of a circus, the "Shoulders of Little Clowns" series encompasses installations, paintings and performance art. The underlying concept is to encourage "an exit from reality, then a willingness to laugth at oneself, and finally a realistic acceptance of chaos." The Shoulders of Little Clowns No. 2 Mixed media. Oil on canvas with white silicone, cat specimen. 212 x 229cm. 2012
GUEST (XU QU, LU PINGYUAN AND ZHAO YAO)
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GUO HONGWEI
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Artist statement: "In the development of my work, I am constantl seeking voided objects - subjects that do not accommodate the commonplace reflex of extending meaning beyond themselves or generating narratives in the manner of a still frame in a movie. Ultimately, in my painting, I am interested in the process itself and in exploring a deeper sense of quality lying within the details. Thus, my focus is most clearly trained on the visible surface of the work."
In this work, Guo's painterly style succeeds in endowing an everyday object (radiator) with youthful tenderness as well as a kind of energetic directness. He does not have any emotional feeling about his very ordinary subjects; instead, the focus is on their formal values and the way in which the paint behaves when it makes contact with the support. These mundane objects, even rolls of toilet-paper, gain a new radiance when presented in carefully orchestrated fashion against their pure white backgrounds. Since Guo has no desire to place his objects in context, to give the kind of “explanation� he despises, there are no distractions as he observes the way in which the paint behaves. That is what Guo aims to achieve, to direct the viewer away from the subject matter and concentrate on other aspects.
Masterpiece. Painting. Oil on canvas. 100 x 150cm. 2009.
Radiator Painting. Oil on canvas. 200 x 300cm. 2009.
This work was awarded the John Moores (Shanghai) Contemporary Painting Prize in 2010. Artist statement - "Magnify the propotion to real airplanes. Create an ideal airplane pattern, and a paradox where errors grow with disturbance and beauty. A metaphor about seek and dream." Grand Airplane 2 Acrylic on canvas. 150 x 200cm. 2009.
HAN FENG
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"I insist to work on traditional silk scroll, using more iconic forms of language, to provide water, flower, people and rocks deeper implications. I work to communicate the seemingly short or long distance between contemporary being and traditional culture with damaged and worn out silk scrolls." Hao Liang Untitled Painting. Ink painting on silk. 400 x 170cm. 2012
HAO LIANG
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"As a tribute to his father, this installation began with the artist's decision to search all over his home town of Wuhan for neon lights that feature the same characters as his dad’s name, “He Taoyuan”, as well as one of his favorite Japanese movie stars.
HE AN
""It appears that He An hovers between taboo territories. From his initial direct opposition to meaning, his work mocks certain aspects of it as it progresses. He makes his work linger between ‘making mischief’ HERE and ‘research and investigation’."" Wang Jianwei, curator" "What makes me understand what I know?" Installation. Neon light. 2009.
HE AN
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"Water expresses no clear indexical characteristics. Its vagueness allows it to bear whatever meaning people endow it with and perhaps, simultaneously, it may mean nothing at all. Water is enormously generous. Water is shapeless in itself; one cannot grasp its form. The moment of my pressing the camera shutter, it freezes, becoming an image of shapes. Under the pattern of the waves, powerful, latent forces are moving. I copy the appearance of the photographs; this repetitive and timeconsuming process brings me a sense of calm. Each wave pattern is an endless and ever-changing enigma. Each form looks similar to the next, yet differs completely from it. I am engulfed. I learnt to swim early. It was only after many years that I saw the ocean for the first time. Little of that experience remains in memory, except for the excitement I felt at that moment." Hou Yong Black no. 11 Painting. Oil on canvas. 250 x 204cm. 2013
HOU YONG
Artists Name
HSU CHIA WEI
Hsu's latest project focuses on the Huai Mo Tzu Chiang House in Chiang Rai, Thailand, which shelters a generation of orphans owning close relationships to the region’s complex history. In the video, the director of the orphanage (who was once an intelligence officer) points out the historical origins and changes. The artist’s customary style is extended in this work—the people telling the stories, the people hearing the stories, the crew made up of orphans, with the artist standing furthest back, observing it all. Huai Mo Village Video. One channel video installation; 8 minutes and 20 seconds. 2012
Part of the artist's "Huai Mo Village" series, this collaborative tapestry came about when the artist visited Huai Mo Tzu Chiang House, where he found more than ten sewing machines that were donated by a British national some ten years ago. The machines were intended to provide the local orphans with a source of income, enabling them to make a living by producing and selling purses and clothes by their own. However, these machines were not fully utilized. After his visit, the artist invited a teacher to teach the orphans to use the machines, and eventually completed this tapestry together. The design of the tapestry is based on a picture taken in 1973, featuring two senior officers standing in front of the newly-established CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). The fabrics used for the tapestry are usually used to make clothes for local children. The fabric in dark blue is used for making girl's skirt, the khaki is used for boy's pants, while the white is used for their shirts. Huai Mo Village - Tapestry Tapestry. 290 x 190cm. 2013
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"Aphasia (an impairment of language ability) implies my personal and muddled feelings towards oil painting. When I was in middle school, I was deeply attracted to the oil paintings of Chuck Close and Richard Estes' super realism, even though I knew very little about oil painting at that time. I put a lot of hope and efforts into this painting. I want it to be closer to reality-not only just the reality in the painting but also my actual feelings about life, especially in this 'so-busy-that-you-stop' era. Aphasia has been haunting me since my adolescence. It disturbs me all the time but I just can’t get rid of it. But after I have a deeper understanding of the world I’m living in, I finally realize that aphasia is nothing to me, compared to all the things in society that can make you speechless." - Hu Wenlong Aphasia Painting. Oil on canvas. 249 x 167cm. 2010
HU WENLONG
380
A soft silhouette of a young couple and a baby peeks through the delicate silk which has been painted with foliage. A bright light shines on the left, illuminating bowls of plant bulbs. What is the most striking is the strength of the baby's image in contrast to his parents; his cherub-like facial features are clearly visible. The intimacy of this scene, which is reinforced by the small scale of the work, is absorbing. Despite being confined in a small lightbox, the audience cannot help but be captivated by the subtle combination of visual and audio effects. Glorious Youth Watercolour on silk. lightbox and sound. 95 x 75cm. 2009.
HU XIAOYUAN
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“Being ignored never ends, just like the river.� Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said this to the interviewer when she was sitting in the forest. It attracted me so much. The sentence, a fragment, with no start or end, reflects the boundless ocean of consciousness outside the short words. The river sometimes – through its identical parts and transformation of time, reveals the forms of life. Sometimes one side which seems still, just like that death is a sprout of new life, is another form after transformation. I am fascinated by cicada skins, snake skins and honeycombs, which imply death metaphorically in their living forms. They are fragile and easy to be ignored. Dead objects also have implications of new life, just like talking in sleep with no start or end.
Being Ignored Never Ends, Just Like the River Installation. Metal, paper pulp (wasted toilet paper), wood, mirror, snakeskin, cicada skin, honeycomb, cotton line. Variable dimension. 2011.
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Hu Xiaoyuan
HUANG YUXING
This work marks a significant point in Huang's artistic development. Sweeping aside all traces of explicit representation, Huang has relied on the pure intensity of his palette to bring the canvas alive. Huang's latest series of works reveal a "pronounced desire to impress upon his audience the weight of expression itself; color is the main focus of these works, and color, on its own, begins to convey the artist’s very moods and intentions." Laboratoire dans la forêt Painting. Oil and acrylic on canvas. 170 x 275cm. 2012
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"Commenting on the destructive nature of China's rapid urbanisation, the Unregistered Cities series features lilliputian ghost cities amid the very real crumbling ruins of Beijing's abandoned houses. ""My idea was very simple: to put classical Chinese motifs and icons, which expresses the essence of humanity at hidden corners of the cityscape. The representation itself is an opening for the audience to discover in the end, both a question and answer come from them."" - Jiang Pengyi" Unregistered city no. 2 Photography. Ultra giclee print, edition of 8. 90 x 125.4cm. 2008-2010
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JIANG PENGYI
A visual spectacle that is characteristic of Jiang's oeuvre, the "Everything Illuminates" series captures light trails emitted by phosphorescent powder over everyday objects, thus transforming their appearance and endowing them with a non-objective selfcontentedness. Everything Illuminated No.9 (Previous page) Photography. Archival inkjet print. 251 x 180cm. 2012 Everything Illuminated No.10 (Right) Photography. Archival inkjet print. 251 x 180cm. 2012
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Jiang Pengyi
Jin is renowned for creating interactive, playful installations that drive at issues erupting out of China's dizzying transformation into a globalized, commercial society. "Desperate Pee" is a life-size silicon statue of the artist peeing on a bridge into a canal in Venice. Exhibited at the 52nd Venice Biennale, the original statue caused quite a scandal when it was set alight by vandals. Desperate Pee Installation. Mixedmedia, 165 x 35cm. 2007.
JIN SHAN
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JIN SHENGJIA Trace Mixed media. 30,000 individual keyboards. 240 x 540cm. 2012
"Up close, this monumental work appears to be an abstract collage of used keyboards; it is only from a distance that the panoramic landscape, in the tradition of classical Chinese shanshui, reveals itself to the viewer. Jin modelled his landscape on the Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains (c. 1348-50), considered one of the greatest surviving masterpieces by the highly esteemed painter, Huang Gongwang (1269-1354). In part an hommage to Chinese cultural heritage, the artist also aims to ""trace"" the continuous history of human civilisation, from the ancient to modern, and from ""Chinese"" to ""international"". ""When keyboards are new, they are white and the same. When the keyboards are typed on for a long time under different circumstances, in different environments, they present colours with subtle differences. These differences are the traces left by this busy information age."" - Jin Shengjia"
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LI RAN HERE
This video installation consists of a series of texts and documents (including letters, oil paintings and photos) related to his father's artrelated education and creation from the late 1970s-90s, as well as a single channel video "Another Modern Artist'', where Li acts as an imaginary modernist artist. The work takes its title from the 1989 Hayward Gallery exhibition "The Other Story: Afro-Asian Artists in Postwar Britain" curated by Rasheed Araeen, which pointed to the "absence of non-Western artists in the history of modern art". Another "The Other Story" Another Modern Artist Video installation. Singer channel sound HD video, 7 min 05 sec. 2013
LI RAN 396
Artists Name
Rorschach Test No. 7 Painting. Acrylic on canvas. 180 x 360cm. 2011
This work is part of the artist's recent "Rorschach Test" series, named after a psychological test by Swiss psychologist, Hermann Rorschach, who discovered that people looking at the same inkblot often see many different things. The test was used to examine personality characteristics and emotional capabilities. Based on the idea of the Rorschach Test, Li creates large-scale
paintings with mirror symmetry and a myriad of dazzling colours. Always fascinated by the concept of optical illusion and how the eye forms visual images, Li conceptualises works that create a sensory experience for the viewer. Starting from a simple sketch, each individual dot is meticulously airbrushed by hand to form layers are on the canvas.
LI WEI
400
"When a hero faces to death, it’s a real death not just an illusion. To be a hero doesn’t mean to act honorably in danger as in movies, death itself doesn’t need to be sensational and hero isn’t exist sentimentally, he’s not an idol for people to admire. Hero has complicated humility and he also is a normal people in real life. The truth of hero’s end is: hero can see through the death itself. But nobody knows." Li Wei Hero - Chorus 2012
The Truth Sculpture. 59 x 39cm. 2009
“Actually here in China, a lot of people never really understood the “Hollow Man” , they just think this is some beautiful statue of girls, some also think they looks like Xiang Jing’s sculpture. But actually what I want discuss in this work is how a human being react in this society ( maybe in Chinese society) , they have control over their real emotions, never even dare to show their individual expressions in front of the public, and try to look normal. Have you ever seen people’s numb faces in the subway or on the bus? Normal people have this kind of expression of “being in control”, hiding themselves in the “community”, and try to look like everyone. In China we are just beginning to have individual expressions, actually maybe 90% of Chinese face still look like that. But when you look at these faces, everyone had his individual details, no one actually is same as the other, they are all unique people. That’s why I painted so much details on their faces. So unconsciously you can see how absurd their control, because you can never hide your individuality as a human in this world. I want show this absurdity with a very objective material carrier- these natural persons. That’s why I made a group of persons, so people can see them for real together.” – Li Wei 404
Li Wei
Help. Resin, acrylic, oil painting, human hair, costume. 226 x 60 x 80 cm. 2013
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Unpeaceful Christmas Eve - A block of Cake Video 15''. Year: 2011.
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Li Wei
LI WEI
Part of her latest "Ink" series, this work uses the time-consuming technique of ink blots; dots of ink are applied individually and in varying sizes to create two distinct viewing experiences: abstraction and definition. With nature (especially the bamboo) as her subject, Li creates a serene, delicate landscape that is at once classical, spiritual and contemporary. Enlargement Painting. Ink on canvas. 280 x 700cm. 2011.
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LI ZHOUWEI
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As the title implies, "Life Journey" spans over 25 metres across the room. In the first canvas, we see a trail of children, playing with one another, some on skateboards, some flying kites. As the viewer moves across the 25 works, he sees the figures growing up into teenagers, adults, the elderly and eventually ending with a burial service surrounded by monks. Much of the canvas areas are left bare, only a small trail of figures can be seen winding across the surface of the paintings. What makes this new artist so exceptional is her delicate yet purposeful brushstrokes. Life Journey Painting. Ink on canvas, multiple works. 145 x 2576cm. 2010.
In a sunny winter square, passers-by stop on the same spot, one after the other, and look at the camera. In increasing numbers, these strollers with a curious gaze appear to see something that is hidden from the audience. Could it be that these passers-by are looking at us and that the usual relationship between artwork and viewer is reversed? Liang creates in this work a random group portrait. She presents a moment of suspended time, accentuated by the blue atmosphere of the light and the ethereal musical soundtrack. The artist also uses a strategy often employed by the Surrealists which involves destabilizing the viewer by posing the question "Who is looking? Is the viewer looking at the artwork or is the artwork looking at the viewer?" Crowd Video. 4’.
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LIANG WEI
This work deals with the play of light and shadow. Continuing with her exploration of the interaction of colour and patterns, Liang manipulates the distribution of matt and gloss paint to create an artificial source of light within the two dimensional plane. Perfect depth: Your inner god Oil on plaster models. 7 works (20x20x20cm each). 2008.
LIANG YUANWEI
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"Dawn" is a series of six variable-sized paintings on linen. Based on the same petal-like motif, Liang continues her personal exploration of light on canvas; each of the six works has its own colour field that interacts with natural light, thus creating a subtle three-dimensional depth. "The contrasts of sizes and hues well elucidate creatures in summertime, whose figures are looming from the foggy ambience." - Liang Yuanwei Dawn Painting. Oil on linen. 2012 418
ArtistsYuanwei Liang Name
The works #16 transforms reproductions of sculptures by Hans Arp into pedestals for projectors. By mismatching the projection with the screen, the work projects a blue square that constantly zooms in and out. Executed in low tech, the piece alters the conditions of the exhibitions within a seemingly conventional parameter, and disturbs the spectator’s view by creating a continual discrepancy between exhibiting and viewing. LIU CHUANG Works #16 Installation. 2012
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The title of Liu's elegantly simple project "Buying Everything On You (2006-08)" is self-explanatory. To create this work, Liu approached random strangers on the street and offered to purchase everything on their person. The items were then "laid bare" on plain white plinths. Is this a snapshot of the contemporary consumer, where one is defined by what he/she owns? Or is Liu providing us with an empty portrait: while his subjects may be defined by their clothes and belongings, they inevitably remain elusive? Buying Everything on You Mixed media. Various materials. 120 x 240 x 20cm. 2006-7
This work forms part of the extensive "City DNA" series where the artist captures the aerial views of cities around the world found on Google Earth. Using the most meticulous of paint strokes, Lu reduces and transforms the recognisable landmarks of our cities into pure geometric shapes. Reminiscent of Piet Mondrian's neoplasticism, Lu eliminates the painting elements of perspective, light and depth; instead he uses colour, lines and composition to fulfill his painterly vision. For Lu, his painting is more than a device to articulate the fascinating observation from the height of a satellite on Google Earth; it is his personal response to globalisation and the impact of urban planning on earth. City DNA Shanghai Painting. Acrylic on canvas. 200 x 400cm. 2011.
LU XINJIAN
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Artist statement: "A racing motorcycle for the handicapped is pulling two legs wearing ice skates on the feet. The moving harsh pavement keeps sharpening the blades of the skates. Along with the harsh noise, the blades become sharper and sharper, until they turn into a real pair of knives. Speed endows the passing pavement with a soft and silky texture, thus the only hard thing, the blades, are always in the process of becoming sharp or blunt." All my sharpness comes from your hardness Video. Single channel video 25'30". 2011.
MA QIUSHA
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"I deliberately painted an inverted table to show an angle that we would not normally see. I painted the lake without water, exposing rocks and all the rubbish at the bottom of the lake. We are used to seeing things from a certain angle and once this changes, everything becomes strange. Just like the back of the moon. We act like we know a lot about our own culture and history; in fact, we know very little. All of us are just blindly following one another." Ni Youyu No. 1 (Series: Bottom of the Tai-Lake) Painting. Mixed media on canvas. 200 x 320cm. 2011
NI YOUYU
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Generous layers of oil paint cover the canvas to create a dream-like world of intense colour and rhythm - one can almost feel the rickety movement of the building blocks as the player gingerly places them on top of one another. Could this be an allegory of the artist and the social reality that he lives in? Or is this his attempt to escape reality? Despite the chaos and jumble of colours, there is a sense of magic and poetry to the scene that capitvates the viewer. "Most of the time I'm expressing myself through painting...my paintings have their own life, I am not like other artists who keep painting the same mark in each work. My works are alive with vitality." - Ouyang Chun Building Blocks Player Painting. Oil on canvas. 185 x 280cm. 2008.
OUYANG CHUN
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Much like Pan's "Sea" series, this work carries a palpable sense of wistfulness. Despite the dark palette, the landscape is very well defined and evocative. A small lone figure stands amidst towering trees, insignificant amidst nature's anonymity. The location, the figure's identity are irrelevant; all the artist is interested in is to create this world of quietness. "I don't feel any desires for drawing figures, nor anything with an unequivocal directional property." - Pan Jian Solitude is the Garden of Darkness Painting. Oil on canvas. 180 x 250cm 2011.
PAN JIAN 430
A special commission for the collection, Shadow is the Edge of the Night pushes the artist's virtuoso skills to its very limit. Peering into the dimly-lit landscape, the viewer's eye is inevitably drawn to a lone figure standing by the shimmering lake. Once again, the location or identity of the figure is unimportant - the artist simply wants to create a world of quietness. "It can be said that though his painting is full of a quiet atmosphere, behind it there lies a mournful, unsettled poetic air, with dark tones creating a strange sad, gloomy mood which expresses a bleak but poignant realm." - Huang Du on Pan Jian Shadow is the edge of the night Painting. Oil on canvas. 250 x 500cm. 2012
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Pan Jian
With this very personal work, Pei summed up the new back-to-basics spirit whistling through the art world, where artists are rediscovering why they wanted to be artists in the first place – creating work for themselves, not the market. “I always work from deep feeling and I often feel angry. If you have strong emotions, it is better to create than to destroy. I think in everyone’s deepest heart there is a violent side and I want to use that violent side to create. I see my studio as a secret garden in which I can make things grow.” Isn’t something missing? Multimedia video. 2009.
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PEI LI
"I never define the genre of my art, nor do I think about how to reflect the contemporary age. The so called contemporary art, in my understanding, is not a style or genre that can be defined. It is rather how people discover their own experience, the kind of personal experience that cannot be repeated by others, and use a new method to express the experience. I like embroidered shoes and painted garments because they are private and yet common. This is my personal experience. And real contemporary art is open to any unexpressed experience." - Peng Wei Flowing Water Robe Painting. Ink and colour on paper. 194 x 120cm.
PENG WEI 436
Qiu has used realistic sculptural techniques to create this series. Her analysis of different levels of society, which the piece presents, casts a profound critical eye upon contemporary society. It also embodies an independent social stance typical of today’s younger generation. The artist’s acute attention to current reality and art along with her inherent compassion make this piece entirely original in its social critique. This is the artist's first major sculptural piece, which has already won her three separate art prizes in China, including the Luo Zhongli Art Scholarship. Guangzhou Jiangnan West Road, xx/xx/2005 Installation. Bronze. 230 x 300 x 450cm. 2006.
QIU JINGTONG
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"I am personally very fond of the whale in “Wild Dream Fantasy Series” with its ambience of sadness and desperation that I want to convey. Big-sized animals have their particular spirits: even when they die, their spirits don’t end and their mystery continues to influence. I like animal subject. Animals, lives that are totally different from human being, exist by their physical instincts and coexist with us. I imagine the inner-heart shock would be much stronger than the visual shock when one stands next to a dying whale. To complete the sensory experience I have added in a special element: sound. Generally speaking, paintings are about visual, while what I am trying to accomplish is to help obtain feelings both in sense and heart." Shang Chengxiang Wild dream fantasy series no. 5 Painting. Oil on canvas. 215 x 280cm. 2012
SHANG CHENGXIANG
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"A “net” on a plain surface is formed by numerous squares at regular intervals in the rhythm of “square, blank, square, blank” in both horizontal and vertical directions. The structure and visual effect of the “net” is set as intense and precise, and at the same time loose and intriguing. I duplicate, enlarge, reduce, adjust, displace and overlap these “nets” composed of squares. Each of these movements and consequent traces on canvas seem to verify kinds of existence, such as the existence of the net structure and the existence of self. I feel a sense of vertigo from the space constructed by the distorted, displaced and overlaid squares, and at the same time bewildered by the shape of time gradually formed in my painting. Lost in contemplation of the paradoxical but also interdependent notions of “existence” and “nihility”, what I feel is nothing but a solemn power, beyond words." - Shang Yixin
97% Painting. Acrylic on canvas. 206.5 x 200cm. 2012
In the tradition of Duchamp's "readymades", Song's paintings use readily downloadable images from the internet, which are then direcly transferred onto canvas. "In an everyday context, these spaces are distinguished by common and cheap decorative styles. This kind of decoration is probably another way to represent an aesthetic, or it can be seen as violently treating the meaning of aesthetics. Most of these spaces have only evidence of human presence. These vestiges really interest me, I leave them in my paintings as traces, odd brushworks." - Song Yuanyuan Aesthetic System Workshop Painting. Oil on canvas. 210 x 160cm. 2011.
SONG YUANYUAN
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"In the state of idleness, or self-awakening, in the moment when I try to be adaptable or to wrestle, I am forever ready to welcome the unknown and chaotic future, to move forward with high hopes. To look for the world which creates the great future is my ultimate pursuit. I consciously create an unconscious world." - Wan Zhenyu Supreme Future Painting. Oil on canvas; 2 panels. 305 x 410cm. 2011
WAN ZHENYU
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For Wang Guangle, painting becomes ritual. "Untitled" series is based on "Coffin Paint" series: he adds a layer of paint, each application begins a little further removed from the edge. But this time before the next application he adds a small amount of dark paint in the white paint from last layer, the amount is so subtle that after stiring the change can hardly be recognized by naked eyes. Since the layer which shrinks every time from all four sides of the last layer accumulates, the gradient of color can be recognized and in the center of his piece he has achieved a kind of suction affect. Repetition and labour that lasts for several months turns the work into a "cosmic tunnel". But the painter would more like the "black hole" to be articulated as "visible time". Untitled Painting. Acrylic on canvas. 180 x 140cm. 2007.
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WANG GUANGLE
WANG TIANXUAN Part of the recent series, "Qi Xie Mountain Lore", this work represents Wang's personal adaption of the greatest classical Chinese landscape paintings of the Song Dynasty. Described as "art history style painting", Wang combines classical imagery (eg. towering precipitous mountains) with his unique perspectival division; the resulting monumental landscapes reflect the artist's bleak view of contemporary society. The Flames of the Mountain Painting. Oil on canvas. 280 x 420cm. 2011-12 .
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Wang's work clearly shows signs of a virtuoso painter, with great empathy for his subject. Influences from Bacon are apparent. Artist statement - "Through placing abstract and strange creatures in real-life scenes, the individual element in the picture begins to develop "obscure" links with one another, and at the same time shows the relationship between life and nature and the subconscious anxiety and panic. My painting is a mime, which shows “the events� of human psyche." Event Painting. Oil on Canvas. 200 x 250cm. 2010.
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Wang Tianxuan
"Site 2013-9"
“I began to try a simpler space. I deconstructed and reconstructed it, and displayed three side lines only which belong to the theoretical space element (Angular Perspective). The space becomes more abstract. The unidentifiable generic space took the place of the specific one. The image itself becomes the purpose, structure, shape, material, colour and the procedure of painting took on a meaning. The viewers can enjoy the freedom to reach their own destination guided by the retinal game.� - Wang Yi
WANG YI "Site 2013-10"
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WANG YUYANG
Travels in Four Dimension, ”Curves and Dimensions” Page55 ”so loves…can never meet” - Wang Yuyang Tiger (Below) Painting. Oil on canvas. 208 x 250cm. 2012
"Buch der verrückten Experimente “An Ape For a Kid Sister” Page103 “As an ape…is treated the same ”. Page106 to 107 “Though…died a year after” Wang Yuyang" Dubious Installation. Brass, copper, stainless steel, iron, wood. 490 x 450 x 400cm. 2013
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Wang Yuyang
"Xiao Xu’s elaborate ink paintings create a sense of mystery for the nostalgic voyeur. The landscape of “Wandering Stag” enshrouded in mist and fog evokes a metaphor for the search for meaning and longing for another world. The delicate layers of ink wash convey a transparency that skillfully creates depth into a dreamlike world. Xiao Xu represents a generation of young artists predisposed to explore the solitude and fantasy explored in the scholarly tradition in Chinese painting." - RedBox Studio Untitled Painting. Ink painting on silk; 3 parts. 170 x 90cm. 2012
XIAO XU
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XIE MOLIN
"With the idea of creatively applying digital and mechanical techiniques to painting, I consider the computer and cutting plotter as alternatives to human hands." Xie Molin Xie begins by developing the "Yao" pattern on a computer. This is then precisely applied into thick layers of white paint using his signature painting machine. All aspects of the creative process are under his complete control - colour, form and application. The net effect is a captivating combination of rhythm and texture with a simplicity that undermines the intensely technical process. Yao Painting. Acrylic on canvas.160 x 218cm. 2011
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XU QU
"Sea Level is part of Xu's latest project titled "Xisha, South China Sea No. 1", which is partly inspired by the artist's childhood memories of the sea. In this work, a single strip of bright neon light cuts across the "horizon" in each of the deep blue panels; an exemplification of the artist's method of "applying ideas born of minimalism." Notwithstanding the political implications of the location, Xu's interest in the area is more driven by the contradictory relationship "between the real and the internalised to which this sensitive area - the object of restriction and desire - give rise." "I believe there are many elements involved in physical memory. When I’m working I unfold these memories; it’s comparable to removing something from a safe." - Xu Qu Sea Level Mixed media. Aluminium panels, neon, 5 works. 216 x 115 x 5cm. 2011
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Part of a series that explores the transcience of time and the changeable nature of objects, this hand-painted animated video features whales and airships, a seemingly incongruous pairing, moving back and forth within a warehouse space. In the same manner as the watercolours and gouaches of this series, the whales and airships appear as delicate, grisaille forms that gracefully float across the surface of the video screen. Last Experimental Flying Object Video. Hand-painted animation. 7'23". 2008
YE LINGHAN
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Part of his series of prints collectively titled "Phosphorous Red", Ye has mastered the technique of applying phosphorous liquid onto hand-made paper. These bold images contain a wide range of references including space travel and colonization, the principles of chemistry and physics, nationalism, politics and rock music. He succeeds in drawing together this potentially improbable material into an invigorating and highly-legible series of manifesto like declarations. Red Colours Painting. Mixed media. 200 x 450cm. 2010.
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No.2. Oil on canvas. 160 x 140cm. 2008.
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With her keen interest in the ephemeral qualities of light, Yu has abandoned the inadequate paint brush for this extensive installation work, which consists of 115 painted panels (250x300cm each), 3-minute Super 8 film, a digital map print and multiple C prints .To record the cast shadows of a tree from sunrise to sunset, a large piece of fabric (50x25m) was laid out around a tree in the open countryside. Yu is shown in her process documentation sitting and absorbed within her painting as she sketched the tree's shadow as it turned from west to east. No longer is the singular painting sufficient because the observation of the shadow's development has to be stretched out and meticulously recorded. The Tree Installation. Mixed media. 2008.
YU AISHAN
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ZHANG YAO
"This series is about the practice of painting. Flat geometric shapes are painted onto found fabric; its absolute and contrasting colours allow one to associate the painting with typical abstractions. These paintings are not derived from any set of aesthetics nor are they exploraitons of certain ideology. Instead, they serve as a disruption to this form of understanding. The graphics that seem to have some sort of meaning are borrowed from logic or math challenge diagrams in puzzle books. Only colours are added to the graphics to produce paintings that circulate into the system of paintings." - Zhang Yao A Painting of Thought. Painting. Acrylic on found fabric. 200 x 180cm. 2013
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"My work originates from a series of random fragments, something I hardly feel will come into being. I am just a supplicant to my own emotions, innovations and developments and I try to preserve something of the visual experience I’ve gathered." - Zhang Wei Walking in silence, walking in heaven Mixed media. Mixed materials on canvas. 200 x 480cm. 2010.
ZHANG WEI
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"It is a presentation of representation, but not exactly. It is based on the occasional start of text concept. After experiencing the process of “you are there�, catching by the video on the print paper, the audience can make collages with the images according to his own wish, and at last the images are transferred to the canvas with violent composition. With different media transformation, the details of the picture become blurring and images form on the canvas eventually. The formal clear concept disperses, which is a result of effect without cause." Zhang Emperor Mountain Mixed media. Mixed materials on canvas. 200 x 480cm. 2010.
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Zhang Wei
"Cities at night are decorated by neon and a clear outline is projected on our retina, which make cities at night even more concrete than in daytime. Invasion of light also became the gorgeous chord of the modern city. In the ever-bright city, bright lights take place of stars and force the night sky to lose its color. Although it’s even more beautiful in the evening, most people can no longer see the night sky's true beauty." - Zhang Wei Blue light no. 1 Mixed media. Mixed media on canvas. 300 x 300cm. 2012
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Zhang Wei
ZHANG ZHENXUE
Artist statement - "Tradition is something quite fascinating. During a transient one month’s stay in England, I became fascinated with the wellpreserved historical architecture in all cities around England, which led me to create this improvised painting. The English-style architecture with a brickstone structure looks massive and strong and majestic with some implication to certain significances in western philosophy. Therefore, I try to represent traditional English architecture in approaches of scattered perspective and freehand ink and wash, in order to realize the collision and fusion between Oriental and Western classical cultural elements. The 'harmony without sameness' relationship between English-style brick-stone and Chinese ink and wash makes perfect sense to me." Liverpool Works on paper. Oil on transparent paper. 85.5 x 2500cm. 2011.
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For his return to the medium of painting, Zhao has chosen a subject that is particularly dear to the heart of Chinese people - ping pong. Across two large canvases, Zhao has reduced the high speed excitement of the game to a deliberate placement of paddles and ball on a flat green background. Through the standardised format, Zhao comments on the remarkable characteristic of China's national sport - the willingness of all players to follow rules and more significantly, their general reluctance to do so in other situations. Ping Pong No. 1, 2 Painting. Oil on canvas (set of 2). 200 x 260cm. 2011
ZHAO ZHAO
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The fragmentary forms of Zhao’s "Officer" scattered on the floor act as a scathing commentary on issues of power that can only be addressed obliquely in China. Wearing a policeman’s uniform, the artist posed for a conventionally realistic sculpture that was pushed over and broken into pieces as soon as it was completed. Carved in limestone, the shattered sculpture reflects on the role of public sculpture in perpetuating power structures throughout history and the fate of such monuments when a ruling figure is deposed. The numerals visible on the officer’s jacket refer to the date on which Ai Weiwei was arrested in 2011, providing yet another layer of political significance to Zhao’s provocative use of academic procedures to comment on contemporary issues of the greatest significance. Officer Installation. Limestone sculptures. 180 x 49 x 46cm. 2011
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Ai Weiwei's Portrait, Oil on Canvas. 220 x 200cm. 2013
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ArtistsZhao Zhao Name
"This painting is inspired by begonia flower patterns on a piece of glass. Its subject is mainly the life behind the glass. The refraction of light diffuses and blurs objects, producing a mottled colouration and a florid yet fragmented feeling. I’m interested in 'vanishing' because its process contains a projection of time. And, by portraying this process, I can recall the disappearing and the disappeared around me and try to record and save them in my own way." - Zheng Jiang Tent Painting. Tempera on aluminium panel. 204 x 340cm. 2012.
ZHENG JIANG
488
ZHOU MING
Artist statement - "This work is essentially a crime story - about self-murder and the reconstruction of reality. Using medical terminology and imagery, 490
the film presents a series of self torture, which constantly changes - hesitating, disappearing, destroying."
Migraine. Video. Animation. 2010.
Jade Painting. Oil on canvas. 330 x 570cm. 2011
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"I am extremely sensitive to art. My works always usher people into a deep space of the soul: a place of reminiscence, faint colors, cold and shady environment, dim light, everything solitary and miraculous as if the dreams of the audience can be easily taken away. I am a man who grows continually before death brings the growth to an end. I pass through the interlayer of these worlds, get suspended or stranded in it, leaving a touching trace. What I paint is that very world." - Zhu Xinyu
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Zhu Xinyu
\A cold breath across over of the boundless cemeteries Painting. Oil on canvas. 200 x 240cm. 2009
Her thought yet to be labelled Painting. Oil on canvas. 200 x 310cm. 2011
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Andromeda Painting. Oil on canvas. 200 x 270cm. 2011
Untitled Painting. Oil on cardboard. 221.8 x 366cm. 2012
IOIIOl Painting. Oil on cardboard. 127 x 232cm. 2012
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Zhu Xinyu
This work earned the artist the Chinese New Star Art Prize. Iron covered drum Painting. Oil on canvas. 120 x 300cm. 2007.
ZOU TAO
Temporarily not Painting. Oil on canvas. 300 x 600cm. 2011
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A
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Abbas Nadim (1980) Born and bred in Hong Kong, Abbas completed his Bachelor in Fine Arts at London's Chelsea College of Art & Design and graduated with a MPhil from the University of Hong Kong. Abbas' oeuvre includes large-scaled installations and sculptural works that explore the psychological patterns of every objects and the cliché. Viewers would easily recognise certain components in the artist's works but are often destabilised by their compositions. Abbas has participated in many group exhibitions in Hong Kong and overseas since 2001. His inaugural solo show took place in 2010 at Experimenta, Hong Kong.
Cai Guangbin (1963) Having graduated from the Traditional Chinese Painting Department of China Academy of Art in 1988, Cai is now a professor at the Art College of University of Shanghai for Science and Technology. First exhibited at the Art Gallery of Chicago University in the US ("Reflections of Century, Viewpoint of China Exhibition" 1998), Cai has had a number of group and solo shows. Cai is best known for his contemporary take on traditional Chinese ink painting.
Ai Jing (1969) With a successful singing career behind her, Ai switched her creative focus to painting in the late 1990s and became a student of Zhang Xiaogang in 2000. Ai's paintings draw their inspiration from her years of touring around the world and visiting various leading museums - her experiences act as a new source of creativity. Since her first solo exhibition at Beijing's Today Art Museum in 2008, Ai has had a number of shows in China and New York. Her versatility as a true artist (of music and art) is internationally recognised.
Cao Fei (1978) Now living and working in Beijing, Cao is acknowledged as one of the most talented artists specialising in multimedia installations and video art. Partly inspired by Surrealism, her works combine social commentary, popular aesthetics and documentary conventions. These videos and installations represent a commentary on the rapid and chaotic changes that are still taking place in modern China. Cheang Shu Lea (1954) Cheang is a multi-media artist, working within the fields of netbased installation, social interface and film production. As one of the leading multimedia artists dealing with multidisciplinary studies, her work is unique in creatively intermingling social issues with artistic methods while allowing viewer interaction. Most recently, she has moved to 35mm feature filmmaking. Chen Chieh Jen (1960) Born 1960, Taiwan. Chen exhibits widely in Taiwan and internationally. Making his first appearance at the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999, Chen's work "Empire's Borders" was included in the Taiwan Pavillion at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009. In 2005 he was one of 41 artists presented by curator Maria de Corral in the Padiglione Italia, "The experience of art" at the 51st Venice Biennale. Chen continues to work with photography, film, installation and performance to explore issues which have a particular global resonance. Globalisation, labour, consumerism, migration and the power of images are key issues addressed by his works.
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Artists Name
Chen Fei (1983) As one of the most promising talents of the post 80's generation, Chen belongs to a group of artists who has redefined the direction of Chinese contemporary art, turning away from the societal rhetorics and aesthetics of the earlier avant garde movements. With his tongue-in-cheek humour, Chen's works appear "superflat", his canvases filled with vibrant colours and bold patterns. Graduating from the renowned Beijing Film Academy, Chen's continuing passion for films is clearly evident in his oeuvre: "I can't say I was not affected, because what I have seen and learnt will be expressed in my work. Watching films is a very important channel through which I gain knowledge." Chen Han (1973) Having graduated from the Oil Painting department of Luxun Academy of Fine Arts in 2005, Chen has regularly participated in various group exhibitions in China. His oeuvre consists of small oil paintings, similar to little vignettes. These snapshot images have the effect of hinting at a much larger 'stories', which are hidden from the viewer. Chen Shaoxiong (1962) Chen was one of the founding members of the Big Tail Elephant Group (1990). After his first series of performances and installations exploring the relationship between urban energy consumption and bodily resistance, he has presented a series of video installations in the form of perceptive devices that demonstrate efforts to negotiate with balancing between fundamentally precarious, contradictory elements of our senses and the environment, notably the rapidly changing urban scenes. Chen Tong (1962) A well-established Chinese artist, Chen was awared Chevalier des Arts et Lettres in September 2010 for his contribution to promoting French culture and the strengthening of cultural ties between China and France. In addition to his work as an artist, curator and art critic, Chen is also a publisher and owner of the Borgeslibreria Bookstore in Guangzhou. Over the past 20 years, Chen has been responsible for translating and publishing French literary masterpieces.
Chen Wenbo (1969) Chen Wenbo’s contribution to the contemporary Chinese art scene belongs largely to the visual rather than the conceptual. Like Liu Wei to some extent, he works almost exclusively in very bright, very flat images that waver between representation and abstraction. But instead of concentrating primarily on visual effect, Chen Wenbo is interested in the technologies of vision. Chen Wei (1980) Breaking away from virtuoso documentary style of China's first generation of contemporary photographers, Chen's photographic/installation works focus the attention back to the medium, more in the tradition of western masters such as Cindy Sherman and Jeff Wall. With their lyrical cinematic settings, Chen's works can be likened to dreamscapes that capture fleeting moments in everyday life. Taxidermy, broken glass, melted wax and other found objects form the artist's stage set, creating fanciful scenes that are at once disconcerting and oddly mesmerising. Chen Yujun (1976) Chen graduated from China Academy of Art in 1999 and now works in Hangzhou where he also teaches in the Academy's department of experimental art. Chen and his brother/artist, Chen Yufan, come from a rich emigrational background with branches of their family spanning across Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. As a result, the issue of displacement and the search for self-definition in a foreign culture form an integral part of Chen's oeuvre. As young critic Lu Mingjun described, Chen's search for self-identity creates in his artistic practice a distinct anthropological aesthetic: for the artist, the foreign lands of Southeast Asia represent a space of possibility or experience of the unknown, and it is the communication of this experience that becomes the original intention of his work.
Cheng Ran (1981) Since graduating from China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, Cheng has become one of the leading video artists in China. Cheng's videos delve into the inner psyche of China's younger generation, capturing their living experiences against the backdrop of globalisation. Drawing inspiration from European art house cinema, rock music and youth culture, Cheng creates cinematic works that are at once poetic, mysterious and relevant. Chow Chun Fei (1980) Born and bred in Hong Kong, Chow graduated with his BA and MFA degrees from the Department of Fine Arts at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2003. In 2004, he was a visiting lecturer in the School of Design at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. An active member of Fotanian Art Village, Chow continues his teaching career at the Hong Kong Art School and the Lee Sha Kee School of Creativity on a parttime basis. He currently works in Beijing and Hong Kong. Chow was the finalist in the Sovereign Art Prize in 2004 and 2005. In 2008, he was awarded the Hong Kong Arts Centre 30th Anniversary Award Grand Prize. Chun Ouyang (1974) A graduate from the Department of Art Education at the Fine Art Academy in Xi'an, Chun now lives and works in Beijing. Despite the innocent, almost child-like, façade of his paintings, Chun's early years were far from idyllic. Having abandoned middle school and run away from home, Chun is well educated in the harsh realities of the world. Many of the seedy underworld types that he met during these early years would appear in his paintings as "evil" characters. Self expression remains the key feature of Chun's oeuvre.
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Cui Jie (1983) One of the few female rising stars from China's Post-80s generation, Cui's artworks have been exhibited worldwide, including the 4th Prague Biennale and the Tomas Y Valiente Art Center in Madrid. Cui's early works are characterised by the juxtaposition of conflicting images on canvas as she questioned the truth in reality. Like many of her peers who draw their inspiration from Western movies, Cui's paintings show the influence of Orson Welles; her canvases are typically composed of fragmented landscapes, arranged in grids and graphic patterns. Cui Xiuwen (1970) Graduating from the Central Academy in 1996, Cui's known for her bold, often controversial paintings, including “Intersection Series” (1998), featuring a full frontal view of a naked man. 1998 marked a turning point in the artist's career when she discovered the limitless possibilities of video as a medium. Her first video installation, "Lady's Room" (2000) made a lasting impression on the Chinese contemporary art scene when it led to the first lawsuit in the history of Chinese contemporary Cui's honest and confrontational videos and photographs explore the taboo subjects of sexuality, feminism, and gender roles in China.
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Ding Yi (1962) As one of the leading Chinese abstract artists today, Ding has been widely exhibited, with works at the Venice Biennale (1993), Yokohama Triennial (2001) and Guangzhou Biennale (2002). His signature is represented by a cross that is carefully and subtly repeated across the canvas. Rather than being concerned about illusion or representation of objects, Ding's works explore the abstract aesthetic using layered intersections of vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines across surfaces to challenge the viewer's visual perception. The formal method of abstraction and the variations within the repetitive patterns makes his work an intriguing case for the relevance of abstract painting in contemporary art. Like Chinese calligraphy, Ding’s crosses constitute a certain correlation between the order of the universe and that of the human.
Fang Lu (1981) Fang received her BFA from Graphic Design department at School of Visual Art in New York in 2005, and MFA from the New Genres department at the San Francisco Arts Institute in 2007. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Space Station, Beijing (2010), Borges Libreria Institute of Contemporary Art, Guangzhou (2011); and in group exhibitions such as the Shenzhen Sculpture Biennial (2012), CAFAM Future Exhibition (2012), and in Museu do Oriente in Lisbon (2011), Walter & Mcbean Gallery in San Francisco (2008), Contemporary Artist Center in Massachusetts (2004) and other places. Now living and working in Beijing, she is also a co-founder of Video Bureau, an independent video archive resource in Beijing and Guangzhou.
Du Zhenjun (1961) Du can be considered one of the earliest contemporary Chinese multimedia artists and his interactive video installation works are recognised internationally. With a focus on the state of "Modern Man", Du's visually stimulating images and engaging computer technology betray a deep-seated sense of cruelty and violence. His works represent a critique of human nature and the relationship with modern civilisation. Duan Jianyu (1977) “Life is a heap of mixed material of unclear quality.” Purposely avoiding the painterly sublime, Duan strives for the most generic subject matter, delving into the most banal. Chickens, which appear in many of her works, are a metaphor for this interest in the ordinary. Yet hers is not a naive or even narrative description of everyday life. Instead, she uses a highly refined method of displacement that propels the work into a realm where art acts as a language and painting as a medium. Duan's sincerity about the fundamental role of art in life is matched by her ambitious scope: to use art as a medium to tell basic truths about conditions of contemporaneity.
Fang Wei (1968) Having graduated from Shanghai Arts & Crafts Institute in 1986, Fang left for Japan to pursue his passion for painting but instead became an antiques dealer for 15 years. Upon returning to Shanghai, he set up a fine art printing studio, producing prints for many of China's leading artists, including Zhang Huan, Zeng Fanzhi and Wang Guangyi. Indeed, Fang was a key collaborator in Zhang Huan's ash paintings, big Buddha sculptures and woodcut prints. Having never given up his true passion, Fang returned to full time painting in 2008. His first solo exhibition took place at the Shanghai Gallery of Art in 2012. Feng Mengbo (1966) Feng is a young Chinese artist whose work uses the the styles and structures of contemporary electronic games. He combines this with traditional cultural influences, including Chinese opera legends, the Cultural Revolution and Hong Kong action cinema, all of which follow a romantic, heroic representation of moral or political tales. Feng has worked in paint, video and more recently digital media, to produce narrative pieces, full of computer game images, mixed with symbols from communist China. These subtly satirical works represent a humorous response to global mass culture and China's recent developments.
G Feng Qianyu (1974) Belonging to the latest generation of new media artists emerging from China, Feng had her first solo exhibition at the renowned Libreria Borges Bookshop in 1999. Since then, Feng has taken part in The Longmarch Project as well the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003.
Gao Lei (1980) Central to Gao's large-scaled installations are the themes of power, control and surveillance. Room-sized installations, akin to prisons, featuring a carnival of animal parts and ready-mades form Gao's imaginary universe, which are in fact grounded in real-world concerns and personal experiences. "People just do so many violent and dark things to animals. From them we can see the dark side of human beings." Gao Shiqiang (1971) Gao is one of the recent “scholarly” artists in the field of Chinese video art. Not only has Gao forged new territory for aesthetic innovation and built upon the foundation of the Hangzhou school as the leader in fine art digital media, he has also developed a profoundly rich vocabulary that distinguishes his art from that of his predecessors. Yet, the poetic, non-literal and allusive style of his moving images is clearly part of the mastery inherent in the Hangzhou Image Movement. The careful observation of reality, emphasizing individual interpretations of experience, orients Gao’s work towards a strong singular vision and offers a unique insight into the human condition.
H Premier Wen Jiabao selected a painting by Ge Guanzhong as a national gift for the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2008. Gu Dexin (1962) Gu is perhaps the most avantgarde and radical of China’s leading contemporary artists. Although he did not formally study art, Gu quickly made a name for himself in the late 1980s with his strange, colorful portraits of alien beings and provocative experiments altering and reshaping plastics and other materials. In 1989, his work was already being shown in the Pompidou Centre in Paris. And since then this eminently uncollectible artist has broken every conceivable convention by using blow torches and other tools to reshape plastics, raw meat and fruits and vegetables. Decay is a central feature of many of his works.
Gao Weigang (1976) "A graduate of the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, Gao is one of the most versatile artists of his generation, being equally skilled in painting, sculpture, installation and performance art. Across this wide range of media, Gao's works share the common intent to challenge the audience's preconceived ideas and accustomed visual language, often with wry humour and irony. Gao received the Art Futures Award at Art HK in 2011."
Gu Wenda (1955) Acknowledged as a pioneer of Chinese contemporary art, Gu was one of the leaders of the ’85 New Wave Art Movement in China, who went on to influence an entire generation of artists in China with a series of provocative ink paintings that employed pseudo Chinese characters. After emigrating to the United States in 1987, he began creating large-scale installations to explore the issues of multiculturalism and globalization. His “United Nations” project was created with blocks, curtains and characters constructed from human hair he collected from around the world. Gu Wenda has established himself as a powerful commentator on the cultural and linguistic barriers that continue to exist in a globalized era. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York and Shanghai.
Ge Guanzhong (1977) Ge received his MFA from Beijing’s Xu Beihong Art College of Renmin University in 2008. Brought up in an artistic family and meticulously trained as a traditional ink painter, he has gradually shifted his style and subject matter to reflect the massive changes in modern Chinese society. His graphic compositions and aggressive use of vivid colors distort classical subjects and contribute to the rapid evolution of contemporary ink painting. Of recent note,
Guest (Xu Qu, Lu Pingyuan and Zhao Yao) GUEST is a new collective consisting of three of China's leading young talents: Xu Qu, Zhao Yao and Lu Pingyuan, whose solo careers have also garnered critical acclaim. Xu Qu was born in 1978 and now works in Beijing. Born in Luzhou, Sichuan province, in 1981, Zhao Yao also lives and works in Beijing. The youngest member, Lu Pingyuan, was born in Zhejiang in 1984 and works in Shanghai.
Guo Hongwei (1982) Guo Hongwei is representative of a new generation of contemporary Chinese artists who have moved beyond the political concerns of the generation immediately preceding him. Choosing to focus on his immediate surroundings, he is able to concentrate on the potential of his chosen medium, whether watercolor on paper or oil on canvas, to create surprising visual equivalents of objects that are mostly overlooked.
Han Feng (1972) Having graduated from the Art Institute of Harbin Normal University in 1998, Han has had a number of solo exhibitions around China since 2000. Most recently, he was awarded the first prize in the John Moores (Shanghai) Contemporary Painting Prize, 2010. Han's portfolio includes Simulated Life series, Grand Bus series, Grand Airplane series, Wave series, Townhouse series and Thermal Power Plant series. Hao Liang (1983) Born in Chengdu, Sichuan, Hao graduated with a Bachelor degree from the Chinese Painting Department of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in 2006. He is currently completing his Master degree at the Institute. To Hao, the exploration of contemporary Chinese ink painting is rooted in tradition; deliberately adopting the realism of Song Dynasty artists and the brush technique from the Xuanhe period, his paintings are distinctly classical in tone. He An (1971) After graduating from the Hubei Academy of Fine Arts in 1996, He An has participated in group exhibitions both abroad and in China, mostly presenting his pictorial works such as in the Documentary Exhibition of Chinese Avant-Garde Art in the 1990s, in Fukuoka Art Museum (2000), Chinese Photography in Chambers Fine Art, New York (2001), Paris-Beijing, Paris (2002) as well as Fuck Off, Eastlink Gallery in Shanghai (2000), and Distance in the Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou (2003). He An has now added various media to his practice such as sculpture, painting and installation which were presented in group exhibitions, notably The Exhibition of Young Artists, Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art (2004), The Real Thing, Tate Liverpool, ( 2007) and Rendezvous, MAC-LYON (2008). Hou Yong (1976) A graduate of Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Arts, Hou has participated in many international exhibitions since 2000. The artist is best known for his waterthemed paintings - his longrunning series, "Black", shows figures swimming in glossy, dark water, almost engulfed by the waves around them.
Hsu Chia Wei (1983) A graduate of the National Taiwan University of Arts, Hsu was appointed as director of Taipei's Open-Contemporary Art Center in 2011, an art space established over 12 years ago and run by young artists. Hsu's creative method is a specific kind of “Narrative” -- a way of documenting that interferes with the text in reality, by focusing on site specific and peculiar characteristics, such as memory, imagination, or identification. He has been continuously trying to merge the languages of contemporary art and film to originate his works, fabricating a mythical narrative which lingers between fiction and reality. He maintains a critical attitude toward filming, and through the power of film creation, he strives to move art to locations outside museums and to developing his political practice. His works have been on display in museums and international film festivals, such as Jeu De Paume, The 39th International Film Festival Rotterdam, The 55th Venice Biennial, 2012 Liverpool Biennial, 2012 Taipei Biennial, 8TH Taiwan International Documentary Film Festival, and RENCONTRES INTERNATIONALES PARIS / BERLIN / MADRID screened at the Centre Pompidou Paris, Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin, and Reina Sofia National Museum Madrid. Hu Jieming (1957) Eschewing the traditional Chinese ink brush technique, Hu studied Western oil painting through the eyes of 19th century Russian realists before being captivated by the likes of Picasso, Warhol, Duchamp and Beuys. Now acknowledged as one of the leading pioneers of new media art in China, Hu is a master at combining photography, video, digital and audio interactive technology to explore the concept of “refresh”, a recurring state of transience beyond time and space. Hu Wenlong (1986) Having just graduated from Minzu University of China in 2011, Hu's virtuoso painting skills are reminiscent of the largescaled portraits by American photorealist, Chuck Close. Hu's graduation piece was awarded the prestigious John Moores Prize in 2012.
J Hu Xiaoyuan (1977) Hu's works touch on questions of human existence in an extremely subtle and personal way. For her objects, drawings and installations, she favours materials that bear signs of wear or carry sentimental values. Her motifs come primarily from the everyday environment or are connected to family history. These keepsakes are intimate and testify to the artist's sense of loneliness. Through her skilful manipulation of subtle sexual motifs, Hu deconstructs the traditional notions of feminity in a discreet and sympathetic way that makes her art feel contemporary. Huang Yongping (1954) Huang is a contemporary French visual artist of Chinese origin. Huang's work combines many media and cultural influence, but is particularly strongly influence by the intellectual abstraction of Dada and by Chinese numerology traditions. Founder of the Xiamen Dada group in China in the 1980s, Huang's installations have included unorthodox materials such as live snakes and scorpions. Many of Huang's sculptural works encompass a large scale, some tens of meters in dimension. Although Huang permanently left his home for Paris in 1989, his creative methodology remains firmly rooted in his Chinese identity. Huang’s consistent questioning of the hierarchies of language, art, history and politics is equally mediated, however, by Western influences including Ludwig Wittgenstein, Michel Foucault, Joseph Beuys, John Cage and Marcel Duchamp. In fact it is the collision between ancient beliefs (China) and new knowledge (the West) that drives Huang’s art.
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Huang Yuxing (1975) Since graduating from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, in 2000, Hu has had numerous group shows around Asia. His complex and mesmerizing works, marked by Tibetan Buddhism, draws from the Chinese and Western pictorial traditions. Huang's artistic language stands apart from his peers and at first glance, appears to be detached from current social contexts. Nonetheless, despite the surrealist quality of his paintings, a general sense of sarcasm about politics exists. Huang's paintings are characterised by their distinctive eerie aura, achieved through multiple layers of pure oil paints and acrylics on canvases.
Jia Aili (1979) Living and working in Beijing, Jia Aili narrates private moods rather than public events or modern day China. His intense and emotionally charged work reflects on the human condition, and the individual's vulnerability in a rapidly modernising society. The artist has been selected from a new generation of artists in collaboration with Platform China Contemporary Art Institute. Using a muted colour palette and quick brushwork, Jia conjures up the disorientating emotions felt in a developing society. Jiang Pengyi (1977) Since graduating from Beijing Institute of Art & Design in 1999, Jiang has become one of the leading contemporary photographers in China. In 2009 he received the Tierney Fellowship Award from the First Annual Three Shadows Photography Award, followed by the Jury Grand Prize from the Societe Generale Chinese Art Awards in 2010. His photographs of miniaturised urban landscapes and skyscrapers represent the artist's critique of the excessive urbanisation, redevelopment and demolition in Beijing. Jiang Zhi (1971) Having graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 1995, Jiang now lives and works in Beijing. Jiang is a video artist who pays close attention to social reality, and hence his works touch intimately on the problems of real life. So piercing is his gaze, in fact, that people might feel embarrassed by his merciless vision or laugh at his black humor. Regardless of the reaction, he causes audiences to rethink everyday situations and appreciate the complicated moods that come with living.
Jin Jiangbo (1972) As an interactive media lecturer at Qinghua University in Beijing and with many years experience in that field, many of Jin's works are based on sophisticated animation technology. Jin approaches art by way of a formidable intellect. His work is driven by ideas rather than personal experience. He is equally drawn to new media, which “connect art and technology”, and to photography, which is both objective and “sensitive enough to capture small traces of this fleeting world”. He is best known for his panoramic photographs of abandoned factories and silent market halls, which he calls “my review of the craze and spuriousness of the deceptive commodity economy”. Jin Shan (1977) Working with a variety of media, Jin comments on the daily lives of the younger generation living in contemporary China. Renowned for his interactive, playful installations, Jin's works invite the audience to be a part of his utopian world. In Slide, a gallery staircase was turned into a giant slide so that visitors had to take the plunge in order to see the rest of the artwork. Games aside, Jin's installations represent his critique of the new values of materialism and social changes in modern day China. Jin Shengjia (1986) One of the younger artists in the collection, Jin graduated from Shanghai University with a major in printmaking and is currently completing a Master degree in easel painting. Over the past three years, Jin has participated in a number of group exhibitions within China.
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Kwan Sheung Chi (1980) A multi-disciplinary artist from Hong Kong, Kwan graduated from The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2003. In the same year, he set up a studio in the Fotan industrial district and has since been an active member of the Fotanian artists studios complex. In addition to his studio practice, Kwan co-founded the Hong Kong Arts Discovery Channel, a web-based channel that aims to promote critical discourse through interviews with artists, curators, critics and the general pubic. He is also a founding member of two local art groups, hkPARTg and Woofer Ten, both of which deal with the practice of art in relation to politics, social concerns and the community. In 2009, Kwan was awarded the Starr Foundation Fellowship to take part in an international residency program in New York, USA.
Lau Lewis (1988) One of the youngest artists in the collection, Lau graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2010. Since then, he has participated in many group exhibitions in Hong Kong. His first solo show took place in 2013 at Gallery Exit, Hong Kong. Winner of the Y.S. Hui Fine Arts Award in 2010, Lau is best known for his oil paintings of scenes at the Star Ferry, a familiar Hong Kong icon that is loved by tourists and residents alike. Lee Kit (1978) A graduate of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Lee is now one of the city's most recognised and respected artists and will be representing Hong Kong at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013. Central to Lee's artistic production are the everyday and the ordinary. What matters more to Lee is the attitude towards life and the freedoms that his artworks represent. As a counterpoint to Hong Kong's consumerist and goal-oriented society, Lee's conceptual practice celebrates the banal qualities of life, which in turn acts as a sanctuary. It is through his cloth paintings and installations that Lee makes sense of the contradictions shaping his surroundings. "Without Hong Kong, I won't do this kind of work." - Lee Kit Li Dafang (1971) Li's works are specifically regional. They are related to the geography of where the artist has come from. He was born and grew up in Liaoning Province, in northeast China, where the high altitude and long, harsh winters have created a rough and grey landscape. He lived in Beijing for the first time between 1993 and 1997, and for the second time in 2003. Since then, Beijing has become home. Li's paintings breathe in the dry dust and cool climate of north China and absorb the geographical, social, and cultural temperament integral to this region. The realistic landscapes and imagery of his paintings are unmistakably northern: unkempt bushes and forests, cityscapes, roads, vistas of fields and open lands, the deep colour of the earth, the stocky appearance of buildings, and industrial leftovers.
Li Jin (1958) Li is one of the best-known and most unorthodox ink painters from the New Literati group. Li gradually formed his uniquely playful style in the early 1990s, and is now famous for his seductive depictions of the good life in modern China. In contrast to the austerity and stereotyped subjects of classical literati art, food and wine and the simple things in life form Li's subject matter. Li Ming (1986) Graduated from China Academy of Fine Arts (New Media Art Department) in 2008, Li has had a number of exhibitions around China. Li is also a member of the Shuangfei Arts Center. Li Qing (1981) In Li's work, juxtaposition usually occurs between two similar subject matters or scenes but in difference chronologically. In China's art scene, the juxtaposition of old and new, reflecting the remarkable social transition taking place over the last three decades, continues to be popular. In contrast to his contemporaries, Li's subject matter is ordinary and unnoticed. Rather than adopting grand rhetoric and heavy themes, Li is more interested with an ordinary scene that affects our perception to the world. With his bold brush stroke and impasto, Li smartly turns the visual games and subject matter into his own painterly game, a pictorial world that reflects changing reality. Li Ran (1986) Graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in 2009, Li is the cofounder of the artist group " /Company". Li has had solo shows at Beijing’s Magician Space and Shanghai’s Aike Dellarco Gallery, and was included in the Shenzhen and Gwangju Biennales in 2012. Li also took part in curator Biljana Ciric’s “Alternatives to Ritual” exhibition at the Goethe Institute Open Space in Shanghai, and ON/OFF, a major survey of young Chinese artists in Beijing’s Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art (UCCA). In 2013, Li participated in a group show focusing on reassessing performance art in China (curated
by Su Wei at Beijing’s Star Gallery). For Art Basel Hong Kong 2013, Li was commissioned by Aike Dellarco to create a new piece for the gallery’s space in the “Discoveries” section of the fair. Li Shurui (1981) A graduate of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in Chongqing, Li has had a number of solo and group exhibitions around the world, including the Deitch Project at Art Basel Miami in 2009 and Artissima in Turin in 2013. Now living and working in Beijing, Li is particularly well known for her "Light" series which began in 2005. Over the years, Li has continued to develop her concepts of light, space, and the colour spectrum. Often in large formats, her works are powerful not only from their impressive scale, but also the immersive ambience they create around the viewer. They have an astounding ability to capture the viewer's imagination, leaving them with a resonating impression. Li Songhua (1969) Li Songhua is one of the most promising artists that has emerged from China today. His sculptures and installations use different materials, some of them unusual, mixing traditional methods with an informal approach, such as bronze and feathers. He draws his inspiration from ancient myths but adapts to modern day tastes and expresses himself according to new contemporary approaches. He has been invited to exhibit at large art exhibitions at home and abroad including The Triennial of Chinese Art, Nanjing Museum in 2005, China Gold: Chinese Contemporary Art, Musée Maillol, Paris and Poznan Biennial of International Contemporary Art, in 2008. Li Wei (1979) Born in Harbin in 1979, Li obtained a master degree at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, in 2007, and has predominantly exhibited in museums and galleries across China. Her works fall into two general categories; one which manipulates the density of lines to create abstract space and the other is based on meticulously applied dots to explore the way in which viewers perceive and experience space. Li's focus on
natural landscapes as subjects and general tendency towards large-scaled works recall her training in fresco painting; fresco has always been an integral part of any space - it is meant to create an entire environment for the audience to experience. This distinctive quality is clearly evident in Li's oeuvre. Li Wei (1981) A graduate from the Sculpture Department at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Li is one of China's latest generation of female artists who is fast gaining critical recognition for her work. Following the strong tradition of figurative art in China, Li's fibreglass sculptures and portraits are based on life models, which in turn infuse them with a very real sense of humanity. Her large-scaled sculptural installations often evoke an eerie, if not sinister, ambience. A key theme in Li's work is "forgetting" as she strives to reveal what the viewer would rather forget. Li Xiaojing (1981) Now living and working in Beijing, Li is a contemporary abstract artist whose work has been actively followed worldwide. In contrast to the Rational paintings of the 1980s, Li's works are concerned with micro qualities, individual thoughts and feelings. Similar to a personal diary, her paintings incorporate references to natural forms but are set within a tenuous and remote visual context. Li Yongbin (1963) Li has always been fascinated by the representation of temporality and the ways and possibilities in which we perceive events unfolding. In the last decades he has made numerous unedited real-time recordings of non-dramatic events, or rather, nonevents. Li Zhangyang (1969) With a background in sculpture from the Luxun Art Academy and later the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, Li now works in Chongqing, where he also teaches at the Sichuan Academy. Since 2000, Li’s work has been shown extensively in solo and group exhibitions around the world. By turns satirical, radical and poignant, Li’s monumental
installations are derived from firsthand observations of Chinese contemporary society. Li’s figurative style of neo-realism offers an honest look at the decadent side of present-day China; at times, his work is reminiscent of Dutch Old Masters such as Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Breughel the Elder. Following their lead in both amusing and criticising, Li’s gentle self-mockery throws life into perspective. “I observe and depict people like you and me.” Li Zhouwei (1973) Graduated from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art, Li now works at the Academy as a lecturer and is also a painter at the Guangdong Art Academy Youth Painting Institute. Li was one of the winnders of the John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize in 2010. Liang Juhui (1977-2006) The Big Tail Elephant Group (also known as the Long Tail Elephant Group) emerged in Guangzhou, China, in response to the city’s rapid urbanization in the early 1990s. Liang was one of the 3 founding artists which also included Lin Yilin and Chen Shaoxiong. They came together with a common interest in the transformation and inevitable corruption of modern cities. Through performances, installations and exhibitions of a wide spectrum of works, the Big Tail Elephant Group provided an open space for artists to explore issues associated with urban development. Liang Shaoji (1945) A graduate of Zhejiang Fine Art School and now living in Linhai, Liang has exhibited extensively in international Biennales and Triennales, including Venice (1999), Lyon (2000) and Shanghai (2000 and 2006). Well known for his serenely abstract hangings and installations referencing Chinese classical philosophy, Liang started his "Nature Series" in 1988, breeding silkworms and incorporating them into his works. This proved to be a turning point for his artistic practice as he combined bioecology, weaving, sculpture and video to create "recordings of the fourth dimension."
Liang Wei (1959) Liang is one of many Chinese artists now residing in the US. Having lived in Seattle, USA for the past 20 years, he continues to paint landscapes that express his personal experiences. "I try to reclaim such moments that get lost in the bustle, to reawaken our vision of where we live; I wish to inspire people to appreciate your living environment, which leads our aspirations to reality." Liang Yuanwei (1977) Liang is a young artist whose photography, painting, and installation work often focuses on articulating the sites of both beauty and oppression within the semiotics of the everyday. Notable for her membership in the N12 group, she began organizing exhibitions and attracting international attention along with her peers during and immediately after her time as a student. Her most recent work has involved themes of discretion, secrecy, interpersonal communication, personal struggle, and the affect produced therein. Significantly, her work claims that this affect is all that fills up the empty space that dominates domesticity and everyday life. Uniquely, her practice rejects the feminine specificity idealized by so many of her peers in favor of more broadly universal explorations of social themes. Lim H.H. (1954) Lim is a Malaysian artist of Chinese heritage currently living in Rome. He expresses his conceptual art through painting, installation and self performance. His installation works highlight his interest in, and critique of, the dissimilation inherent in the everyday living reality of consumerism. Despite living in and surrounded by Western culture and patterns of thought, LIM's work still breathes a certain quality of Eastern philosophy. The visual objects he employs are not kept to a particular semantic meaning, but rather are reassigned as required by his artistic creations.
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Lin Tianmiao (1961) Lin is a highly regarded installation artist. She has made a career transforming silk, threads and textiles into elaborate works of art. Influenced by Ann Hamilton, Barbara Kruger and Kiki Smith, Lin has taken household objects and wrapped them in white thread, or reconfigured them in a way that express her conflicting feelings about a women’s everyday chores. She also experiments with photography and video. In 2002, she with her husband, the video artist, Wang Gongxin, created an installation ("Here? Or There?") involving photos, video and eerie sculptures and bizarre costumes. Lin Yilin (1964) Lin’s artistic practices have always been an energetic and witty mingling of social architecture and everyday life. In his main interest, the ways in which how we would ordinarily relate to spaces of communities amidst urban development, Lin tends to organize his artworks as a means of engaging the architecture of the space. The artist employs a variety of media, ranging from sculpture and installation to live actions, photography and videos featuring outdoor performances. Best known for his installation works made from stacking bricks, Lin was orginally trained as a sculptor, and later became interested in architecture and found brick walls an expressive means through which to explore the relationship between sculpture and architecture. For Lin, the bricked wall engenders a symbolic construction between the viewers and him. The wall acts itself, architecturally, in a repeating geometry that ebbs and flows according to the artist’s direct physical response to the place upon which the wall is embodied. Liu Bolin (1973) "A graduate from the Shandong College of Arts in 1995, Liu went on to obtain his Master of Fine Arts from Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2001. Having come of age during the early 1990s, Liu had witnessed the country's rapid economic growth and with it, extensive destruction of historical sites and the consequent social instability. Best known as ""The Invisible
Man"", Liu would cover himself with paint to perfectly ""disappear"" into the background; his ""Hiding in the city"" series of photographic works was originally inspired by the destruction of Suo Jia Cun, one of Beijing's largest artist villages, in 2005. ""I was a meaningless person, according to society. Those years made me feel like people can exist or completely disappear."" - Liu Bolin" Liu Chuang (1978) Since graduating from Hubei Art Academy in 2001, Liu has exhibited in a number of international museums, including Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art (Greece, 2004), Mediations Biennale (Poland, 2008), and Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art (Oslo, Norway 2007). Now living and working in Beijing, Liu first developed his artistic practice in the boomtown of Shenzhen and his oeuvre is a personal commentary on the effects of China's extraordinary urbanisation. Liu is a highly political artist, described as a "social interventionist whose practice seeks to destabilise the comforts of daily life through aesthetic disruption of social rules". Liu Jianhua (1962) At the age of 12, Liu was sent to work with his uncle, a Chinese arts and crafts master, in the city of Jingdezhen, China's historical capital of ceramic production since the Song Dynasty (9601279). Liu would hardly expect that ceramics would one day become his signature medium, albeit with very different meaning. Indeed, Liu has opened up a whole new horizon on the traditional appreciation of Chinese ceramics. His earlier "Regular Fragile" exhibition, using ceramics to copy ordinary objects from us – from a flower, a pair of shoes, children’s toys and even a pillow – to the piece of paper and bone showcased here, continue to amaze viewers, not only for their visual impact but also for their subtle zen meanings. "That's my deep interpretation of ceramics," Liu explains. "I especially don't like any focus on making ceramics itself. I try to explore an 'undeveloped' part of ceramics.
Almost nobody has ever thought that ceramics could be used in such a way." Unlike his peers who would often stick to one symbolic art language for years, Liu repeatedly goes beyond such constraints. Liu Wei (1972) Liu’s paintings are impressive in scale as well as in consistency. Mostly held in douche and dark colors, however, there is something unsettling and uncanny in his painted environments. Cryptic titles such as ‘Mentally Disabled People’s Thoughts Impossible to Aprove’, ‘Gambling Without Answer’, and ‘Superstition’s Implication’ also indicate that there is more at stake as what is visible to the eye. He elaborates on the notion of space, both interior and exterior, and how such spaces seem to construct their very own narrative. Often, these places are laden with anonymity and vastness, whether it be new industrial buildings or run-down generic habitats. Liu Weijian (1981) Now established as one of China's leading sculptors, Liu started out working in porcelain factories in his native Jiangxi province, in the city of Jingdezhen, world famous for its porcelain production. Later, he studied sculpture and is well known for his interpretations of China's emergence as the factory floor of the world. His sculpture and installation often recreates assembly lines, piles of electronic waste and broken porcelain figures. China makes goods for the world and the garbage left over from those goods often gets sent back to China. Liu collects some of it and packages it together for his installations, which sometimes show goods spilling out of crates, boxes and trucks. His ceramic and porcelain and plastic works are centered on China's modernization. Lu Hao (1969) Lu is well known for his models of Beijing, his playfulness with architecture and geographical images in rapidly evolving modern China. He is also known for his crystal palaces, his elaborate installations and his use of plastics to recreate stone and steel objects. He studied at
the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and now lives and works in Beijing. Lu Xinjian (1977) Having specialised in graphic design at Nanjing Arts Institute, China, Lu moved to the Netherlands and graduated with a MFA in Interactive Media and Environments. In 2006, he was awarded the Chaumont Studio prize at the International Poster Festival Chaumont in France. Lu has been widely published, with a number of solo and group exhibitions in China and around the world. Lui Chun Kwong (1956) With over 25 years' experience as a Fine Arts teacher at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Lui has been a mentor to many leading artists in Hong Kong as well as an established abstract painter in his own right. He has also witnessed the city's evolving art scene, from the early days as a British colony to the post-1997 concern with local identity, and finally to the "completely frivolous subject matters" of the current generation of artists. Lui's own artistic production has remained consistent - his signature abstract paintings of vertical stripes can be found in public and private collections worldwide.
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Ma Qiusha (1982) Ma's diverse portfolio of works range from painting, photography, video, installation and performance. With her debut in the "1+1" project at the 1st Triennial of Chinese art, Ma's style continues to break away from traditional art education. After graduating from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2005, she went on to study electronic integrated arts in the US. Ma's works are typically very private and more attuned to the expression of her own opinion. At the same time, she does not criticise but simply interacts with her audience in self-expression. As a result, her works carry tender but anxious undertones.
Ni Youyu (1984) Since graduating from the Fine Art College of Shanghai University in 2007, Ni has had numerous exhibitions around the world, including Kunstmuseum, Bern and the Greek State Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens. In the tradition of the literati of the Ming dynasty, Ni's creations focus on the nuances of art itself, exploring the aesthetic language and art historical concepts.
Pak Sheung Chuen (1977) Born in 1977, Fujian, educated and living in Hong Kong, Pak works across all media, including installations, photography, painting, and video. As an artist who has matured in terms of methodology, he focuses on the realities of everyday life, revealing their uniqueness and eccentricities, which in turn enable the exploration of life's uncharted potential. Consequently, these possibilities of everyday life, suppressed by the grand narratives of modernity, become the centre of artistic expression and assume new meanings. Pak won the Best Artist award at the 2012 Chinese Contemporary Art Awards (CCAA).
Peng Hungchi (1969) Peng creates humorous drawings, sculptures, interactive installations, performances and videos mainly featuring the dog, as the dog becomes the metaphor for us. Peng previously worked with wind-up toys - shiny, plastic, absurd, obsolete, throwaway – to convey themes of futility and pessimism to reflect on the current global economic situation. Toys are common and represent the majority voice, yet are also receptacles for one's hopes and feelings. And for a child, the toy, just like the pet dog, creates a link to the world of pure innocence, a complete unadulterated place, which Peng craves to recapture through his art.
Qiu Anxiong (1972) Qiu is one of China's emerging new media artists. His inspiration often comes from Chinese classical texts and the effect of traditional culture often resonates in his works. He completed a series of abstract oil paintings in the ink-and-wash style that carry the same feeling as traditional Chinese classical landscapes. For Qiu, “to paint the landscape on canvas is to be symbolized by business.” Qiu was a student of Zhang Xiaogang and Ye Yongqing in Sichuan. In addition to these two artists, he is also influenced by the works of South African artist, William Kentridge, and the animation studios at the University of Kassel.
Pan Jian (1975) Born in Heijing County, a relatively "multi-cultural" region (Mongolians, Uygurs and Kazakhs are close neighbours), Pan's childhood memories are not typically "Chinese". Rather, they are peppered with visions of the Gobi Desert, donkey carts and poplar trees. Pan moved regularly throughout his life and this unsettled quality is reflected in his works. A lot of the artist's personality comes through his paintings; many of his monumental-sized works have the impact of wide-screen cinemas - Pan has always loved the movies to the extent that he even worked as a film editor during the late 1990s.
Peng Wei (1974) With a BA in Oriental Culture and a MA in Philosophy, Peng is a multi-talented artist who also worked in Beijing as editor of Art Magazine between 2000 and 2006. Currently a court artist with the Beijing Art Academy, Peng is best known for her delicate ink colour paintings of ancient Chinese costumes, a symbol of China's cultural heritage. Her lyrical combination of literati painting with modern forms evoke memories of a bygone era and represent a search for a new cultural identity in contemporary society.
Qiu Jingtong (1980) Qiu is becoming increasingly well-known for her insightful sculptural works, commenting on Chinese changing values. In addition to various group exhibitions around China, Qiu has also been collected by Today Art Museum in Beijing.
MadeIn Under the moniker MadeIn, Shanghai-based artist Xu Zhen employs a pool of young artists to conceive and execute vast quantities of work in a range of media. Since the group’s inception in 2009, MadeIn’s paintings, sculptures and installations have frequently been shown in both solo presentations and group exhibitions. The group’s inaugural show, "Seeing One’s Own Eyes", sought to emulate the appearance of a collection of contemporary works by imaginary artists from the Middle East. The fact that these works teeter on the border between the genuine and the unbelievable, providing a challenge to viewers’ perceptions, is MadeIn’s key conceptual strategy. Miao Xiaochun (1964) Miao is renowned for his photographs of contemporary China, vast cityscapes which record technological development, painting an alien view of his homeland and envisioning a new dynastic era. Typically printed in black and white, Miao’s photos are at once enchantingly serene and threateningly industrial. Miao uses photography to engage the viewer in an ultra-modern way. By using digital process to create his subject ‘from scratch’, Miao’s photographs authenticate a virtual world rather than document reality. Similar to video game graphics and ‘screen shots’, Miao’s images involve the viewer by casting them as ‘avatars’ within the action.
Nie Zhengjie (1982) Nie graduated from Chongqing University in 2006 and over the past seven years, he's participated in numerous international biennales and group exhibitions, including "China - The new generation of artists" at Museo Della Permanente Milan (2008) and the 12th World Chinese Art Conference in Hong Kong (2010) . In 2012, Nie was the winner of the prestigious John Moores Painting Prize for his work, "Being".
Pei Li Pei, a recent Hangzhou graduate, burst onto the scene in Beijing with a graffiti and punk rock performance piece, but her first solo exhibition Taikang Space, Beijing in 2010 is a poignant glimpse of old China in the rear-view mirror. Pei frequently appears in her own work as if she is searching for her own identity through the persona she adopts. “Our generation is independent, thinking but isolated and lonely. We never tell our parents what we actually think. Nothing about our hopes, aspirations, desires or fears. We have freedom and, at times, mess around with our life, but have no compass to steer us.” Thus the search for meaning resonates throughout her work.
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Qiu Zhijie (1969) Since 2003, Qiu has been developing the concept of "total art", which is defined as an artistic practice based on cultural research, turning specific sociocultural evenets into catalysts for art-making, with the aim of proactively affecting the viewer's daily life. This total art aspires to create works that challenge mainstream conventional values in order to offer new perspectives on life. Qiu's concept emerged from his extensive experiences as a curator, artist, critic and art historian. Similar to Joseph Beuys' "social sculpture" in Germany, Qiu is akin to a cultural archaeologist who not only digs into the past and present, but sculpts towards the future.
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Rong Rong (1968) Rong Rong belongs to the famous generation of artists that represents the birth of experimental art in China. After the Yuan Mingyuan was shut down by the authorities in the early 90’s, different artists of this avant-garde art community scattered to different parts of Beijing. Rong Rong belonged to the core of a group which settled in the ‘East Village’. Today the ‘East Village’ is better known as Da Shanzi or 798 Factory Art District and is considered to be the most dynamic art zone in China. Rong Rong is known for documenting the unique life-style of the East Village community with famous landmark performances such as Zhang Huan’s ’12 Square Meters Head (1994). Rong Rong’s photographs are an autobiography of a certain lifestyle as well as landscape of Beijing. Images of dilapidated buildings, bleak walls, rubble and dust are a metaphor of the collapse and reconstruction of a modern identity and state of mind. The parallel between architectural and human transformations carries a lyrical sentiment which highlights and distinguishes Rong Rong’s work as a landmark in Chinese contemporary photography.
Sha Yeya (1970) Another founding member of the Yangjiang Calligraphy Group, Sha regularly collaborates with Zheng Guogu on various art projects and have also built three postmodernist buildings in Yangjiang. In addition to his architectural projects, Sha's artistic output centres around contemporary calligraphy. His works are typically based on news articles, tabloid headlines and even TV newscasts, to create his own version of ink brush writing. Shang Chengxiang (1985) One of the youngest artists in the collection, Shang graduated from Luxun Academy of Fine Arts in 2008. Over the past few years, he has had a number of exhibitions around China and his work can also be found in several public collections, including the United States Consulate in Shenyang. Shang's poetic scenes are painted with such skill that they appear almost photographic; at the same time their depth of emotions and poignancy belie the artist's youth. Shang Yixin (1980) A graduate of the China Academy of Arts, Shang now lives and works in Hangzhou. Since 2006, he has had numerous group exhibitions around China and his first solo show took place in Shanghai in 2007. A contemporary take on Op Art, Shang's paintings explore the perceptual and experiential aspects of art. Shen Yuan (1959) Shen became involved in radical avant-garde art movements in Xiamen in the late 1980's. Living and working in Paris with her partner, Huang Yong Ping, since 1990, she forms part of a generation of artists who left China to pursue their artistic practice. Shen frequently focuses on everyday objects, examining the metaphorical meanings behind them and conceptually shifting the physical relationships between them. Such a quality is expressed best when she writes, "Art for me is a way of "finding reincarnation in another's corpse”.
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Sheng Qui (1965) Sheng came to public attention in 1985 as a key member of the "New Art Movement" in China, which involved the participants painting their bodies or wrapping themselves in white cloth while running on the Great Wall, cycling, doing martial arts and other symbol-laden activities. Sheng left Beijing for Europe and in a ceremony marking his departure, he cut off the small finger of his left hand and buried it in a flower pot. Today, Sheng's works centre around issues of identity, sexuality and communication. Many of his recent photos feature the artist himself wearing a military shirt (pinned with a red ribbon), his head covered in red silk, and a bird or butterfly attached by a string to his penis which is bound in white bandages. Another common feature of his work involves asking people to shake his mutilated left hand. Shi Guorui (1964) Having graduated from Nanjing Normal University specialising in photography, Shi has exhibited in solo and group shows domestically and internationally since 2001. As a master of camera obscura, Shi typically works in large formats, with works spanning over 4 metres in length. "The Great Wall" (one is now in the collection of the Pompidou Museum, Paris) and "Shanghai waterfront" are among his two most recognised projects, each requiring 6 months of planning and execution. The work in this collection, "Himalayas Everest", forms part of this third project, which focuses on Mount Everest. Song Kun (1977) Hailed as the most promising young female artist during the 2005 Triennial of Chinese Art, Song's work examines the minutiae of daily existence. The artist portrays an inherently individual perspective, collecting on canvas the concerns, fears, desires, growth, happiness, and confusion of daily life: the fleeting, innermost feelings of her generation. The meaning of her paintings lies in both their description of the physical and the emotional; they represent, perhaps, a sugar-coated protest against contemporary life. While her paintings are less overtly political than many of her predecessors and contemporaries, she uses her own unique visual language to give
expression to the concerns and desires of everyday life, building an archive of those moments of peak emotion, cognition, and memory. Song Yuanyuan (1981) Song graduated from Luxun Academy of Fine Arts in 2005, specialising in photography. Since then, he has had a number of group shows around China. Recently, Song has expanded into painting as a medium, with his first solo painting exhibition in early 2011. The subjects of these paintings are typically derived from images downloaded from the internet, rather than the artist's own photographs. Sun Xun (1980) Sun creates animations that combine hand-drawn renderings and traditional materials with new media. He studied printmaking at the China Academy of Fine Arts, but a burgeoning interest in moving images led him to found his own animation studio in 2006. To create his meticulous animations, Sun produces a multitude of drawings that incorporate text within the image. His subjects range from elements found in world history and politics, to natural organisms. He then films the drawings, sequentially one at a time, to create a sense of movement and suggest the passing of time, the machinations of history, and the beauty inherent in simple forms. Sun’s work plies the uncontested surface of politicized truth. By tying together the tenets of academic drawing with political cartoons and projecting them into the realms of installation and film, he manifests his multifaceted imagistic world as improvisational theatre. Sun Yuan & Peng Yu (1972/1974) With their sardonic humour, oblique metaphors, and fearlessly iconoclastic approach to genre, media, and subject matter, Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, a Beijing-based duo, have rapidly become the most closely watched artists in Chinese art. In the late 1990s, they took the Beijing art scene by storm with their underground performances and installations, confronting conventional moral codes and values, often employing blood, human and animal cadavers, exhibiting a fully antagonistic approach the viewer's presumed moral complacency. Since then, Sun and Peng's
unforgettable works could be found in the 5th Lyon Biennale in 2000, Yokohama's 2001 International Triennial of Contemporary Art, the First Guangzhou Triennial in 2001, and in the China Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005.
Tang Song (1960) One of the older artists in the collection, Tang graduated from Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now China Academy of Art) in 1989. Tang is perhaps best known for his participation in the "gunshot incident" at the China/Avant Garde exhibition at the National Art Museum of China in 1989, which was itself a turning point in the development of Chinese contemporary art. Over the intervening years, Tang has developed a unique and independent artistic language, creating works across a range of media (painting, installation, and performance). Tsai Charwei (1980) Tsai graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design (USA) in 2002 and completed her postgraduate degree at L'Ecole Nationale Superieure des BeauxArt (Paris) in 2010. Now living and working between Taipei and Paris, Tsai’s practice draws on an interest in calligraphy and her study of Buddhism, in particular the ideas of transience and impermanence that are at the heart of Buddhist philosophy. Tsai’s choice of materials reflects the location in which her work is made; the materials create direct and intimate connections with the audience, and the writing of the texts upon them is incorporated into the works as a form of performance. Over the years, Tsai has been exhibited in many leading international museums and institutions. Her works are also part of the permanent collections of Mori Art Museum (Tokyo), Queensland Art Gallery (Brisbane, Australia) and Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation (Sydney, Australia). Tsang Kin Wah (1976) Tsang studied at Camberwell College of Arts (London) and Chinese University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong). He has had solo shows at Yvon Lambert (New York), and more recently at Pékin Fine Arts (Beijing). He has also exhibited at the Xth Lyon Biennial, MOCA Shanghai, National Museum of Art (Oslo), KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art (Helsinki), Louis Vuitton: A Passion for Creation at the Hong Kong Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art (Moscow), among others.
W Tsang Tsou Choi (1921) Ever since Tsang, self-professed "Kowloon Emperor," passed away in 2007, the corpus of works and stories he has left behind has spawned a host of reactions and a spectrum of implications within the Hong Kong community. In a postmortem surge of popularity, Tsang has been touted an icon of cultural preservation and the embodiment of the city's collective memory. In contribution to the longevity of Chinese traditional arts, Tsang Tsou Choi has wielded his ink brush all over the city. His textual graffiti has been seen on much of Hong Kong's "public furniture," the content reading of his own thoughts on the colonial government. Tsang first began covering bridges, electrical contractors, postboxes and others with his calligraphy when he was 35. In 1997, Hong Kong Arts Center and Goethe-Institut collaborated in a historical exhibition "The Street Calligraphy Of Kowloon Emperor" in hopes of instigating a re-evaluation of the artistic value behind the Kowloon Emperor's work. The earnest effort reached its pinnacle in 2003 when Tsang, the very first Hong Kong artist to have been bestowed with the honour, was invited to participate in the 50th Venice Biennale. Subsequent to his passing away in 2007, much of Tsang Tsou Choi's calligraphy has been eradicated save a single pillar at the Tsim Sha Tsui Ferry Pier. Tseng Yuching (1978) Tseng belongs to the new generation of Taiwanese artists specialising in video productions and mixed media installations. Focusing on the inner psychology of ordinary people and largely based on personal experiences, Tseng's videos explore issues such as memory, consiousness and feelings such as grief, sadness, shame and love. Tseng has had numerous exhibitions around the world and also represented Taiwan at Documenta 12 in 2007.
Wan Zhenyu (1979) Wan (also known as Li Cheng) graduated from Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication in 2005. Since then, he's had several group exhibition and his first solo show took place at Art Seasons, Beijing in 2011. The show, "Future Supreme", was very well received and has earned him critical acclaim. Wan's oeuvre is characterised by lively, futuristic imagery juxtaposed with realistic figures. "Unconscious creation" is a key feature of his works - Wan arranges realistic images within fantasy spaces to create a visual experience that is oddly familiar yet surreal. Wang Du (1956) Wang is a contemporary Chinese artist who focuses on threedimensional painted objects. Traditionally trained in Guangzhou, he now lives and has his studio in Paris. His works show strong influences of contemporary Western art and culture, and represent his own notions of modernity and development, and his personal relationship with both China and the West. His latest works have turned to large-scale sculptures representing crumpled up newspaper, either en masse in trash cans, buildings or other repositories, or individually, in giant exploded versions of ordinary, everyday trash. Wang Gongxin (1960) Today, Wang is one of China's most respected video artists. Wang made his first video, "The Brooklyn Sky"(1995) as part of an installation he set up inside his Beijing courtyard home. Playing on an American saying that if you dig deep enough you will reach China, the piece expressed Wang's nostalgia for Brooklyn, but also suggested a new exchange of information between China and the West. While Zhang Peili was the earliest pioneer of video art in China, Wang was instrumental in advancing the movement in China. "Wang Gongxin brought two things to Chinese contemporary art," says Pi Li, renowned Beijing-based art critic. "The first is that he emphasized technique. And the second thing he brought was a logical method for bringing a concept into reality."
Wang Guangle (1976) "If I am to paint, I will paint the passage of time itself…which concerns the essence of my life." According to Wang, people in northen Fujian used to buy a coffin when they turned 60. They kept it at home and each year painted it with red lacquer to celebrate their survival and remind them of their impending death. Each year they’d add another layer, until they died. As a child, he saw his grandfather painting his coffin, and the memory inspired his Coffin Paint series. Wang Jianwei (1958) After receiving his master's degree in oil painting at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts and developing a career as a painter, Wang shifted his practice to performance works, video installations, playwriting, and documentary filmmaking. He applies an anthropological method to his work through which he builds a visual inventory of Chinese urban society and its evolution. Wang's documentaries are considered, skeptical reviews of microlocal phenomena, such as the increasingly brutal effects of contemporary urban development in Chinese metropolitan centers. In 1997, Wang was the first Chinese artist to participate in Documenta in Kassel, Germany. Wang Jin (1962) Wang is is a skillful photographer, sculptor and performance artist. His works are filled with social commentary. In Henan province he created huge blocks of ice and placed toys and consumer goods inside -- allowing residents to hammer and chisel away in a mad frenzy that said something about the consumer madness sweeping China. He has also sculpted huge porcelain bones and manufactured ancient Chinese clothing with modern techniques and materials. Much of his work defies easy explanation or categorization, except to say it is provocative. Wang studied Chinese painting at Zhejiang Academy of fine arts and graduated in 1987. He lives and works in Beijing now.
Wang Keping (1949) Wang is one of China's pioneering artists. Wang was a member of the experimental Stars Group of artists that formed in 1979, breaking with China's propaganda art and setting the stage for avant-garde art in China. Huang Rui and Ai Wei Wei were also members. Wang's unique wooden sculptures, including one that featured a Buddha like Mao figure, shocked the art world in Beijing. Today Wang lives in Paris and continues to work in wood. His figures are of a powerful vividness, although they also have a touch of melancholy. In one string of his work, Wang is particularly interested in exploring and negotiating the possibilities of how to artistically render the female body. Visually informed by an amalgam of prehistoric ice-age statuettes and 20th century artists like Constantin Brancusi, his preference is for exaggerated proportions. Wang Qingsong (1966) Wang first won recognition as a painter in the mid-1990s through his membership in the Gaudy Art group, a movement influenced by the work of Jeff Koons and championed by China’s most influential art critic, Li Xianting. Since turning from painting to photography in the late 1990s, Beijing-based artist Wang has created compelling works that convey an ironic vision of 21stcentury China’s encounter with global consumer culture. Working in the manner of a motion-picture director, he conceives elaborate scenarios involving dozens of models that are staged on film studio sets. The resulting color photographs employ knowing references to classic Chinese artworks to throw an unexpected light on today’s China, emphasizing its new material wealth, its uninhibited embrace of commercial values, and the social tensions arising from the massive influx of migrant workers to its cities. Wang Tianxuan (1984) Belonging to the latest generation of painters to emerge from China, Wang studied at Luxun Academy of Art, under the mentorship of renowned artists including Li Dafang and Gong Ligong. Wang has held a number of exhibitions around China and many of his works demonstrate his personal fascination with Buddhism.
X Wang Xingwei (1969) Wang is a well regarded painter known for his continuous bold reinvention of styles and clever techniques. Wang attained stardom in the 1990s by recycling recognizable icons and imagery from art and cultural histories, weaving his own portraits and life scenarios into the international visual canon. A skilled draughtsman, Wang deliberately gave these classics a rugged look and dark mood. Wang has recently reintroduced narrative elements into his works, portraying contemporary Chinese professionals such as a nurse or soldier, with glaring eyes and angry expressions. His latest series of works makes apparent and ingenious reference to a whole range of movements and genres in art history, including cartoon illustration, hard-edge painting and constructivism. Wang Yuyang (1979) One of the leading new media artists working in Beijing, Wang regards technology as his primary medium. “I am curious about how machines are made...I want to see the hope and life in ordinary objects, to make them breathe so the whole world will breathe with us.” His works, which range from highly conceptual installations to paintings, photography and video, explore the traditional Chinese philosophy of yin/yang, the relationship between 0 and 1, black and white, on and off. Over the years, Wang's works have been exhibited in musems and triennials in China and Europe. Wong Adrian (1980) Born in Chicago and graduated with a BA in Art History and MA in Developmental Psychology from Stanford University, Wong's Western upbringing sets him apart from other artists in dslcollection. Having moved back to Hong Kong in 2005, he now splits his time between Hong Kong and Los Angeles. Wong began exhibiting his works in San Francisco while completing his master's thesis on developmental psychology. Through a variety of media and subject matters (installations, sculptures and videos), Wong explores the intricacies of his relationship with the environment (culturally, experientially and historically), set within fictionalised contexts. Wong is the co-founder of Embassy Projects and currently teaches sculpture at Virginia
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Commonwealth University. His recent exhibitions include the traveling exhibition “Troglodyte See the Light,” “A Passion for Creation” for the Louis Vuitton Fondation pour la Création, and the Hong Kong Sculpture Biennial. His videos have been screened internationally at the Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Bangkok Experimental Film Festival, LOOP Media Art Center, and Kunsthalle Wien. Wu Chi Tsung (1981) After 11 years of fine art education in painting and sculpture, Wu began experimenting with video in 2002. In his senior year at Taipei National University of Arts, he won the Taipei Arts Award and in 2006, he was nominated for the Arts Mundi Prize, the most lucrative prize in the international art world. Now at the age of 31, Wu's career path is representative of the entire younger generation of artists artists who have been able to express themselves freely, having been exposed to more diverse influences. Over the past ten years, Wu has been invited to participate in more than 50 international exhibitions. Wu Shanzhuan (1960) Wu rose to prominence in the 1980s as a conceptual artist known for his experimental works with language, the use of big character posters and other textual pop references, a kind of precursor to Gu Wenda and Xu Bing, who are masters at toying with language and meaning. Wu’s pivotal 1986 installation, Red Humour International, laid the foundation for his highly idiosyncratic and sophisticated approach to painting, which forgoes image in favour of political jingoism, religious scripture, and advertising slogans. Wu’s canvases appear as a combination of graffiti and expressionism. Rendered with painterly spontaneity, words, symbols, and diagrams battle for space in a virtual terrain between conveyed meaning and pictorial abstraction. Wu continues to collaborate with Icelandic artist, Inga Thorsdottir, on a number of projects. Wu Yiming (1966) Wu's concern with individual identity is so astutely captured in his works that it would not be an overstatement to say that that he has found, within portraiture’s limits, the most adequate aesthetic style. A combination of individuality and anonymity informs his subtly
poignant paintings. The figures depicted are presented as both intimate and mythic. The most significant feature of his characters is a paradoxical notion of blankness: his portraits lack facial features and any indication of individuality, alluding to an escape from or intrusion into an unwanted reality. Wu's works go well beyond a simple analogy to the present state of Chinese society, with its frenzied development accompanied by estrangement and identity-loss. Instead, the images suggest a strong engagement with themes of cultural amnesia.
Xiao Xu (1983) Xiao graduated with a MFA from the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in Chongqing in 2010. Currently living in Beijing, Xiao represents a generation of younger artists predisposed to explore the solitude and fantasy found in Chinese literati painting. Specialising in elaborate ink paintings that are filled with nostalgia and mystery, many of Xiao's paintings appear to be enshrouded in mist and fog, metaphors for the search of meaning and longing for another world. Xiao applies delicate layers of ink wash to his works, creating a semi-transparent depth into a dreamlike world. Xie Molin (1979) "A graduate of Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Arts, Xie has been experimenting with new methods of painting for over ten years. His focus is on expanding the visual possibilities of painting through innovative technology and materials. Following the mechanics of a cutting plotter, Xie invented his own painting machine, which traces and scrapes his uniquedesigned patterns onto thick layers of paint. Each of Xie's abstract paintings is executed with absolute precision and symmetry. The main characteristics of my painting are personal aesthetics and the accuracy of machine control. In this way, more focus is possible on the exploration of the depth and visual appeal of the painting. - Xie Molin" Xu Qu (1978) Xu graduated from Nanjing Art Institute in 2002 and completed a postgraduate program under Prof. John Armleder at the Braunschweig University of Art in Germany. A member of the art collective, GUEST, Xu's solo career has also gone from strength to strength, with numerous exhibitions around the world. Xu's oeuvre is characterised by their physicality: for his highly acclaimed video work, "Upstream", Xu and a friend navigated a rubber dinghy along the canals in Beijing, ending near the central government's headquarters where they were stopped by the police. Such deliberate and symbolic action is a key method of expression in the artist's work.
Y Xu Tan (1957) Xu’s work deals with the hidden motivations and intentions of individuals through a high-tech analysis of their vocabulary. “Searching with Keywords” is the New York leg of an ongoing project which the artist launched in 2005. It began with a series of interviews of different groups of people who are active in Chinese society: a first set of interviews were carried in the Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park, a sort of Silicon Valley near Shanghai, a second set covers different cities and people from all walks of life, from writers, to real estate developers, to Buddhist monks, to businessmen; and a third was conducted among the artistic community in China. The video interviews were then carefully analyzed, and Xu Tan has identified 100 keywords based on meaning (social values), frequency (repetition), sensitivity (political), and popularity (trendyness). These Keywords reveal much about the values and motivations of contemporary Chinese society, they give a pulse of the current social climate, and present an insight into the collective social consciousness of China. Xu Zhen (1977) Xu's art-making has crossed over various disciplines, from installation, photography, video to performance and painting. Executed with a critical intelligence, low-tech subtlety and often in forms of theatric pranks, Xu’s work focuses on human sensitivity (Rainbow, 1998; In Just a Blink of an Eye, 2005–07) and dramatizes the humdrum of urban living (ShanghArt Supermarket, 2007). His recent pieces have employed more provocative lexicons and social interventions so as to confront sociopolitical issues and taboos within the context of contemporary China.
Xue Song (1962) Xue (nee Weng Xuesong) graduated from the Painting Department of Chongqing Fine Arts School in 1985. Learning to paint from a very young age has prepared for him a well-grounded modeling skill. After experimenting with various contemporary art forms, he has recently returned to oil painting to explore the "vividness" and spirit pursued by the ancient Chinese literati. Garden rock and animals are two of his key subjects, in which he unveils a spiritual world where the atmosphere created by the painting is conversational with the soul of its creator. Following neorealism, pop political, gaudy art and art brooding in the consumption and digital era, Xue’s painting represents a unique artistic style featuring the nature and individuality of Chinese culture. His signature series “Garden Rock” embodies the traditional and contemporary Chinese humanistic philosophies as well as high wisdom and essence of life.
Yan Lei (1965) Graduated from the print-making department of the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in 1991, Yan is considered one of the bad boys of China's contemporary art scene. Best known for his daring and psychological portraits of blurry and confused scenes, Yan borrows from the surrounding art world, but also rails against it in his portraits and his public appearances. His images are sometimes psychedelic, like his colorful, shimmering wheel portaits. In one newsworthy prank, fellow artist, Hong Hao, and Yan created fake invitations to Documenta and sent them to Chinese artists, who were unaware that they were being taken in. Yan is also known for his videos and installations. Yang Fudong (1971) Yang's films and photographs articulate multiple perspectives. His works investigate the structure and formation of identity through myth, personal memory and lived experience. Each of his works is a dramatic existential experience and a challenge to take on. His work is open-ended and inconclusive, therefore open to individual interpretation. Each film and video is about the human condition. He mostly portrays his own generation of individuals in their late 20’s and early 30’s, young people who seem confused and appear to hover between the past and present. Yang's work epitomizes how the recent and rapid modernization of China has overthrown traditional values and culture. He skillfully balances this dichotomy to create works endowed with classic beauty and timelessness. He seeks through multiple vignettes to offer the poetics of place and people as an alternative to the prominent politics of power. Yang Jiechang (1956) Yang belongs to a generation of artists who left China to Europe in the late 1980s and built up a successful international career. Yang made his reputation with large monochrome black ink paintings, the “Hundred Layers of Ink” series (1989-98), which was unveiled to the public at the “Les magiciens de la terre” exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in 1989. These meditative works combine eastern tradition and spirituality with modern and post-modern concept. More significantly, they reflect Yang’s training in calligraphy and Chinese ink brush painting during his studies at the Foshan Folk Art Institute (19741978) and at the Guangdong Fine Arts Academy (1978 to 1982). Applying layers and layers of ink
on rice paper Yang created mental landscapes such that even the black is full of light while the two-dimensional plane shows great depth. The inevitable connotations of blackness – mourning, death, the void – are juxtaposed with refracted light, suggesting renewal, resurrection and the full. Yang Liming (1975) Now working and living in Beijing, Yang's mesmerising “monochrome” paintings communicate the meditative powers of music and art. Known for his habit of listening to classical music while working, it is not difficult to see the melody and rhythm in his works. With their intense palette and dense calligraphic lines, the paintings seem to vibrate from within the canvases and echo into the viewer's world. Since graduating from the Art College of Sichuan University in 1999, Yang has had numerous exhibitions worldwide. Yang Yong (1975) Yang moved to Shenzhen after studying oil painting in her hometown of Sichuan. After arriving in Shenzhen, one of the fastest growing cities of the south coast of China, Yang started to work with video using the style of Warhol/Paul Morrisey; then by keeping the use photography, she documented the underground scenery of Shenzhen using Nan Goldin s style. Yang is of a generation of artists with no memory of either Imperial China or the Cultural Revolution, and the mostly 20-something women depicted are part of her generation. Her most extraordinary and controversial work has been her portraits of prostitutes. ‘Identity’ in the context of a contemporary Chinese city such as Shenzhen can only be understood in terms of an accelerated modernity and the impact of global and globalizing media. Yang Yongliang (1980) Yang is a young artist from Shanghai who studied traditional Chinese art such as shui mo painting and calligraphy from his early age. His teacher was Yang Yang who is the professor of traditional art at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Yang Yongliang cleverly recreated "Cun", the main representation of Chinese Shanshui paintings by using a camera, the contemporary visual device, to express his creativity for the subjects he is concerned with. He combined the traditional Chinese paintings with the modern
Shanghai city life and the details reveal current urban culture. The scenes of construction sites, large cranes, traffic signs and fly-overs those all Shanghai citizens are familiar with and all have become critical elements in his artworks. Yang Zhenzhong (1968) The desire to challenge normative notions of social behavior informs the practices of Yang Zhenzhong's work. He is preoccupied with China’s intrinsic disharmony and extreme discrepancies and often touches upon taboos such as death and out-dated social norms. His approach is metaphorical rather than narrative. His videos often start from witty ideas, employing image repetition and rhythmic coordination of sound, language and image. Ye Linghan (1985) Since graduating from China Academy of Art in 2009 where he studied traditional mural painting and drawing, Ye lived and worked in Shanghai and recently moved to Beijing. In the few short years since graduation, he has exhibited extensively in China and overseas, including MOCA SHanghai and Ben Brown Fine Arts, London. Ye Nan (1984) Trained under Qiu Zhijie of the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, Ye engages us directly with great, sometimes imponderable questions. Distinguished by his use of a deep red palette, Ye's works indicate a strong sense of curiosity and acceptance towards new things. Yeung Tong Lung (1956) Yeung moved to Hong Kong in 1973 as a teenager. In addition to painting full-time, he had previously worked as a mural artist and set painter for interior designers, photographers and film directors. Despite not having any formal qualifications, he is considered one of Hong Kong's best oil painters, with works exhibited in the HK Museum of Art and the HK Economic and Trade Office in Geneva. Yeung's works deal with the landscape and the space of people in both physical and psychological states. Yin Zhaoyang (1970) Graduated from the print department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1996, Yin's work, while squarely situated within the context of contemporary Chinese painting, directly references the western tradition of the 1960’s and 1970’s – recalling the work of Gerhard Richter and
Andy Warhol. Unlike the genre of political pop, gaudy art, or kitsch, within which the image of Mao is so often positioned, Yin presents these powerful images within an atmosphere of memory and ambiguous reflection. Working from photographs of the living Mao, both official and unofficial, as well as from images of memorial monuments, Yin explores the distanced relevance of Mao Zedong to a society that has largely repudiated the policies of the Great Leap forward and the Cultural Revolution. Yu Aishan (1981) Currently living and working in London, Yu holds an MFA from the Slade School of Art in London and a BA from Sichuan Academy of Fine Art in China. Her work has been shown in numerous group exhibitions throughout China and UK. Yu's recent paintings intuitively explore her personal interest in photographic realism and non-representational textures. She explores the field of portraiture through this combination to express the inner emotions of modern day humanity. Chromatically muted but melancholically seductive, her paint touches wood only to reluctantly register some ghostly presence. Time appears suspended, held in some precarious balance between the different realms. Yu Hong (1966) Yu graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Oil Painting from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 1988, and completed her Masters degree in 1995. Her artistic practice revolves around her personal experience as a woman, taking inspiration from both her own life and the lives of others around her. The world that she creates through her art encapsulates a sense of time and memory that is intermingled in the delicate, often domestic scenes that she portrays, resulting in large-scale works that are personal and emotionally reflective. Only rarely in the entire history of Chinese art has the female point of view been depicted in such an understanding and understated manner. Yu regularly appropriates iconic western and eastern classical antiquity in the attempt to create artworks that are universal, transcending all cultural barriers. Her autobiographical approach to the art world, friends, family and personal experiences against the upheavals of recent Chinese history, give worldchanging events a more human significance and puts private
Z milestones into a much wider context. As one of China's most renowned female artists, Yu has exhibited extensively around the world and her works can be found in leading public collections, including Ludwig Gallery (Germany) and Singapore Art Museum. Yuan Yuan (1984) Yuan presents intimate canvases in frames, "Polaroid inspired paintings", made from Jindezhen porcelain, a borderline kitschiness that’s only exacerbated by the subject matter: young Chinese girls, many posing with flowers or balloons or, in one case, a camera. Yuan translates photographic elements — like the washed-out white shock of a camera’s flash — in a way that can be interesting, but ultimately she excels when she leaves human beings out of the picture entirely. Her larger, abstracted landscape works such as "Castle" are aesthetically more intriguing than the sentimental portraits.
Zeng Fanzhi (1964) Zeng's paintings are immediately recognisable by their signature expressionistic style, an effect that lends provocative sensations of underlying violence, psychological tension, or supernatural aura to his lavishly rendered canvases. With subjects ranging from portraits and rural landscapes to politically charged motifs, Zeng infuses the everyday veneer of shared experience with an ambience of transgression, reflective of both the rapidly changing terrain of contemporary Chinese culture and the negotiation of personal identity within this societal flux. Zeng's magnificent landscapes express the vast conceptual gulf between individual cognition and the actuality of environment. Painting with two brushes simultaneously, Zeng uses one to describe his subject, while the other meanders the canvas, leaving traces of his subconscious through processes. Through this combination of painterly realism and 'automatic' expression, Zeng's landscapes are transformed into near abstract fields; the depicted people and places merging both memory and imagination. Zhang Chunhong (1971) "To me, Chinese contemporary art is like a bird let out of a cage." The daughter of art teachers whose two sisters are also artists, Zhang was schooled from an early age in the rigours of gongbi, the classical ink brush technique rendering subjects with intricate precision. Now living in the US, Zhang has been widely exhibited in China and internationally. Zhang Dali (1963) Zhang's work actively engages with the rapidly changing environment in China. Zhang started working in portraiture as one of Beijing's first graffiti artists, spraying and carving heads into the walls of the hundreds of buildings scheduled for destruction. Working across a wide variety of media - from urban art, to archiving photographs of Mao, and large scale installations - Zhang's portraits document a contemporary social history of a culture in radical development and flux. Chinese Offspring is one of Zhang's best known works. Consisting of 15 cast resin figures suspended from the ceiling, each sculpture is a representation of a
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migrant construction worker, a vast underclass who contribute to the modernisation process at it most visible level. Since 2003, Zhang has made 100 of these effigies in tribute to their unsung heroism. Zhang's work not only champions the individual plights of these transient labourers, but also records the one of the most important phenomena of new Chinese order: the growing schism between poverty and wealth. Zhang Ding (1980) Mixing installation and video-art, Zhang is quickly emerging as one of the most provocative and intriguing of China's new generation of artists. Unapologetically voyeuristic, Zhang's installation ”Pry” (2005ongoing) explores the relationship between the viewer and the viewed, superiority and inferiority, exploiter and exploited. This is done with rare sensitivity and nonjudgmental loyalty towards featured destinies, all of which share a common denominator of difference. These differences are manifested sexually, religiously and politically, and often with severe consequences to the protagonists. The installation, which also incorporates photographs, belongs to the tradition of socially conscious documentary film. Zhang Ding’s interest in the personal stories of anonymous individuals can be seen in his archival project on missing persons. Here, he appropriates the visual imagery of missing people by photographing missing person flyers, often spotted in nearby public spaces. He paradoxically stresses the uncertainty while manifesting the image of the lost person through a second representation. It is an archival impulse that reveals an interest in memory, loss and personal narratives. Zhang Enli (1965) For Zhang, painting is a process that stems from his own memories and the complicated experiences of aging. In his works, Zhang takes familiar objects and forces us to look at them again, like revisiting an old photo album. His brushstrokes are slightly exaggerated and cartoonish, yet they seem reminiscent of a classical Chinese style. The objects in Zhang’s paintings he finds inspiration for in many different places, such as
pages torn from magazines or things in shops. More interestingly though, Zhang often uses a camera that he carries with him everyday to capture images he wants to paint. Zhang Huan (1965) Zhang's works are both highly personal and politicised, dealing with complex issues of identity, spiritualism, vulnerability, and transgression. His practice focuses on no one particular media but rather incorporates a wide variety of tactics – from performance to photography, installation, sculpture, and painting -- utilising each method for its physical and symbolic associations. This unique approach to making reinforces the interconnectivity of the concepts and recurrent motifs running throughout of Zhang's work, and mirrors an underlying sentiment of shared human experience and bond. Zhang Jiebai (1980) Now living and working in Beijing, Zhang graduated from Paris' renowned Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 2008. Despite his youth, Zhang has already gained international recognition, with several solo shows in Geneva and Paris even before graduation. The most salient characteristic of Zhang's paintings is their haunting pallor. With a restrained palette of greys and whites, Zhang's deliberately muted works strike a delicate balance between abstract and representational. Zhang Peili (1957) Widely regarded as the "father of Chinese video art", Zhang was the first Chinese artist to create a video art work in 1988, taping himself washing a chicken, over and over again, as an example of the absurdities of modern China. His works is often infused with sharp social and political commentaries. Another well known piece“Water: Standard Pronunciation,” tapes a former television news broadcaster reading all the words in a Chinese dictionary that start with water into the camera like a newscast. The piece was widely viewed as a critique of the official news media in China and how the nation’s broadcasters jabber endlessly without saying much, yet the viewer is awash in an ocean of words.
Zhang Wei (1985) Born in Inner Mongolia, 1985, he currently lives and works in Hangzhou. Graduated from Chinese academy of fine arts with a master‘s degree. His work includes paintings and installation works, which focus on the similarities and differences of various performance media. Zhang Zhen Xue (1982) One of the rising stars from the new generation of Chinese artists, Zhang graduated from Sichuan Fine Arts Academy, specialising in oil painting. Zhang has had a number of exhibitions across China and was awarded the John Moores New Painting Prize in 2010. Zhao Xuebing (1967) Zhao started painting at an early age but it was after spending seven years living and working in Paris (2002-07) and New York (2007-09) that his international recognition really took off. During this period, Zhao exhibited in a number of biennales and institutions including the Salon de Montrouge (France, 2006), the Senlis Biennale of contemporary art (France, 2007), and Pierogi Gallery New York (USA, 2008). Zhao is best known for his masterful representation of light and dexterity on lines. Zhao Zhao (1982) A graduate from the oil painting department at Xinjiang Institute of Arts, Zhao quickly realised that his aesthetic language is best expressed through performance. He understands art as a "performative, gestural way to provoke as well as mediate alternative realities in pursuit of new subjectivities." Zhao's first performance piece was conceptualised while he was still an art student in Xinjiang. Since then, he has exhibited in numerous galleries and institutions around the world. What sets Zhao apart from his peers is the diversity of his skills it is almost impossible to define Zhao's oeuvre in terms of a certain style or medium. Zheng Chongbin (1961) For over twenty years, Zheng has been exploring two issues that mesh in his works: how can the possibilities of ink as a medium be extended, and how can a new expression of depth and structure be incorporated into ink painting?
In 1986 he discovered a pair of materials that, in combination with ink, brought new visual interest as well as new technical possibilities to ink painting: white acrylic paint and fixer. In addition to adopting unorthodox media, Zheng Chongbin has been using the paibi or broad brush in place of traditional brushes. He has found that using the broad brush changed his painting behavior: "in terms of understanding space, qiyun (spirit resonance) is essential." Over the years, he has found inspiration in both early Chinese landscape compositions, and in Western contemporary and Baroque figure painters, as well as abstract expressionism.
childhood memories of watching his family through the patterned glass, which was found in almost every home in China during the 1970s and 80s. Sadly, most of these old houses have been demolished and replaced with modern high rises. As with his first Sudden Ego series, Zheng's works represent his quest for self-identity and security in this rapidly changing, chaotic world. Zhou Ming (1961) Zhou's work is a critique of China’s New Middle Class’s tasteless manners. The New Middle Class in China have attempted to use “good taste” as a means of distinguishing themselves from the masses. However, that “good taste” has been usually associated with certain status symbols, in particular famous Western brands and popular leisure activities. China’s New Middle Class would blindly mimic things from the West in order to present themselves as members of the middle class. Meanwhile, they would pay no attention to the deeper, spiritual aspects of our traditional Chinese culture. Rather than simply satirising the New Middle Class with exaggerated, kitsch references, Zhou's work attempts to expose the difference in tastes, manners and values across the Western and Chinese cultures.
Zheng Guogu (1970) Zheng is a versatile conceptual artist who works with a variety of media, including photography, installation, painting and sculpture. His artistic output dwells on the media, consumerism and the rapid changes in China. What is interesting about Zheng is that he belongs to a generation, which grew up with Coca-Cola, Kung Fu movies, pop music, and TV games. Different from those older generation in the uncertainty of Cultural Revolution of the 70s, and in the optimistic Utopia of the 80s, there is no ideology and idealization among this new generation. His sculptural work often combines enduring and imperious materials with unorthodox and fragile substances, the physicality of his forms operating as both tactile and symbolic matter. His sculptures often make reference to China's fast expanding economy in relation to its millennia-old history, humorously posing the transient icons of commodity culture and frivolous indulgence as indestructible antiergonomic ballasts.
Zhou Tao (1976) Zhou graduated from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts with an MFA degree in 2006. He works with video and mixed media. One of Zhou's best known works is Mutual Exercise, in which he carries, performs with and is carried by an identically dressed friend around Guangzhou. Interacting with the people in the streets, the audience enters into a doppelganger situation exposing the binary nature of living in a city.
Zheng Jiang (1972) A graduate from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, Zheng was taught by well-known avant-garde artist, Liu Xiaodong, whose influence can be seen in Zheng's painting technique. Breaking away from the conventional way of viewing, the subjects in Zheng's paintings become increasingly clear the further away the viewer stands. The work in this collection is part of the ""Begonia Patterned Glass"" series - inspired by Zheng's
Zhou Tiehai (1966) Zhou's conceptual projects represent the artist’s vengeance and attitude towards the selfabsorbed art market. His work’s power to amaze and provoke is the result of a host of strategies that mix antagonism with sincerity. The key ingredients that drive Zhou’s unsettling yet amusing practice includes appropriating classical imagery, generating ironic projections, proclaiming laconic yet heartfelt discourse and actively subverting painterly craft. He takes
on the role of both artist and patron since many of his airbrush paintings are rendered by assistants under his supervision. He permits himself to ‘play’ with art’s historical baggage by making paintings that are simultaneously self-aware and self-abnegating, virtuosic and pop all within a single canvas. He manipulates acclaimed magazine covers for his own purposes and articulates the notion of ‘artistic agency’ within current conditions of the art world and global economy. Using iconic works by da Vinci, Goya and Ingres as well as contemporary stars like Jeff Koons, Richard Prince and Maurizio Cattelan as his models., Zhou makes selfpromotional images that subvert the established notion of how artists should look and behave. Zhu Fadong (1960) Zhu's works question the relation between men and consumer society and what is possibly left of our own identity. Inspired by the feeling of having lost in his identity to urbanization and modernization, he created “Looking for a Missing Person” (1993), in which Zhu’s ID photo and words, cut out from magazines, are printed on commercial posters and hung on walls in Kunming, expanding the piece from himself to society. The work helped Zhu establish his reputation after its inclusion in The 1st Biennial Exhibition of Chinese Art in Guangzhou (1992). In his latest series 'Celebrities', Zhu has decided to break multinational logos into minuscule fragments – a technique reminiscent of embroidery. Zhu Jia (1963) As one of earliest video artists in China, Zhu has always tried to record the ordinary things through different ways. His photography and video works emerged at a time when China was entering a sensitive period of transition, after the idealism of social transformation at the end of 1980s, marked by events like the China Avant Garde exhibition in Beijing’s National Art Museum of China and Tiananmen student movement in 1989. Over the years, he has developed an outstanding personal language – minimalist but intense, oscillating between dazzling movements and silent static-ness – to confront, testify and intervene the constantly agitating and mutating
reality. In his work, there are two distinct but organically related and complementary systems of recording and presenting images that manifest the very particular relationship between the beholder and the world. Zhu Xinyu (1980) Graduated from LuXun Academy of Fine Art in 2004, Zhu belongs to the new generation of artists who has never experienced any dramatic social changes and life has been generally peaceful. Paradoxically, the mature sensitivity and inner turbulence of his paintings might suggest otherwise. With a delicate and evocative painting style, Zhu creates scenes that are deceptively tranquil but are actually layered with intense emotions. Drawing from personal feelings and memories, Zhu's works challenge conventional perceptions while advocating the importance of authenticity. Zou Tao (1984) Graduated from the Luxun Art College in 2009, Zou mainly works with easel painting. In 2007, he obtained the Chinese New Star Art Prize and in 2010, he was awarded the John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize.
The adventure began over seven years ago. Creating the dslcollection allowed us to make many new and amazing acquaintances. It helped us discover one of the richest cultures in the world.
Final words
dslcollection is not meant to be a survey of contemporary Chinese art. Many artists are missing and many more young talents are yet to discover. To collect is to choose. A collection is never complete, but it is precisely the aspects of incompleteness and openness that constitute its beauty and uniqueness. It is the very elusive quest for perfection that keeps passion and curiosity alive. For us, the joy and pleasure we experience through this adventure are crucial.
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Artists Name
Curating an exhibition in the virtual world by Martina Köppel-Yang* * Martina Köppel-Yang is an independent scholar and curator with a PhD in East Asian Art History from the University of Heidelberg. She has been involved in contemporary Chinese art since the mid-1980s when she studied at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. In addition to curating and co-curating exhibitions, she has written extensively on the subject of contemporary Chinese art, most notably Semiotic Warfare – The Chinese Avant-garde 1979-1989 – a Semiotic Analysis, Hong Kong, 2003.
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Yang Yongliang 220 Yang Zhenzong 224
Aisha 234
Zhu Jia 235
If you have a QR Reader on your mobile device, then simply scan the QR codes opposite to view the artist’s videos. If not, then follow the steps below: Step Step Step Step
1: 2: 3: 4:
Download a QR Reader onto your mobile phone or iPad (from the App store or http://www.mobiletag.com/download-en.html) Launch the QR Reader on your mobile device. Hold your mobile device over one of the tags on the opposite page. The tag will automatically be scanned and link you directly to the artist’s video on youtube.
Zhang Ding 244
| i don't know |
The Shatt-al-Arab River is formed by the confluence of which two rivers, at Al-Qurnah, Iraq near Basra? | Shatt-Al-Arab - Definition and synonyms of Shatt-al-Arab in the English dictionary. Translation of Shatt-al-Arab to 20 languages.
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Protecting the Gulf's Marine Ecosystems from Pollution
The waters of the Shatt Al-Arab River are well oxygenated (Al-Hassan and Hussain 1985). The oxygen concentrations in surface water are usually 50% of saturation (Maulood et al. 1979), and generally, there are no differences with depth.
Abdulaziz H. Abuzinada, Hans-Jörg Barth, Friedhelm Krupp, 2008
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Rivers of the World: A Social, Geographical, and ...
Because of siltation at the head of the gulf,the rivers now meet at Al Qurnah, just above Basra, Iraq, and flow together in a generally southeasterly direction as the Shatt al Arab. Withdrawal of water upstream for dams and irrigation and the ...
James R. Penn, 2001
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Territorial Disputes and Resource Management: A Global Handbook
Countries involved in the disputed area (PPP) Shatt al Arab The Shatt al Arab Waterway is a tidal river, with a length of approximately 190 km. It is formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates, and is additionally fed by the river of ...
Rongxing Guo, 2006
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Iran, Iraq, and the Legacies of War
Translation of original French in “The Dispute over the Shatt al-'Arab” ( Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Intelligence and Research , 1960), Intelligence Report no. 8208, January 22, 1960, p. 8. Schofield, Evolution of the ...
Lawrence G. Potter, Gary G. Sick, 2004
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New Scientist
Within a year or so, the Karkheh could be linked to the barrier so that it could continue its old course towards the Shatt al Arab and the sea. This would allow Iraq to control the whole of the Shatt al Arab and Abadan Island. 3. The logical ...
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Ends and Means: The British Mesopotamian Campaign and Commission
reached Bushire, further down the Gulf coast, on 22 August, that Germans were attempting to sink an old Turkish ship in the mouth of the Shatt-al-Arab to bar the entrance to British ships.101 By 5 September Turks were reported at the island of ...
Paul K. Davis, 1994
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Iraq and Iran (RLE Iran A)
6 Thus Iran declared that she would not accept any solution to the Shatt al-Arab boundary issue which fell short of the application of the thalweg principle.67 Iraq rebutted Iran's legal justifications for her unilateral abrogation of the 1937 Treaty.
Jasim M Abdulghani, 2012
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Iraqi Foreign Policy Since Revolution
Borders conflict, which was never determined between the two countries, i.e. Shatt al-Arab; 2. conflict over three islands — Abu Musa, Tumb-e-Kabir (Greater Tumb) and Tumb-e-Shagir (Smaller Tumb). These islands are located at the point of ...
Mahboob Alam, 1995
| Tigris and Euphrates |
9.9498744 (to the nearest seven decimal places) is the square root of which whole number? | Shatt al-Arab
Shatt al-Arab
Shatt al-Arab near Basra , Iraq
Other name(s)
Tigris – Euphrates confluence at Al-Qurnah and Karun River in Iran [1]
4 m (13 ft)
Average rate:
1,750 m3/s (62,000 cu ft/s)
Shatt al-Arab (شط العرب “River of the Arabs”) or Arvand Rud ( Persian : اَروَندرود, “Swift River”) is a river in Southwest Asia of some 200 km (120 mi) in length, formed by the confluence of the Euphrates and the Tigris in the town of al-Qurnah in the Basra Governorate of southern Iraq . The southern end of the river constitutes the border between Iraq and Iran down to the mouth of the river as it discharges into the Persian Gulf . It varies in width from about 232 metres (761 ft) at Basra to 800 metres (2,600 ft) at its mouth. It is thought that the waterway formed relatively recently in geologic time, with the Tigris and Euphrates originally emptying into the Persian Gulf via a channel further to the west.
The Karun river, a tributary which joins the waterway from the Iranian side, deposits large amounts of silt into the river; this necessitates continuous dredging to keep it navigable. [2]
The area is judged to hold the largest date palm forest in the world. In the mid-1970s, the region included 17 to 18 million date palms, an estimated one-fifth of the world’s 90 million palm trees. But by 2002, war, salt, and pests had wiped out more than 14 million of the palms, including around 9 million in Iraq and 5 million in Iran . Many of the remaining 3 to 4 million trees are in poor condition. [3]
In Middle Persian literature and the Shahnama (written between c. 977 and 1010 AD), the name اروند Arvand is used for the Tigris, the confluent of the Shatt al-Arab. [4] Iranians also used this name specifically to designate the Shatt al-Arab during the later Pahlavi period , and continue to do so after the Iranian Revolution of 1979. [4]
Contents
Territorial disputes
Map
Conflicting territorial claims and disputes over navigation rights between Iran and Iraq were among the main factors for the Iran–Iraq War that lasted from 1980 to 1988, when the pre-1980 status quo was restored. The Iranian cities of Abadan and Khorramshahr and the Iraqi city and major port of Basra are situated along this river.
Control of the waterway and its use as a border was a source of contention between Iran and the predecessor of the Iraqi state since a peace treaty signed in 1639 between the Persian and the Ottoman empires, which divided the territory according to tribal customs and loyalties, without attempting a rigorous land survey. The tribes on both sides of the lower waterway, however, are Marsh Arabs , and the Ottoman Empire claimed to represent them. Tensions between the opposing empires that extended across a wide range of religious, cultural and political conflicts, led to the outbreak of hostilities in the 19th century.
The Second Treaty of Erzurum was signed by the two parties in 1847 after protracted negotiations, which included British and Russian delegates. Even afterwards, backtracking and disagreements continued, until British Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston , was moved to comment in 1851 that “the boundary line between Turkey and Persia can never be finally settled except by an arbitrary decision on the part of Great Britain and Russia”. A protocol between the Ottomans and the Persians was signed in Istanbul in 1913, which declared that the Ottoman-Persian frontier run along the thalweg , but World War I canceled all plans.
Arab ferryman on the Shatt al-Arab 1958
Evening atmosphere on the Shatt al-Arab
During the Mandate of Iraq (1920–32), the British advisors in Iraq were able to keep the waterway binational under the thalweg principle that worked in Europe: the dividing line was a line drawn between the deepest points along the stream bed. In 1937, Iran and Iraq signed a treaty that settled the dispute over control of the Shatt al-Arab. [5] The 1937 treaty recognized the Iranian-Iraqi border as along the low-water mark on the eastern side of the Shatt al-Arab except at Abadan and Khorramshahr where the frontier ran along the thalweg (the deep water line) which gave Iraq control of almost the entire waterway; provided that all ships using the Shatt al-Arab fly the Iraqi flag and have an Iraqi pilot, and required Iran to pay tolls to Iraq whenever its ships used the Shatt al-Arab. [6]
By the late 1960s, the build-up of Iranian power under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi , who had gone on a gargantuan military spending spree, led Iran to take a more assertive stance in the Near East. [5] In April 1969, Iran abrogated the 1937 treaty over the Shatt al-Arab, and as such, Iran ceased paying tolls to Iraq when its ships used the Shatt al-Arab. [7]
The Shah justified his move by arguing that almost all river borders all over the world ran along the thalweg, and by claiming that because most of the ships that used the Shatt al-Arab were Iranian, the 1937 treaty was unfair to Iran. [8] Iraq threatened war over the Iranian move, but when on 24 April 1969 an Iranian tanker escorted by Iranian warships sailed down the Shatt al-Arab, Iraq being the militarily weaker state did nothing. [6] The Iranian abrogation of the 1937 treaty marked the beginning of a period of acute Iraqi-Iranian tension that was to last until the Algiers Accords of 1975. [6]
All United Nations attempts to intervene as mediators were rebuffed. Under Saddam Hussein , Baathist Iraq claimed the entire waterway up to the Iranian shore as its territory. In response, Iran in the early 1970s became the main patron of Iraqi Kurdish groups fighting for independence from Iraq. In March 1975, Iraq signed the Algiers Accord in which it recognized a series of straight lines closely approximating the thalweg (deepest channel) of the waterway, as the official border, in exchange for which Iran ended its support of the Iraqi Kurds. [9]
In 1980, Hussein released a statement claiming to abrogate the treaty that he signed, and Iraq invaded Iran. International law, however, holds that in all cases no bilateral or multilateral treaty can be abrogated by one party only. The main thrust of the military movement on the ground was across the waterway which was the stage for most of the military battles between the two armies. The waterway was Iraq’s only outlet to the Persian Gulf, and thus, its shipping lanes were greatly affected by continuous Iranian attacks. [10]
When the Al-Faw peninsula was captured by the Iranians in 1986, Iraq’s shipping activities virtually came to a halt and had to be diverted to other Arab ports, such as Kuwait and even Aqaba , Jordan . At the end of the Iran–Iraq War both sides agreed to once again treat the Algiers Accord as binding.
Recent conflicts
Shatt al-Arab near Basra city, Iraq
In the 2003 invasion of Iraq , the waterway was a key military target for the Coalition Forces. Since it is the only outlet to the Persian Gulf, its capture was important in delivering humanitarian aid to the rest of the country, and also to stop the flow of operations trying to break the naval blockade against Iraq. The British Royal Marines staged an amphibious assault to capture the key oil installations and shipping docks located at Umm Qasr on the al-Faw peninsula at the onset of the conflict.
Following the end of the war, the UK was given responsibility, subsequently mandated by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1723 , to patrol the waterway and the area of the Persian Gulf surrounding the river mouth. They were tasked until 2007 to make sure that ships in the area were not being used to transport munitions into Iraq. British forces also trained Iraqi naval units to take over the responsibility of guarding their waterways after the Coalition Forces left Iraq in December 2011.
On two separate occasions, Iranian forces operating on the Shatt al-Arab have captured British Royal Navy sailors who they claim have trespassed into their territory.
In June 2004, several British servicemen were held for two days after purportedly straying into the Iranian side of the waterway. After being initially threatened with prosecution, they were released after high-level conversations between British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi . The initial hardline approach was put down to power struggles within the Iranian government. The British marines’ weapons and boats were confiscated.
In 2007, a seizure of fifteen more British personnel became a major diplomatic crisis between the two nations. It was resolved after thirteen days when the Iranians unexpectedly released the captives under an “amnesty.”
See also
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How many minutes are there in a degree of an angle? | Angle Measurement: Degrees, Minutes, Seconds | Zona Land Education
Angle Measurement: Degrees, Minutes, Seconds
There are several ways to measure the size of an angle. One way is to use units of degrees. Radian measure is another way. ( Definition of a radian ) Here we will work with degrees.
In a complete circle there are three hundred and sixty degrees.
An angle could have a measurement of 35.75 degrees. That is, the size of the angle in this case would be thirty-five full degrees plus seventy-five hundredths, or three fourths, of an additional degree. Notice that here we are expressing the measurement as a decimal number. Using decimal numbers like this one can express angles to any precision - to hundredths of a degree, to thousandths of a degree, and so on.
There is another way to state the size of an angle, one that subdivides a degree using a system different than the decimal number example given above. The degree is divided into sixty parts called minutes. These minutes are further divided into sixty parts called seconds. The words minute and second used in this context have no immediate connection to how those words are usually used as amounts of time.
In a full circle there are 360 degrees.
Each degree is split up into 60 parts, each part being 1/60 of a degree. These parts are called minutes.
Each minute is split up into 60 parts, each part being 1/60 of a minute. These parts are called seconds.
The size of an angle could be stated this way: 40 degrees, 20 minutes, 50 seconds.
There are symbols that are used when stating angles using degrees, minutes, and seconds. Those symbols are show below:
Symbol for degree:
So, the angle of 40 degrees, 20 minutes, 50 seconds is usually written this way:
How could you state the above as an angle using common decimal notation? The angle would be this many degrees, (* means times.):
40 + (20 * 1/60) + (50 * 1/60 * 1/60)
That is, we have 40 full degrees, 20 minutes - each 1/60 of a degree, and 50 seconds - each 1/60 of 1/60 of a degree.
Work that out and you will get a decimal number of degrees. It's 40.34722...
Going the other way is a bit more difficult. Suppose we start with 40.3472 degrees. Can we express that in units of degrees, minutes, and seconds?
Well, first of all there are definitely 40 degrees full degrees. That leaves 0.3472 degrees.
So, how many minutes is 0.3472 degrees? Well, how many times can 1/60 go into 0.3472? Here's the same question: What is 60 times 0.3472? It's 20.832. So, there are 20 complete minutes with 0.832 of a minute remaining.
How many seconds are in the last 0.832 minutes. Well, how many times can 1/60 go into 0.832, or what is 60 times 0.832? It's 49.92, or almost 50 seconds.
So, we've figured that 40.3472 degrees is almost exactly equal to 40 degrees, 20 minutes, 50 seconds.
(The only reason we fell a bit short of 50 seconds is that we really used a slightly smaller angle in this second half of the calculation explanation. In the original angle, 40.34722... degrees, the decimal repeats the last digit of 2 infinitely, so, the original angle is a bit bigger than 40.3472.)
Here's a calculator that will take you from angle measurement using degrees, minutes, and seconds to angle measurement expressed as a decimal number.
Make up an angle measurement using degrees, minutes, and seconds. Then, using the above procedures, calculate what that angle measurement would be if it were expressed as a decimal number. Finally, enter your original angle in degrees, minutes, and seconds into this calculator, click the 'Calculate' button, and see if your conversion mathematics was correct. Only enter positive integers into this calculator. That is, do not enter any numbers like 5.5, -5.5, or -5.
Degrees:
Click this button to see the actual JavaScript code that executes in the above program:
Here's the code that runs when you click the above 'Calculate' button on the above Degrees, Minutes, Seconds program. It is shown here as a possible aid for your study and understanding.
You can change the code, if you like, and then click the following 'Reevaluate code' button. The program will then work as per your changes when you click the 'Calculate' button on the above Degrees, Minutes, Seconds program. Of course, your changes, especially random changes, can introduce errors, miscalculations, and browser crashes. If you need to get things back to their original condition, just reload this page using your browser's reload button.
Again, the intention here is to conveniently show you the inner workings of this program so that you understand how the program arrives at the result. Click the 'Code' button again to close this section.
window.onClickCalculateDegMinSec = function() { // Variables. var degrees = 0; var minutes = 0; var seconds = 0; var decDegrees = 0.0; // Get degrees, minutes, and seconds from user. degrees = parseFloat(window.document.degMinSec.degrees.value); minutes = parseFloat(window.document.degMinSec.minutes.value); seconds = parseFloat(window.document.degMinSec.seconds.value); // Is degrees negative? if(degrees < 0.0) { // Yes, degrees is negative. // Announce the error and quit. alert('The degrees should be expressed\nwith a zero or a positive number.'); return; } // Is minutes negative? if(minutes < 0.0) { // Yes, minutes is negative. // Announce the error and quit. alert('The minutes should be expressed\nwith a zero or a positive number.'); return; } // Is seconds negative? if(seconds < 0.0) { // Yes, seconds is negative. // Announce the error and quit. alert('The seconds should be expressed\nwith a zero or a positive number.'); return; } // Is degrees an integer? if(degrees != Math.floor(degrees)) { // No, degrees is not an integer. // Announce the error and quit. alert('The degrees should be an integer.'); return; } // Is minutes an integer? if(minutes != Math.floor(minutes)) { // No, minutes is not an integer. // Announce the error and quit. alert('The minutes should be an integer.'); return; } // Is seconds an integer? if(seconds != Math.floor(seconds)) { // No, seconds is not an integer. // Announce the error and quit. alert('The seconds should be an integer.'); return; } // Is degrees greater than or equal to 360? if(degrees >= 360.0) { // Yes, degrees is greater than or equal to 360. // Announce the error and quit. alert('The degrees should be less than 360.'); return; } // Is minutes greater than or equal to 60? if(minutes >= 60.0) { // Yes, minutes is greater than or equal to 60. // Announce the error and quit. alert('The minutes should be less than 60.'); return; } // Is seconds greater than or equal to 60? if(seconds >= 60.0) { // Yes, seconds is greater than or equal to 60. // Announce the error and quit. alert('The seconds should be less than 60.'); return; } // All is well, let's calculate. decDegrees = degrees + (minutes * (1.0 / 60.0)) + (seconds * (1.0 / 3600.0)); // Output result. alert('The decimal number of degrees is ' + decDegrees + '.'); }
Here's another calculator that you can use to check your work going from an angle measurement using a decimal number of degrees to the same angle measurement expressed in terms of degrees, minutes, and seconds. The final result is rounded to the nearest second.
Decimal number of degrees:
Click this button to see the actual JavaScript code that executes in the above program:
Here's the code that runs when you click the above 'Calculate' button on the above Decimal number of degrees program. It is shown here as a possible aid for your study and understanding.
You can change the code, if you like, and then click the following 'Reevaluate code' button. The program will then work as per your changes when you click the 'Calculate' button on the above Decimal number of degrees program. Of course, your changes, especially random changes, can introduce errors, miscalculations, and browser crashes. If you need to get things back to their original condition, just reload this page using your browser's reload button.
Again, the intention here is to conveniently show you the inner workings of this program so that you understand how the program arrives at the result. Click the 'Code' button again to close this section.
window.onClickCalculateDecDeg = function() { // Variables. var degrees = 0; var degreesTemp = 0.0; var minutes = 0; var minutesTemp = 0.0; var seconds = 0; var secondsTemp = 0.0; var message = ''; var isNegativeAngle; // Get decimal number of degrees from user. degreesTemp = parseFloat(window.document.decDegrees.decDegrees.value); // Assume angle is not negative. isNegativeAngle = false; // Is the decimal number of degrees negative? if(degreesTemp < 0.0) { // Remember that the decimal number of degrees was entered as a negative number. isNegativeAngle = true; // Work with the absolute value of the decimal number of degrees. degreesTemp = -degreesTemp; } // Keep the integer value of degrees. degrees = Math.floor(degreesTemp); // Find the decimal value of degrees. minutesTemp = degreesTemp - degrees; // Convert the decimal value of degrees into number of minutes. minutesTemp = 60.0 * minutesTemp; // Keep the integer value of minutes. minutes = Math.floor(minutesTemp); // Find the decimal value of minutes. secondsTemp = minutesTemp - minutes; // Convert the decimal value of minutes into number of seconds. secondsTemp = 60.0 * secondsTemp; // Round to the integer value of seconds. seconds = Math.round(secondsTemp); // Create a message about if the angle is negative or a positive. if(isNegativeAngle) { message = "This angle is negative.\n"; } else { message = "This angle is positive.\n"; } // Append the results to the message. message += 'Degrees = ' + degrees + '\n'; message += 'Minutes = ' + minutes + '\n'; message += 'Seconds = ' + seconds; // Announce the message. alert(message); }
| sixty |
Also a comic book character, what is an orderly assigned to serve a British Military Officer? | Degrees as a unit of angle measure - Math Open Reference
Math Open Reference
Degrees
Definition: A measure of an angle . One degree is one 360th part of a full circle.
Try this Adjust the angle below by dragging the orange at R. Note the number of degrees for any particular angle.
Measure of an angle
In geometry, an angle . is measured in degrees, where a full circle is 360 degrees. A small angle might be around 30 degrees. Usually, when a finer measure is needed we just add decimal places to the degrees. For example 45.12°
The small circle after the number means "degrees". So the above would be pronounced "forty five point one two degrees".
Degrees - Minutes - Seconds
When measuring things like latitude and longitude, each degree is divided into minutes and seconds. The degree is divided in to 60 minutes. For even finer measurements the minute is divided again into 60 seconds, However this last measure is so small, it only used where angles are subtended over extreme distances such as astronomical measurements, and measuring latitude and longitude.
These minutes and seconds have (confusingly) nothing to do with time. They are just smaller and smaller parts of a degree.
See also Degrees - Minutes - Seconds calculator for a calculator that can add and subract angles in this form.
Unit
With a small circle after the number.
Example 61°
With a small dash after the number.
Example 34° 21'
Example 32° 34' 44''
"32 degrees, 34 minutes, 44 seconds"
When minutes and seconds are used alone, we usually say "arc minutes" and "arc seconds" to avoid confusion with time units.
Which direction to measure?
In the figure above, adjust the point R so the line crosses the point marked 315°. Starting at Q and going counter-clockwise we see the measure is 315°. But if we were to go clockwise from Q it would be 45° (360-315). Which is correct?
They both are, but by convention the smaller one is assumed. That is why the angle at the center shows 45° under these circumstances. The larger measure (315°) is called the reflex angle RPQ.
Angles you should know
Use the figure above to become familiar with what various angle measures look like when measured in degrees. In general, you should be able to visually estimate any angle to within about 15°, and you should be able to recognize the common angles (shown in red) on sight and sketch them yourself.
Other measures
Radians
An angle can be measured in radians where the full circle is 2 pi radians (about 6.28). This is used extensively in trigonometry.
Grads
In some surveying work the grad is used. There are 400 grads in a circle and so a right angle is 100 grads. You will rarely see this unit. Think of grads as 'metric degrees'.
Nautical angles
Ship's navigators use angles that are measured slightly differently, using a system designed hundreds of years ago for the Nautical Alamanac - a book of navigation tables. Each degree is divided into 60 minutes as usual, but there are no seconds. The minute is expressed as a decimal instead. For example 23° 34.62' is read as "23 degrees 34.62 minutes. See also Nautical Angle Calculator" .
Things to try
In the figure above, click on 'hide details'.
Adjust the position of the point R
Estimate the measure of the angle RPQ
Click 'show details' to see how close you got
Repeat.
You should especially be able to estimate angles close to the red ones in the figure above, since they appear frequently in geometry.
Other angle topics
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Who in May 1935 for Boston Braves played his last career baseball game? | May 25, 1935: Ruth smashes 3 homers in final hurrah | Society for American Baseball Research
May 25, 1935: Ruth smashes 3 homers in final hurrah
Pittsburgh Pirates 11
If you can help us improve this game story, contact us .
May 25, 1935: Ruth smashes 3 homers in final hurrah
This article was written by Jack Zerby
The bedraggled Boston Braves were already in their familiar abode—the National League cellar—at 8-19 and 11 games out when they played their 28th game of the 1935 season. The venue was Pittsburgh’s bucolic Forbes Field; the opponents were the home-standing Pirates.
But the Braves had Babe Ruth, a free agent newcomer to the National League, acquired at a high-mileage age 40 by Boston’s owner and erstwhile manager 1 Judge Emil E. Fuchs 2 when the Yankees cast the legend adrift on February 26. Although the Braves already had a “new Babe Ruth,” as writers tabbed popular slugger Wally Berger 3 , “the Judge liked to take on long-shot comeback players,” 4 and Ruth became “a very big frog in a very small pond” when Fuchs signed him. 5 He’d departed Boston 15 years earlier, when Red Sox owner-theater impresario Harry Frazee sold him to the Yankees.
The Yankees had scorned Ruth in spring training by re-assigning his uniform number and using his locker for firewood as prelude to release. 6 Fuchs brought him to Boston in the announced triple capacities of player, second vice president, and assistant manager, 7 but the VP and assistant managerial posts were public relations fluff. Ruth’s playing days were essentially over, but after banishment by the Yankees, taking his celebrity to Boston seemed a better option than retirement.
As the early season progressed, his new pond tended to engulf the overweight, weak-legged Babe. He had lifted spirits and made Fuchs look like a genius with an Opening Day home run at Braves Field against Giants’ ace Carl Hubbell on April 16. But through May 24 he was hitting just .153 with three home runs and five RBIs, three of which had come in the opener.
Ruth’s curiosity value had resulted in his starting 22 of the team’s first 27 games, generally in left field, although manager Bill McKechnie often lifted him late for a pinch-runner or defensive replacement. This day in Pittsburgh, however, McKechnie had the Babe in his time-honored right field position, slotted third in the batting order in front of steady producer Berger.
Pirate manager Pie Traynor started Red Lucas. The righty was in trouble before all of the recorded 10,000 in attendance had settled into their seats on a chilly Saturday afternoon. Boston shortstop Billy Urbanski walked and advanced to second on a sacrifice by second baseman Les Mallon, bringing up Ruth, slugging a paltry .305. But the Babe, seeing yet another new National League pitcher, responded with some of his old-time pizazz and lofted career home run No. 712 into the right field stands to give the Braves a quick 2-0 edge. After Berger and first baseman Randy Moore both singled, Traynor yanked Lucas in favor of National League veteran Guy Bush, now toiling for Pittsburgh after 12 seasons with the Cubs. Bush induced a double-play grounder off the bat of left fielder Sheriff Lee to end the inning.
Huck Betts, only two years Ruth’s junior at 38, was the Boston starter. He survived two hits and an error to hold Pittsburgh scoreless in the first, and then notched a perfect 1-2-3 second inning.
Ruth batted for the second time in the Braves’ third. Facing Bush, who had hit him with a pitch in Game 4 of the 1932 World Series--with Ruth and the Yankees on the way to a demoralizing sweep of the Cubs--he retaliated with another homer to right. The shot, career No. 713, plated Urbanski again and upped the Braves’ lead to 4-0.
Betts cruised through the third, but his 4-0 lead dissolved into a 4-4 deadlock in the Pittsburgh fourth on RBI hits by Gus Suhr and Tommy Thevenow and Earl Grace’s sacrifice fly.
Still in a groove, Ruth added another RBI with a single off Bush in the fifth to put the Braves back on top, 5-4. Pittsburgh responded in the bottom of the inning with three runs on four hits, including an inside-the-park home run by second baseman Pep Young. The rally chased Betts as McKechnie needed Ben Cantwell to record the third out. The Pirates now led 7-5.
With that score intact and Bush still pitching, Ruth came up for the fourth time in the top of the seventh with one out and the bases empty. By now the crowd 8 was solidly on the Bambino’s side and rooted enthusiastically for more of his old magic. The Babe obliged. Career home run No. 714 came on a 3-1 count and bettered the earlier efforts, majestically clearing Forbes Field’s right field roof—for the first time in the ballpark’s 26-year history. 9 “The way he smacked it, you knew it was gone. The crowd just roared,” Paul Warhola, brother of iconic Pittsburgh pop artist Andy Warhol, remembered. 10 “He was fat and old but he still had that great swing,” was sportswriter Robert W. Creamer’s retrospective take. 11
After rounding the bases in a 1935 version of his classic trot, Babe saluted the fans with a tipped cap, and then excused himself from the game. Sole access to the visiting clubhouse was through the Pittsburgh dugout. Enroute, he briefly plopped himself down at the end of the bench and told rookie Pirate pitcher Mace Brown, “Boy, that last one felt good!” 12
No. 714 had closed the gap to a run 13 , and the Braves tied the score, 7-7, later in the inning. But Cantwell faltered in the seventh, allowing three runs. Larry Benton pitched the eighth for Boston, yielding another run. Waite Hoyt finished up for the Pirates and was the winning pitcher in their 11-7 victory.
It’s sometimes reported that this memorable game was the Babe’s last. It truly was his “last hurrah,” but he went on to play in five more games, without a hit in 13 plate appearances. Throughout May, Fuchs, Ruth and McKechnie had come to the conclusion that Ruth’s retirement, sooner rather than later, was in the mutual best interest. He made it official in early June after pinch hitting in the first game of a doubleheader in Philadelphia on May 30--the same day his May 25 feats were noted without fanfare in a Sporting News “Highlights of the Week” column.
Two weeks later the paper editorialized: “If the Babe saw the hand writing on the wall, as he indicated that he did, it is too bad that he did not announce his retirement the day after he made three home runs in one game in Pittsburgh, so he could have gone out in a blaze of glory, instead of waiting to make his departure along a trail of unpleasantness.” 14
Sources
Cicotello, David and Angelo J. Louisa, Eds., Forbes Field (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2007).
Fuchs, Robert S. and Wayne Soini, Judge Fuchs and the Boston Braves (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1998).
Dvorchak, Robert, “Ruth Had Final Hurrah At Forbes 75 Years Ago,” Post-Gazette.com, May 25, 2010 (Accessed March 27, 2014).
Wood, Allan, “Babe Ruth,” SABR Biography Project, sabr.org.
The Sporting News, May 30, 1935, 5.
The Sporting News, June 13, 1935, 4.
Retrosheet.org
Notes
1 Fuchs owned the Braves from 1923 through 1935 and out of frugality assumed the field managerial reins as well for the 1929 season. Fuchs, Judge Fuchs and the Boston Braves, 68. The team finished 8th, at 56-98. For 1930, Fuchs plucked future Hall of Fame manager Bill McKechnie away from Cardinals’ owner Sam Breadon. Ibid., 83-84. McKechnie had managed the 1925 Pirates to a World Series victory. He was still at the Braves’ helm in 1935. Baseball-Reference.com.
2 “He served briefly as a real judge [in New York City], but the name was his ever after.” Fuchs, 11.
3 Ibid., 84-85. The Braves acquired Berger from the Pacific Coast League Los Angeles Angels in late 1929. He hit 38 home runs and drove in 119 runs in his rookie 1930 season, kept slugging, and capably anchored center field to earn the acclaim of Braves fans with little else to cheer about.
| Babe Ruth |
What at the end of 2010 was Amazon's biggest ever selling product? | Babe Ruth hits his last 3 home... May 25 in History
November 2, 1934 - Babe Ruth tours Tokyo Japan
September 30, 1934 - Babe Ruth's final game as a Yankee, goes 0 for 3
September 24, 1934 - 2500 fans see Babe Ruth's farewell Yankee appearance at Yankee Stadium
August 10, 1934 - Babe Ruth announces this is his final season as full time player
July 17, 1934 - Babe Ruth draws his 2,000th base on balls at Cleveland
July 13, 1934 - Babe Ruth hits home run number 700, against Detroit
January 15, 1934 - Babe Ruth signs a 1934 contract for $35,000 ($17,000 cut)
December 29, 1933 - Yankees refuses to release Babe Ruth so he can manage the Cincinnati Reds
October 1, 1932 - World Series moves to Chicago, In 5th inning, Babe Ruth waits until he has 2 strikes, points and hits next pitch into center field bleachers
September 28, 1932 - New York Yankees win World Series The winning pitcher is Babe Ruth beating Red Sox 9-3
August 21, 1931 - Babe Ruth hits his 600th home run, off George Blaeholder of Browns
May 21, 1930 - New York Yankee Babe Ruth hits 3 consecutive homers
March 8, 1930 - Babe Ruth signs 2-year contract for $160,000 with New York Yankee General Manager Ed Barrow, wrongly predicts "No one will ever be paid more than Ruth"
August 11, 1929 - Babe Ruth becomes 1st to hit 500 homers off Willis Hudlin of Cleveland
August 1, 1928 - Babe Ruth hits home run number 42 and is 4 weeks ahead of his 1927 pace
September 30, 1927 - Babe Ruth hits record setting 60th home run, off Tom Zachary
September 29, 1927 - Babe Ruth ties record by hitting grand slams in consecutive games
September 20, 1927 - New York Yankee Babe Ruth hits record 60th home run of season off Tom Zachry
September 11, 1927 - Babe Ruth hits 50th of 60 homers
August 22, 1927 - Babe Ruth hits 40th of 60 homers
July 12, 1927 - Babe Ruth hits 30th of 60 home runs
June 11, 1927 - Babe Ruth hits 19th and 20th of 60 home runs
April 15, 1927 - Babe Ruth hits 1st of 60 home runs of season (off A's Howard Ehmke)
March 2, 1927 - Babe Ruth becomes highest paid baseball player ($70,000 per year)
October 6, 1926 - Babe Ruth hits 3 home runs in a World Series game, Yankees beat Cards 10-5
August 29, 1925 - After a night on the town, Babe Ruth shows up late for batting practice Miller Huggins suspends Ruth and slaps a $5,000 fine on him
May 26, 1925 - Babe Ruth is finally out of bed, 5 weeks after ulcer surgery
April 17, 1925 - New York Yankee Babe Ruth has ulcer surgery
April 9, 1925 - Babe Ruth rushed to hospital
April 5, 1925 - Yankees whip Dodgers in exhibition 16-9 but Babe Ruth collapses in North Carolina due to an ulcer
October 23, 1923 - Babe Ruth makes a postseason exhibition appearance in a Giants uniform
October 11, 1923 - Babe Ruth hits 2 home runs in a World Series game
August 30, 1922 - Babe Ruth is thrown out of a game for 5th time in 1922
May 25, 1922 - Babe Ruth suspended 1 day and fined $200 for throwing dirt on an ump
March 6, 1922 - Babe Ruth signs 3 years at $52,000 a year New York Yankee contract
October 9, 1921 - Babe Ruth's 1st World Series homer; only Sunday game ever pitched by Carl Mays
October 2, 1921 - New York Yankee Babe Ruth hits then record 59th home run
August 28, 1921 - Babe Ruth starts streak of an extra-base hit in 9 straight games
July 12, 1921 - Babe Ruth sets record of 137 career home runs
June 13, 1921 - Yankees' pitcher Babe Ruth hits 2 home runs beating Tigers 11-8
June 10, 1921 - Babe Ruth becomes all time home run champ with number 120, Gavvy Cravath
June 8, 1921 - Babe Ruth arrested for speeding, fined $100, and held in jail until 4 PM
September 29, 1920 - Babe Ruth sets then home run season record at 54
May 1, 1920 - Babe Ruth's 1st Yankee home run and 50th of career, out of Polo Grounds
January 5, 1920 - Boston Red Sox sell Babe Ruth to New York Yankees
January 5, 1920 - New York Yankees announce purchase of Babe Ruth
January 3, 1920 - New York Yankees purchase Babe Ruth from Red Sox for $125,000
December 26, 1919 - Yankees and Red Sox reach agreement on transfer of Babe Ruth
September 27, 1919 - Babe Ruth's 29th home run is 1st of year in Washington (1st in every park in league in one season)
September 24, 1919 - Babe Ruth sets season homer mark at 28 off of Yankee Bob Shawkey
September 20, 1919 - Babe Ruth ties Ned Williamson's major league mark of 27 home runs
September 8, 1919 - Babe Ruth hits his 26th home run off Jack Quinn in New York, breaking Buck Freeman's 1899 home run mark of 25
July 5, 1919 - Red Sox Babe Ruth hits 2 home runs in a game for his 1st of 72 times
July 8, 1918 - Babe Ruth's blast over the fence in Fenway scores Amos Strunk, the Red Sox win 1-0 over Cleveland, prevailing rules reduce Babe's Hhome runR to a triple
May 7, 1917 - Red Sox Babe Ruth beats Washington Senator Walter Johnson, 1-0
April 11, 1917 - Babe Ruth beats New York Yankees, pitching 3-hit 10-3 win for Red Sox
October 9, 1916 - Babe Ruth begins 29 2/3 scoreless World Series innings
October 9, 1916 - Babe Ruth pitches and wins longest WS game (14 innings) 2-1
May 6, 1915 - Red Sox Babe Ruth pitching debut and 1st home run, loses to Yankees 4-3 in 15
July 12, 1914 - Babe Ruth makes his baseball debut, pitches for Red Sox
July 11, 1914 - Babe Ruth debuts as a pitcher for Boston Red Sox, he beats Cleveland 4-3
July 10, 1914 - Boston Red Sox purchase Babe Ruth from Baltimore Orioles
April 22, 1914 - Babe Ruth's 1st professional game (as a pitcher) is a 6-hit 6-0 win
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In the Contract Bridge card game what are used to denote the four players' positions? | Bridge: rules and variations of the card game
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Contract Bridge
When this page was first written (in late 1995), there was already a fair amount of Bridge-related information on the Internet, but most of it was aimed at people who already knew how to play. This page was produced to fill the gap by explaining how Bridge is played. The explanation is intended for people who have some experience of cards and card games, but no knowledge of Bridge.
In the following years, several other sites with information of use to Bridge beginners appeared. Some of these appear among the links at the end of this page.
Bridge Equipment Suppliers and other Bridge related pages
Types of Bridge
Contract Bridge was invented in the 1920's and in the following decades it was popularised especially in the USA by Ely Culbertson. Bridge currently occupies a position of great prestige, and is more comprehensively organised than any other card game. There are clubs, tournaments and championships throughout the world.
Rubber Bridge is the basic form of Contract Bridge, played by four players. Informal social Bridge games are often played this way, and Rubber Bridge is also played in clubs for money.
Duplicate Bridge is the game normally played in clubs, tournaments and matches. The game is basically the same but the luck element is reduced by having the same deals replayed by different sets of players. At least eight players are required for this. There are some significant differences in the scoring. Two types of Duplicate Bridge will be covered:
pairs
Chicago is a version of Bridge played by four people over four deals.
Contract Bridge developed in the 1920's from Auction Bridge, which is different mainly in the scoring. In Auction Bridge, overtricks count towards making game, so it is only necessary to bid high enough to win the contract - there is no incentive to bid all the tricks you can make.
Before Auction Bridge there was Bridge-Whist or Straight Bridge (at the time this game was just called Bridge). Here is a link to the earliest published rules of Bridge , which appeared in 1886 under the name Biritch or Russian Whist. In Bridge-Whist there is no bidding at all - the dealer either names a trump suit or passes, in which case the dealer's partner must choose trumps. In either case the dealer's partner is dummy. Either opponent may double before the lead to the first trick, and if doubled, the dealer's side may redouble. In the earliest form of the game, after any redouble, the other side can redouble again, and this can continue indefinitely.
The duplicate format, in which the same cards are played at more than one table, has been in use since the 19th century for competitions in Auction Bridge, Straight Bridge, their ancestor Whist , and several other four-player card games, as well as for Contract Bridge from its invention to the present day.
Rubber Bridge
Players and Cards
There are four players in two fixed partnerships. Partners sit facing each other. It is traditional to refer to the players according to their position at the table as North, East, South and West, so North and South are partners playing against East and West. The game is played clockwise.
A standard 52 card pack is used. The cards in each suit rank from highest to lowest: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2.
Deal
The cards are shuffled by the player to dealer's left and cut by the player to dealer's right. The dealer deals out all the cards one at a time so that each player has 13. Turn to deal rotates clockwise.
It is traditional to use two packs of cards. During each deal, the dealer's partner shuffles the other pack and places it to the right. The dealer for the next hand then simply needs to pick up the cards from the left and pass them across to the right to be cut. Provided all the players understand and operate it, this procedure saves time and helps to remember whose turn it is to deal, as the spare pack of cards is always to the left of the next dealer.
Bidding
There is next an auction to decide who will be the declarer. A bid specifies a number of tricks and a trump suit (or that there will be no trumps). The side which bids highest will try to win at least that number of tricks bid, with the specified suit as trumps.
When bidding, the number which is said actually represents the number of tricks in excess of six which the partnership undertakes to win. For example a bid of "two hearts" represents a contract to win at least 8 tricks (8 = 6 + 2) with hearts as trumps.
For the purpose of bidding the possible trump suits rank as follows: no trumps (highest), spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs (lowest). A bid of a larger number of tricks always beats a bid of a smaller number, and if the number of tricks bid are equal, the higher suit beats the lower. The lowest bid allowed is "one club" (to win at least 7 tricks with clubs as trumps), and the highest is "seven no trumps" (to win all 13 tricks without trumps). NB. In North America, the term for contracts played without a trump suit is "notrump" or "no trump" (without an 's').
It is also possible, during the auction, to "double" a bid by the other side or to "redouble" the opponents' double. Doubling and redoubling essentially increase the score for the bid contract if won and the penalties if lost. If someone then bids higher, any previous doubles and redoubles are cancelled.
Note that doubling does not affect the ranking of a bid - for example a bid of two spades is always higher than two hearts, even if the two hearts bid has been doubled or redoubled.
The dealer begins the auction, and the turn to speak passes clockwise. At each turn a player may either:
make a bid, which must be higher than the previous bid if any;
say "double", if the previous bid was by an opponent, and has not already been doubled;
say "redouble", if the previous bid was by one's own side and has been doubled by an opponent, but not yet redoubled;
pass, by saying "no bid" or "pass". This indicates that the player does not wish to bid, double or redouble at that turn, but a player who has passed is still allowed to bid, double or redouble at a later turn. NB. Either "no bid" or "pass" is permissible, but you should stick to one term or the other. "No bid" is usual in Britain; "pass" is usual in the USA.
If all four players pass on their first turn to speak the hand is said to be passed out. The cards are thrown in and the next dealer deals.
If anyone bids, then the auction continues until there are three passes in succession, and then stops. After three consecutive passes, the last bid becomes the contract. The team who made the final bid will now try to make the contract. The first player of this team who mentioned the denomination (suit or no trumps) of the contract becomes the declarer. The declarer's partner is known as the dummy.
Example of an auction (North dealt):
North East South West pass 1 heart double 3 hearts 3 spades pass 4 spades pass pass pass
North-South will try to win at least 10 tricks with spades as trumps; North, who mentioned spades first, is the declarer. South's double of one heart was cancelled by West's bid of 3 hearts.
The Play
The player to the left of the declarer leads to the first trick and may play any card. Immediately after this opening lead, the dummy's cards are exposed. The dummy should arrange them neatly in suits, the cards of each suit arranged in rank order in an overlapping column, pointing towards the declarer, so that all the cards are clearly visible. The trump suit if any should be to dummy's right (declarer's left); in the diagram, spades are trump.
Play proceeds clockwise. Each of the other three players in turn must if possible play a card of the same suit that the leader played. A player with no card of the suit led may play any card. A trick consists of four cards, one from each player, and is won by the highest trump in it, or if no trumps were played by the highest card of the suit led. The winner of a trick leads to the next, and may lead any card.
Each trick is gathered together and turned face down when complete, but you may ask to see the cards and ask who played which card until you or your partner has played to the next trick. The tricks won are to be arranged neatly in front of one member of the winning side, so that they can easily be counted.
Dummy takes no active part in the play of the hand. Whenever it is dummy's turn to play, the declarer must say which of dummy's cards is to be played, and dummy plays the card as instructed (provided that it is legal). Dummy is not permitted to offer any advice or comment on the play. When dummy wins a trick, the declarer specifies which card dummy should lead to the next trick. If when calling for a card the declarer specifies the suit only, dummy is to play the lowest card of that suit.
It is also legal, and not unusual, for the declarer to play dummy's cards by physically taking them from dummy's hand rather than just calling for them. This allows the dummy player to leave the table during the play of the hand.
Scoring
As its name suggests, Rubber Bridge is played in rubbers. A rubber is the best of three games. A game is won by the first team to score 100 or more points for successful contracts, over several deals if necessary.
A side which has already won one game towards the current rubber is said to be vulnerable. A side which has not yet won a game is not vulnerable. A side which is vulnerable is subject to higher bonuses and penalties than one that is not.
The score is kept on a piece of paper divided into two columns headed WE and THEY, for the two teams, with a horizontal line part-way down (see example ). Scores for successful contracts are entered below the line, and count towards winning a game. Other scores, such as bonuses for tricks made in excess of the contract (overtricks), or penalties for tricks short of the contract (undertricks) are entered above the line, and do not count towards winning the game.
Score for making the contract
For a successful contract, the score below the line for each trick (in excess of 6) bid and made is as follows:
If trumps are Clubs or Diamonds, 20 per trick
If trumps are Hearts or Spades, 30 per trick
If there are No Trumps, 40 for the first trick, and 30 for each subsequent trick.
If the contract was doubled the above scores are doubled. If it was doubled and redoubled, they are multiplied by 4.
In addition, the declarer's side scores an extra 50 points above the line if they succeed in a doubled contract. This is sometimes known as "50 for the insult". For making a redoubled contract the bonus is 100 above the line.
Because of the difference in score, clubs and diamonds are called the minor suits and hearts and spades are the major suits.
Slam bonus
A contract to make 12 tricks is known as a small slam. A contract to make all 13 tricks is called a grand slam. For bidding and making a slam, declarer's side get an extra bonus above the line, depending on their vulnerability, as follows:
Slam bonus small slam grand slam not vulnerable 500 1000 vulnerable 750 1500
Score for overtricks
If the declarer's side wins more tricks than were bid, and were not doubled, then in addition to the score below the line for the contract, they score for the overtricks above the line at the same rate as for bid tricks - i.e. 20 per trick if a minor suit was trumps; 30 per trick in a major suit or no trumps.
If the contract was doubled or redoubled, the bonus for overtricks does not depend on the trump suit, but does depend on whether the declarer's side was vulnerable as follows:
Score per overtrick doubled redoubled not vulnerable 100 200 vulnerable 200 400
Penalty for undertricks
If the declarer's side win fewer tricks than they bid, neither side scores anything below the line, but the declarer's opponents score above the line. This score depends on the declarer's side's vulnerability, and whether the contract was doubled or redoubled, as follows:
Undertrick penalty: not vulnerable vulnerable Not doubled - each undertrick: 50 100 Doubled - first undertrick: 100 200 Doubled - 2nd and 3rd undertrick: 200 each 300 each Doubled - subsequent undertricks: 300 each 300 each
Redoubled undertricks cost twice as much as doubled undertricks.
Honours
The top five trumps (A K Q J 10) are called honours. If one player holds all five of these cards, that player's side scores a bonus of 150 above the line. Four honours in one hand score 100. If there are no trumps, and a player holds four aces, that player's side scores 150 for honours.
Scores for honours are to be claimed at the end of the play (it is assumed that the players will remember what they held).
As there is no skill in scoring for honours, players often agree to play without the honour bonuses.
Game and Rubber
A side that accumulates 100 points or more below the line has won a game. A new line is drawn under the scores. Anything the opponents had below the line does not count towards the next game - they start from zero again.
It is important to notice that, starting from zero and in the absence of doubles, to make a game in one hand you need to succeed in a contract of at least three no trumps, four spades, four hearts, five clubs or five diamonds.
The side which first wins two games wins the rubber. For this they get a bonus of 700 if they won it two games to zero, or 500 if it was two games to one. Both sides' scores are then totalled and if the game is being played for money, the side with the higher score wins an amount proportional to the difference in scores from the side with the lower score.
If play ends for any reason with a rubber unfinished, then a side with a game gets a bonus of 300 points, and a side with a part score (i.e. a score below the line towards an uncompleted game) gets a bonus of 100.
Example of Rubber Bridge scoring
The scoresheet of a completed rubber might look like the example below. (The letters in brackets indicate successive deals as described in the corresponding footnotes - they would not appear on the scoresheet.)
WE | THEY | 500 (f) | 50 (f) | 100 (f) | 200 (e) | 500 (i) 300 (b) | 30 (g) 60 (a) | 30 (c) =============|============== <-- the line 60 (a) | 100 (c) -------------|-------------- (c) 360 (f) | 90 (d) -------------|-------------- (f) 60 (h) | 40 (g) | 90 (i)
(a) we bid 2 hearts and made 10 tricks - 60 below the line for the contract and 60 above for the overtricks
(b) they bid 4 spades, we doubled them, and they took only 8 tricks - we score 100 for their first undertrick and 200 for the second
(c) they bid 3 no trumps and made 10 tricks. This gives them a game (100 below the line) plus 30 above the line for their overtrick. A new line is ruled below the scores to indicate the start of a new game.
(d) they bid and made 3 spades
(e) they bid two diamonds and made 6 tricks - they are now vulnerable so we score 100 for each undertrick.
(f) we bid 6 hearts; they doubled us, but we won all 13 tricks. We score 360 (180 x 2) below the line for our doubled contract, giving us a game; 100 above for our doubled non-vulnerable overtrick; 50 above for making a doubled contract; and 500 bonus for a small slam bid and made.
(g) they bid one no trump and took 8 tricks; note that their 90 on deal (d) was part of the previous game, so the 40 below does not give them a game.
(h) we bid 3 clubs and made exactly 9 tricks.
(i) they bid 3 hearts and took exactly 9 tricks giving their second game and the rubber, for a bonus of 500 (two games to one).
Adding up the scores, we have 1690 and they have 880. Therefore we have won by 810 points (even though they won the rubber).
In this example the "above the line" scores were entered starting immediately above the line and working upwards. This is traditional, at least in Britain, but not necessary - you can start at the top, just below the WE-THEY headings, and work downwards if you prefer.
John Paton has produced a slide show version of the above example - it is available as an Open Office presentation and as a Powerpoint presentation .
* Note on changes in scoring
Some details of Bridge scoring were changed in 1987 for Duplicate Bridge and in 1993 for Rubber Bridge. Before the changes, the penalty for doubled undertricks when not vulnerable was 100 for the first and 200 each for all others (and twice as much for a redoubled contract). Also the bonus for making a redoubled contract was 50, not 100, and the bonus for a part score in an uncompleted rubber was 50, not 100.
Partnership agreement and conventions
As in most card games, partners are forbidden to convey information to each other by talking, gestures, facial expression, etc. However there is considerable scope for partners to exchange information within the rules of the game by their choice of bids or cards played.
The bidding mechanism is such that if a player makes a bid (or double or redouble), it is always possible for the player's partner at their next turn to override that bid with a higher bid. This makes it possible for partners to assign arbitrary meanings to bids. Bids which can be taken at face value - that is they convey a genuine wish to play a contract to take the relevant number of tricks or more with the trump suit stated - are called natural. Bids which carry an agreed meaning other than this are called artificial or conventional.
For example if we are partners, we might agree that a bid of one club by me shows a strong hand, but has nothing to do with wanting clubs as trumps. Provided that we both understand this, you will not leave me to play a contract of one club, but will make some other bid, natural or artificial. Another example: since doubling a low-level suit contract in the hope of a penalty is unlikely to be profitable, almost all players use an agreement that in certain situations a double simply shows a good hand (perhaps with additional specifications) and asks partner to bid - this is known as a takeout double.
A bidding system is a comprehensive set of partnership agreements about the meanings of bids. For natural bids, players commonly have agreements on the number of cards held in a bid suit: for example in some natural systems, opening the bidding with one of a major suit implies a holding of at least five cards, while others require only four or more cards in the suit. Agreements also often relate to high cards held in the bid suit or in the hand generally. The overall strength of a hand is often measured in "high-card points", counting each ace=4, king=3, queen=2, jack=1, and 0 for other cards - an approach originally developed by and named after Milton Work in the 1920's. Most bidding systems also include some agreements that in certain circumstances a player will not pass. A bid, natural or artificial, which by agreement requires the player's partner to respond with a bid, rather than pass and allow the contract to be played, is called a forcing bid. Sometimes the agreement is that after a certain bid both partners agree to keep the auction going until it reaches a certain level. For example a bid that by agreement requires the partnership to continue bidding until a game contract is reached is known as a game-forcing bid. Such methods help ensure that with suitable cards partners will have more than one opportunity to bid. These extra bids can be used to exchange further infomation about their hands and improve their chances of reaching the best contract.
The main restriction on agreements between partners about the meaning of bids is that all such agreements must be declared to the opponents. Players should declare their system (if any) at the start of a session. Many clubs and tournaments require that this be done by means of a convention card which sets out the meanings of bids. In addition, an player may, at their turn to bid or play, ask for and be given an explanation of the opponents' bidding agreements. The explanation should be given by the partner of the player who made the bid in question. For example, if I double a suit contract, either opponent may, at their turn, ask my partner what the double means, and my partner must answer according to any agreement we may have about the meaning of the double - for example that it is for takeout or for penalties. If we have no agreement on this, partner should say so - players are not required or permitted to speculate or to guess at the meanings of bids in answer to such a question.
It is sometimes agreed that after the auction, the declarer's left hand opponent, having asked any necessary questions about the declarer's side's bidding agreements, leads the first card face down. The other opponent may then ask questions about the declarer's side's bidding, after which dummy's cards are exposed and play continues as usual. This procedure minimises the risk that by asking a question you may give unauthorised information to your partner. Asking at other times during the bidding or play, though legal and sometimes necessary, might be taken to imply that your next bid or play will depend on the answer given.
Similar considerations apply to the play. Partners may agree on the meaning of the choice of card played in certain circumstances. For example we may agree that when leading from a sequence of adjacent high cards such as K-Q-J we always lead the highest. Again, the opponents are entitled to know about such agreements. They should be declared on the convention card, and may be asked about during the play.
In Rubber Bridge one does not often come across complicated systems and partnership agreements. One is often playing with an unfamiliar partner, or in an informal setting. Complicated agreements are more often encountered in Duplicate Bridge, where the players are often long standing partners who have devoted considerable effort to agreeing their system.
Duplicate Bridge
In Rubber Bridge , although the better players have a noticable edge and will undoubtedly win in the long run, the outcome of a single rubber depends heavily on which side is dealt the better cards. The idea of Duplicate Bridge is to eliminate this element of luck, by having the same hands played more than once, by different sets of players.
Suppose we are partners and play a hand of Duplicate Bridge as North-South. Instead of being rewarded for our absolute score on that hand, our score is compared with those of other players who played the same deal as North-South against other opponents. We win if we score better than other players managed with our cards, and lose if we score worse.
For this comparison to be fair, it is necessary that each group of players who play the same deal should start from the same position. Therefore it is not practicable to play rubbers, where the scores carried forward from deal to deal affect the tactical situation. Instead, each deal is scored in its own right, and does not affect the scores for subsequent ones. The concept of vulnerability is retained, but on each deal the vulnerability is preassigned.
Boards
An almost essential piece of apparatus for playing Duplicate Bridge is a set of duplicate boards, and a pack of cards for each board. Each board contains four pockets marked North, East, South and West in which the cards for the four players are stored. Each board also carries a number to identify it, and has marks showing which of the players is dealer and whether each team is vulnerable or not. The marking of the boards is as follows:
Board 1: dealer North; neither side vulnerable
Board 2: dealer East; North-South vulnerable
Board 3: dealer South; East-West vulnerable
Board 4: dealer West; both sides vulnerable
Board 5: dealer North; North-South vulnerable
Board 6: dealer East; East-West vulnerable
Board 7: dealer South; both sides vulnerable
Board 8: dealer West; neither side vulnerable
Board 9: dealer North; East-West vulnerable
Board 10: dealer East; both sides vulnerable
Board 11: dealer South; neither side vulnerable
Board 12: dealer West; North-South vulnerable
Board 13: dealer North; both sides vulnerable
Board 14: dealer East; neither side vulnerable
Board 15: dealer South; North-South vulnerable
Board 16: dealer West; East-West vulnerable
After board 16 the pattern repeats - board 17 is like board 1, board 18 like board 2 and so on.
Before the boards are played the cards are shuffled, dealt and placed in the pockets. Traditionally, this was done by a neutral person or by a player in the presence at least one opponent. Nowadays the cards are often dealt by computer, with the aim of ensuring perfect randomness while enabling a record of each deal to be kept. A simple method is for the computer to produce a printed hand record or a set of curtain cards, specifying which cards should be in each hand on each board; a neutral person then has to construct the hands and put them in the pockets. Since the early 21st century, however, computer controlled dealing machines have become widely available. These machines physically sort the playing cards and place them in the boards ready to be played. Early models did this with the aid of a bar code printed on each card; these are gradually being superseded by machines that use optical character recognition (OCR) to identify and deal standard playing-cards.
When about to play a board, the players take their cards from the appropriate pockets, check to see that they have 13 each, and then bid as usual. The mark on the board showing the 'dealer' in practice just indicates which player is to begin the bidding. The opening lead is always made face down, as explained above , to give the leader's partner an opportunity to ask questions about the bidding before the led card is shown. During the play, the cards are not played in the centre of the table but in front of the players. At the end of each trick, all four players turn their played card face down. The cards played by each player are overlapped, with the longer axis of the card pointing to the winners of the trick (i.e. the cards belonging to tricks you have won are placed upright from your point of view, and the ones belonging to lost tricks sideways). That way you can easily see how many tricks you have won. Also, if the cards are kept in order, any dispute about revokes or tricks won or lost can be settled by reconstructing the play. At the end of the play, each player's cards are gathered up and replaced in the correct pocket, ready for the next time the board is to be played.
When this method of play is used, dummy is expected to remain at the table if at all possible, and declarer then always calls dummy's cards rather than pulling them from the dummy. You may ask to look at the cards played to a trick by the other players as long as your own card is face up. Once you have turned your card face down, you no longer have the right to see any of the other cards played to that trick. (Unless you are dummy, you are still allowed to peek at your own played card, without exposing it, until the lead is made to the next trick.)
Scoring
Each board is marked to show whether both sides, one side or neither side is vulnerable for that board. You still need to score at least 100 points for tricks bid and made to make a game, but on each board, both sides start with zero points towards games - there are no 'part scores' carried forward.
In place of the rubber bonus, there are game and part score bonuses:
Making a game when vulnerable: 500 points Making a game when not vulnerable: 300 points Making a part score any time: 50 points
The rest of the scores are the same as in Rubber Bridge, except that there are no bonuses for honours in Duplicate Bridge. So for example:
if we bid 2 spades and make 4 (10 tricks) we score 170, that is 60 for two spades bid and made, 60 for two overtricks and 50 for the part score;
if we bid 4 spades and make it when we are not vulnerable we score 420 (120 for the contract and 300 for the game);
if we bid 4 spades and make it when we are vulnerable we score 620 (120 for the contract plus 500 for the game).
These scores are of course not yet the final scores. They have yet to be compared with the scores achieved by other people who have played the same cards as us on this board. The method of doing this comparison varies according to what kind of duplicate is being played. Perhaps the commonest types are teams of four with international matchpoint (IMP) scoring, and matchpointed pairs .
Teams of Four
A match can be played between two teams of four - eight players in all. Each team consists of two partnerships, and you need two tables - preferably in separate rooms so that players cannot overhear events at the other table. Before starting the players agree how many boards will be played - this could be 24, 32, 48 or more, depending on the seriousness of the match and the time available. A 24 board match should easily be completed within three hours. Shorter matches, sometimes of as few as 6 boards, are commonly played if the match is part of a larger tournament. Longer matches are normally split into two or more segments (or stanzas) after each of which there may be a break and an opportunity to change seats.
Call the tables 1 and 2 and the teams A and B. Then the pairs of team A sit North-South at table 1 and East-West at table 2, and the pairs of team B occupy the other seats. Take a convenient number of boards - say boards 1 to 12 - and give the first 6 to table 1 and the other 6 to table 2. As each table finishes their 6 boards they are passed to the other table to be replayed. Since none of the players should go near the other table before everyone has played all 12 boards, it is best if the boards are transferred from table to table by a neutral referee; if none is available, the boards that have been played once can be left in a place away from both tables for collection by the players from the other table. When all 12 boards have been played at both tables, it is a convenient time to compare scores and maybe enjoy some refreshments.
It may be agreed that for the next segment, the two pairs of one of the teams should swap places. This gives each pair the opportunity to play against both pairs of the opposing team. The procedure about the number of segments in a match and the choice of seats for each segment may be laid down by the organiser of the event - otherwise it needs to be agreed between the team captains.
Each player should have a score card to record the score on each board. The card has a row for each board. The beginning of North's card from table 1, when completed, might look like this:
Board Final Score IMPs Deal # Vul Contract By Tricks Plus Minus Plus Minus N 1 - 4S S 10 420 E 2 NS 5D* W 8 500 S 3 EW 3NT W 12 690 W 4 All 2H N 9 140
In the contract column 5D* means 5 diamonds doubled. The 'By' column shows who was declarer. The score is recorded from player's point of view (North's in the example) - so when West goes down in 5 diamonds it is positive. The IMPs can only be filled in when this card is compared with one of the cards from the other room. Some players prefer to enter the number of over- or undertricks in the "Tricks" column rather than the total number of tricks taken. In that case the "Tricks" column entries for the four boards in the above example would read "=, -3, +3, +1". Suppose that our team mate East on table 2 has a card like this:
Board Final Score IMPs Deal # Vul Contract By Tricks Plus Minus Plus Minus N 1 - 4S S 11 450 E 2 NS 4H N 10 620 S 3 EW 6NT W 12 1440 W 4 All 4H N 9 100
Now the differences can be converted to IMPs for the team. The following standard table is used:
Point difference IMPs 0 - 10 0 20 - 40 1 50 - 80 2 90 - 120 3 130 - 160 4 170 - 210 5 220 - 260 6 270 - 310 7 320 - 360 8 370 - 420 9 430 - 490 10 500 - 590 11 600 - 740 12 750 - 890 13 900 - 1090 14 1100 - 1290 15 1300 - 1490 16 1500 - 1740 17 1750 - 1990 18 2000 - 2240 19 2250 - 2490 20 2500 - 2990 21 3000 - 3490 22 3500 - 3990 23 4000 or more 24
So in the example, on the first board the difference between the two tables was 30 against us, and we lose 1 IMP. On the second board we lose 3 IMPs. Although on table 1 our North-South pair defeated West's 5 diamonds, on table 2 with the same cards our East-West pair allowed North to play and make 4 hearts. On board 3, where we bid the small slam on table 2, while they stopped in game on table 1, we gain 13 IMPs for a 750 point difference. On board 4 both Norths made 9 tricks in hearts, but we gain 6 IMPs because our North-South pair just bid 2 hearts rather than 4. Overall we are 15 IMPs ahead on those four boards.
After each scoring interval, the captains of the teams should check that the scores agree. The purpose of every player keeping score is to make it easier for errors to be traced and corrected.
At the end of the match, the result is the difference in IMPs between the teams. Sometimes there is then a further conversion of this margin into a match result, in which some fixed number of victory points is apportioned between the teams. There is no single standard conversion table, but here is an example table for a 24 board match:
IMP difference Victory Points 0 - 2 10 - 10 3 - 6 11 - 9 7 - 11 12 - 8 12 - 16 13 - 7 17 - 21 14 - 6 22 - 27 15 - 5 28 - 33 16 - 4 34 - 39 17 - 3 40 - 46 18 - 2 47 - 54 19 - 1 55 or more 20 - 0
In the example, if we were still 15 IMPs ahead having played 24 boards, using this table we would win the match 13-7. If the match was part of some larger competition, such as a league, then we would score 13 victory points and our opponents would score 7.
There are also events in which many teams of four compete. There are various ways of organising these. At any particular time in such an event you will be playing a part of a match against some other team, and at some time your team-mates will play the other cards of the same boards against the other half of that same team. The scores are eventually compared to find how many IMPs you won or lost against that team.
Another way of scoring teams of four is akin to the matchpoint scoring used in pairs ( see below ). On each board you simply win, tie, or lose depending on whether you score better, worse or the same as the other team. This method is known as board-a-match or BAM in America; in Britain it is usually called point-a-board.
Pairs
This is the game most usually played in Bridge clubs, and there are also many tournaments organised this way. As implied by the name, it is played between a number of fixed partnerships or pairs. For a pairs event you need a minimum of three tables (6 pairs, 12 players), and it works better with more players - say 10 tables (40 players) or more. With a very large number of players (say more than 70) it is usual to split the tournament into two or more separate sections.
Generally you play two or three boards at a table - this is called a round - and then one or both pairs move to another table and play other boards against other opponents. The movement will be organised by the director in such a way that no one ever plays boards they have played before, or against opponents they have played before.
Traditionally, the score for each hand was recorded to a travelling scoresheet or traveller, which was kept in the board, folded so that previous scores could not be read, either in a special pocket provided for this purpose, or in the North pocket on top of North's cards. None of the players may look at this sheet before the board has been played. North is then responsible for entering the result and showing the completed sheet to East-West to check that it has been done correctly. Each pair has a number to identify them, and this must also be entered on the scoresheet, to show whose result it is. North is also responsible for the movement of the boards - checking at the start of the round that the correct boards are being played and passing them on at the end of the round.
At the end of the whole session, each scoresheet will contain the results of all the pairs who have played that board. The scoresheets are then collected by the organisers and the scores compared. The usual method of scoring is in matchpoints. Each pair is awarded 2 matchpoints for each pair who scored worse than them on that board, and 1 matchpoint for each pair who scored equally. (In North America it is customary to count just one matchpoint for each pair scoring worse than you on a board, and half a matchpoint for those that are equal. This obviously makes no difference to the final ranking order or percentages scored by the pairs. Half points are traditionally written as a horizontal or diagonal stroke: — or /. )
A completed score sheet might look like this:
Board No. 1 Pair No. North-South Matchpoints NS EW Contract By Tricks Plus Minus NS EW 1 8 4S N 10 420 5 7 2 13 3NT S 10 430 8 4 3 11 5C* E 8 500 12 0 4 9 4S N 10 420 5 7 5 14 4S N 11 450 10 2 6 12 5S N 10 50 0 12 7 10 3S N 10 170 2 10
Then the total matchpoints scored by each pair over all the boards are calculated. This is generally converted to a percentage for each pair of the points they scored compared to the theoretical maximum. This gives a fair comparison between pairs who have played different numbers of boards. The winners are the pair with the highest percentage. There may be prizes for 1st, 2nd, 3rd place, etc.
Another, less usual way of scoring pairs is with a version of the IMP scoring used for team matches ( see above ). There are two kinds of IMP pair games: your score may be IMPed against every other pair that played the same hands, or against a form of average of the scores of all the pairs who played the hand.
Sometimes the movement is such that the North-South pairs stay put and the East-West pairs remain East-West throughout. In this case the results for the East-West pairs and the North-South pairs are separate, and there are two winning pairs. To enable all the pairs to be placed in a single ranking order, the last round is sometimes played with an arrow switch. This means that the players who were previously North-South play the East-West cards for that round and vice versa.
I am told that in many North American tournaments "pickup slips" were used instead of travellers - that is, there was an individual score slip for each table in each round. After North had filled out the details and East or West had checked it, it was left face down on the table and picked up by the organisers during the next round. This facilitated the calculation of final scores by computer, as the results of earlier rounds could be entered while the later rounds are being played. It also prevented players from seeing the results obtained by other players who previously played the same cards, which might be considered an advantage or a disadvantage.
Nowadays it is increasingly common for scores to be entered directly into a computer terminal at the table. These can be configured to provide or not to provide information about previous results for that board, and can be set to ask the person entering the details to also record the opening lead.
Duplicate Bridge procedure and ethics
During a duplicate event, where play will be in progress at several tables at the same time, it is important that players do not see, overhear or otherwise take an interest in the play at the other tables. Any attempt to do so would be cheating, as it might give unauthorised information about the distribution of cards or the result of a board which the player would later be playing. For similar reasons, partners should not discuss the boards they have played in the hearing of other players until the end of the event (or a suitable break at a time when everyone has played the same boards).
In many places devices are used to enable the bidding to proceed silently, reducing the chance of hearing bids from another table. The best arrangement is for each player to have a bidding box, which is a box containing cards displaying all the possible bids, pass, double and redouble. At your turn you display the relevant card. All the cards used for bids remain on view until the end of the auction, thus also avoiding the problem of players forgetting or mishearing part of the bidding. A cheaper but less satisfactory method is to use a large card with a compartment for each possible bid; at your turn you point to the bid you wish to make. I am told that in Australia, overhearing of bids is commonly avoided by requiring bids to be written down rather than spoken.
In an event of any size, there will be a tournament director whose job is to ensure that the play flows smoothly. This person will deal with any infringements of the rules that occur, referring when necessary to the laws . If some irregularity occurs, such as a bid out or play out of turn, an illegal bid or play, or discovering that the cards have been wrongly boarded (the hands contain more or fewer than 13 cards), the director should be called to the table. This should not be construed as an accusation of cheating - the purpose of calling the director is simply to ensure that the irregularity is sorted out fairly and in accordance with the rules. The instructions and decisions of the director should be followed and respected at all times. In a serious tournament, if you strongly disagree with the director's ruling, it should be possible to appeal against the director's decision. The procedure for this varies according to the nature of the event - the director should be able to advise you on the options.
Stop and alert
In tournament Bridge, if you make a bid at a level higher than necessary in that denomination (a "jump" bid), you are supposed to precede your bid by saying "stop" (or displaying your "stop" card if you are using bidding boxes). The next player must then pause before bidding or passing. The reason behind this is that after a jump bid the next player may have reason to hesitate, as your unexpectedly high bid might have disrupted the course of action which that player was planning. The player is forced by the stop rule to hesitate anyway, so avoiding giving unauthorised information . Example:
North bids "one spade"
East bids "stop; three hearts"
South pauses and then passes
If South had been planning to bid two spades, say, then he might need time after East's unexpected jump to decide whether a three spade bid would now be appropriate. As South is forced to pause, North gets no clue as to whether the jump gave South a problem. Similarly, if South instead bids three spades after the mandatory pause, he gives North no clue as to whether he was considering a pass instead.
The idea of alerts is to warn the opponents of a bid (or double or pass) which has an unexpected agreed meaning. It is always the duty of the partner of the bidder to alert the bid when required. If using bidding boxes, this is done by displaying the "alert" card. Otherwise the alert is given by saying "alert" or (in Britain but not in North America) by knocking the table. The definition of what bids require alerts varies from place to place - it is determined by the Bridge organisation under whose aegis the tournament is being held. In Britain, most artificial bids must be alerted; in North America, alerts are required for bids which diverge from a defined standard set of meanings.
Since the late 1990's, "announcements" have been introduced in some places. When bids with certain specific meanings are made, the bidder's partner must say a specific phrase that explains the meaning of the bid. For example the partner of a player who makes an opening bid of "one no trump" might be required to disclose the partnership's agreed range of strength for that bid in "high-card points" , by saying for example "12 to 14" or "16 to 18".
Unauthorised information
This is information which you obtain in some other way than as a legitimate deduction from the bidding and play. Unauthorised information might arise from:
hesitation or undue haste in bidding or playing a card
seeing your partner's cards
extraneous remarks made during the game; also gestures, tone of voice, etc.
seeing or overhearing events at another table
questions your partner asks about the bidding or play
alerts/announcements made or not made by your partner, or answers to opponents' questions, if they reveal that you and your partner differ as to the agreed meaning of your bids or plays
The principle is that you are allowed to take advantage of anything done by your opponents at your table, but you are obliged to ignore any unauthorised information gained from your partner's actions or from other tables.
In fact if you do obtain unauthorised information from your partner, you should not only ignore it but be prepared to prove that you have done so. This means that if you are involved in any kind of close decision you ought to take the action opposite to the one indicated by the information from your partner. For example if during the bidding your partner passes after a hesitation, you must pass too unless you have a cast iron case for bidding, otherwise you might be accused of making use of the unauthorised information that your partner had nearly enough strength to bid.
Deception
In Bridge it is illegal to behave deliberately in such a way as to try to give spurious information to the opponents. For example if you have only one card of a suit that is led, it is illegal to hesitate before playing it, creating the impression that you had more than one card to choose from. (Even an inadvertent hesitation would be an offence, though a less serious one, if it misled the opponents to your benefit, and the director would adjust the score to give a fair result.) On the other hand there is no ban on making deceptive bids and plays to confuse the opponents - as long as these are not part of an undisclosed partnership agreement. You are free for example to play a card different from what might be expected from your holding, provided that you play the card smoothly and without comment. Similarly you are free to make a bid which is inconsistent with your system to upset the opposition, provided that this is as much of a surprise to your partner as it is to the opponents. Of course you must always bid and play legally, in turn and in accordance with the ranking of bids, the rules of following suit, and so on, even if your choice of bid or play is unorthodox and unexpected.
Chicago
There are several versions of this game, also known in the official rules as Four-Deal Bridge. As this name suggests it is a game for four players which is complete in four deals, unlike Rubber Bridge , where the length of a rubber is indefinite. This greater predictability has made it popular in some American clubs where Rubber was formerly played.
The vulnerability varies from hand to hand in a fixed pattern as follows:
Hand 1: Dealer North; neither side vulnerable
Hand 2: Dealer East; North-South vulnerable
Hand 3: Dealer South; East-West vulnerable
Hand 4: Dealer West; both sides vulnerable
If all four players pass, the cards are shuffled again and the hand redealt by the same dealer. The game bonus is 500 when vulnerable, 300 when not vulnerable. If a team makes a part score this is carried forward to subsequent deals until one side makes a game. If a team makes a part score in hand 4 that is not sufficient to complete a game, they score a bonus of 100, but there is no bonus for any part scores made in earlier hands.
Example of scoring
N-S | E-W | 100 (d) | 50 (d) | 200 (d) | 500 (c) 60 (a) | 30 (c) ===========|=========== 1. N deals, love all 60 (a) | | 2. E deals, N-S vul | 40 (b) | 3. S deals, E-W vul | 60 (c) -----------|----------- 4. W deals, game all 80 (d) | ==================== Totals 550 630 so E-W win by 80.
(a) On hand 1, N-S bid two spades and made 10 tricks, scoring 60 points below the line plus 60 above for the overtricks. No game here because N-S's score below the line is less than 100.
(b) On hand 2, E-W bid one no trump and made exactly seven tricks, for 40 points.
(c) On hand 3, E-W bid two hearts and won 9 tricks for 60 points below and 30 above. This brings their score below the line to 100, which counts as a vulnerable game because E-W are vulnerable for this hand, even though this is the first game they have made.
(d) On hand 4, the final hand, N-S bid one no trump; although they are doubled, they succeed in making eight tricks. This is worth 80 (2*40) below the line, and above the line they score 200 for one vulnerable overtrick plus 50 for making a doubled contract. However, this is not a game: their 60 below the line from hand 1 no longer counts towards game because of the game E-W made in hand 3. Therefore N-S score just a further 100 for finishing with a part score.
Note: the original version of Chicago had the vulnerability reversed in hands 2 and 3, so that the dealing side was vulnerable. The more modern scheme, which has the non-dealing side vulnerable as shown above, tends to lead to more competitive bidding.
Chicago with Duplicate Scoring
Chicago is sometimes played using duplicate scoring . There is no accumulation of part scores or games from deal to deal - each deal is scored separately, and a team making a part score gets an immediate bonus of 50 as in duplicate. The sequence of vulnerability is fixed as in the standard version.
A multiple of four hands can be played, repeating the sequence of vulnerabilities as often as necessary. The result is simply the total score over the deals played.
Chicago with Russian Scoring
The following method of scoring Chicago originated in Russia. It eliminates some of the luck of the deal by introducing an element of IMPs scoring .
On each deal, there is a target score which depends on the number of high card points held. The cards are played in front of the players, as in duplicate. At the end of the play, the high card points held by each side are counted, according to the following scale:
each ace: 4 points
each queen: 2 points
each jack: 1 point
There are 40 points in all. The team which held more high card points finds its target score, which depends on whether they were vulnerable or not, from the following table:
High Card Target Points Not Vul. Vulnerable 20 0 0 21 50 50 22 70 70 23 110 110 24 200 290 25 300 440 26 350 520 27 400 600 28 430 630 29 460 660 30 490 690 31 600 900 32 700 1050 33 900 1350 34 1000 1500 35 1100 1650 36 1200 1800 37 1300 1950 38 1300 1950 39 1300 1950 40 1300 1950
The difference between the target score from the above table and the actual score is then converted to IMPs, using the standard IMP table . The total IMP scores over a series of hands are totaled to give an overall result.
For example, suppose we are East-West, and on the second deal of a Chicago we bid three hearts and make 10 tricks. We then count our high card points and discover that between us we had 24. We were vulnerable, so our target score from the table was 290. We actually scored 170 (90 for the contract plus 30 for the overtrick plus 50 for the part score). So we are 120 points short of our target. Therefore using the IMP table , our score for this hand is minus 3 IMPs.
Second example. In the first deal of a Chicago we bid and make 4 Spades holding only 18 points between us. Our opponents had a target of 70 but instead we made 420. The difference is 490 so we score plus 10 IMPs.
There are several alternative versions of this scoring table. In Estonia, a compensation table is used which also takes into account the fit between the hands of the partners with the majority of high card points. The details are available on Tanel Teinemaa's Compensation Table web site.
The Beer Card
The Beer Card is the Seven of Diamonds. It is not part of the official rules of Bridge, but there is a tradition among some players that if the declarer succeeds in making the contract and wins the last trick with the Seven of Diamonds, dummy must buy the declarer a beer of the declarer's choice. In the same way, if the opponents defeat the contract and one of them wins the last trick with the Seven of Diamonds, the opponent who wins the last trick is bought a beer by the other opponent.
The Beer Card tradition originated in Copenhagen in the 1950's or 1960's. It was probably inspired by:
the large reward for winning the last trick with a King or the Pagat (lowest trump) in the game of Danish Tarok , or the bonus for winning the last trick with the trump 7 (the lowest trump) in the Danish form of Skat ;
the fact that the diamond seven is a valuable card in the system of bommelommer points - a way of evaluating a Bridge hand which has little or no connection with its usefulness in the game of Bridge, but was used in some Danish clubs as the basis of a side-bet between partners. Bommerlommer is a slightly old-fashioned Danish slang word for money.
Honeymoon Bridge
Bridge has become so popular and fashionable that some players can hardly believe that any other card game is worth learning, but Bridge is a four-player game. When two such people want to play cards and no other players are available, instead of playing a card game designed for two players, they sometimes prefer to resort to two-player adaptations of Bridge, known as Honeymoon Bridge. There are several different versions, all somewhat unsatisfactory. Rules can be found on the Honeymoon Bridge page of this site.
Minibridge
Minibridge is a simplified version of Bridge that was introduced in Europe in the 1990's as a teaching aid for new players. In its most straightforward form it works as follows.
After the cards are dealt as usual, the players look at their cards and count the number of high card points they hold according to the following scale: ace=4, king=3, queen=2, jack=1, other cards zero. This is the popular Milton Work point count used by many Bridge players to evaluate the approximate strength of a hand for bidding purposes. But instead of bidding in the usual way, in Minibridge each player in turn, beginning with the dealer, simply announces his or her point count. The point counts of the four players should add up to 40. The partnership with the higher total point count plays the contract, the declarer being the whichever player of that partnership holds more points. If each partnership has 20 points there is a redeal by the same dealer. If both members of the declaring partnership have the same number of points (for example 12 each), the declarer is the member of the partnership who spoke first - that is the dealer or the player to dealer's left.
The declarer's partner puts down the dummy, and the declarer, having seen partner's hand announces whether the contract will be a "game" or a "part score" and also the trump suit or "no trumps". Then the player to declarer's left leads to the first trick and play proceeds as in normal Bridge.
The scores for each trick above six are as usual: 20 if trumps were clubs or diamonds, 30 if trumps were hearts or spades, and 40 for the first trick and 30 for each subsequent trick if there are no trumps.
If the contract was "part score", it succeeds if the declarer's side wins at least seven tricks. The winning side scores the trick score plus a bonus of 50 points.
If the contract was "game", it succeeds if the declarer's side wins enough tricks to score at least 100 trick points - in other words at least 11 tricks if clubs or diamonds are trumps, at least 10 tricks if hearts or spades are trumps, or at least 9 tricks if there are no trumps. In this case the declarer's side scores the trick score plus a bonus of 300 for the "game".
If the contract fails, the declarer's opponents score 50 points for each trick by which the declarer was short of the number needed to make the contract.
Examples:
Part score in no trumps. For 7 tricks declarer's side would score 90. For 10 tricks they would score 180. if they took 5 tricks the other side would score 100.
Game in hearts. For 10 tricks declarer's side would score 420. For 11 tricks they would score 450. If they took 7 tricks the other side would score 150.
There is no set overall target score. Players play an agreed number of deals after which scores are compared to give the result.
There are several more elaborate versions of Minibridge played in various parts of Europe. For example instead of players announcing their points, each player writes on a slip of paper the number of points and the number of cards held in each suit. Then players speak in turn, starting with the dealer, the options being "pass" or "I open". If all pass the cards are redealt. If a player opens, the opener's partner's slip is passed to the opener, and the opener uses this to choose a contract, which is like a bid in Contract Bridge - a number of tricks above six and a trump suit or no trumps. After this, the opener's left-hand opponent receives his or her partner's slip and can either pass or "overcall". If the opponent passes the opener's contract is played. If the opponent overcalls, he or she must name a contract higher than the opener's bid: either more tricks or the same number of tricks in a higher denomination. The opener can then bid again, and the overcaller and opener continue to bid alternately, each bid being higher than the last, until one of them passes. The final bidder becomes the declarer and plays the final contract.
Further information about Minibridge can be found on the English Bridge Union's Minibridge pages .
In some places, declarers are provided with a "decision table" to help them to decide what contract to announce. Here is a Minibridge Decision Table from the World Bridge Federation Teacher's Program.
Abridged is a proprietary game, based on Minibridge.
Bridge resources on the Internet
Rules, advice and Bridge education
Bridge is one of the few card games with official rules. Here links to
the Laws of Online Bridge (2001).
The Bridge World home page has some good introductory material for beginners, as well as problems, a book list, samples from their magazine, and links to other sites.
The BridgeHands site provides an indexed encyclopedia of Bridge terms, summaries of popular bidding systems, a copy of the laws, some book reviewed and other resources.
Bobby Wolff's daily Bridge column The Aces on Bridge is available to read online.
David Stevenson's Bridge Page has a collection of articles, stories, information and useful links.
The Bridge Base site provides articles and educational software and well as an on line Bridge server.
The web site of the Pattaya Bridge Club in Thailand has a fair amount of Bridge information, including a useful reference section on conventions.
Ron Klinger Bridge , the web site of the well-known Australian player, provides news, problems, advice and other resources.
Jason Feldman and Gavin Wolpert's Bridge Winners site features Bridge articles, problems and polls, tournament news, an ACBL convention card editor and a social networking framework.
The 35 Steps is a graphic visual guide to bidding on a single sheet. There are different versions for two popular bidding systems: Standard American (15-17 No Trump, 5-card majors) and Acol (12-14 No Trump, 4-card majors). It is available in various formats: A4 laminated sheet, large wall chart, mouse pad, fridge magnet, etc.
The Bridge Today University provides Bridge lessons by e-mail.
Warren's Free Bridge Workshop offers instruction based on "Standard-American Goren Party Bridge" techniques.
This archive copy of Zar Petkov's former Zar Points web site explains his hand evaluation method and the theory behind it. It included a calculator which compared valuations of pairs of hands using the Zar, Bergen and Goren point counts.
Andrei Sharko's book The Symmetric Relay Contract Bridge Bidding System Made Easy is available here . Symmetric Relay is a strong club bidding system first published in 1980 by Walter Jones and Roy Kerr. Andrei Sharko's book presents a refined version of this system in easily accessible form.
Maggy Simony's blog Bridge Table Chronicles aims to revive the popularity of Bridge by promoting it as an informal, sociable game.
The Bridge 7 site offers Bridge tutorials and software in English and in Turkish.
The Bridge Doctor site, run by New Zealand players Graeme Tuffnell and Tina McVeigh, provides on line Bridge tutorials and games.
An introduction to Rubber Bridge is available at the Card Game Heaven web site.
LeBridge.info is a French language website offering an introduction to Bridge for beginners.
Bridge Discussion
All aspects of Bridge are discussed in the newsgroup rec.games.bridge which can be accessed using newsreader software or through web interfaces such as Google .
Sites for playing Bridge online
Funbridge is an online Bridge club for Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android or Amazon.
At Pierre-Marie Petit's Jeubridge site (French language) you can play Bridge tournament deals on line.
Bridge software
Bridge Baron - three-time winner of the world computer Bridge championship; choice of bidding systems and conventions; choice of random (recreatable) deals, deals to specified profile or preset deals; online option in Windows version.
The collection HOYLE Card Games
for Windows or Mac OS X includes a Bridge program, along with many other popular card games.
BiddingQuest is a free online system through which you can practise bidding with your partner by bidding predealt hands and scoring the results, and also take part in a bidding contest.
Norm Radder's improved version of Stephen Han's EasyBridge program is available free from BoardGameGeek.
With SimiliBridge , a free computer program for Windows, by Vincent Brévart, you can play either Minibridge or a full version of Bridge (with 5-card major bidding system) against the computer.
Special K Software has software to play the card games of Bridge. This software is available at www.specialksoftware.com .
From Dave Cullen's Acol Bridge site you can download WolfBridge, a freeware Bridge program for Windows.
The GOTO Bridge program includes a large number of predealt and preplayed hands, so that you can compare your performance with others.
Other WWW pages with useful Bridge links
ECats Bridge
Bridge Equipment Suppliers, Clubs and other Bridge related pages
The Baron Barclay Bridge Supplies site has an on-line catalog of their equipment and links to other Bridge pages.
Master Point Press is a publisher specialising in Bridge books.
The Mindracer site has a range of Bridge products and a bidding quiz.
The Bridge page at startkabel.nl has a collection of links to Dutch Bridge clubs, tournaments and other information.
First for Bridge offers a range of Bridge Holidays .
Hamilton Bridge Center - ACBL affiliated Bridge club in Hamilton, Ontario.
Thanks to the many people whose feedback has helped me to improve this page - especially to Mark Brader, for his many corrections and suggestions.
| Points of the compass |
Who was the first British-born chef, and at the time the youngest ever, to win three Michelin Stars? | Bridge Terminology | American Contract Bridge League
Z
A
ABOVE THE LINE. A phrase denoting all scores in rubber bridge entered above a horizontal line on the score sheet, including penalties and the premiums for honors, slams, rubbers, overtricks and fulfilling a doubled or redoubled contract.
ACBL RANK CLASSIFICATIONS. http://www.acbl.org//masterpoints-results/masterpoint-ranks/
ACCORDING TO HOYLE. A phrase indicating that a procedure is sanctioned legally and ethically and that it has the backing of custom. Edmond Hoyle (1672–1769) was the noted authority on card games in his lifetime. His reputation was so great that the phrase “According to Hoyle” came to mean correct procedure in general.
ACCREDITED TEACHERS. Accredited Teachers earn the title by successfully completing ACBL’s Teacher Accreditation Program (TAP). The TAP was created in 1986 as part of ACBL’s new Bridge Education Program. It is a 10-hour seminar designed by Audrey Grant, a Canadian educator, to develop new bridge teachers and to introduce them to ACBL’s Teaching Series. Many established bridge teachers have participated in the TAP as a form of continuing education and are also accredited teachers. Interested ACBL members and volunteer workers have taken the TAP course and have earned the title of ACBL Accredited Teacher.
Special programs for Accredited Teachers are offered at each NABC. These include dinner meetings and special workshops/seminars. A quarterly newsletter, The Bridge Teacher, is published by ACBL and contains news of the organization’s activities, teaching tips, special funded teaching programs and general information of interest to this group.
ACE-HIGH. This describes a suit held by one player in which the ace is the top card without other top honors.
ACTIVE ETHICS. Actions to enable all players to have equal access to methods and understandings used by their opponents. The concept was first broached by Hall of Famer Bobby Wolff during his tenure as president of the ACBL in 1987. According to Wolff, Active Ethics has nothing to do with such items as score corrections – players are supposed to make sure they have the right scores whether or not the adjustment favors them. Instead, Wolff characterized Active Ethics as the desire not to take advantage – the desire to make sure that the opponents are privy to all of a partnership’s conventions, treatments, habits and idiosyncrasies. “The game itself is more important than winning,” said Wolff.
AGGREGATE SCORE. The same as total-point scoring.
ALERT. The word used by a player to make sure the opponents are aware that the Alerter’s partner has made a bid that has a conventional or unusual meaning.
ALERTING. A method of drawing the opponents’ attention to the fact that a particular bid has a conventional or unusual meaning.
ANNOUNCEMENT. Part of the ACBL’s Alert procedure. An Announcement is one word or a short phrase that tells the opponents directly the meaning of partner’s call. When bidding boxes are used, the “Alert” strip is tapped also. For example after a natural 1NT opening bid, the partner of the bidder will say aloud, “15 to 17.”
ARRANGEMENT OF TRICKS. In duplicate bridge, the act of turning a card face down on the edge of the table immediately in front of a player after four cards have been played to a trick, with the long axis of the card pointing to the players who won the trick. In rubber bridge, the act of collecting the cards played to a trick by a member of the side that won the trick and then turning them face down on the table so that the tricks are identifiable in proper sequence.
ATTITUDE SIGNAL. The interest or lack of interest of a defender in having a suit led or continued by his partner. The usual method of encouraging the lead or continuation of a suit is a high-low signal. Low-high is discouraging.
AUCTION. The bidding sequence made by the four players for the contract. The first call is made by the dealer, who may pass or bid. Thereafter, each player makes a valid call, the bidding continuing in a clockwise direction. The bidding ends when, after the dealer’s initial bid, there are three consecutive passes. The final contract is the last bid, which may have been doubled or redoubled.
AUTHORIZED INFORMATION. Information legally available. This includes information such as meanings of calls, explanations of the Laws and methods used to show count and attitude.
AVERAGE HAND. A hand that contains 10 high-card points. An ace, king, queen and jack, or one-fourth of all the high honors, is the average expectation of each player before the hands are seen. This basic assumption furnishes the player with a simple yardstick for measuring the relative high-card strength of a given hand, and may assist materially in estimating the game potential or penalty expectancy of any bid. Hence, two or three points added to an average hand is the valuation of a hand with a minimum opening bid.
AVERAGE SCORE. One-half the matchpoints possible on a given deal or in a particular session of a matchpoint pairs tournament.
In IMP pairs games, average on a given board is the arithmetical mean of all scores on that board, usually excluding the highest and the lowest. This constructed average is called a datum.
The average score is usually the basis on which adjusted scores are awarded when a particular deal cannot be properly played. When the deal cannot be played through no fault of one pair, the adjustment is usually 60% of the available matchpoints. Deduction from the average score is made by the tournament director when one of the pairs is at fault. These adjustments are referred to as average-plus and average-minus.
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BACK IN. To make the first bid for one’s side after passing on a previous round in the face of opposing bidding. This action sometimes will be balancing.
BALANCED DISTRIBUTION (or BALANCED PATTERN). A hand that appears suitable for notrump rather than trump contracts. Standard types are 4-4-3-2, 4-3-3-3 and 5-3-3-2 (5-4-2-2 and 6-3-2-2 are borderline cases). The completely balanced 4-3-3-3 distribution can be described colloquially as flat, square or round, an example of the strangeness of bridge geometry.
Balanced distribution can also refer to an even division of one suit around the table.
BELONG. An expression to indicate which side can legitimately expect to buy the contract. A player who says he knew that “the hand belonged to the opponents” indicates that he judged the opposition could make the highest positive score on the deal. In such circumstances, it may pay to take an advance save or other preemptive action. Alternatively, a player who judges that he will be outgunned in high cards may prefer to remain silent on the theory that he will end up as a defender and does not wish to give information that may help the declarer.
An alternative meaning of the word in modern bridge jargon, especially in a postmortem, is to indicate the most desirable contract for a side: “We belong in 5♦.”
BELOW THE LINE. Points at rubber bridge entered below the horizontal line on the score sheet. These points are solely those made by bidding and making partscores, games or slams. All other points are scored above the line only. Points scored below the line count toward winning a game or rubber. At duplicate bridge or Chicago, the term may be used loosely to refer to trick score.
BID. A call by which a player proposes a contract that his side will win at least as many odd tricks (tricks in excess of six – the book) as his bid specifies, provided the contract is played at the denomination named.
BIDDER. A player who states or indicates a bid. The term is occasionally used to indicate a player who is prone to overbid, or one who will prefer trying a doubtful contract rather than defending in a competitive bidding situation. Also, any player during the auction period.
BIDDING. The period following the deal and ending after the third successive pass of any bid, double or redouble.
BIDDING BOX. The almost universal means of bidding in most duplicate sessions today. The typical bidding box contains cards for all bids from 1♣ to 7NT, several Pass cards, cards for Double and Redouble, a Stop card (used when there is a skip bid) and a blue strip to be removed from the box when making an Alert.
BIDDING CARD. The card indicating a bid or a call printed on it that is part of the collection of such cards in a bidding box.
BIDDING SPACE. The amount of room used in terms of bids that have been skipped. A response of 1 ♥ to 1 ♦ , for example, uses no bidding space, but a response of 2 ♣ would use up a good deal of bidding space. The general theory is that the length of a suit tends to increase as the bidding space consumed in bidding increases.
BIFF. Colloquial for ruffing the led suit, particularly a winning card on an early lead.
BLANK. A void. Used as an adjective, it indicates lack of a protecting small card for an honor, as a singleton or “blank” king. As a verb, it means to discard a protecting small card, as to blank a king. Blank honors, whether singleton or doubleton, are slightly devalued in most point-count methods.
BLANK HAND. A hand with seemingly no trick-taking potential, also sometimes referred to (usually erroneously) as a yarborough.
BLIND LEAD. The first lead on any hand, so called because the opening leader has not seen the dummy. This term is particularly applied when the leader’s partner did not bid, and the declarer’s side has bid only one denomination. Terence Reese is quoted as saying, “Blind leads are for deaf players.”
BLOCK. A situation in which entry problems within a particular suit make it difficult or impossible to cash winners or possible winners in that suit.
BLUFF FINESSE. A play undertaken as though is it a legitimate finesse, as when leading the queen, holding Q-x-(x), from hand with A-x-(x) in dummy.
BOARD. (1) A duplicate board. (2) The table on which the cards are played. (3) The dummy’s hand, so called because it lies on the table.
BOARD-A-MATCH. A method of playing multiple team matches in which each team plays against a variety of opponents and each board is worth one point. The format was prevalent at one time in North America but has been largely displaced by Swiss teams, which is scored by International Matchpoints (IMPs).
BOARD-A-MATCH SWISS TEAMS. The difference between this type of Swiss Teams and others is the method of scoring. After play is finished and the teams compare scores, one matchpoint is awarded for each board won, and half a matchpoint for each board tied. The margin of difference on any board is of no consequence – winning a board by 10 is the same as winning a board by 4000 – it’s one. This type of game is rare.
BODY. A term used to describe a hand with useful intermediate cards such as 10s, nines and eights. Some authorities advocate counting a 10 as half a point, sometimes only for notrump purposes. The 10 is of greatest value in combination with one or two higher honors, such as K-10-x, Q-10-x or K-Q-10. It has least value when isolated (10-x-x) or in a solid suit (A-K-Q-J-10). Similarly, a nine may be valuable in combination (Q-10-9) but almost worthless in isolation.
Body may be a decisive factor in making a bidding decision. For example:
♠ K 10 5 4 ♥ A Q 9 ♦ Q 10 9 ♣ K J 8
This hand counts 15 points in high cards, but the intermediate cards make it a “good” 15, and most experts would treat it as a 16-point hand.
Body is a factor to consider when making a borderline opening bid. As the bidding proceeds, a player can often revalue his intermediate cards. A holding of 10-9-2 is certainly worthless if the bidding marks partner with a singleton or a void, and very probably worthless opposite a doubleton. But there is a good chance that the 10-9 will be valuable opposite a probable three card suit: Partner may have something like A-J-3, K-J-3, or Q-8-3.
BONUS. A term used in all types of bridge to describe various premiums given under the scoring rules to sides or partnerships who accomplish specified aims.
In rubber bridge, bonuses are awarded for the winning of the rubber by scoring two games before the opponents have scored two games. A bonus of 700 points is credited to the side winning a two-game rubber before the opponents have won even one game. If the opponents have won a game, the bonus becomes 500 points. A bonus of 50 points is paid any side scoring a successful doubled contract, and similarly, 100 for making a redoubled contract. A bonus is scored above the scoring line for a side that, in the given deal, has held honors in trump or all the aces in one hand at notrump. This bonus is either 100 or 150 points. Bonus scores are given to sides that successfully bid and make a slam. If a rubber of bridge has to be terminated before its regular conclusion, a bonus of 300 points is given to a side that is a game ahead. A partscore (below-game score) earns a bonus of 100 points.
In the Chicago format, bonuses can occur on each of the four deals. In this type of contest, each deal is really almost a separate game of itself. A non-vulnerable side scoring a game in Chicago is credited with 300 points immediately, a vulnerable side 500. Slam bonuses are the same as in rubber bridge, and honors are likewise scored. A partial score achieved on the fourth or final deal, however, acquires an extra bonus of 100 points. This bonus is awarded only for partials actually acquired on the last deal – there is no premium for a partial remaining open at the conclusion of a four-deal chukker.
In duplicate bridge, a bonus is awarded for making any partscore on a given deal. The bonus is 50 points. The regular slam premiums apply in duplicate scoring as explained previously, but there are no bonuses for honors, except in total-point scoring. In duplicate, the regular Chicago bonuses for games bid and made apply, e.g., 300 for making a non-vulnerable game and 500 for making a vulnerable game.
BOOK. The tricks won by a side that have no value in the score. For the declarer, the first six tricks taken constitute his book. For the adversaries, book is the number of the declarer’s bid subtracted from seven, or the maximum number of tricks the adversaries may take without defeating declarer’s contract. The origin of the term apparently lies in the old practice of forming the first six tricks into a “book” by placing them all in one stack.
BOTH VULNERABLE. A term applied to the situation when both sides are subject to larger awards and penalties. In rubber bridge, a side becomes vulnerable by winning a game during the rubber. The side that wins the second game out of three wins a 500-point bonus. In Chicago, the vulnerability situation is predetermined – both sides are vulnerable only on the fourth deal. In duplicate, once again the vulnerability is predetermined. The vulnerability is set up in 16-board segments. Both sides are vulnerable on boards 4, 7, 10 and 13. Only North-South are vulnerable on boards 2, 5, 12 and 15. East-West are vulnerable on boards 3, 6, 9 and 16. Neither side is vulnerable on boards 1, 8, 11 and 14. A side that is vulnerable has to be more careful about taking chances and saves because the penalties are substantially higher. At the same time, in team play it pays to go for the game because the bonus points are substantially higher. In England, both sides vulnerable is known as “game all.”
BOTTOM. In tournament play, the lowest score on a particular deal in the group in direct competition. It is extended, in conversation, to indicate an excruciatingly bad result.
BOX A CARD. To place a hand in a duplicate board with a card, usually not the top card, turned face up.
BREAK. The distribution of outstanding cards in a suit in a manner favorable to declarer. This may imply that a suit was divided evenly or nearly so, or that an adversely held honor was positioned so that it did not develop into a winning trick. The term “break” is also used to indicate the actual distribution of cards outstanding in the suit; or with the adjective “bad” to indicate unfavorable distribution from the declarer’s standpoint.
In most contexts, “split” may be used as a synonym for “break,” both as a noun and a verb: “The suit split (or broke) badly (or well).” “There was a bad split (or break) in spades.”
BRING IN. To establish a suit and make effective use of the established winners. The ability to bring in a suit may be affected by considerations of entry, tempo, controls or ducking or by the suit combinations in the suit being established.
BROKEN SEQUENCE. Combination of at least three high cards with at least two of the cards in sequence. There is a difference of opinion about what constitutes a broken sequence. One camp says the non-touching honor must be the highest honor of the sequence (A-Q-J, K-J-10, Q-10-9) and that any other combination (A-K-J, K-Q-10, etc.) should be described as an interior sequence. The other camp asserts that a broken sequence applies to both combinations.
BROKEN SUIT. A suit containing no honor cards in sequence.
BUSINESS DOUBLE. A penalty double. A penalty pass can convert a takeout double to a business double.
BUST. Bridge slang term for a seemingly valueless hand.
BUTCHER. Colloquialism to indicate a bad misplay: “He butchered the hand.”
BUY. In a competitive auction, to make a bid that the opponents do not contest. “He bought it for three hearts.”
C
CALL. Any bid, double, redouble or pass.
CASH. To play a winning card while on lead.
CASH IN (also CASH OUT). To take a series of tricks by playing winning cards one after another. The term is usually applied to a situation where a player realizes that he is on lead for probably the last time during that particular deal and, while in control, decides to take his tricks then. The term can be applied to a declarer as well as defenders.
CHEAPEST BID. The most economical bid available at any particular point in the auction, such as 1 ♦ in response to or as an overcall of 1 ♣. Many conventional bids and systems make use of this principle of economy by attaching special meanings to bids of clubs at various levels, and occasionally to diamond bids. The same principle of economy is followed in making natural opening bids and responses.
CHUKKER. A term for four deals of Chicago. It is also used in a long team match for a group of boards followed by comparison of scores. The term is borrowed from polo.
CLAIM. The Laws (68A) defines a claim this way: “Any statement to the effect that a contestant will win a specific number of tricks is a claim of those tricks. A contestant also claims when he suggests that play be curtailed, or when he shows his cards (unless he demonstrably did not intend to claim – for example, if declarer faces his cards after an opening lead out of turn . . .).”
CLEAR A SUIT. At notrump play, to clear a suit is to force out, by continued leads of the suit, adversely held high cards so that the remainder of the cards in that suit are winners. At suit play, the term is used also to indicate a line of play in which winners in one side suit are cashed before the balance are ruffed out so as to eliminate all cards of the suit from declarer’s and dummy’s hands. If a trick is lost to the defense later, a further lead of this suit gives declarer the option of ruffing in one hand while discarding a potential loser in the other. This is part of an “elimination” play.
CLOSED HAND. The hand of the declarer, as distinct from the open hand, now legally referred to as the dummy. The term dates from bridge whist, which introduced the idea of an exposed hand visible to the other players.
CLUB. The symbol ♣, which appears on the 13 cards of the lowest ranking of the four suits in a bridge deck. It stems from the French (trefle), but the name seems to be of Spanish or Italian origin as a translation of basto or bastone. The outline of the club suggests a cloverleaf.
COFFEEHOUSE BRIDGE. Card playing in European coffee houses frequently featured conversational or other gambits designed to mislead opponents, and the term “coffeehouse bridge” became a synonym for legal but unethical gambits. Such questions as, “Did you bid a spade?” with a rising inflection to inform partner of a sound spade holding in one’s own cards, or, “What did you bid first over 1 ♦ ?” to right-hand opponent when one wants his partner to lead that suit against a notrump contract, are gambits that are easily caught. Such a player is ostracized at rubber bridge, and the offense is adjudicated in duplicate bridge when a director is present. Action on a doubtful hand after a slow pass by partner is somewhat harder to classify, but the ethical player will pass all such doubtful hands after such a slow pass by partner.
Conversational gambits, even when made without any devious intent, have no place at the bridge table among serious, ethical players.
COFFEEHOUSING. Indulging in unethical actions with full intent to mislead opponents.
K J
Q 2 A 5
4 3
The 4 is led from the closed hand, and West hesitates before playing the obvious 2. This is coffeehousing – an attempt to make the declarer believe that West was thinking of playing the ace. If this happens in tournament play, South should call the director and is likely to get redress under Law 73D2.
COLD. Bridge slang term describing an easily makable contract. In postmortem heat, players tend to exaggerate the degrees of coldness. Frigid and icy are similar terms. A colorful variation is “colder than a creek rock” or “crick rock.”
COLOR. A rarely used term that distinguishes suit-play from notrump play. In the bidding, to “change the color” means to bid a new suit. The term is virtually synonymous with “suit.” In non-English languages, the common term is color, not suits.
Originally there were four colors – white, red, blue and black. The associated symbols – the spear, the heart, the rhombus and the clover – became dominant in France and spread to other countries.
COMPARISONS. At duplicate, comparisons are made between pairs (or players) who played a board in the same direction, and consequently under similar conditions of dealer, vulnerability, and holding.
COMPETITION. (1) Any duplicate bridge contest or (2) a bidding situation in which both sides are active.
CONCESSION. The Laws (68B) define a concession this way: “Any statement to the effect that a contestant will lose a specific number of tricks is a concession of those tricks; a claim of some number of tricks is a concession of the remainder, if any. A player concedes all the remaining tricks when he abandons his hand.”
CONSTRUCTIVE. A description applied to a bid that suggests game prospects but is not forcing. The partner will take further action more often than not. Equivalent to encouraging.
CONSTRUCTIVE BIDDING. Descriptive of an auction, usually without interference by the opponents, that is aimed at finding the best contract.
CONTESTANT. One or more players competing for a combined score. In an individual contest, each player enters as an individual, changing partners as the movement requires and receiving credit for his own score on each board he plays. In a pairs contest, players enter as pairs, playing with the same partner throughout for a common score on all boards played. In a teams contest, players enter as teams of four to six, changing partners among their own teammates as permitted by the conditions of contest, but competing for a common score. In World Bridge Federation events, it is usual to classify the non-playing captain as a contestant.
CONTESTED AUCTION. An auction in which both sides are bidding, often with at least one side aiming to disrupt the other side’s communication.
CONTRACT. (1) The undertaking by declarer’s side to win, at the denomination named, the number of odd tricks specified in the final bid, whether undoubled, doubled or redoubled. (2) Informally, the game of contract bridge.
CONTRACTING. A word that signifies the act of agreeing to take a certain number of tricks in a deal of bridge.
CONTRACTING SIDE. Declarer and his partner. The opponents are the defending side.
CONTROLS. Generally, holdings that prevent the opponents’ winning one, two or conceivably three immediate tricks in a specified suit. Also, specifically aces and kings. Many bidding systems incorporate control-asking bids.
CONVENIENT CLUB/CONVENIENT MINOR. Usually a staple of systems that require five cards to open the bidding with one of a major. This often forces opener to start with 1 ♣ on a three-card suit. Less often, a 1 ♦ opener is made on a three-card holding.
CONVENTION. A call or play with a defined meaning that may be artificial. The oldest convention is the fourth-best lead, which dates back to Hoyle about 1740. The oldest bidding convention is the takeout double, which is more obvious today than when it originated about 1912.
CONVENTIONAL. Describing a bid that is based on the use of a convention.
CONVERSATION. Conversation is carried on at the bridge table in the language of the bidding and the play of cards. Any other conversation during the bidding or play of the hand is distracting (and therefore discourteous), revealing (and therefore improper and even illegal) or misleading (as with coffeehousing). Although bridge is a social game, any socializing or gossiping should be confined to the short period of the deal, prior to the start of the game or during a refreshment intermission.
COUNT. A term used in three distinct senses, referring to: (1) the number of cards held in a suit, as in counting a hand or a count signal, (2) the strength of a hand, e.g. point count and distributional count and (3) the number of tricks that must be lost for the operation of a squeeze, as in rectifying the count.
COURTESY BID. A response made on a very weak hand to allow for the possibility that the opener has great strength. The courtesy response is never made in response to a major suit, partly because partner’s next action may be a game bid and partly because the contract of 1 ♥ or 1 ♠ will be playable. The courtesy response with a very weak hand is often indicated if the opening bid is 1 ♣ and responder is short in clubs. If he is 4=4=4=1, for example, a 1 ♦ response avoids the risk of playing in a 3-1 fit and may improve the contract. But there is some risk. This situation illustrates a weakness of standard bidding vis-à-vis strong club methods.
CRACK. As an adjective, an expert player, partnership or team. As a verb, there are three meanings: (1) to obtain bad results after a period of success; (2) to double; (3) to open a new suit during the play. The latter two meanings are bridge colloquialisms.
CROSSRUFF. To score trumps in each hand.
CUMULATIVE SCORE. In tournament bridge, when an event is scheduled for more than one session of play and there is no elimination of players from the event, the winner of the event is decided by cumulative score – that is, the total of the scores made in each of the sessions.
However, should there be a different average score for the two or more sessions (owing to playing a different number of boards, a no-show for the second session, or other reason), the later sessions’ scores are factored by a multiplier that makes the sessions comparable to the first session, so that a particularly high score in any session would carry the same weight as in any other session.
In rubber bridge, where the partnerships change from rubber to rubber, a cumulative score of points won or lost in each rubber is kept so that each player’s status of winnings or losses is shown at the termination of each rubber.
In progressive or party bridge, the cumulative score is the totality of points won at all tables at which the player played. Generally, only plus scores are considered, and losses are not deducted before being entered onto the cumulative score sheet.
In knockout team-of-four matches, all points are scored both plus and minus for both pairs of both teams, and the team with a greater plus total than minus total is the winner. This is referred to as aggregate score (British usage)ortotal-point scoring and has been almost completely supplanted in head-to-head matches by International Matchpoints.
CUT. (1) At the commencement of rubber bridge play, a pack of cards is spread, face downward, and each player draws one card, turning it face up. Rank and suit of these cards determine the makeup of the first partnerships, and the original dealer. (2) At the conclusion of each deal, the cards are gathered together and reshuffled for the next deal. The new dealer presents the shuffled deck to the right-hand opponent, who cuts the pack by removing more than four but fewer than 48 cards from the top of the deck, and placing the cards removed alongside the balance of the deck, nearer to the dealer. The dealer then completes the cut by placing the part of the pack that was originally on the bottom above the part originally on the top. (3) A colloquial term for the verb “ruff,” used commonly in Scotland. (4) To terminate a movement before the scheduled completion.
CUT IN. To assert the right to become a member of an incomplete table, or to become a member of a complete table at such time as it may become incomplete.
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DANGER HAND. The player who, should he gain the lead, can cash established winners or play through a vulnerable holding in declarer’s hand or in dummy (e.g., K-x, when the ace is known or likely to be over the king). With options for developing tricks, an experienced declarer will select the option that, should it fail, will leave the “non-danger” on lead.
DECK. (1) All 52 cards. In some sections of the world, all 52 cards are called the pack instead of the deck. (2) A wealth of high cards held either in one hand or over the period of many hands, as in the statement, “I had the deck.”
DECLARER. The player who first bid the denomination of the final bid. If the final bid is hearts, the player who first named hearts is the declarer. He becomes the declarer when the opening lead is faced, and controls the play of the dummy and his own hand as a unit.
DEAD. Bridge jargon to describe a player in a hopeless situation. It usually refers to the play of the hand, as in, “North made a killing shift, and I was dead.” Also said of a hand, especially dummy, which has been robbed of (or never had) an entry, or of a worthless holding, such as three low ones: “Dummy had three dead hearts.”
DEAL. (1) To distribute the 52 cards at contract; (2) the privilege of thus distributing the cards; (3) the act of dealing; (4) the cards themselves when distributed.
The dealer distributes the cards face down, one at a time in rotation into four separate hands of 13 cards each, the first card to the player on his left and the last card to himself. If he deals two cards simultaneously or consecutively to the same player, or fails to deal a card to a player, he may rectify the error, provided he does so immediately and to the satisfaction of the other players. The dealer must not allow the face of any card to be seen while he is dealing. Until the deal is completed, no player but the dealer may touch any card except to correct or prevent an irregularity.
In duplicate, the cards may be placed into any pocket. If the sponsoring organization wishes, the dealing may be from computer printouts or by dealing machine.
DEALER. The player who distributes the cards in a game of bridge. At the start of a rubber of regular bridge or of Chicago, a cut is made for partners and for the deal privilege. The player who receives the highest card becomes dealer. The entire deck is given out one by one in turn to each player starting at the left of the dealer, each fourth card going to the dealer himself. The dealer speaks first in the auction by bidding or passing. Subsequent calls proceed normally in a clockwise direction.
The term dealer is also a specialized slang word applying to a person who knows how to cheat at cards by arranging or stacking the deck in such fashion as to give himself and/or his partner by far the best of the cards continuously.
DEATH HOLDING. A holding in a suit that seems an a priori certainty to kill the partnership’s chances of playing or defending successfully. Among the most common examples are (1) a holding of two low cards in the opponents’ suit in a deal with slam possibilities; with a low doubleton in one hand, it is likely that neither partner can adequately control the opponents’ suit for slam play; (2) a defensive holding of Q-x in front of a long suit headed by A-K in dummy or declarer’s hand; such a holding gives little hope of a trick on power, and no hope that declarer will misplay or misguess.
DEFEAT THE CONTRACT. To prevent the declaring side from making as many tricks as required by the final contract.
DEFENDER. An opponent of the declarer; one whose main aim is to attempt to prevent declarer from making his contract or to hold declarer to the fewest tricks possible.
DEFENDING HAND. Either opponent of the declarer; occasionally used in the bidding to refer to an opponent of the player who opened the bidding.
DEFENSIVE BIDDING. Bidding by a partnership after the opponents have opened the bidding, although at times the bidding by the opening side could be termed defensive.
DEFENSIVE TRICK. A card or card combination that may be expected to win a trick if an opponent becomes the declarer.
In some situations, a player with a solitary defensive trick may need to take positive action. If 6 ♥ is reached voluntarily and the bidding has indicated that 6 ♠ is a possible sacrifice, the player with a hand that is known to be very weak may have the conventional agreement to double with one defensive trick. This should help partner make the right decision (which may still be to bid 6 ♠), and avoid a “phantom sacrifice” or “phantom save.”
Artificial uses of doubles and passes to reveal whether the partnership has enough defensive tricks to defeat the slam is part of a common agreement known as “double for sacrifice.”
DENOMINATION. The suit or notrump specified in a bid. A synonym is “strain.”
DESCENDING ORDER. The order of the rank of the denominations: notrump, spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs. The opposite order is up the line.
DEUCE. Another name for the two. The card of lowest rank in a suit.
DIAMOND. (1) The suit second lowest in rank, next above the club suit, represented by the symbol ♦ . This represents the third estate, although the symbolism is not obvious. (2) The symbol. The suit originated in France in the 16th Century. The name obviously comes from the diamond-shaped lozenge used for the pips.
DIRECTION. The designation of North, South, East, West or the hand held by these players, respectively.
DISCARD. (1) To play a card that is neither of the suit led nor of the trump suit, or (2) the card so played. Colloquialisms for discard include ditch, pitch and shake. Defenders can and do convey information to each other by the specific nature of certain discards.
DISCARD. (1) To play a card that is neither of the suit led nor of the trump suit, or (2) the card so played. Colloquialisms for discard include ditch, pitch and shake. Defenders can and do convey information to each other by the specific nature of certain discards.
DISCIPLINE. The ability of both members of a partnership to follow an agreed system when partnership action is called for. The Roth-Stone system was the first to stress partnership discipline as a requirement, although all systems imply its necessity without stressing it. Discipline is considered a key component of a successful partnership and for a player individually.
The term can also describe actions taken against players who break the rules of the game. Disciplines run the gamut from reprimand to expulsion.
DISTRIBUTION. The manner in which the cards of a suit are dispersed among the four hands of a deal, or the manner in which the number of cards in the four suits are distributed in one hand. Variations in distribution are the basis of various bidding systems in use.
DOUBLE. A call that increases the scoring value of odd tricks or undertricks of an opponent’s bid. A double can be made only over the opponent’s last bid with only passes intervening. Double has many meanings in today’s modern bidding beyond penalty.
DOUBLE DUMMY. (1) Play by declarer or defender(s) that cannot be improved upon, as though the person or pair could see all four hands, as in Double Dummy Problems (next entry).
Originally, double dummy was a two-handed form of whistin which each player had a dummy. Some players exposed all four hands, thus giving rise to the modern usage.
Some bridge-playing computer programs can look at the cards of the other three players during play in order to play as well as possible. (2) Trademark of a two-hand contract game, introduced in 1975, in which each player has a dummy. Since each player already sees two hands, no dummy hand is put down on the table.
DOUBLE DUMMY PROBLEM. Problems in the play of the hand in which the solver knows the holdings in all four hands – as opposed to single-dummy problems, in which the solver can see only the declaring hand and the dummy. In double-dummy problems, the contract and the opening lead are specified. The software program known as Deep Finesse is a double-dummy deal analyzer.
DOUBLE TENACE. A tenace in which the sequence is broken in two places, such as A-Q-10, K-J-9.
DOUBLED INTO GAME. Making a doubled contract and collecting a game bonus that would not have been scored without the double – i.e., any doubled contract, except 3NT, between 2 ♥ and 4 ♦ .
DOUBLER. A player who has doubled.
DOUBLETON. An original holding of only two cards in a suit. If an opening lead is made from a doubleton, the top card is customarily led first. (A low lead from a doubleton is normal in Polish systems and also occasionally in Italian.) Related: Distributional Point Count.
DOWN. Defeated. Said of a declarer who has failed to make a contract. The term is used in various ways, such as, “We are down two” or “down 800,” meaning the side has failed to make a doubled contract by three tricks (four if not vulnerable) or has incurred a penalty of 800 points.
DRIVE OUT. To force the play of a high card, i.e., to lead or play a card sufficiently high in rank to force the play of an adverse commanding card to win the trick, or to continue until this result is achieved, as in “drive out the ace.”
DROP. To capture an adverse potential winning card by the direct lead of a higher card or series of higher cards, as to drop an unguarded king by the play of an ace; also, the play that is aimed at capturing an adverse card, as to “play for the drop” instead of finessing.
Whether to finesse or play for the drop is generally a case of determining the correct mathematical probabilities. However, this preference is considerably modified by information derived from the bidding and play, and it is the policy of good players to obtain as much information as possible, inferential as well as exact, before committing themselves.
For example:
1 ♣ Pass Pass 1NT
Pass 3NT All Pass
If East shows up with an ace or king during the play, it is highly unlikely that he will hold another high honor or he would not have passed his partner’s opening bid. It would therefore be indicated for South to disregard the mathematical probabilities and confidently place all missing honors in the West hand.
DROP-DEAD BID. A bid that tells partner to do no more bidding. The most common bid of this type is a two-level non-conventional response (2 ♦ , 2 ♥ or 2 ♠) to 1NT, showing a weak hand – or at least no interest in exploring for game. Another common variety is a 3NT response to 1NT.
DUB. (1) A player whose game is below the standards of the players with whom he competes. (2) A doubleton (colloquial).
DUCK. To deliberately not win a trick when one had the possibility of so doing. This is a common tactic in card play.
DUFFER. A bridge player of inferior ability.
DUMMY. (1) The declarer’s partner after he has placed his cards face up on the table, which is done immediately after the opening lead is faced by the opponent on the declarer’s left; (2) the cards held by the declarer’s partner, also called the dummy’s hand. The name originated in dummy whist, in which there were only three players, the fourth hand being exposed as the “dummy,” an imaginary and silent player. The dummy in bridge takes no part in the play; he may not suggest by word or gesture any lead or play, but at the conclusion of play, he may call attention to irregularities. In North America, dummy may ask partner if he has any or none of the suit led to prevent a revoke. If dummy looks at his partner’s hand or the hand of either adversary, he forfeits his right to protect his partner from revoking.
DUMMY PLAY. The management of the assets of the declarer and the dummy, synonymous with “declarer’s play.”
DUMMY REVERSAL. A procedure by which declarer takes ruffs in his own hand – which usually has longer trumps than dummy – rather than the dummy.
DUPLICATE. A term applied to the playing of the same deal of cards by more than one table of players; successively applied to whist, auction bridge and contract bridge.
DUPLICATE BOARD. Also known simply as a “board.”
DUPLICATION OF DISTRIBUTION. More widely known as “mirror distribution.” This occurs where the suit lengths in a partnership’s hands are evenly matched. A distributional flaw that limits the trick-taking potential of a pair of hands, it manifests itself in the absence of a long suit that can be developed.
♠ A Q 10 ♠ K J 9
♥ K Q J 9 ♥ A 10 6 2
♦ A 10 3 ♦ 9 7 6
♣ 6 4 2 ♣ Q 7 3
The presence of a long card in either hand would permit the development of an additional trick, but with the above distribution, no game contract is likely to be fulfilled, though sufficient values are held.
DUPLICATION OF VALUES. A concentration of strength and control in the same suit between two partners.
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EAST. One of the four positions at the bridge table. East is the partner of West and the left-hand opponent of North.
ECHO. A high-low signal. In England, it is called a “peter.”
ECONOMY OF HONORS. A technique in card play intended to preserve honor cards from capture by opposing honors or trumps.
EIGHT or EIGHT-SPOT. The seventh-highest ranking card in each suit, having eight pips of the suit to which it belongs on the face.
EMPTY. A colloquial term indicating that the spot cards in a suit are of no value. “King empty fourth” means a four-card suit headed by the king with poor spot cards.
ENCOURAGING. (1) A term applied to a bid that strongly urges partner to continue to game. Similar to invitational. (2) A term applied to a defensive signal by which a player urges his partner to continue playing the suit led.
ENTRY. (1) The form used for entering events at bridge tournaments and clubs. At tournaments, the entry blanks are used to control seating assignments, in particular to assure proper seeding (certain entries are set aside for known expert players so that in multi-section events, the top players do not end up in one or two sections). (2) A means of securing the lead in a particular hand.
EQUAL VULNERABILTY. Both sides are vulnerable or both sides are not vulnerable. The vulnerability is a significant factor in competitive bidding decisions, notably when the vulnerability is “favorable” to one side (not vulnerable when the other is) or “unfavorable” (vulnerable when the other is not).
EQUALS. Cards that are in sequence, or cards that are effectively in sequence because all cards of intervening rank have been played.
ESTABLISH. To make a suit or an individual card good by forcing out the opponents’ guards or winners. For example, you can establish four tricks with K-Q-J-10-9 of a suit by driving out the ace.
ESTABLISHED CARD. A card that has been promoted to winning rank after all higher-ranking cards in the other hands have been played.
ESTABLISHED ENTRY. An entry developed by driving out a higher card.
ESTABLISHED REVOKE. With one exception, a revoke that may not be corrected. A revoke becomes established as soon as the revoking player or his partner leads or plays to the next trick, or, if the revoke is made in leading, as soon as the revoking player’s partner plays to the trick on which the revoke is made; or by the act of making a claim. A revoke made on the 12th trick must be corrected.
ESTABLISHED SUIT. A long suit in which a player holds all the remaining high cards, which at notrump or after trumps have been drawn in a suit contract will all be winners when the suit is led and run. The object of notrump play is essentially to establish one or more long suits by drawing or forcing out whatever high cards the opponents may hold in that suit.
EVEN. A term applying to the equal distribution of the outstanding cards in a suit, as a 3-3 division of six outstanding cards.
EVENT. A contest of one or more sessions in duplicate bridge played to determine a winner.
EXHAUST. To draw all cards of a suit from the hand of any player. A player becoming void of a suit during the play is said to be exhausted of that suit, as distinguished from holding no cards of that suit originally.
EXIT. To “get out of one’s hand,” particularly when it is undesirable to have the lead, usually by making a lead that is not likely to jeopardize the value of any partnership holding.
EXIT CARD. A card by which one can exit from one’s hand, offering an escape from an opponent’s attempted throw-in or elimination play.
EXTRA TRICK. A trick scored in excess of the number of tricks required to fulfill a contract. In rubber bridge, such tricks are scored above the line and do not count toward game at their trick value. Extra tricks – also called overtricks – carry premium values if the contract has been doubled or redoubled. In duplicate pairs games, extra tricks are so highly regarded that a declarer often will risk his contract for an overtrick.
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FACE (of a card). The front of a playing card, containing the suit and rank of the card.
FACE CARD. The cards that have a representation of a human figure, originally called coat cards, later court cards.
FALL, FALL OF THE CARDS. The play of a card or cards on a trick; the order in which they are played.
FALSE PREFERENCE. A return to partner’s original suit at the lowest level when holding greater length in the second suit. For example, holding:
♠7 5 4 ♥ K 3 ♦Q 10 8 ♣A 7 6 5 4,
if partner opens 1 ♥ and rebids 2 ♦ over your 1NT response, a false preference to 2♥ could work out well if opener has a forward-going hand, perhaps:
♠A K 9 ♥ A Q 10 7 6 ♦K 9 4 3 ♣J.
Keeping the bidding open will allow opener to make one more move.
FAST PASS. An action at a speed that may improperly and unethically convey weakness. The prevention of a fast pass is one of the justifications for the skip-bid warning. When bidding boxes are in use, the Stop card takes the place of the skip-bid warning.
FAVORABLE VULNERABILITY. Not vulnerable against vulnerable. Penalties are smaller, so there are more opportunities for competitive bidding and sacrifices. Preempts are much more likely to prove effective, in part because vulnerable opponents will often push on instead of doubling for what might be a lesser score than the value of their game. On occasion, bidding on instead of doubling will result in a minus for the vulnerable opponents. Experienced players usually take the sure plus by doubling.
FEATURE, FEATURE SHOWING. A feature is usually defined as an ace or king (occasionally a queen) that may be of particular importance in a given deal. Showing of features in a hand through the bidding commences usually when a suit is agreed on and a game is assured. A familiar tool for responding to weak two-bids is to use 2NT as a feature-asking bid. Opener is directed to show a side ace or king if he is at the top of the range for his weak two-bid.
FIELD. All the players entered in an event.
FIFTH HONOR. The ten-spot of the trump suit.
FINAL BID. The last bid in the auction, followed by three consecutive passes. There can be no further bidding. The final bid becomes the contract.
FIRST HAND, FIRST SEAT. The dealer.
FIT. A term referring to the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of two partnership hands in combination commonly used to refer specifically to the trump suit. When the deal as a whole is considered, the fit may be distributional. With a sound trump fit, a shortage in each hand in different suits is likely to lead to an effective crossruff.
When both hands are balanced or even have identical or “mirror” distribution, this is considered an unsatisfactory fit. Fit can also be considered in terms of honor cards, which may or may not be effective in play.
FIVE or FIVE-SPOT. The tenth-ranking card in a suit, having five pips of the suit to which it belongs.
FIVE OR SEVEN. A phrase indicating the type of partnership holdings on which a successful play makes a grand slam, but if the play is not successful, the opponents can cash a second trick immediately, holding the result to five-odd.
In rubber bridge, probably the grand slam contract should be preferred, but there may be situations at duplicate where a six-odd contract is tactically better, even though this is neither the maximum nor the safest contract.
FIVE-BID. Any bid at the five level, to take 11 tricks if it becomes the final contract. As an opening bid, it indicates a hand of unusual power. As a bid made during the auction, it may be a slam invitation or part of a specialized slam convention. To play 5♠ or 5♥ voluntarily and fail is one of the most ignominious results possible at the bridge table. Experts prefer to estimate slam possibilities below the game level. A direct bid of five in raising partner can also be an advance save.
FIXED. A colloquial term to describe a pair or team saddled with a bad score through no fault of their own. It was initially applied to a situation in which an opposing player made a technical error or suffered a legal misadventure and gained a good result thereby. His innocent opponents, who suffered, but probably not in silence, can say that they have been fixed. Now it can be any successful good play by a bad player or even being in the wrong place at the wrong time, as when an expert reaches a difficult contract at one’s table and brings it home. Some players have been known to complain about being fixed by their system, meaning that a bid that could extricate a pair from a difficult situation is not available because it has a meaning that would not be successful in the given case.
FLAT. (1) Hand: A hand without distributional values, particularly one with 4-3-3-3 distribution. “Square” and “round” are also used to describe this type of hand.(2) Board: A deal on which no variations in result are expected in the replays. In team play, a board in which the two scores are identical and therefore do not affect the score – known as a “push.”
FLIGHT. A division of a game in which competitors are separated according to the number of masterpoints held. Usually the top flight is open to all comers, while lower flights have upper masterpoint limits.
FLOAT. A colloquialism meaning that three passes follow. “1NT, float” means 1NT – Pass – Pass – Pass. A similar term is swish. In the play, declarer may be said to float a card when he leads it and passes it for a finesse.
FLUKE. A lucky profit. An extreme case would be represented by a player dropping a card that appears disastrous but produces a brilliant result. It would also be considered a fluke if an inexperienced pair – with all their mistakes working out to their benefit – won in a field of much more accomplished players.
FOLLOWING SUIT. The legal obligation of each player to play a card of the suit led if possible.
FORCE. (1) Noun: Any bid making it incumbent upon the bidder’s partner to bid at least once more. (2) Verb: To cause to ruff; to cause a player to use a high card.
FORCED BID. A bid a player must make according to the system being played. When playing Cappelletti, for example, the partner of the player who overcalls 1NT with 2 ♣ must normally bid 2 ♦ if there is no intervening action.
FORCING. A bid or call requiring further action by partner.
FORCING BID. A bid that, because of system or convention, requires partner to keep the bidding open by making some call other than a pass if there is no intervening call.
Perhaps the most widely used forcing bids are the strong jump shift by an unpassed hand and a response of 1/1 (e.g., 1 ♣ – Pass – 1 ♥ ) or 2/1 (e.g., 1 ♠ – Pass – 2 ♦ ) by an unpassed hand.
FORCING CLUB. A bidding system in which a bid of 1 ♣ is strong, artificial and forcing. The most widely known system is Precision.
FORCING PASS. A pass that forces partner to take action – usually relevant in a competitive bidding context.
FORCING RAISE. Perhaps nothing in bidding has changed as much over the years as the way in which responder makes a forcing raise of opener’s suit, particularly when the opening is in a major suit. A double raise used to be the only way to indicate a forcing raise. Today, in a non-competitive auction, the double raise usually is a limit bid (even a weak raise in some systems). Diverse methods of showing the forcing raise have been developed, and the most prevalent in tournament play is a response of 2NT to an opening bid of one of a major to indicate a hand with at least four-card trump support and game-going values. There are many other methods that carry the same message.
FORCING REBID. A rebid by the opening bidder to show sufficient values for game even if responder has a minimum for his action.
FORCING SEQUENCE. A series of bids that requires the bidding to continue.
FORWARD GOING. Synonymous with “constructive” in the context of bidding.
FOUR or FOUR-SPOT. The eleventh-ranking card of each suit, designated by four pips of the suit symbol on the face.
FOUR-BID. A bid at the four level to take 10 tricks if it becomes the final contract.
FOUR-DEAL BRIDGE. The Chicago form of rubber bridge.
FOUR-ODD. Four tricks over book, or 10 tricks in all.
FOURTH HAND. The fourth player to have the opportunity to make a call or play to a trick. The player to the dealer’s right.
FOURTH-SUIT ARTIFICIAL. This usually refers to the convention known as fourth-suit forcing, which most players play as forcing to game.
FOUR-THREE-TWO-ONE COUNT. The elements of point-count hand evaluation.
FREE BID. A bid made by a player whose partner’s bid has been overcalled or doubled by right-hand opponent. A similar term, now obsolete, is voluntary bid.
FREE DOUBLE. A double of a contract that represents a game if undoubled. Usually confined to rubber bridge, when a partscore will convert an earlier partscore into game. If both sides have a partscore, judgment of a high level is required. All players may be straining their resources.
Doubles of game and slam contracts cannot properly be described as free.
FREE FINESSE. A defensive lead that allows declarer to take a finesse without the risk of losing the trick, or which allows him to take a finesse that could not normally be taken.
FREE RAISE. A single raise of opener’s suit after an overcall.
FRIGID. Another variation on “cold,” used to describe a contract that should make easily barring exceedingly poor play.
FULFILLING A CONTRACT. Taking as many tricks, in the play of the hand, as contracted for in addition to the book of six, i.e., eight tricks in a contract of two. A bonus of 50 points is awarded for a less-than-game contract in duplicate, 300 for a non-vulnerable game and 500 for a vulnerable game.
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GADGET. A general reference to a bidding tool that can be added to standard bidding methods but that is not part of any system. Examples include Unusual over Unusual (a defense to the unusual 2NT, which shows minors, when opener’s suit is a major), Michaels cuebid and Puppet Stayman. Nearly all artificial bids could be considered gadgets.
GAME. In duplicate bridge, this is a bid for 3NT, four of a major suit or five of a minor suit.
GAME BONUS. Points awarded for bidding and making a game. In duplicate and Chicago, the award is 500 if vulnerable, 300 if not vulnerable. In rubber bridge, the award is 700 for winning a rubber two games to none and 500 for winning a rubber two games to one.
GAME CONTRACT. An undertaking of a contract which, if successful, will earn enough points in trick-score to make or complete the 100 required for a game. In notrump, three-odd; in hearts or spades, four-odd, and in clubs or diamonds, five-odd tricks produce at least the 100 points necessary from a love score. With a partscore, lower contracts become game contracts. Some rubber bridge players will double a game contract more freely than below-game contracts, although such tactics are misconceived.
GAME-FORCING BID. A bid that announces that the partnership should reach a game contract or higher, and thereby establishes a game-forcing situation.
GAME-FORCING SITUATION. A sequence of bids that, taken together, commit both members of a partnership to reach a game contract. These are also known as forcing sequences.
GAME-GOING. A term applied to any hand or bidding situation that promises to develop a game for the partnership.
GET A COUNT. To determine during play the number of cards held in one or more suits by one of the hidden hands. This can also refer to getting a count on the location of the opposition high cards.
GIN. Colloquialism indicating total certainty of making a contract: “When the heart finesse won, I was gin.”
GIVE COUNT. As a defender, to give a length signal to one’s partner.
GO DOWN. Fail to make a contract.
GO FOR A NUMBER. Suffering a heavy penalty, presumably in four figures, almost always doubled.
GO OFF. Fail to make a contract.
GO TO BED. Failure to take an obvious winner, usually an ace, and never taking a trick with it: “West went to bed with the ace of spades.”
GO UP. To play a high and possibly winning card when faced with a choice of playable cards.
GOLDEN RULE. The Golden Rule of bidding, as laid down by Alan Truscott, is that a suit should not be bid twice unless it has at least six cards. This applies to opener, responder, and the opponents of the opening bidder. Beginners do well to adhere to this rule, which is valid more than 90% of the time. Experienced players will be aware of some exceptions: (1) when a fit has been established, directly or by implication, (2) after a 2/1 response, guaranteeing a rebid in the modern style and (3) in a second suit. A player with 6-5 or 5-5 distribution can bid first suit, second suit and second suit again.
GOOD. An adjective used to describe a hand that is better than the simple point count would suggest, as in “a good 18.” This may be owing to distributional factors, to the presence of body (10s and 9s), to the location of honors in long suits or to a combination of these items.
Also a description of a set of cards that have been established during play and are winners ready to cash. This usually occurs toward the end of a deal and is expressed in a claim by declarer: “My hand is good” or “Dummy is good.”
In a wide sense, a player of a partnership holding good cards has more than a fair share of the honor strength. But the term is sometimes used in a more precise technical meaning, referring to honor cards that have improved in value as a result of the auction. In a competitive auction, the improvement may arise because the significant honors are over the opponent who has bid the suit – a positional factor.
GOREN POINT COUNT. Traditional method of valuation: ace = 4 points; king = 3; queen = 2; jack = 1. The method also incorporates distributional count.
GRAND SLAM. The winning of all 13 tricks by the declarer. The bonus for a grand slam, 1000 points when not vulnerable and 1500 when vulnerable, make a grand slam, bid and made, one of the best-rewarded accomplishments at rubber bridge, and one of the more effective methods of shooting at duplicate. While the general tendency among rubber bridge players is to avoid bidding grand slams except in ironclad situations, the mathematics of the game suggest rather freer acceptance of the risks involved in view of the large rewards.
For a brief period (1932-1935) the grand slam bonuses were higher than they are now: 1500 non-vulnerable, 2250 vulnerable.
GRASS ROOTS. A term used by ACBL to describe an event for which qualification begins at the club or unit level. Pairs or teams that qualify must further qualify at the district level in order to compete in the final stages at one of the ACBL major tournaments. The pairs events are known as North American Pairs and Grand National Teams.
GUARD (STOPPER). An honor holding in a suit that will or may prevent the opponents from running the suit.
A guard may be:
(1) Positive: A, K-Q, Q-J-10, J-10-9-8, 10-9-8-7-6.
(2) Probable: K-J-x, K-10-x, Q-J-x.
(3) Possible: Q-x-x, J-9-x-x.
(4) Positional: K-x.
(5) Partial: K, Q-x, J-x-x, 10-x-x-x.
GUARDED HONOR or GUARDED SUIT. A high card with enough accompanying low cards that the high card will not be captured if the outstanding higher card(s) in the suit are cashed: e.g. K-x, Q-x-x, J-x-x-x. All are subject to capture, of course, from a positional standpoint, as when the doubleton king is led through and the ace is over the king.
GUIDE CARD. A card, usually printed, with prearranged instructions to each contestant, telling him which seat to occupy and which boards to play at each round. The guide card may also enable a contestant to check the positions and identities of his opponents.
Guide cards may be in the form of printed instruction cards remaining permanently at each table (suitable only for cyclic movements) or they may be in the form of separate cards to be hand-carried by each contestant (suitable for either cyclic or non-cyclic movements).
Guide cards are used for Howell movement pairs games, team games and individual contests.
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HALF TRICK. A holding in a suit that will yield a trick about 50% of the time, although the valuation may change with information gained from the bidding. The most common half-trick holdings are A-Q and a guarded king. In the former, a finesse against the king is a priori a 50% proposition, as is a finesse against the ace in the latter. The bidding, however, may reveal that a finesse in either cases is doomed to failure.
HAND. Thirteen cards held by one player. Hand and “deal” (all 52 cards) technically are not synonymous, although popular usage has made them so. The term is also used to indicate the order in bidding rotation, as in “second hand” or “fourth hand.”
HAND HOG. A player who (often mistakenly) feels that he is better qualified than his partner to manage the hands as declarer. The usual method of operation is to pass with minimum opening bids but to respond with jumps in notrump.
HAND RECORDS. (1) Diagrams set up by players after a deal in a major match is completed; (2) the sheets on which individual computer-dealt hands are printed for distribution to players for duplication; (3) the sheets distributed to players at the conclusion of a game on which all the hands from that session are printed.
In some tournaments, particularly in Europe, players make a record of each hand after they have played it on the first round. This card is then placed with the hand in the pocket, and can be used by succeeding players to check whether the cards they hold are the ones that were originally dealt into that hand. Such hand records are known as Curtain Cards.
HARD VALUES. Aces and kings. Also known as “primary values.”
HEART. The symbol © for the second-ranking suit in bridge. Hearts are between spades and diamonds in ranking order. The suit designation originated in France in the 16th Century and takes its name from the shape of the pips used in designating card rank.
HIGH CARD. A ranking card, an honor card, a card that wins a trick by virtue of its being higher in pip value than the other three cards in the trick. A spot card that becomes the master card in the suit also is said to be high.
HIGH-CARD POINTS. A basis for determining the relative strength of a hand, especially for notrump contracts. The most common method for figuring high-card points is: ace = 4, king = 3, queen = 2, jack = 1. Many authorities also count an extra point for holding all four aces and a half point for each 10. Most of the schemes for opening notrump bids are based on this count.
The total of high-card points, taking into consideration suit lengths, often is used as a basis for opening the bidding with a suit bid. Usually a hand that contains a total of 13 points in combined high-card plus distributional points is considered an opening bid; a 12-point hand usually is considered optional, although the modern style has migrated more and more to light opening bids.
Great efforts by Charles Goren in many books and articles popularized the point-count method of bidding. Bridge players everywhere suddenly found they could estimate the strength of their hands reasonably accurately by using this method. Nowhere has this been more apparent than in notrump bidding. Goren told his students that 26 HCP in the partnership hands usually would be enough to produce game, and statistical studies have proved him correct.
The 4-3-2-1 method of evaluating high cards is not the only one that has been promulgated. It is acknowledged that the ace is somewhat undervalued using this count, so there also have been adherents of a 6-4-2-1 count. Another that has had its share of popularity is the 3-2-1-½ count. But the method used by the vast majority of players all over the world is the 4-3-2-1. Although it may not be the most accurate, it is easy to use and accurate enough to get a partnership to the correct bidding level the vast majority of the time.
HIT. Slang used as two distinct transitive verbs: (1) To double. (2) To ruff.
HOLD. (1) To possess a certain card or cards. A player will often start a problem or account of a bridge adventure with, “You hold … ” (2) To win or guarantee the winning of a trick (by the play of a certain card), as in “hold the lead.” Thus, if partner plays the king when you hold the ace, and no ruff is impending, the king is said to hold the trick unless you decide to overtake it.
HOLD OFF. To refuse to play a winning card.
HOLD UP. The refusal to win a trick.
HOLDING. (1) The cards one is dealt in a particular suit, as in the expression, “a club holding of king, queen and two low.” (2) A descriptive term used in reckoning one’s entire hand, and often used in the question, “What would you bid holding five spades to the ace-queen. . .?”
HONOR SCORE. An extra bonus in rubber bridge and in Chicago scored above the line when claimed by a player (declarer, dummy, or defender) who held during the current deal any of certain honor card holdings as follows: 100 points for holding any four of the five top trump honors, 150 points for all five trump honors and 150 points for all the aces at notrump. Honors are not scored at duplicate.
HONORS. The five highest-ranking cards in each suit, specifically – for the purpose of scoring honor premiums – the ace, king, queen, jack, and 10 of the trump suit or the four aces at notrump.
HOOK. Colloquialism for a finesse.
HOSPITALITY. The general term for efforts by a host unit at a bridge tournament to make the players feel more comfortable and welcome. Among the forms that hospitality takes are souvenir programs and pencils; free juice, coffee or soft drinks; after-game refreshments; between-sessions buffets and even dinners; after-session dancing; morning tours to places of local interest; style shows and brunches; panel discussions; daily bulletins, etc.
HOT. Vulnerable.
ICY. Synonym for cold, as in a “cold contract.”
IMP. Abbreviation for International Matchpoint.
IN BACK OF. A term describing the relationship of a player to the opponent on his right; i.e., a player who plays after the player on his right is said to be “in back of” that player. Equivalent terms are “over” and “behind.”
IN FRONT OF. The phrase used to describe the relationship between a player and his left-hand opponent; i.e., the player who plays before another player is said to be “in front of” that player. An equivalent term is “under.”
IN THE RED. A seeming paradox in bridge terminology: In rubber bridge or Chicago it would mean being a loser, but in duplicate, it describes a score good enough to earn masterpoints, because rankings that qualify for points used to be indicated in red on the recap sheet before computer scoring.
INITIAL BID. The first bid of any deal.
INITIAL LEAD. The first lead of any deal.
INSTANT SCORER. A small sheet that lists all possible scores for all possible contracts.
INSULT. The 50-point penalty the doubling side pays for doubling a contract that the declaring side makes. The insult bonus is 100 if the contract succeeds when redoubled.
INTERIOR CARD. An intermediate card; formerly, the second card in sequence, as the jack in a holding of queen, jack, and others.
INTERIOR SEQUENCE. A sequence within a suit such that the top card of the suit is not a part of the sequence, as the Q-J-10 in a holding of A-Q-J-10, or the J-10-9 in a holding of A-J-10-9. Some experts play that the lead of the jack against notrump denies a higher honor, and therefore lead the 10 from A-J-10 and K-J-10. By extension, a lead of the 10 can promise a higher honor by partnership agreement. The 9 would then be led from a holding headed by 10-9.
INTERMEDIATE CARDS. Usually 10s and nines, occasionally eights, all of which add “body” to a suit and improve its valuation.
INTERNATIONAL MATCHPOINTS (abbreviated IMP). A method of scoring used in most team events, especially Swiss teams and knockouts, and occasionally in pairs events.
INTERVENTION, INTERVENOR. Action by a player (intervenor) when the opponents have opened the bidding.
INVITATION, INVITATIONAL BID. A bid that encourages the bidder’s partner to continue to game or slam, but offers the option of passing if there are no reserve values in terms of high-card strength or distribution.
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JACK. The fourth-ranked card in the deck. In some countries, the jack is known as the knave, and it is one of the so-called “coat cards.”
JETTISON. The discard of a high-ranking honor, usually an ace or a king, to effect an unblock or other advanced play.
JUMP BID. A bid at a level higher than is necessary to raise the previous bid. A bid of two or more than necessary is termed a double jump, etc. Skip bid is a more general term, embracing jumps to any level.
JUMP SHIFT. A new suit response at a level one higher than necessary:
West East West East
1 ♥ 2 ♠ or 1 ♥ 3 ♣
In standard methods this shows a hand of great strength that can almost guarantee a slam (19 points or more including distribution). The hand is usually one of four types: a good fit with opener’s suit, a strong single-suiter, a strong two-suiter or a balanced hand with more than 18 points.
JUNIOR. In international competition, a player 25 years old or younger.
JUNK. A term used to describe a hand or a holding felt to be particularly valueless by the person describing it.
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KEEPING THE BIDDING OPEN. Bidding instead of passing. This can apply when responding to an opening bid or to the action of balancing.
KEY CARD. Each of the aces and the king of the agreed trump suit when using any of the key card ace-asking bids.
KIBITZER. An non-playing onlooker at bridge or other games.
KILLED. (1) Captured, as in, “The king was killed by the ace.” (2) The fate of a player or pair playing well but scoring badly. At duplicate, the term implies that the opponents have played luckily and well on a group of boards. At rubber bridge, it would refer to a session of poor cards and bad breaks. The term is always born of frustration and frequently of a desire to avoid admissions to one’s teammates or oneself of poor play; (3) Denuded of whatever entries it may have had, as “The spade lead killed the dummy.”
KISS OF DEATH. A penalty of 200 points on a partscore deal in a pairs contest, usually down two vulnerable or down one doubled vulnerable.
KITCHEN BRIDGE. A social game, perhaps within a family, with little emphasis on technique and skill.
KNAVE. The jack, the fourth-highest ranking card of a suit. This term is obsolete in American usage, and obsolescent elsewhere, although it had considerable currency in England and Continental Europe until the Forties. One reason for the quick acceptance of the term “jack” instead of “knave” is that in reporting hands or in any abbreviated diagram or description of play, the initial J can be used, whereas previously “Kn” had to be used because a plain K would have been ambiguous.
KNOCKOUT TEAMS. An event with a descriptive name: Contestants play head-to-head matches scored by IMPs (International Matchpoints), and the loser is eliminated or “knocked out.” The major world championships are contested as knockouts (usually after a series of qualifying rounds) and three major North American championships are played in knockout format – the Vanderbilt, the Spingold and the Grand National Teams. Bracketed knockout teams are the most popular form of the contest and are featured at most regional tournaments today. Especially at large regionals and NABCS, losers in the KOs usually do not have to wait more than half a day to enter another knockout event. There are many different formats for KOs, all of which can be found in Tournaments.
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LAYDOWN. A colloquial adjective describing a contract so solid (or seemingly so) that declarer can claim virtually as soon as dummy is exposed. Of course, surprising things happen to “laydown” contracts with disconcerting frequency. Pianola is a synonym.
LEAD THROUGH. To lead through a particular opponent is to initiate the lead in the hand to the right of that opponent, forcing that opponent to play to the trick before the leader’s partner plays to it. A dubious tenet of defensive play is to lead “through strength and up to weakness.”
LEAD UP TO. To lead, in defense, with the object of enabling partner’s hand to win a trick because of weakness in the hand on the leader’s right. Occasionally, a strong hand may be led up to, when the object is not necessarily to win the trick.
LEADER. The person who first plays to any given trick. The person who leads at trick one is known as the opening leader.
LEAGUE. Informally, the ACBL. Also, an organization (also called association, federation or union) that may be on a local, regional, national or international scale. Members of the league may be individuals, clubs, teams or other groupings.
LEFT-HAND OPPONENT. The player on your left, abbreviated LHO. In assessing penalties, there has been a differentiation between left- and right-hand opponents in respects to power or right to invoke penalties. Generally, however, the term is restricted to use in describing situations on play. A colloquialism is “Lefty.”
LENGTH. The number of cards in a particular suit, usually referring to five or more, as opposed to strength, a reference to the high-card values held in a suit.
LEVEL. The “odd-trick” count in excess of the book – that is, each trick over six. Thus, an overcall of two (suit or notrump) is at the two level, contracting to make eight tricks. An opening bid of four is said to be made at the four level.
LHO. Left-hand opponent.
LIGHT. (1) Down in a contract – “He was two light.” (2) Fewer than standard values, especially in opening the bidding.
LIMIT BID. A bid with a limited point-count range. Although a traditional forcing jump raise (1 ♠ – Pass – 3 ♠) is limited in the wide sense of the term, limit is normally applied only to non-forcing bids below the game level. With some exceptions, a bid is limited and non-forcing if it is in notrump, if it is a raise, if it is a preference or if it is a minimum rebid in a suit previously bid by the same player.
Opening notrump bids are invariably limited. Once it has been decided that a certain bid is limited, the vital question arises: How wide can the limits be? The nearer the bidding is to game, the closer the limits must be.
When the bidding reaches 2NT with the possibility of 3NT, or when the bidding reaches 3 ♠, there is no longer any margin for exploration. So to give partner the chance to make an accurate decision, all such bids must have a range of approximately 2 points.
Thus, 1 ♥ – Pass – 2NT by a passed hand shows 11–12, and 1 ♥ – Pass – 1NT – Pass; 2NT shows 17–19. Similarly 1 ♠ – Pass – 3 ♠ by a passed hand shows 10-11 or the equivalent, and 1 ♥ – Pass – 1 ♠ – Pass; 3 ♠ shows 17–18 or the equivalent. All these are typical encouraging bids, indicating that the partnership has a minimum of 23-24 points and urging partner on to game if he has a little more than his promised minimum.
Conversely, any bid of 1NT and any limited bid of two of a suit can afford a range of 3 or 4 points because there is still room for partner to make an encouraging bid below the game level. So 1 ♥ – Pass – 1NT or 1 ♥ – Pass – 2 ♥ are each 6-9 (and may have to stretch a little), and 1 ♥ – Pass – 1 ♠ – Pass; 2 ♠ is 13–16, or the distributional equivalent.
LOCK. A colloquial term used principally in postmortems to mean a 100% sure play or contract. For example, “Four spades was a lock.”
LOCKED (IN OR OUT OF A HAND). To win a trick in a hand from which it is disadvantageous to make the lead to the next (or some later) trick is to be locked in. It usually refers to an endplay against a defender (as in a “throw-in”) or to a declarer who is forced to win a trick in the dummy hand, when he has high cards established in his own hand, which he is unable to enter. Locked out refers to situations in which established cards in dummy cannot be cashed because an entry is not available.
LONG CARDS. Cards of a suit remaining in a player’s hand after all other cards of that suit have been played.
LONG HAND. The hand of the partnership that has the greater length in the trump suit, or, in notrump play, the hand that has winners that are or may be established. This can have application in avoidance plays.
LONG SUIT. A suit in which four or more cards are held. Frequently the term is used in connection with a hand of little strength but with great length in a particular suit.
LONG TRUMP. Any card of the trump suit remaining after all other players’ cards of the suit have been played.
LOSER. A card that must lose a trick to the adversaries if led or if it must be played when the suit is led by an adversary. At notrump, all cards below the ace and not in sequence with it are possible losers, but may become winners if the play develops favorably. At a suit contract, the same may be said with the exception that losers may possibly be ruffed. A distinction must be made between possible losers and sure losers. The former may be discarded on a suit that has been established, or they may be ruffed. Occasionally it is an effective strategy to discard a loser on a winner led by an opponent. If a loser cannot be disposed of, it must, of course, lose a trick to the opponents.
LOW CARD. Any card from the two to the nine, sometimes represented by an “x” in card or hand descriptions. Sometimes inappropriately called “small” card.
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MAJOR SUIT. Either of the two highest-ranking suits, hearts and spades, so characterized because they outrank the third and fourth suits in the bidding and scoring. The term is sometimes shortened to “major.”
MAJOR TENACE. An original holding of ace-queen (without the king) of a suit. After one or more rounds of a suit have been played, the highest and third-highest remaining cards of the suit in the hand of one player are called a major tenace (when the second highest remaining card is not held by the same player).
MAKE. Used in bridge in four different senses. As a verb, it may mean (1) to shuffle the deck, as in “make the board,” (2) to succeed in a contract, (3) to win a trick by the play of a card. As a noun, it means (4) a successful contract but usually a hypothetical one in the postmortem: “Five diamonds would have been a make.”
MARKED CARD. (1) A card that is known, from the previous play, to be in a particular hand. (2) A damaged card. (3) A card fixed so that it can be read in a cheating situation.
MARKED FINESSE. A finesse that is certain to win because (1) an opponent shows out, (2) the position of an honor has been pinpointed by the bidding or (3) the previous play has indicated the location of a crucial opposing card.
MASTER CARD. The highest unplayed card of a suit. It can also be thus characterized while actually being played.
MASTER HAND. The hand that controls the situation – more particularly, the one that controls the trump suit, leading out high trumps to prevent adverse ruffs and retaining a trump or two to prevent the adverse run of a long side suit. It is usually declarer’s hand, but sometimes, when declarer’s trumps are more valuable for ruffing, dummy is made the master hand as in a dummy reversal.
MASTERPOINT. A measurement of achievement in bridge competition (ACBL). In general, at tournaments, the larger the field and the more expert the competitors (as in the Kaplan Blue Ribbon Pairs), the greater the masterpoint award will be for those who place in the overall. Masterpoints at clubs are usually limited, although special games can increase the payoff.
MATCH. A session or event of head-to-head competition between two pairs or two teams.
MATCH PLAY. A team-of-four contest in which two teams compete for an appreciable number of boards.
MATCHPOINT. A credit awarded to a contestant in a pairs or individual event for a score superior to that of another contestant in direct competition.
MIDDLE CARD. The middle card of an original three-card holding. Generally referred to in connection with opening leads.
MINIMUM. The least possible for a particular action. It can apply to suit length or high-card points. Examples: (1) 12 HCP to open bidding; (2) 6 HCP for a response to an opening suit bid; (3) 15 HCP for a strong 1NT opening bid; (4) 4 HCP for a positive response to an forcing two-bid; (5) a six-card suit for a preemptive bid, etc.
MINI-NOTRUMP. An opening 1NT with a range considerably lower than the standard 15-17 high-card points – usually 10-12 HCP. Other very weak ranges are sometimes used, but are often barred by organizing bodies. Lighter 1NT openings are allowed by ACBL, but conventional responses (including Stayman) are prohibited.
MINOR PENALTY CARD. A single card below honor rank that is exposed (faced) inadvertently – as by accidentally dropping it on the table face up – is a minor penalty card.
MINOR SUIT. Either of the two lower-ranking suits, diamonds or clubs.
MINOR TENACE. An original holding of king-jack (without the ace or queen) of a suit. After one or more rounds of a suit have been played, the second and fourth highest remaining cards of the suit in the hand of one player are also called a minor tenace.
MIRROR DISTRIBUTION. Both partners have identical suit distribution. Also known as Duplication of Distribution.
MISBOARD. Replacement of hands in the wrong slots in duplicate play. If the next table is unable to play the board, the guilty pair or pairs may be penalized. A misboard may also occur during duplication.
MISERE. A bad line of play that seems guaranteed to fail. The name comes from solo and other card games in which it may be desirable to lose tricks. An alternative term is butcher.
MISFIT. A situation in which two hands opposite each other are unbalanced, each containing two long suits and extreme shortages or voids in the third and fourth suits, and further, where these lengths are met by shortages in partner’s hand, and the short suits correspondingly are met by lengths in the reverse hand. Where not even one 4-4 or better trump fit can be found in a set of 26 cards, the deal may be said to be a misfit as respects those two hands.
MISINFORMATION. Incorrect information given to opponents. It includes such items as wrong explanations of bids, incorrect rulings by the director and incorrect advisories on signaling methods. Rulings by directors are subject to review if players feel the director made a wrong interpretation or applied the wrong Law. Situations involving misinformation given to opponents frequently are subject to appeal.
MONSTER. A bridge hand of great trick-taking potential either because of a preponderance of high-card winners or because of concentrated strength in long suits and extreme shortness in weak suits. Also, a very big score, usually in a single session – a big game.
MOVE. The change of seats in duplicate bridge after a round has been completed.
MOYSIAN FIT. A contract in which declarer’s trump suit is divided 4-3, usually thus described when the selection is made deliberately. Named for Alphonse Moyse Jr., whose ardent advocacy of this choice was part of his case in favor of opening four-card majors and raising with three trumps.
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NATURAL CALL. A call that reflects the character of the hand, suggests a suitable final strain and does not have an artificial or semi-artificial meaning. A bid is not natural if it promises possession of a specific other suit.
NEGATIVE RESPONSE. An artificial response that shows weakness.
NEWCOMER. The term for a new player, replacing the out-of-favor “novice.”
NON-FORCING. Description of a bid that can be passed by the partner of the player making the bid.
NON-VULNERABLE. Not vulnerable.
NORMAL EXPECTANCY. The holding in either high cards or distribution that a player might expect in partner’s hand when he decides whether to open the bidding. For an unpassed partner, this can be roughly approximated as one-third of the missing high cards or high-card points, and one-third of the remaining cards in the suit. Partner’s responses and future actions modify this concept as the bidding progresses.
NORTH. A position in a bridge foursome or in a bridge diagram opposite South and to the left of West. In duplicate games, scoring is usually done by North (although in some countries it is always South), a matter designated by the sponsoring organization. In print and electronic media, North is usually the dummy.
NOT VULNERABLE. A term applied to a side that is subject to smaller rewards and penalties.
NOTRUMP. A ranking denomination in which a player may bid at bridge. Notrump is just above spades in precedence. Only nine tricks are necessary for game at notrump because the first trick over book of six counts 40 points and the subsequent tricks are 30 points each, as in a major suit. As the name denotes, contracts in notrump are played without a trump suit. The play therefore is entirely different from that of suit contracts, one of the chief differences being that declarer, while planning his line of play, attempts to count winners rather than losers. At notrump, a primary concern of the side contracting for game or partial is stoppers in the suits bid or held by the opponents. More game contracts are played at notrump than at any other denomination. In Britain, it is normal to use two words and pluralize the second: “no trumps.” The hyphenated form – “no-trump” – is a compromise in common usage in Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
NOTRUMP DISTRIBUTION. Balanced distribution.
NPC. Non-playing captain.
NUISANCE BID. A bid made to hinder the opponents by disrupting the flow of their bidding.
NUMBER. Used as in “going for a number,” after having been doubled for penalty. Number as used here refers to the high numerical value of a set contract that a competitor sustains (e.g., 500, 800, 1100). A number usually represents a loss because it exceeds the value of the score the opponents could have obtained on their own by declaring the contract plus any bonuses that might be connected to the fulfillment of their contract.
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ODD TRICK. A trick won by declarer in excess of the first six tricks. The term is a holdover from whist, in which the winning of the odd trick was paramount.
OFFENDER. The player who commits an irregularity (Laws).
OFFENSE. The attack. An offensive play or bid is an attacking move, as distinguished from a defensive play or bid. This is not to be confused with declarer or defender because both must take offensive or defensive positions with certain suit holdings. Also, a breach of law (Laws).
OFFICIAL SCORE. In duplicate bridge, the account prepared by the director (or the official scorer) that sets forth each contestant’s score for each board, his score and rank for the session and for the event. Scoring can be done via written pickup slips or by wireless scoring devices. The final scores are posted after the last result is made available to the director. The final score becomes the official score after expiration of the correction period.
OFFSIDE. A card so placed that a finesse, if taken, will lose: “The king was offside.”
OFFSIDE DOUBLE. A penalty double, usually of a game contract in a suit, based on an inference by the doubler that his partner has trump length. The bidding may have made it clear that the declaring side is at full stretch, with borderline game values.
ONE-BID. A bid contracting to win one odd trick, seven tricks in all.
ONE-SUITER. A hand with a suit at least six cards long that contains no other suit with more than three cards.
ONSIDE. A card so placed that a finesse, if taken, will win: “The king was onside.”
OPEN. (1) To make the first bid in a given auction, (2) to lead to the first trick in the play, (3) description of a tournament contest (pairs and teams) in which any pair or team of whatever constituency may play, (4) description of a room in a championship event in which spectators may be present in somewhat substantial numbers as opposed to a closed room that is limited as to both audience and accessibility, (5) description of a club game in which anyone may play.
OPEN HAND. The dummy’s hand, exposed on the table, as distinguished from the closed hand of the declarer.
OPENING BID. The first call in the auction other than a pass.
OPENING BIDDER or OPENER. The player who makes the first bid of an auction.
OPPONENT. A member of the adverse team or pair at bridge.
OPPOSITION. (1) The opponents at the table on a deal, set of deals or rubber; (2) the contestants in direct competition (in some cases, pairs sitting the same direction as you), (3) the balance of the field, (4) the other team in a head-on team event.
OVER. One’s position at the table in respect to one’s right-hand opponent.
OVERBID. A call offering to undertake a contract for a greater number of tricks than is justified by the bidder’s holding. In competitive auctions or auctions that are likely to become competitive, an apparent overbid may be an advance save or sacrifice.
OVERBIDDER. A player who consistently bids higher than his high-card and distributional strength justify. Playing with an overbidder, it is an accepted strategy to be conservative.
OVERBOARD. The state of being too high in a given auction.
OVERCALL. In a broad sense, any bid by either partner after an opponent has opened the bidding.
OVERRUFF. To ruff higher than the right-hand opponent after a plain-suit lead. Sometimes incorrectly called “overtrump.”
OVERTRICK. A trick taken by declarer in excess of the number of tricks required for his contract. If a player is in 4 ♠ and takes 12 tricks, he has made two overtricks. If a contract is doubled or redoubled, and overtricks are taken, the premium accruing to declarer’s side can be substantial. Under certain conditions, redoubled overtricks can be worth more than the corresponding slam premium. At duplicate, making an overtrick can be all-important – it can actually win a board or even an entire tournament.
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PAIR. A twosome or partnership of two players. All games at bridge come down to the basic competitive situation of pair versus pair, bridge being a partnership, or pairs, game.
PAR. The result on a deal if both sides have done as well as possible.
PAR HAND. A hand prepared for use in a par contest. By extension, a randomly dealt hand suitable for inclusion in such a contest because a single technical aspect of play or defense is dominant.
PARTNER. The player with whom one is paired in a game of bridge.
PARTNERSHIP. The two players sitting North-South or the two players sitting East-West. Players who play together frequently are considered to be an established partnership. Players who pair up for a particular event, having played together either seldom or never, have a more casual partnership.
PARTSCORE. A partial; a trick score of fewer than 100 points. At rubber bridge, a successful partscore counts toward game and enables one pair to make game by fulfilling an additional partscore or partscores.
If one side scores a game while the other side has a partscore, that frame ends and both sides start anew in pursuit of game. But that partscore still is added at the end of the rubber (or, in Chicago, after the fourth deal).
In duplicate, the score for making a partial is the sum of the trick score and 50.
PASS. A call by which a player indicates that, at that turn, he does not choose to contract for a number of odd tricks at any denomination, nor does he choose, at that turn, to double a contract of the opponents or redouble a contract by his side that opponents have doubled.
The proprieties require that only one term be used in passing. “No bid” is an acceptable alternative (standard in England), but all calls must be made with uniform usage. The widespread use of bidding boxes has virtually eliminated this as an issue.
PASS OUT or THROW IN. A deal in which all four players pass on the first round of bidding. The score is zero. In duplicate, the deal is scored and returned to the board. Some players believe, mistakenly, that the board can be redealt if passed out on the first round. This is illegal. In rubber bridge, the deal passes to the next player, but in Chicago, a redeal by the same dealer is required. The term “pass out” is also applied to the action of the player who, after two passes, declines to reopen the bidding at a comparatively low level. He is said to be in the “passout seat” or the “passout position.”
PASSED HAND. A player who has passed at his first turn to bid.
PASSOUT SEAT. The position of a player who can end the bidding by making the third consecutive pass.
PATTERN. In general, a reference to hand patterns indicating the number of cards held in each suit – 4-3-3-3, 5-3-3-2, 7-2-2-2, etc. Note that 4-3-3-3 indicates any four-card suit with three cards in the other suits, whereas 4=3=3=3 indicates four spades and three cards each in hearts, diamonds and clubs.
PEARSON POINT COUNT. A guideline for deciding to open the bidding in fourth seat. At one time, the general guideline was that if the total of high-card points and spades held was 14 or more, the bidding should be opened. Most players today use 15 (HCP plus spades) as the benchmark.
PENALTY. The adjustment made in the case of an irregularity or rule violation. The minus score incurred by a player whose contract is defeated.
PENALTY PASS. A pass by a player after a takeout double or balancing double by his partner and a pass by right-hand opponent. For example, if your left-hand opponent opened 1 ♠, your partner doubled for takeout and RHO passed, you would convert the takeout double to penalty by passing if you held:
♠Q J 10 9 8 ♥K 10 4 ♦7 3 ♣Q J 8
Similarly, if you held:
♠5 4 ♥A J 10 9 6 ♦A J 9 ♣Q 7 6
and heard your RHO open 2 ♥, you would pass for penalty if your partner balanced with a double after LHO’s pass.
PERCENTAGE. A quotient obtained by dividing the actual matchpoint score of a contestant by the possible score of that contestant, which is then expressed as a percentage of the possible score. A score of 190 in a game with 13 rounds of two boards each and a top of 12 (312 maximum) would work out to 60.89% (190 divided by 312).
PERCENTAGE PLAY. A play influenced by mathematical factors when more than one reasonable line of play is available. For example, supposed you have a two-way guess for a queen – K-J-8-3 opposite A-10-5-4. If you could ascertain that one opponent had three of the suit and the other two, unless you had other information to guide you (e.g., from the bidding) the percentage play would be to finesse for the queen against the opponent holding three of the suit.
PERFECT BRIDGE HAND. A hand that will produce 13 tricks in notrump irrespective of the opening lead or the composition of the other three hands.
PERMANENT TRUMP. At whist, a variation in which club card committees or other governing bodies declared a suit to be trump for all games under their jurisdiction. The rules of whist provided that the trump suit was the suit of the last card dealt by the dealer to himself.
PHANTOM PAIR. In a pairs game with an odd number of pairs, the pair that would (if present) complete the last table. The contestants scheduled to play against the phantom pair have a bye round.
PHANTOM SACRIFICE. A sacrifice bid against a contract that would have been defeated. Also known as a phantom save. For example, a bid of 5♦ doubled, down two for minus 300, looks good against a vulnerable 4♥ contract, which would have been minus 620 for your side – until you determine that the opponents’ limit in a heart contract was nine tricks.
PIANOLA. A contract at bridge that presents no problems to declarer, so easily makeable that it almost plays itself. The name derives from the old player piano or “pianola” that would “play” itself.
PICK UP. To capture or “drop” an outstanding high card, as in picking up or dropping a doubleton queen offside by playing the ace and king rather than taking an available finesse. Similarly, to drop a singleton king offside by eschewing a finesse and playing the ace. This action is usually the result of declarer’s determining that the key card must be offside, making a finesse a sure loser.
PIP. A small design indicating the suit to which a particular card belongs. The spade suit is indicated by a spearhead, the heart suit by a heart, the diamond suit by a diamond, the club suit by a clover leaf. The spot cards have as many pips as the rank of the card indicates, from 1 (ace) to 10 in the standard deck, in addition to two indices, the lower half of which is a pip. In German cards, the pips of leaves and acorns usually have stems, and are often attached as if on a branch. In the Trappola Pack, the pips often vary in size and design, and the swords and cudgels are usually interlaced.
PITCH. A colloquial term for discard.
PITCH COUNT. An old name for the 4-3-2-1 point count.
PLAIN SUIT. A suit other than the trump suit.
PLATINUM POINTS. Masterpoints awarded by the ACBL in nationally rated events with no upper masterpoint limit at North American Championships. ACBL’s Player of the Year is determined on platinum points earned in a calendar year. Similarly, qualification for the Norman Kay Platinum Pairs, which debuted in 2010, is strictly by platinum masterpoints.
PLAYER NUMBER. The seven-digit number assigned to each member upon joining the ACBL. When the player becomes a Life Master, the first number changes to a letter, starting with J for 1, K for 2, etc.
PLAYING TRICKS. Tricks that a hand may be expected to produce if the holder buys the contract; attacking tricks or winners, as distinguished from defensive tricks or winners when the holder must play against an adverse contract. In estimating the trick-taking strength of a hand, the holder assumes that his long suit (or suits) will break evenly among the other three hands unless the auction indicated otherwise, and adds the number of tricks his long suit (or suits) is likely to yield to his quick-trick total of the other suits. For example, the following hand
♠ K 5 ♥ A Q J 8 6 2 ♦ A Q 7 ♣ 9 3
contains about seven playing tricks: five in hearts, ½ quick trick in spades, 1½ quick tricks in diamonds.
When the long suit is not solid or semi-solid, estimation of playing tricks becomes more difficult because a second factor must be considered – the position of the missing honor cards. Thus, a suit such as ♥K J 8 6 5 3 is worth approximately 3½ playing tricks. With normal distribution, declarer might make four tricks if he can lead toward the suit or find the missing honors well placed, but he could be limited to two or three tricks.
Assessment of playing tricks is particularly important when considering a preemptive bid or an overcall. The Rule of Two and Three is one guideline.
POCKET. One of four rectangular areas in a duplicate board that hold the four hands, designated North, South, East and West.
POINTED. A term coined to describe the spade suit and the diamond suit because the suits have pips that are pointed at the top. The converse (rounded suits) indicates hearts and clubs.
POINTS. (1) The score earned by a pair as a result of the play of a hand, including trick points, premium scores and bonus. (2) A unit by which a hand is evaluated (point count). (3) The holding of masterpoints that have been credited to a player-member in any national contract bridge organization that has a masterpoint system.
POSITION. The place at a table occupied by a player. The various positions are called by the compass points: i.e., North, South, East and West. Also, “position” can describe one’s place in the order of bidding during a given auction. “Second position” means that position directly to the left of the dealer. “Fourth position” is the seat to the dealer’s right. Position also can refer to where an individual, pair or team places in a set of standings.
POSITIVE RESPONSE. A natural constructive response in a forcing situation where there is a bid available for an artificial negative or waiting response.
POSTMORTEM. A term applied to the discussion of bridge hands after conclusion of play or any time thereafter. Generally speaking, postmortems can be of significant value when engaged in by experts, as points of great interest are sometimes highlighted by this type of discussion, and unusual features of a hand often are brought into better perspective.
POWERHOUSE. A descriptive term usually signifying a hand that is very strong in high-card points, but it can apply to one that has extraordinary playing strength.
PRE-ALERT. In ACBL tournaments, players are required to explain or pre-Alert to opponents regarding certain aspects of their methods, including unusual bidding treatments and/or defensive conventions, such as the agreement to lead the low card from a worthless doubleton. In such cases, the opponents may need to discuss their defenses to the unusual systems before play begins.
PREEMPTIVE BID. Sometimes called a shutout bid. An opening bid of three or more with a hand containing a long suit and limited high-card strength. The bid is usually defensive in purpose.
PREPARED CLUB. An opening bid on a three-card suit, used mainly by partnerships employing five-card majors.
PRESSURE BID. An overbid made necessary by opposing action.
PRIMARY HONORS. Top honors, i.e., aces and kings. The king of a suit may instead be considered a secondary honor when it is unaccompanied by the ace or queen and when it is in a suit in which partner is known to be short. Primary honors usually carry more weight in suit contracts than in notrump.
PRIMARY TRICKS. A term first used by P. Hal Sims to describe high cards that will win tricks no matter who eventually plays the hand.
PRIMARY VALUES. Aces and kings, also called “hard values.”
PRIVATE SCORECARD. Players competing in duplicate events usually keep a written record of their performance. Cards that enable participants to keep such a record usually are given out by the host organization. The inside of the ACBL convention card is a private scorecard. There are spaces for the contract, the declarer and the score, as well as matchpoints or IMPs. The ACBL card also lists an IMP scale and two scales for victory point scoring.
PROBABLE TRICK. A playing trick that can be reasonably counted on when attempting to forecast the play during the bidding. The guarded king of a suit bid voluntarily on the right is an example.
PROGRESSION. (1) The movement of players in duplicate, (2) the movement of the boards in duplicate, (3) the movement of players in progressive bridge.
PROGRESSIVE BRIDGE. A form of competition at contract bridge played in the home or among social groups. Party contract bridge uses a progressive movement.
PROMISE. A bidding statement indicating the smallest number of cards in a suit or high-card points in a hand. For example, an opening bid of 1 ♣ promises a minimum of three cards in standard methods.
PROTECT. (1) To guard with a low card, as an honor, (2) to make a bid in order that partner may have another opportunity to bid, thus “protecting” him if he has greater strength than his first call has implied (this usage is obsolete), (3) in England, to balance.
PROVEN FINESSE. A finesse whose success is guaranteed. For example:
North
South
♠ 10 9 5 3
The ♠10 is led and wins, while right-hand opponent discards. Subsequent finesses in the suit are proven or established. Also called a marked finesse, a slightly less absolute circumstance.
PSYCH. A deliberate and gross misstatement of honor strength and/or of suit length.
PUNISH. To double an opponent for penalties.
PUSH. (1) A raise of partner’s suit, usually at the partscore level, aimed at pushing the opponents to a level at which they may be defeated. For example:
West North East South
Neither side is vulnerable and South holds:
♠ 6 5 3 ♥ K 9 ♦ A 8 4 2 ♣ Q 7 3 2.
It seems likely to West that both sides will make about eight tricks, so he bids 3 ♥. East is marked with, at worst, a good five-card heart suit. If North-South continue to 3 ♠, in which they will have more heart losers than they expect, they may be defeated, and West will have turned a minus score into a plus. The chance of being doubled in 3 ♥ is slight, and East should be wary of continuing to game.
(2) A board in a team match in which the result is the same at both tables or, in Swiss teams, with a difference of only 10 points (as plus 110 compared to plus 100). At board-a-match scoring, any difference results in a win for the higher-scoring side.
(3) A rubber in which the net score is zero after rounding off.
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QUACK. A contraction of “queen” and “jack” used to indicate (1) either the queen or the jack in situations where it is of no consequence which of the two cards is held or played in the context of a decision involving the theory of “restricted choice,”(2) the two cards together in the context of hand evaluation: Possession of “quacks” usually means the hand holding one or more of the combinations is not as good as the high-card point count might indicate.
QUALIFYING. Finishing high enough in a qualifying session to continue competing in the final session(s) of the event. Such matters are governed by the conditions of contest for the event.
QUALIFYING SESSION. In an event of two or more sessions, one or more of them may be designated as qualifying sessions to select contestants eligible for continued play in the remaining sessions.
QUANTITATIVE. A bid is quantitative if it is natural and limited. A bid of 4NT in response to a 1NT opener (15-17) is said to be quantitative in the sense that it asks the 1NT bidder to advance to 6NT with a maximum -– 17 HCP or perhaps 16 with a five-card suit.
QUEEN ASK. Part of the Roman Key Card Blackwood convention.
QUICK TRICK. A high-card holding that in usual circumstances will win a trick by virtue of the rank of the cards in either offensive or defensive play. Of course, in some distributional holdings or freak hands, such defensive values evaporate. The accepted table of quick tricks is:
2 A-K of same suit
1½ A-Q of same suit
1 A or K-Q of same suit
½ K-x
QUOTIENT. A device used to determine the winner in team competition if a round-robin ends in a tie either in won and lost matches or in victory points won and lost. The total number of IMPs won by a team against all round-robin opponents is divided by the number lost to determine the quotient. Italy won two European Championships by quotient, over France in 1956 and over Great Britain in 1958.
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RAGS. Low spot cards.
RAISE. As a noun, an increase of the contract in the denomination named by partner. As a verb, to make a bid increasing the contract in the denomination named by partner.
RANK. (1) The priority of suits in bidding and cutting. Starting at the bottom, the suits rank clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades, with notrump at the top of the list. (2) The trick-taking power of each card within a suit. The ace, king, queen, jack have priority in that order. The lower cards rank numerically. (3) The status of a player in a masterpoint ranking system.
RANKING. The position of a player, pair or team in the section or in the overall.
RATING POINTS. A measure of achievement in bridge competition at an ACBL-sanctioned club. At the beginning of the rating-point system, 100 rating points – initially issued on slips of paper – equaled one masterpoint. Today, clubs report masterpoint earnings of players electronically.
RECAPITULATION SHEET (RECAP). A large printed form on which the scores from a bridge game are posted. In club games and tournaments without electronic scoring devices, most scores are recorded from pickup slips.
Virtually all scoring today is accomplished by using the ACBLscore software, which is programmed to score pairs games and team games (and make matches in Swiss teams).
Instead of the old recap sheet, the product of computer scoring is a printout with matchpoints for every board and scores for every pair. It resembles a smaller version of the old recap. Masterpoint awards for the event are posted alongside the names of players who earned awards (calculated by the computer program). If the event is multi-session, it also indicates the seating assignment for the subsequent session.
RED. Vulnerable. Also a British colloquialism: The “red” side is vulnerable and the opponents are not. Compare to amber, green and white.
RED POINT. Masterpoints won in regional tournaments and NABCs. Red points are required for advancement in rank, starting with Regional Master.
REDEAL. A second or subsequent deal by the same dealer to replace his first deal. Hands are never redealt at duplicate except in special cases on the director’s instructions.
REDOUBLE. A call that increases the scoring value of odd tricks or undertricks of your partnership’s bid following a double by the opponents of your partnership’s bid. A redouble can be made only after an opponent doubles and only when the intervening calls were passes.
RE-ENTRY. A card by which a player who has had the lead (including the opening lead) can regain it.
REFUSE. (1) Deliberate failure to win a trick because of reasons of strategy. (2) Used in the sense of refusing to finesse, i.e., not taking what was previously a winning finesse in order to ensure the contract. (3) An obsolete term formerly used in whist and auction bridge, the laws of which defined it as “to fail to follow suit.”
REMOVE. To bid on when partner has doubled for penalties or has suggested notrump as a contract.
RENEGE. Colloquial synonym for revoke (fail to follow suit when able to). The term is borrowed from such games as two-handed pinochle and French whist, in which it is permissible to revoke.
REPEATED FINESSE. More than one finesse in the same suit, as with leading to the A-Q-10 and playing the 10, followed by a return to hand to play to the queen.
RERAISE. A colloquialism for opener’s rebid of three of his suit after responder has raised to two:
1 ♠ – Pass – 2 ♠ – Pass; 3 ♠. Some players use the reraise as a preemptive device; others consider it an invitational bid.
RESCUE. To bid another suit, or conceivably notrump, when partner has been doubled for penalties. The most common rescuing situation arises when an overcall has been doubled for penalties, a rarer event than it was before negative doubles became popular.
There are three points for the rescuer to consider:
(1) His length in the doubled suit. The more cards he holds, the less desirable a rescue becomes – it is rarely right with a doubleton and virtually never right with more than two cards.
(2) The level of the potential rescue. Rescuing is more likely to be effective at the one level and may sometimes be attempted when holding a singleton or void in the doubled suit but no suit of more than five cards. There is less reason for rescuing if it must be done at a higher level.
(3) The quality of the rescuer’s suit compared with the likely quality of the doubled suit. There must be a reasonable expectation that the rescuer’s suit is more substantial than the doubled suit. In most circumstances, a strong six-card suit or a seven-card suit is necessary.
Another common rescue situation occurs when a 1NT opening has been doubled. Here it is seldom right for responder to sit if he has no high-card strength or if he has a long suit.
RESCUE BID. A bid, based on a long suit, made with less-than-normal values because of a misfit with partner’s bid suit after it has been doubled.
RESERVE. A back-up line of play.
RHO. Right-hand opponent.
RHYTHM. Bidding and play at a uniform speed. The stress here is on uniformity and not on speed. An expert player attempts to foresee possible problems that may evolve during bidding, before choosing his first action so that he may avoid the agony of a later huddle. A good player knows that a huddle followed by a pass, or even a double, places the onus on his partner to not be influenced by the fact that he had a problem. Therefore, he will try to solve his future problems before they occur rather than after.
In the play, the shrewd declarer sometimes attempts to cause opponents to be careless in defense by playing with unusual rapidity, as though the contract was practically a pianola. When confronted by a rapid tempo, a thoughtful defender will deliberately slow his own tempo so that he has the opportunity to analyze declarer’s play to see whether or not he has a problem.
In the play, too, the necessity for defenders to establish a rhythmic tempo to their play is important. In attempting to locate a particular card, such as an adversely held ace or queen, declarer is frequently put on the right track by applying the old adage, “He who hesitates has it.” A declarer takes advantage of a hesitation at his own risk, but the opponent who hesitates before making a play with intent to deceive the declarer is guilty of unethical conduct and is subject to penalty. This is an important element of the Proprieties.
RIDE. (1) To take a finesse with. For example, “Dummy’s jack was led and declarer let it ride.” (2) A large penalty, derived from underworld argot in which a victim is “taken for a ride” by his would-be murderers.
RIFFLE. A light shuffle of the deck; a flexing of the deck with the cards bent and held between the fingers so that a rapid motion ensues as the pack is straightened out.
RIGHT-HAND PLAYER. The player who, in rotation, acts before the given player. There are distinctions in the rules between irregular acts committed by the right-hand or left-hand player. The term is generally used, however, to refer to the player on declarer’s right, after play commences.
RIGHT SIDE. The hand of the declaring partnership that can more successfully cope with the opening lead against the chosen contract. For example, assuming all other suits are adequately stopped, the hand holding A-Q-5 opposite 6-4-3 is the right side from which to play. Sometimes there is no right or wrong side.
The rightness of one side and wrongness of the other may relate to factors other than the safety of the declarer’s holding in the suit led; for example, the inability of one defender to lead the suit profitably (e.g., from four to the king when the declaring side has the ace and queen), or the inability of one defender to diagnose the most effective lead, whereas from his partner’s hand the “right” (most effective) lead would be obvious.
RIGHTY. Right-hand opponent.
RKCB. Roman Key Card Blackwood.
ROCK CRUSHER. A hand with tremendous trick-taking ability, often based on high-card strength.
RONF. An acronym for Raise Only Non-Force, usually applied when one player opens a weak two-bid. Most pairs have the agreement that a raise is the only non-forcing response to a weak two-bid by an unpassed hand.
ROTATION. The clockwise order in which actions take place at the bridge table.
ROUND. A part of a session of bridge at a tournament during which the players and the boards remain at a table. When two boards are played during a round, its duration should be about 15 minutes. Three-board rounds require about 20 minutes; four-board rounds 25.
In rubber bridge, a round refers to the three or four rubbers (or double rubbers) during which each of the players plays with each of the other players as partners.
ROUND HAND. A colloquialism for a hand with balanced distribution, particularly 4-3-3-3. Flat and square are also used to describe such a hand.
ROUNDED. A term used to describe the combination of hearts and clubs, these suits having pips rounded at the tops. The converse is “pointed” to indicate spades and diamonds.
ROUND-ROBIN. A form of competition in which each of the contesting groups (usually teams, though occasionally pairs) plays against each of the other groups in head-on competition. “League” is used as an equivalent term in England.
RUFF. To use a trump to attempt to win a trick when a plain suit is led.
RUFFING TRICK. A trick won by ruffing.
RULE OF ELEVEN. A mathematical calculation applicable when the original lead is construed as fourth best. It is sometimes possible to obtain an exact reading of the distribution in all four hands. The discovery of the rule is generally credited to Robert F. Foster and was published by him in his Whist Manual.
First put in writing in a letter from Foster to a friend in 1890, it is said to have been discovered independently by E.M.F. Benecke of Oxford at about the same time. The rule states: “Subtract the pips on the card led from 11; the result gives the number of higher cards than the one led in the other three hands.” Counting such cards in his own hand and in the dummy, both the leader’s partner and the declarer can determine the number of such cards in the concealed hand of the other. The application of the rule is easier than stating it. For example:
Dummy
K 5 2
7 led A 10 9 3
If the lead of the 7 is a fourth-best lead, third hand subtracts 7 from 11 and knows that four cards higher than the 7-spot are held in his, dummy’s, and declarer’s hands. He has three and dummy one, therefore declarer has no card higher than the 7, which can be permitted to ride.
Frequently, only the declarer gains from the application of this rule.
A Q 9 5 4
6 led 3 played
10 7 2
Declarer sees in his own hand and the dummy five cards higher than the 6, so he can bring in the entire suit by successively finessing against the king, jack and 8.
The Rule of Eleven often spots a singleton lead.
For example:
A 10 8 7 4
5 led K 9 3 2
Q J 6
If 5 is subtracted from 11, the third hand knows that this is the number of cards higher than the 5 held by himself, dummy and declarer. He sees six of them, so declarer holds none if his partner’s lead is a fourth best. Declarer ducks, the king is played, and declarer plays a seventh card higher than the 5. Third hand sees all cards lower than the 5; therefore the opening lead must have been a singleton.
The rule is based on an honest lead of fourth best in a suit. There is a modern tendency to be less revealing on the opening lead, with the lead of a low card indicating a suit whose return is desired and a middle card to indicate a suit to be abandoned. Care must therefore be taken not to apply the rule rigorously when the lead is not certainly a fourth best.
RULING. An adjudication by the director after an irregularity has occurred at a bridge tournament or a club; in rubber bridge, an application of law by agreement among the players.
RUN. (1) Bidding: to take partner (or yourself) out into a different suit (or notrump) when the first suit is doubled. (2) Play or “run” (a suit): to cash all the winning cards of an established or solid suit by playing them one after the other. (3) Play a card from hand or dummy and, when not covered, play low from the other hand, “running” it through the next player.
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SAC. Colloquialism for sacrifice or save, as in, “We took the sac.”
SAFETY LEVEL. The maximum level a partnership is willing to reach, without undue risk, to investigate a higher contract or compete against enemy bids.
SANCTION. The permission given by ACBL to a club, unit or district to hold a duplicate event within ACBL territory. In general, a specific sanction to hold a tournament must be obtained from ACBL well in advance of the date scheduled for the tournament. ACBL sends the sponsoring organization a form for reporting the results of the tournament. The report is used by ACBL to record masterpoints won by contestants.
Approximately 3200 bridge clubs in North America have been given the right to hold games sanctioned by ACBL. An affiliated club awards masterpoints based on the type of game and number of participants. Information concerning masterpoints won is relayed to ACBL either on disk or on a monthly report form. Formerly, masterpoints were distributed to players as fractional certificates that had to be bundled by the player and mailed to ACBL. Computers put an end to the need for fractional certificates.
SCORE. (1) Noun: the number of game or premium points earned as a result of the bidding and play of a contract, rubber or session of bridge. (2) Verb: to record the score.
There are slight differences, because of the nature of the games, between the scoring at rubber bridge, Chicago and tournament bridge. In addition, tournament bridge has different scoring procedures and values, depending on the type of event.
SCORE PAD. A printed tablet of sheets of paper used to keep a record of the scores in a game of rubber or Chicago. Score pads come in various shapes and sizes, and some are imprinted with the name of the club at which they are used, but they are all ruled with printed lines, leaving spaces for entering game and partial score results and extra premiums such as undertrick penalties and slam and rubber bonuses and honors. In North America, each sheet of the pad will have a large cross at the top, like a letter X, so that players can keep track of the deal number at Chicago.
SCORE SHEET. In club games, the summary sheet on which the matchpoints won by a pair are entered for ease in totaling; in larger tournaments, the recapitulation sheet, to which the scores are posted from the pickup slips. These are seldom used in tournaments today because most tournaments are scored by computer programs.
SCORECARD. A personal (or private) scorecard used in tournaments is called a convention card. When used in party or progressive bridge, it is called a tally.
SCORESLIP. A printed form at each table on which the results of a round of duplicate play are entered. Caddies collect the scoreslips after each round and give them to the director, who enters the scores either in the computer or on a recap sheet. At a growing number of tournaments and bridge clubs, scoring is done via wireless electronic devices, eliminating the need for scoreslips except as backups.
SCRATCH. (1) In pairs play, a colloquialism for placing high enough in a section or overall standings to earn masterpoints; (2) in a handicap game, a pair with a zero handicap is said to be a scratch pair. (3) Starting with nothing, as in “starting from scratch.”
SCREEN. An opaque barrier placed diagonally across the bridge table so that no player can see his partner
SCRIP. Financial certificates, today known as Bridge Bucks, issued by the ACBL for use as prizes at tournaments and as a convenience for buying entries (scrip can be charged to credit cards). The certificates may be used to pay ACBL dues.
SEAT. The position a contestant takes at a table; usually designated by one of the four principal points of the compass, North, South, East or West. The first two and the last two are partners, and each pair is the opponent of the other pair.
SECOND HAND. (1) The player to the left of the dealer. (2) The player who plays second to a trick.
SECONDARY HONORS. The lower honors, i.e., queens and jacks, as opposed to primary honors – aces and kings. The king of a suit may also be considered a secondary honor when it is not accompanied by the ace. Secondary honors generally carry their weight better in notrump than in suit contracts, especially when they are not located in partner’s long suits.
SECONDARY VALUES. Queens and jacks, also called soft values, as distinct from ace and kings, which are primary or “hard” values.
SECTION. A group of contestants who constitute a self-contained unit in the competition in one event for one session of a tournament.
SELF-SUFFICIENT SUIT. A solid suit – perhaps A-K-Q-J-x-x or A-K-Q-x-x-x-x.
SEMI-BALANCED. A hand with 5-4-2-2 or 6-3-2-2 distribution.
SEMI-SOLID SUIT. A suit of at least six cards that appears to contain only one loser or a suit that is one high card short of being a solid suit, for example, A-K-J-10-7-6, A-Q-J-10-8-4, A-K-8-7-6-5-3, K-Q-J-8-7-4-3.
SEND IT BACK. Redouble (colloquialism).
SEQUENCE. Two or more cards in consecutive order of rank, such as A-K-Q, a sequence of three, or Q-J-10-9, a sequence of four.
SESSION. A period of play during which each contestant is scheduled to play a designated series of boards against one or more opponents. A session may consist of one or more rounds.
SET. (1) The group of duplicate boards to be played in a round; (2) all the boards in play in a section or match; (3) the number of boards in a board case, usually 32 or 36; (4) the defeat of a contract – “Declarer suffered a two-trick set”; (5) to defeat a contract – “The defense set declarer two tricks”; (6) a partnership that plays together regularly – Eric Rodwell and Jeff Meckstroth are a set partnership; (7) a partnership that plays intact through a session of rubber bridge or Chicago; (8) a game in which both partnerships are set partnerships.
SET GAME. A pre-arranged match between two partnerships, with each pair almost always remaining the same for the duration of the contest. There have been set games where one of the players has been spelled for a while by some other player who had been waiting in reserve for such an instance. Generally, set games involve only four people and last for several rubbers as previously agreed upon.
SET UP. To establish one or more cards in the hand of the player himself, his partner or an opponent.
SET-UP SUIT. An established suit.
SEVEN or SEVEN-SPOT. The eighth-ranking card in a suit, located between the 8 and the 6.
SEVEN-ODD. Seven tricks over book, or 13 tricks in all.
SHADE, SHADED. A bid made on slightly less than technical minimum requirements.
SHAKE. A colloquialism meaning discard.
SHAPE. The distribution of a hand: 5-4-3-1, for example.
SHIFT (or switch). To change suit from one originally led on defense; alternatively, a change of suit by declarer in the development of his play. Shift can also be used to describe a bid in a new suit by the opening bidder, his partner or an overcaller or his partner.
SHORT HAND. A term used to describe the hand of the partnership that contains the fewer cards in the trump suit, such as in the reference, “Declarer took the ruff in the short hand.” Occasionally, the term may be applied to a hand that is short in a non-trump suit and therefore expects to ruff.
SHORT SUIT. In an original hand of 13 cards, a suit containing two or fewer cards. In some contexts, a short suit would be defined as a singleton or a void.
SHORTEN. To force; to shorten in trumps by forcing to ruff.
SHOW. Indicate a certain number of high-card points or other feature of a hand. A response to Blackwood, for example, shows aces or key cards. Similarly, a cuebid can show a control, and an opening bid of 1 ♠ shows a minimum of five spades in standard.
SHOW OUT. To fail to follow suit for the first time during the play of that suit, usually because of being void, but it could be from revoking.
SIDE SUIT. In bidding, a suit of at least four cards held by a player whose first bid is in another suit. In play, a suit of at least four cards other than trumps held by declarer in his own hand or dummy.
SILVER POINTS. Masterpoints won at ACBL sectional tournaments or Sectional Tournaments at Clubs (STaC). As of Jan. 1, 2010, a player must earn at least 75 silver points as one of the qualifications for advancing to the rank of Life Master. Excepted from this requirement are players who joined the ACBL prior to Jan. 1, 2010, and maintained continuous membership.
SIMPLE. As applied to an overcall or response, the definition is non-jump, merely sufficient to overcall or respond.
SIMPLE FINESSE. A finesse for a single card held by the adversaries.
SIMPLE HONORS. A term used in auction bridge to denote three honors in the trump suit, for which 30 points were scored.
SINGLE-DUMMY PROBLEM. A problem solver is given the two hands of a partnership holding, approximating the conditions facing a declarer at the bridge table. Among the foremost inventors of these problems was Paul Lukacs of Israel.
SINGLETON. An original holding of exactly one card in a suit. Also called a stiff (colloquial).
SIT, SIT FOR. Usually used in reference to a pass of partner’s penalty double. Passing a takeout double is usually referred to as converting the takeout double to penalty.
SIT OUT. (1) (Verb) To miss a round of play in a duplicate game because there is an odd number of pairs. (2) Wait to cut in to a Chicago or rubber bridge game.
SITTING. A session of bridge. Also a descriptive term referring to one’s position at the table, i.e., “Sitting North.”
SIX-ODD. Six tricks over book, or 12 tricks in all.
SKIP BID. A bid skipping one or more levels of bidding, as in an opening two-bid or a preemptive jump overcall (1 ♣ – 2 ♠). Also known as a jump bid.
SLAM. A contract requiring declarer to win 12 tricks (small slam, previously called little slam) or all 13 tricks (grand slam). An original feature in the earliest forms of whist (some of which were called “Slamm”), these results were rewarded with bonuses in bridge whist and auction bridge regardless of the declaration, so much so that in auction bridge, a side that bid seven and won 12 tricks still received the 50-point premium for a small slam although the contract was down one. In contract bridge, however, slam bonuses are paid only when the slam is bid and made.
The slam bonus in duplicate: small slams, 500 non-vulnerable, 750 vulnerable; grand slams, 1000 non-vulnerable, 1500 vulnerable.
SLIDING BOX. A tray for moving boards back and forth.
SLUFF. To dispose of a loser by throwing it off on the lead of a suit not held by the sluffer. The word derives from slough, to cast off and is almost always used in the context of a “ruff and a sluff.”
SMALL CARD. The incorrect designation of a low card.
SMALL SLAM. A contract requiring declarer to make six-odd, or 12 tricks in all.
SOCIAL BRIDGE. Played in a person’s home for moderate or no stakes. In larger gatherings, a reference to party bridge or progressive bridge. In expert circles, social bridge increasingly is taking the form of team-of-four competition, with a stake based on IMPs.
SOFT VALUES. Queens and jacks, which may well have no role in the play, as distinct from “hard values,” i.e., aces and kings.
SOLID SUIT. A holding that is expected, at a trump or notrump contract, to win as many tricks as there are cards in the suit. Theoretically, it should contain as many high cards as there are outstanding cards in the suit: nine to the A-K-Q might lose a trick if all four missing cards are in the same opponent’s hand. Culbertson’s rule of thumb is that a suit is solid if half the outstanding cards were in one hand and could still be picked up by successive leads.
An alternative definition, similar in effect, is “a suit which can be expected to lose no tricks with a singleton in dummy, and may lose no tricks opposite a void.” By this standard, A-K-Q-x-x-x-x, A-K-Q-10-x-x qualify, but A-K-Q-x-x-x does not.
SOUTH. One of the compass points used in describing the players at the table. South’s partner is North. South is “over” the East hand but “under”the West hand.
SPADES. The highest ranking of the four suits at bridge. The 13 cards of the suit are indicated with a black symbol. In American and British decks, and some made for export to North America, the ace of spades usually carries a special design, trademarked by the manufacturer, on its face. The word “spade” is not agricultural. It designates a broadsword, derived from spatha in Greek and Latin. It is the point of a spear in French (pique) and German (pic).
SPLIT. The division of a suit, usually in the context of an assessment of outstanding cards in a key suit, as in a 4-1 split (or “break”) in the trump suit.
SPLIT EQUALS. To play a card from two equals when following suit with a lower card is possible, as in playing the queen from K-Q-5 when declarer leads a low card from dummy.
SPOT CARD. Cards ranking below the jack, from the 10 down to the 2. Of the 13 tricks that are won on each deal, approximately eight are won with aces, kings, queens, and jacks; the remaining five tricks are won with spot cards. A fraction more than five tricks are won by the lower cards in trump contracts, because low trumps win tricks that are not available in notrump contracts.
SPREAD. (1) Verb: to spread the hand, either as a claim or as a concession of the remaining tricks. (2) Noun: the difference between the minimum and maximum values shown by a particular bid; in Standard American, the range of values for an opening bid of 1NT is 15 to 17 high-card points, a spread of three, while an opening bid of one in a suit may have a high-card point-count spread of 10 to 24, or 15 points; (3) Adjective: unbeatable, as “The hand was spread for four hearts.”
STACK, STACKED. (1) The cards are said to be stacked against one when a single opponent holds all or nearly all of the cards in a crucial suit. (2) To stack a deck is to arrange cards in an undealt deck in order to put predetermined holdings into one or more hands.
STAND, STAND FOR. To pass partner’s penalty double or takeout double.
STAND UP. In defensive play, a high card that wins a trick. A suit is said to stand up until it is ruffed by declarer. On offense or on defense, a high card is said to stand up if it wins the trick, even though a higher card may be outstanding in the suit.
STICK. Colloquial term for an ace. “I had two sticks,” meaning, “I had two aces.”
STIFF. (1) Adjective or noun: Colloquialism for singleton, frequently used in reference to a major honor (ace, king, or queen) without guards. (2) Verb: Colloquially, to blank; to discard the guards, as in “He stiffed his king.”
STOP BID. A bid that fixes the final contract and commands partner to pass. Responses of 4 ♠ or 3NT to an opening notrump bid are examples. Signoff bids are virtually stop bids, but in some cases partner may have a reason to violate and continue with the auction.
STOPPER. A card or combination of cards that may reasonably be expected to or actually does stop the run of a suit. To be counted in the auction as a stopper, a high card, except an ace, must usually be accompanied by lower cards so that it will not have to be played on a higher one if the holder of the higher card decides to play for the drop. The number of low cards, or guards, needed is in inverse proportion to the rank of the honor. Thus, the king must ordinarily be accompanied by at least one guard, and the queen by at least two unless the bidding indicates that a higher-ranking card is held by partner.
Stoppers are particularly important at notrump contracts. Holdings such as Q-x and J-x-x are partial stoppers, needing help from partner to build a full stopper. For example, if you have Q-x and partner has J-x-x, you have a full stopper.
STOPPING ON A DIME. Ending the bidding one short of game (or perhaps slam) and making exactly the right number of tricks.
STRAIN. A term encompassing all four suits plus notrump. A synonym for denomination.
STRENGTH. The top-card holding in a suit, either as stoppers in notrump, for drawing adversely held trumps, for trick-taking potential or to set up long cards as winners.
STRONG SUIT. A suit of four or more cards containing a minimum of 6 high-card points.
SUBSTITUTE. (1) Call. When a player makes an illegal call, he may be required to substitute a legal call with appropriate penalties against his partner.
(2) Player. In rubber bridge, a player who replaces a member of the table who is called away or must leave during or before the finish of a rubber. Such a substitute must be acceptable to all members playing at the table, and he would be assumed to have no financial responsibility unless agreed otherwise.
(3) Player. In duplicate, a player who is permitted by the director to replace a player who is unable to finish a session or play in a second or later session.
(4) Board. In team play, a board is introduced by the director at a table when an irregularity has occurred that makes a normal result impossible. Such a board is withdrawn after play, but reinstated when the teammates of the pairs who played it are scheduled to play that board. If the substitute board is needed on the replay (after the teammates have recorded a result), an offending side causing the substitution may be playing for at best a halved board.
SUCKER DOUBLE. A double of a freely bid game or slam contract by a player who is relying solely on defensive high-card strength. Against good opponents such doubles rarely show more than a small profit. They can, however, result in a disastrous loss, especially when the double helps declarer to make his contract. The probability is that the declaring side has distributional strength to compensate for the relative lack of high-card strength.
SUIT. One of four denominations in a pack of cards: spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs. Each suit has 13 cards, ranked from the ace to the deuce.
SUPPORT. Verb: to raise partner’s bid. Noun: (1) a raise; (2) whatever strength partner has in support of one’s bid. Trump support is usually three or more cards in the major suit opened by partner, four or more cards in the minor suit opened by partner.
SURE TRICK. A trick that a player will win no matter what. For example: the ace of trumps, the guarded king of trumps when it is behind the ace, the ace of a suit you intend to lead against notrump. The lead of an ace against a suit contract, even though it be from a short suit not mentioned in the bidding, is not necessarily a sure trick, as declarer or dummy may be void.
The term is also used by George Coffin to describe single-dummy problems in which correct play will ensure the making of a specific number of tricks.
SWING. (1) The difference between the actual score made on a deal and “what might have been” if the bidding, play or defense had been different. Thus, if poor dummy play by declarer results in down one on a vulnerable 6 ♠ contract, the swing is said to be 1530 points if the slam is bid and made at the other table. (2) The term frequently used in team matches to name the actual gain or loss on a single hand. The term may be in total points or in IMPs. If North-South make 3 ♠ for 140 points and their teammates defeat 4 ♠by 50 points, the swing is 190 points or 5 IMPs.
SWISH. A colloquialism indicating that a bid is followed by three passes. A similar term is “float.”
SWITCH. Most commonly used to indicate a defender’s change of suits from the one originally led.
SYSTEM FIX. A bad result caused by one’s own bidding methods.
SYSTEM ON (or SYSTEM OFF). An agreement to apply (or not to apply) certain artificial methods in slightly changed circumstances. The most common example occurs after a 1NT overcall. The partnership may agree to respond exactly as if the overcaller had opened 1NT. Also relevant against interference in certain circumstances.
SYSTEM VIOLATION. Deliberately ignoring the boundaries of one’s bidding system for reasons of judgment or expedience. This is not illegal or a breach of proprieties but can have a negative effect on a partnership.
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TABLE. Four players, two pairs, or one team, in duplicate play, for individual, pairs and team movements suitable to a particular number of tables.
The table most frequently used for bridge is a folding square table, about 30 inches on a side, and from 26 to 27 inches in height. In a social or “party bridge” game, the accoutrements should include two score pads, two decks of bridge cards, two sharp pencils, coasters and four chairs. A table of similar size is used in a duplicate game, but the table could contain bidding boxes, boards and scoreslips.
Other meanings are:
(1) The dummy. “The lead is on the table.”
(2) To face one’s cards, either as dummy or in making a claim. Dummy’s “tables” his hand after the opening lead. Declarer “tables” or exposes his cards in making a claim. Defenders can also claim in the same way.
(3) A way of measuring tournament attendance: four players playing one session of bridge equals one table.
TABLE FEEL or TABLE PRESENCE. One of the features that enable a good bridge player to become an expert is the indefinable something that is referred to as table presence. It is a combination of instinct; the drawing of correct inferences from any departure from rhythm by the opponents; the exercise of discipline in bidding; the ability to coax maximum performance from partner, and the ability to make the opponents feel that they are facing a player of a higher order. It also includes a poised demeanor that does not give clues.
TACTICS. Various maneuvers in the play of a contract, bidding nuances and choices of action, taking into consideration the methods of scoring, quality of the competition and conditions of contests.
TANK. A colloquialism in the phrase “go into the tank” or “to tank,” meaning to fall into a protracted huddle.
TAP. (1) Shortening a hand in trumps by forcing it to ruff (colloquial). (2) The Teacher Accreditation Program used by the Education Department of the ACBL.
TEAM. Four, five or six players competing as a unit in bridge tournaments.
TEAMMATES. The other members of a team of four, five or six.
TEMPO. (1) The element of timing in card play, with special reference to the use of opportunities to make an attacking lead.
♠ 4 3
♠ Q 8 6 2 ♠ 7 5
♥ A K Q 10 ♥ 9 5 3 2
♦ 8 7 ♦ 10 9 5
♣ J 9 7 ♣ Q 10 5 4
♠ A K J 10 9
♥ J
♦ A J 6 4 2
♣ K 8
West leads two rounds of hearts against South’s 4 ♠ contract. South should avoid losing a tempo in drawing trumps by cashing the ♠A and ♠K immediately and then starting his diamonds. The defenders can score the two remaining trumps but cannot damage the contract. If South loses a tempo by taking a spade finesse, the defense will continue hearts, reducing South’s trumps to one fewer than West’s. Should South allow this to happen, the defense will score a trick with a long heart and defeat the contract.
(2) The speed with which a bid or a play is made. Experienced players attempt to adjust the speed of their own bidding and play so as always to use the same tempo and thus not convey information to partner or to the opponents. Players sometimes seek to force a rapid tempo of play, hoping to gain an advantage by encouraging an error by the opponents or by obtaining information from the opponents’ pauses to think. The best defense against this somewhat unsporting tactic is to refuse to alter the tempo of one’s own play, or even to slow the tempo down so as to protect one’s partner. The term tempo, however, does not stretch to include deliberate hesitation when in fact a player has no problem.
TENACE. Two cards in the same suit, of which one ranks two degrees lower than the other; the major tenace is A-Q; the minor tenace is K-J; more broadly, any holding of cards not quite in sequence in a suit.
THEIR HAND. Term used by a player who believes his opponents can make the highest positive score, usually because of holding more high-card points.
THIN. An adjective used to describe (1) a hand without body; “a thin 15-count” indicates a hand with 15 high-card points that lacks intermediates (9s and 10s); (2) a makeable contract with fewer than the expected HCP between the two hands.
THIRD (similarly, fourth, fifth, sixth, etc.). An adjective that, when used after naming a specific card, counts the number of cards held in the suit, e.g., “ace-third” denotes the holding of A-x-x.
THIRD HAND. In bidding, the partner of the dealer; in play, the partner of the leader to a trick.
THIRTEENER. The card remaining in a suit when all other cards in that suit have been played on the first three tricks of the suit.
THREE BID. An opening bid at the three level, almost always preemptive.
3NT. The lowest bid in quantitative terms that produces a game from a zero score; nine tricks without benefit of a trump suit.
THREE-ODD. Three tricks over book, or nine tricks.
THREE-QUARTER NOTRUMP. The use of a weak 1NT opener in all situations except vulnerable against non-vulnerable. Players who combine this with a fourth-hand weak notrump at all vulnerabilities (safe because neither opponent can double and dummy must have some values) can be said to play 13/16ths.
THREE-SUITER. A hand with at least four cards in each of three suits, and therefore distributed 4-4-4-1 or 5-4-4-0.
THROW AWAY. (1) To discard. (2) To defend or play so badly that a very poor score results.
THROW IN. (1) To make a throw-in play. (2) In rubber bridge, to toss the cards into the center of the table, after four passes. Used in Great Britain as a synonym for pass out.
THROWING THE LEAD (into a desired defender’s hand). Another way of describing the Throw-in Play.
TICKETS. A colloquialism used to refer to (1) pick-up slips, (2) the right high cards for a particular action, as in, “He had the tickets.”
TIE. Equality of result in a competition. (1) On a board; (2) in a knockout match, additional boards must be played in accordance with the conditions of contest to determine a winner; (3) in overall standings or section standings. Since 1992, in ACBL contests, any margin is a win.
TIGHT. A colloquialism usually indicating a doubleton or tripleton, as in “ace-king tight,” meaning a doubleton A-K.
TIMING. An element in the play of a contract similar to tempo.
TOP. (1) On a board, the best score made in the play of a particular hand in a duplicate tournament. If one pair earns a top, their opponents must score zero points or a bottom. (2) Score: the best score for a session of play among the contestants in direct competition (3) A card: to play a card higher in rank than the ones previously played by the second or third player to play to the trick; (4) The highest card in dummy’s suit, as, declarer called for the top heart.
TOP HONOR. A primary honor (ace or king).
TOP OF NOTHING. The normal lead in many partnerships from three low cards, particularly in leading partner’s suit after having supported it.
TOP ON A BOARD. The maximum number of matchpoints possible on a board. Two different methods are used, one by ACBL and the other by the rest of the world. In ACBL, top on a board is the number of times the board is played minus one. In the rest of the world, top on a board is the number of times the board is played multiplied by two, minus two. In ACBL, a board played 13 times would have a top of 12 (13 times played minus 1). In the rest of the world, a board played 13 times would have a top of 24 (13 times 2 = 26, minus 2 = 24). Effectively, all matchpoint scores in the rest of the world are double those in ACBL, but this in no way affects the outcome. The difference in scoring methods is one of the major reasons why most final scores are now posted as percentages.
TOTAL-POINT SCORING. Computation of scores based on points earned minus points lost, from the scoring table of contract bridge. The British term is aggregate scoring.
TOTAL TRICKS, LAW OF. The theory that the number of tricks on a particular deal will be roughly equal to the number of trumps in the best fits by both sides.
TOUCHING CARDS. (1) Cards that are in sequence in the same suit, as the 10 and 9 in a holding of K-10-9-6. (2) In duplicate bridge, it is illegal for any player to touch any cards other than his own, unless he is arranging the dummy’s cards and so declares.
TOUCHING SUITS. Suits that, within the order of ranking, are next to each other: spades and hearts, hearts and diamonds, and diamonds and clubs are touching suits.
TOURNAMENT. In the days of whist, gatherings of players for the purpose of competing at the game were termed “congresses,” a term still current in Britain and Australia. As auction bridge replaced whist, the term “congress” gave way to “tournament,” as the accent shifted from sociability to competition. A tournament can describe a club game among local groups, up to competition at national and international levels. The essentials of a tournament are the planning thereof by a sponsoring organization, publicity and promotion, the programming of events, the competition itself, the scoring and determination of winners, and the hospitality in connection there with.
TRAIN BRIDGE. Regular games on commuter trains.
TRAM TICKETS. Very poor cards (British colloquialism). This is usually used in a pejorative sense to intimate that a player showed poor bidding judgment: “He was bidding on tram tickets.”
TRANCE. A protracted break in the tempo of bidding or play during which a player attempts to solve a problem. Trances and huddles are frequent causes of ethical difficulties and disputes.
TRANSPORTATION. A synonym for communication between hands. This can apply to declarer and dummy or to the defenders. If declarer has “transportation” to the dummy, he has a means of entering dummy when he wishes. If a defender has a suit ready to run and there is “transportation” to his hand, the defenders will prevail.
TRAP PASS. A pass by a player holding a strong defensive hand, hoping the opposition will bid themselves into difficulties. It is usually made by a player holding length and strength in the suit bid by the opener on his right.
TRAVELING SCORE SLIP (TRAVELER, TRAVELLING SCORESHEET in Britain).The official score of each deal in a pair duplicate game may be recorded either of two ways: on a traveling score slip or an individual pick-up card, assuming wireless electronic scoring is not being used.
A majority of clubs and lesser championship events use the traveling score slip. This slip travels with the board, folded and inserted in a pocket so that scores for tables that have played it earlier are not visible until the slip is opened after the board has been played. The score at the new table is then entered. At the end of the session, when the board has been played at each table in the game, all results have been entered on the slip. The tournament director then enters the scores on his computer or matchpoint the scores if he is scoring manually.
TRAY. (1) An obsolete term for a board. (2) The tray that is pushed back and forth under the screen in major championships, carrying the bids selected from the bidding box cards from one pair of opponents to the other pair. It was invented by Henny Dorsman of Aruba and introduced at the Central American and Caribbean Championships at Aruba in 1977.
TREY. The 3 or three-spot of each suit.
TRIAL BID. A game suggestion made by bidding a new suit after a major suit fit has been located.
TRICK. Four cards played in rotation after a card has been led by the player whose turn it was to lead (play first). A trick is won (1) by the player who plays the highest card of the suit initially led; (2) by the player who is out of the suit led and plays the highest (or only) trump to ruff that suit; (3) by the player who has established a suit by repeated leads and thus has the only cards of the suit remaining (in notrump contracts).
TRIPLE RAISE. A raise of partner’s opening suit bid to the four level.
TRIPLETON. A holding of three cards in a given suit. The term is usually used to describe an original or dealt combination, as an ace-king tripleton in diamonds.
TRUMP. The suit named in the final bid, other than notrump. Such suit is the trump suit, and a card of the trump suit, when played, is a winner over any card of a plain (not trump) suit. If two or more trumps are played on the same trick, the highest trump card played wins the trick. Sometimes used erroneously to mean ruff.
TRUMP TRICK. A playing trick in the trump suit.
TURN. (1) Noun: the appropriate moment for a player to make a bid or play, as in “It’s your turn to bid;”(2) verb: to quit a card at duplicate or a trick at rubber bridge (turn it over) after all four players have played; (3) verb: to take a trick, as “We turned six tricks against 3♠.”
TWO or TWO-SPOT. The lowest-ranking card in any given suit. Sometimes referred to as the deuce.
TWO-DEMAND BID. A forcing opening bid at the two level when playing strong two-bids.
TWO-ODD. Two tricks over book or eight tricks in all.
TWO-SUITER. A hand with one suit of more than four cards and another suit of more than three cards. The term used to be confined to hands with at least five cards in each of two suits. A 5-4 distribution was called a semi-two-suiter.
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UNBALANCED DISTRIBUTION. Referring to either the distribution of the suits in a hand or the distribution of one suit among the four hands. Unbalanced is the opposite of balanced distribution. Among the requirements for unbalanced distribution is the combination of one or more long suits and one or more singletons or voids.
UNBEATABLE. The same as “cold” or “frigid” in reference to a contract that cannot be defeated if played competently.
UNBID SUIT. Usually considered in the context of a defender selecting an opening lead, it is a suit that has not been bid by declarer or his partner during the auction. Frequently, without any attractive opening lead, a player will select a lead on the basis that the suit has not been bid. This applies particularly to a major suit against a notrump contract. Bidding an unbid suit may be a useful waiting move in the auction, as with the convention fourth-suit forcing.
UNCONSTRUCTIVE. A bid that is distinctly discouraging, but does not bar partner from making a further move. Non-constructive is a synonym.
UNDER THE GUN. A term borrowed from poker meaning the hand betting immediately after the dealer. In bridge, there are various meanings, both in bidding and play. The term can be used in bidding situations to cover the position where a hand or player can be said to be “under the gun” if he is bidding directly after a preemptive bidder and before a hand that has not yet been heard from. The term also can describe a position where a player has to make a bid-or-double decision at the slam level. In play, it is used to describe the hand between dummy and declarer that has a high card or high cards that are finessable and are in a vulnerable position as a result.
UNDERBID. A bid lower than the value of the hand warrants.
UNDERBIDDER. A player who regularly bids slightly less than the value his hand warrants. He is rarer and easier to play with than the overbidder. His psychological motivation is usually a reluctance to be set in any contract.
UNDERLEAD. The lead of a low card in a suit in which the master card or cards is held.
UNDERRUFF. To play a low trump when a trick has already been ruffed with a higher trump. This is usually not intentional. When it is intentional, it often qualifies as a brilliant play.
UNDERTRICK. Each trick by which declarer fails to fulfill his contract.
UNFACED HAND. During the play, the hands of the declarer and both defenders. After the opening lead, declarer’s partner’s hand is faced up on the table so that all players may see the cards (dummy’s hand). Prior to the play, none of the hands is faced. In claiming or conceding tricks, a player faces his hand in properly stating his claim.
UNFAVORABLE VULNERABILITY. Your side is vulnerable and your opponents are not. Preempts must be stronger because penalties mount much faster at this vulnerability. Balancing and sacrifices also need careful evaluation.
UNFINISHED RUBBER. A rubber ended by agreement before either side has won two games. A side that has won one game is credited with a bonus of 300 points; a side that has the only partial is credited with a bonus of 100 points (it was 50 until a change in the 1993 Code).
UNLAWFUL. An action not in accordance with the rules and mechanics of the game.
UNLIMITED BID. A bid with wide limits in valuation.
UNMAKABLE. Describing a contract that cannot succeed without error(s) by the defenders.
UPPERCUT. A ruff, usually by a defender, aimed at promoting a trump trick for partner. Sometimes confused with trump promotion.
UP THE LINE. In bidding, the practice of making the cheapest bid when responding or rebidding with two or three four-card suits.
UP TO. Toward the hand that will play last to a particular trick (as in the next entry) or toward a vulnerable third-hand holding such as K-x-x or K-Q-x, as opposed to leading away from such a holding.
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VALUES. Strength in high cards or in distribution.
VIEW, TO TAKE A. To make a decision in the bidding or play, often used to explain or excuse an unsuccessful effort taken against normal odds, as in, “I took a view.”
VIOLATION (system). A deliberate breach of a system agreement. Judgment may occasionally lead an expert player to pass a forcing bid or continue bidding after a signoff bid, but such violations are very rare among good players, mostly for the sake of partnership confidence. A mistaken bid that is not according to the adopted system is not considered a violation but merely an erroneous action.
VOID. No cards in a suit, whether the hand originally held none or became void from playing all the cards in that suit. “Chicane” is a much older term. “Blank” is a synonym once in use.
VULNERABILITY. The condition of being subject to greater undertrick penalties and eligible to receive greater premiums as provided by the scoring table. In rubber bridge, vulnerability comes about by having won one game toward rubber. In duplicate bridge, vulnerability is arbitrarily assigned by board numbers. Vulnerability in duplicate is on a 16-board cycle, repeating for each succeeding 16 boards; boards 1, 8, 11 and 14 have no vulnerability; boards 2, 5, 12, and 15 have North-South vulnerable, East-West not vulnerable; boards 3, 6, 9 and 16 have East-West vulnerable, North-South not vulnerable; boards 4, 7, 10 and 13 have both sides vulnerable. This can be remembered fairly easily by the 16 letters forming this arrangement:
O N E B
E B O N
B O N E
where O stands for no vulnerability, N for North-South, E for East-West and B for both.
In Chicago, a four-hand variation of rubber bridge, the vulnerability also is arbitrarily assigned in similar fashion; no vulnerability on the first hand; dealer vulnerable on the second and third hands; and everyone vulnerable on the last hand. A variation in a few clubs that is technically, perhaps, a slight improvement assigns the vulnerability on the second and third hands to the opponents of the dealer. The purpose is to allow opener more latitude in preempting.
The feature of vulnerability gives rise to many variations in the strategy of bidding and play. These variations probably are foremost among the reasons for the great interest that contract bridge has stimulated. Some strategies: (1) bidding low-point games when vulnerable, (2) preempting with minimum values when not vulnerable, (3) taking saves when not vulnerable, etc.
VULNERABLE. A term indicating that the values of premiums and the severity of penalties are greatly increased. In rubber bridge, a pair becomes vulnerable when they win their first game of a rubber. In duplicate and Chicago, vulnerability is arbitrarily assigned. Premiums for bidding and making slam or game are larger, but penalties when set, especially when doubled, are much greater than when not vulnerable. The term was coined by a woman aboard the ship on which Cornelius Vanderbilt codified contract bridge.
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WALLET. British name for a form of duplicate board in which each pocket is formed in the fold of a wallet-shaped receptacle. The board can be folded into one-half size for ease in carrying. Plastic wallet boards are popular in Europe. They date back to the 1932 World Bridge Olympics.
WEAK SUIT. A suit the opponents are likely to lead and in which they can probably cash several tricks. Sometimes the term refers to an unstopped suit, but if a notrump contract is being considered, it could also apply to a suit in which the opponents hold nine or more cards and in which declarer has only one stopper.
The weakness of a suit is relative to the auction. A low doubleton used to be regarded as a weak suit for the purposes of a 1NT opening, although there are two schools of thought, and few modern players would allow themselves to be deterred. For the purposes of a notrump rebid, a low doubleton in an unbid suit is undesirable, and a low tripleton is unattractive. The chance that the opponents will lead the suit is increased, and the chance that partner can guard it is decreased.
If a side has bid three suits, a notrump bid requires at least one positive stopper and preferably two in the fourth suit.
Sometimes anything less than a double stopper would certainly represent a weak suit:
West North East South
1 ♦
Dbl Pass 3NT
As West is likely to have a diamond shortage, the jump to 3NT shows a double diamond stopper. Anything less would constitute a weak suit, unless perhaps East held a single stopper with a long strong club suit.
WEAK TAKEOUT. An English term for a natural unconstructive suit response to 1NT. The American colloquialism is “drop-dead bid.”
WEAK TWO-BID. An opening two-bid used to show a long suit and values below those for an opening one-bid.
WEAKNESS RESPONSE. A natural response that indicates a strong desire to close the auction.
The most common case is the response of 2♠, 2♥, or perhaps 2 ♦ to an opening 1NT bid. Using traditional methods (no transfers) with the Stayman 2 ♣ convention, responder shows at least a five-card suit and no desire to progress toward game.In rare circumstances, the opener may make one further bid if he has a fine fit with responder, presumably four cards and a maximum notrump opening consisting largely of top honors, usually including two of the three top honors in responder’s suit. If opener raises to the three level and the contract fails, it may prove that the raise has forestalled a successful balancing action by the opponents.
If opener bids a new suit (1NT – 2♥; 3♣) he implies a maximum with a fine fit for responder’s suit. The clubs may be, by agreement, either a doubleton or concentrated strength.
Another example of a weakness response:
West North East South
1♣
1NT 2♥
North’s failure to double 1NT marks him with a weak hand (fewer than 8 or 9 high-card points) and heart length. South will rarely be strong enough to attempt a game, and should rarely rescue relatively.
Weakness responses, which are natural, are sometimes confused with negative responses, which are conventional. Examples of these would be a negative 2♦ response to a conventional 2 ♣ bid, or a Herbert Negative.
WEST. The player who sits to the left of South. South is to his right and North to his left. He is the partner of East.
WHITE. Not vulnerable. Also British colloquialism meaning neither side vulnerable.
WIDE OPEN. A phrase describing a suit in which declarer has no stopper or is extremely vulnerable to attack. For example, “Declarer was wide open in spades.”
WINNER. (1) A card that may reasonably be expected to win a trick in dummy or declarer’s hand. On defense, a card that will win a trick during the play of a given hand may be termed a winner, as well. (2) The player, the pair or team with the highest score in an event at a duplicate tournament.
WINNING CARD. The card that takes the trick. In a notrump declaration, this is always the highest card played in the suit that has been led; it may be a long card, led in a suit to which the other players cannot follow. In suit declarations, the above will apply, except that on a trick where more than one trump is played, the highest trump wins the trick.
WINNING TIE. In win-loss Swiss teams, a match that is won by 1 or 2 IMPs. It counts as three-fourths of a win.
WISH TRICK. The play of an ace, 2, 3 and 4 on the same trick. The cards do not necessarily have to be in order.
WORKING CARD. A high card or cards that, on the basis of the auction, rate to mesh well with partner’s hand for suit play. For example, a secondary honor or an unsupported king is usually discounted opposite a known singleton, whereas any top honor is likely to be “working” if it is in one of partner’s suits.
WRONG SIDE. The hand of the declaring partnership that is less well equipped to cope with the opening lead. The opposite of “right-siding” the contract.
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X. (1) A symbol used in lower case in bridge literature to signify an insignificant low card in any suit, a card lower than a 10. Thus, K-x-x means the king and two low cards in that suit. (2) A capital X indicates a call of double, and is used in recording bidding, and in written bidding, by hand, in important matches. Similarly, XX means “redouble.”
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YARBOROUGH. Any hand containing no card higher than a 9, named after an English lord who customarily would offer to wager 1000 pounds to one against the chance of such a hand being held by a player. The odds against holding a yarborough are 1,827 to one, so he was giving himself a substantial edge. In postmortem discussions, the term “yarborough” has gained currency to describe bad hands even if they do not meet the strict requirements. In some circles, any hand with no card higher than a 10 is considered a yarborough.
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ZERO. The lowest score possible on a duplicate board, hence loosely, a very bad score. It also refers to a lost board in a team-of-four contest. Note that a score on a board of zero points (all four hands pass) may be any matchpoint score from none to top.
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Which Australian city is nicknamed The Big Smoke? | 100 Cities and Their Nicknames | Travel Away
100 Cities and Their Nicknames
Last updated on 9 Feb 2016
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By Miruna Corneanu
I like nicknames. They define us better than our names, they are clever and funny, and they tell so much about our personality and sometimes, about our aspect, although this might be the worst case. I’ve had plenty of nicknames from “Bal” and “Maimu” to “Blondy”, but now everyone calls me by using diminutives of my name. That’s why when someone calls me “Miruna”, I know there’s something wrong going on.
I know the Internet is full of lists with cities’ nicknames, but I decided to make my own, composed of the world’s most important cities, and I hope this will be useful for my readers.
1. Paris – The City of Love, The City of Light, La Ville-Lumiere
2. Prague – The City of Hundred Spires, The Golden City, The Mother of Cities
3. New York – The Big Apple
4. Las Vegas – Sin City
5. Chicago – The Windy City
6. Vancouver – The Big Smoke
7. Montreal – La Belle Ville, Frenchtown, The City-Mountain
8. Los Angeles – The City of Angels
9. New Orleans – The Big Easy
10. Philadelphia – City of Brotherly Love, Philly
11. Amsterdam – Venice of the North
12. Venice – La Serenissima, Bride of the Sea
13. Vienna – The Imperial City
14. London – The Square Mile, The Old Smoke, The Smoke
15. Detroit – Motor City
16. Miami – The Magic City, Little Cuba
17. Memphis – Bluff City
18. Petra – The Rose Red City
19. Pittsburgh – Iron City
20. Rome – The Eternal City, City of the Seven Hills
21. Seattle – The Emerald City
22. Bucharest – Little Paris
23. Florence – The City of Lilies
24. Barcelona – The City of Counts, The City of Gaudi
25. Budapest – Pearl of the Danube
26. Toronto – Queen City, Muddy York, The Big Toe
27. Dublin – The Fair City
28. Jerusalem – The Holy City
29. Boston – The Hub
31. Moscow – The Whitestone, The Forty Forties, Third Rome
32. Edinburgh – Auld Reekie
33. Geneva – The Peace Capital
34. Rio de Janeiro – Marvelous City
35. Salzburg – White City
36. Mumbai – The City of Dreams
37. Singapore – The Lion City
38. Naples – City of the Sun
39. Bologna – Red City; La Dotta, La Rossa, La Grassa (the educated, the red, the fat)
40. Torino – City of Four Rivers
41. Genova – The Superb
43. Milano – Fashion Capital of the World, The Drinkable City
44. Cairo – Paris of the Nile
45. Buenos Aires – Paris of the Americas, Queen of the Plata
46. Ushuaia – The End of the World
47. Melbourne – City by the Bay, Bleak City, Europe of Australia
48. Sydney – The Harbour City
50. Sao Paulo – Brazil’s Locomotive, Land of Drizzle, Sampa
51. Dubrovnik – The Pearl of the Adriatic
52. Helsinki – The White City of the North
53. Bordeaux – City of Wine
54. Nice – Angels City
55. Berlin – The Grey City
56. Jaipur – The Pink City
57. Oslo – Tiger Town
58. Warsaw – Default City, Big Village in the Middle of Nowhere
59. St Petersburg – The Mind of Russia
60. Madrid – El Foro, The Forum
61. Athens – The City of Violet Crown
62. Dallas – Big D
63. Hong Kong – Pearl of the Orient
64. Munich – World City with Heart
65. Birmingham – The City of a Thousand Trades, Brum
66. Lisbon – City With a Future
67. The Hague – City of Peace and Justice
68. Calcutta – City of Palaces, City of Love, City of Joy
69. Beijing – The Forbidden City
70. Adelaide – City of Churches
71. Zagreb – Little Vienna
72. Bruges – Venice of the North
73. Marseille – Phocean City
74. Tel Aviv – The City that Never Stops
75. Bolzano – The Door to the Dolomites, The German One
76. Sanremo – The City of Dreams
77. Tivoli – City of Delights
78. Vicenza – City of Gold
79. Kuala Lumpur – Golden Triangle
80. Cuernavaca – The City of Eternal Spring
81. Tijuana – Television Capital of the World
82. Rotterdam – Manhattan upon Meuse
83. Lima – City of the Kings
84. Manila – City by the Bay
85. Porto – The Invincible City
86. Cadiz – The Little Silver Cup
87. Bilbao – El Bocho
88. Zurich – Little Big City
89. Kiev – The Mother of Rus’ Cities
90. Honolulu – Sheltered Bay
92. Wroclaw – City of Hundred Bridges
93. Beirut – Paris of the Middle East
94. Udine – Capital of the Great War
95. Ancona – Doric City
96. Tehran – The City of 72 Nations
97. Bangalore – The City of Gardens
98. Leipzig – Bimbo Town
99. Split – The Diocletian’s City
100. Grenoble – Capital of the Alps
Do you know other cities’ nicknames?
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| Sydney |
An important Biafran army base in the 1967-70 conflict then known as the Biafran War, in which African country is Lake Oguta? | Let’s get smoking: How to get American barbecue right | Hospitality Magazine
Let’s get smoking: How to get American barbecue right
Let’s get smoking: How to get American barbecue right
2 September, 2014
Business confidence highest since 2010
Australian barbecue is undergoing an evolution, with leading chefs putting the spotlight firmly on quality meat and traditional techniques from the States.
Barbecue can translate to anything from an informal outdoor sausage sizzle, to Korean Gogigui, Argentinian Asado and Brazilian Churrasco, the main difference being the cooking time, the cuts of meat used and the type of heat applied. But the style that has taken Australia's culinary scene by storm in recent times is the North American method of barbecue: low and slow.
Hospitality magazine recently caught up with a number of movers and shakers in the North American/Australian barbecue scene to discover what exactly is involved and what it takes to get it right.
The North American low and slow method is steeped in tradition and varies considerably from state to state, but according to Michigan-born Dan McGuirt of Sydney’s Jazz City Milk Bar and Jazz City BBQ, there are five key components that never change.
“The first one is the cuts of meat that we barbecue,” McGuirt told Hospitality. “Beef ribs, pork ribs, beef brisket, pork shoulder, whole pigs, whole hogs, those are traditional cuts of meat that we barbecue - so nothing like the lamb chops and chicken skewers that you would find on an Australian barbecue.
“Second is the method. American barbecue is what we call the low and slow style of cooking. Low means low temperature, so that’s about 120 degrees Celsius and for a long period of time. Brisket takes 10-12 hours, pork shoulder can take 12 hours and ribs can take up to five hours.
“Third, we cook with a lot of smoke. There is a big smoke component to this style of cooking and we cook over charcoal, hickory, mesquite wood and pecan woods - the type and quality of the wood is very important.
“The other component of American barbecue is the dry rub. So we don’t necessarily do a wet marinade, we traditionally use a dry rub on the meat before we barbecue it, and then the last component is the sauces. They can be spicy sauce, smoky sauce, tomato-based sauce or a mustard-based sauce. In Carolina and Alabama, they do a white barbecue sauce which is made with mayonnaise. Some places serve the sauces on the meat and others put the sauce on the side, it is very region specific,” McGuirt says
Keeping it classic
McGuirt says that Jazz City BBQ is based on Southern American/Texas style barbecue featuring the likes of chopped brisket and pulled pork sandwiches, beef brisket, sausage and pork ribs - all complemented with traditional sides including potato salad, pinto beans and coleslaw.
One of the core reasons that McGuirt decided to open Jazz City BBQ was to break away from the overdone clichés of American diner-style fast food, and introduce people to the traditional food of the South which is not the cheap and cheerful fare that many of us associate with North American cuisine.
“You have to have quality meat, you have to have quality equipment and then you have to know how to use them to get the flavours and the textures that you’re after,” says McGuirt.
“At Jazz City BBQ, we are cooking the foods that I grew up eating and cooking with recipes that my mother had that were passed onto her from her mother, so there’s very traditional flavour combinations and profiles. Whereas a lot of places here, they’re doing their interpretation of it and then putting in on the menu. Ours is more authentic, more true to what you would get in America, so I think that is the big difference.”
When it comes to traditional North American barbecue, McGuirt says that the right equipment is key and that in order to replicate the Stateside offering, he needed to import a North American commercial smoker.
“The smokers from the States are a lot better because they have been doing that style of cooking for a much longer period of time,” he says. “In America, you won’t see a gas grill or a gas barbecue. In the states we cook everything with charcoal or wood… the long and slow method of cooking with smoke goes back a long, long time.”
Texan barbecue from Jazz City BBQ
Learn from the best
Dan Hong, one of the Merivale group’s executive chefs, flew over to the States to learn all about American barbecue before the opening of Papi Chulo, the group’s take on a traditional North American smokehouse, located in Sydney's Manly.
“Patrick Freisen (head chef at Papi Chulo) and I went to Nashville and Memphis to research the barbecue style there,” says Hong. “Barbecue is a whole other technique in America. It’s not just about putting something on the grill, it’s about low and slow cooking, having the right temperature of the fire and getting enough smoke into your meat. It’s really serious over there and that’s what we try and bring into our food at Papi Chulo.”
In contrast to McGuirt, Hong said that he found the Australian-made smokers to be more in-line with Papi Chulo’s needs.
“In the beginning it was hard to find the right equipment because we wanted this sort of American-style smoker where there is no control over the heat - we really wanted to start with an old school barbecue. But when we were looking for barbecues, or machines like pits to smoke with, we found one which is really convenient as it steams, roasts and smokes at the same time.
“So the smoker we went with is actually made in Australia and it’s from a company called Smo-King. They make a lot of smokers for butchers who make their own sausages and smoked frankfurts and stuff like that. They make their own machines and they also import the American ones, but we thought the Australian machines were a lot better actually, and also they’re huge - we’ve got two machines and each machine can smoke around 15 briskets.”
When it comes to creating American style-barbecue and Southern fare in Australia, Hong says that it’s important to benchmark what you’re cooking against traditional dishes.
“A lot of guys are doing this style of food and they’ve never really gone to have the real thing in America. A lot of places are doing burgers and stuff as well and they are just not doing a good burger because they don’t actually know what a good burger is - and it's the same with barbecue. A lot of these places are doing barbecue but they haven’t been to the West or the deep South in America, or any places on the barbecue belt, so they don’t really know the difference.”
In addition to knowledge of the cuisine and sourcing the right equipment, Hong says that the quality of the produce and how chefs approach a dish is another key point that sets Papi Chulo apart from the crowd.
“Obviously we use really good quality meat to start with, which is very important. Our pork is Kurobuta pork which is the black Berkshire sort of breed, and the beef we use is Ranges Valley Wagyu. So we start with a really good product and then it depends on which method we’re doing. With the pork belly, we do it in maple syrup and black pepper which is inspired by Patrick’s Canadian roots, and then we have our own dry rubs for certain meats like the ribs and the brisket.”
Papi Chulo's BBQ platter
Traditional American meets modern Australian
Another North American native, Canadian Eli Challenger from Bondi haunt Fat Rupert’s together with the venue’s co-owner, Aaron Pearce, have a vision to reinvent the traditional Australian barbecue by taking inspiration from the many different styles found in North America and marrying them with Modern Australian cuisine.
The pair won the second season of IconPark - a hospitality crowdfunding competition - based on this vision and will operate Rupert and Ruby at the IconPark venue until the end of the year.
“Eli kind of highlighted for me just how big barbecue is over in America,” says Pearce. “When Aussies hear the word 'barbecue' they think of throwing meat around on a barbie, but over there, they have million dollar competitions where people devote their whole life to it.”
“People spend the whole year in competition teams,” adds Challenger. “Barbecue is like a national sport.”
Starting his career at 15, Challenger has worked in a host of kitchens ranging from Irish pubs and Creole seafood restaurants in North America, to stints at some of Australia’s most famed venues including Sydney’s Porteño.
Despite his wide-ranging culinary resume, Challenger says that barbecue is where his passion lies and that communicating the difference between North American and Australian barbecue can sometimes be difficult.
“It can be a bit of an uphill struggle, but it’s not like people are unreceptive to it… You kind of explain that it’s not really like a sausage sizzle and that it’s all about smoking brisket and pork shoulder and those sorts of things. Once you explain that, people and really responsive to it - especially once you get it in front of them and they eat it; they go nuts for it.”
Aaron Pearce, Eli Challenger and Ruby Challenger of Rupert and Ruby
In keeping with the pair's vision to define American/Sydney barbecue, Challenger says he has needed to adapt a number of traditional recipes in order to cater to the local palate.
“What I found so far is that over in the States, we go heavy of the corn syrup and sugar, they really love sweet barbecue in a lot of places in the States - aside from West Texas where they go real peppery - but I found over here, if you barbecue with less sugar and more spices and really bring a lot more of the spice and smoke profile out of meat, that is what people are really going for,” says Challenger.
“I think the cool thing as well is that over in the States, barbecue has become so old and because it is so steeped in heritage, there are very specific cuts and types of meat that you have to cook with and particular techniques that you need to use - those are the things that are judged in the competitions.
“But because it’s so young over here, a lot of young interesting chefs can play around with lamb and kangaroo and all sorts of stuff that they don’t do over in the States, so you can kind of define a different regional style over here, which is great,” he says.
“I think over the next 12 months you’ll really see the evolution of the Australian-style barbecue,” adds Pearce. “You’ll see people playing around with it and doing some really new and different things.”
Like McGuirt and Hong, Challenger says the quality of the meat is at the heart of his culinary style, and something that sets his venue part from the sea of American-style diners in Australia.
“I’m all about ethically raised and organic meat and I’m very selective. I mean you can see the difference and of course you can taste it. You can just look at two cuts and you know one is better because it has a different colour, better marbling and it tastes better,” he says.
“We get some really nice beef from Inverell NSW, and the pork comes from this really lovely couple down in South Australia that have been raising Berkshire pigs for years. So you really need good quality meat, but you also need good quality wood as well - what you use to smoke with is really important. I mean you could take two shoulders off the same animal, smoke one in hickory and one in apple and you are going to have a wildly different end product.”
When it comes to equipment, Challenger says that he too decided opt for an American smoker.
“We brought our smoker over from Kansas and we actually got the first ever Yoder smoker imported into Australia, which is a competition grade smoker from the States.
“Grillpro just took a shipment of another 32 of them from the States and they were all sold before they got here, which I guess is a testament to the growing barbecue movement,” says Pearce. “It’s only going to get bigger.”
| i don't know |
Suomi is the local name for which European country? | Finland - Republic of Finland - Country Profile - Suomi - Republiken Finland - Northern Europe
Flag of Finland
Background:
Ruled by Sweden from the 12th to the 19th centuries and by Russia from 1809, Finland finally won its independence in 1917.
During World War II, it was able to successfully defend its freedom and fend off invasions by the Soviet Union and Germany. In the subsequent half century, the Finns have made a remarkable transformation from a farm/forest economy to a diversified modern industrial economy; per capita income is now on par with Western Europe. As a member of the European Union, Finland was the only Nordic state to join the euro system at its initiation in January 1999.
(Source: CIA - The World Factbook)
border countries: Norway , Sweden , Russia , maritime border with Estonia
| Finland |
The Attan, a Pashtun ethnic dance, is the national dance of which country? | Finland travel guide - Wikitravel
Time Zone
UTC +2
Finland (Finnish: Suomi, Swedish: Finland) is in Northern Europe and has borders with Russia to the east, Norway to the north, and Sweden to the west.
Finland is a thoroughly modern welfare state with well-planned and comfortable small towns and cities, but still offers vast areas of unspoiled nature. Finland has approximately 188,000 lakes (about 10% of the country) and a similar number of islands. In the northernmost part of the country the Northern Lights can be seen in the winter and midnight sun in the summer. Finns also claim the mythical mountain of Korvatunturi as the home of Santa Claus, and a burgeoning tourist industry in Lapland caters to Santa fans.
Despite living in one of the most technologically developed countries in the world, Finns love to head to their summer cottages in the warmer months to enjoy all manner of relaxing pastimes including sauna, swimming, fishing and barbecuing. Today, Finland has a distinctive language and culture that sets it apart from the rest of Nordic Europe.
History[ edit ]
Saint Olaf's Castle, the world's northernmost medieval castle, built in Savonlinna by Sweden in 1475
Not much is known about Finland's early history, with archaeologists still debating when and where a tribe of Finno-Ugric speakers cropped up. Roman historian Tacitus mentions a tribe primitive and savage Fenni in 100AD and even the Vikings chose not to settle, trading and plundering along the coasts.
In the mid-1150s Sweden started out to conquer and Christianize the Finnish pagans in earnest, with Birger Jarl incorporating most of the country into Sweden in 1249. Finland stayed an integral part of Sweden until the 19th century, although there was near-constant warfare with Russia on the eastern border and two brief occupations. After Sweden's final disastrous defeat in the Finnish War of 1808-1809, Finland became in 1809 an autonomous grand duchy under Russian rule.
Russian rule alternated between tolerance and repression and there was already a significant independence movement when Russia plunged into revolutionary chaos in 1917. Parliament seized the chance and declared independence in December, quickly gaining Soviet assent, but the country promptly plunged into a brief but bitter civil war between the conservative Whites and the socialist Reds, eventually won by the Whites.
During World War II, Finland was attacked by the Soviet Union in the Winter War, but fought them to a standstill that saw the USSR conquer 12% of Finnish territory. Finland then allied with Germany in an unsuccessful attempt to repel the Soviets and regain the lost territory, was defeated and, as a condition for peace, had to turn against Germany instead. Thus Finland fought three separate wars during World War II. In the end, Finland lost much of Karelia and Finland's second city Vyborg , but Soviets paid a heavy price for them with over 300,000 dead.
After the war, Finland lay in the grey zone between the Western countries and the Soviet Union. The Finno-Soviet Pact of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance committed Finland to resist armed attacks by "Germany or its allies" (read: the West), but also allowed Finland to stay neutral in the Cold War and avoid a Communist government or Warsaw Pact membership. In politics, there was a tendency of avoiding any policies and statements that could be interpreted as anti-Soviet. This balancing act of Finlandization was humorously defined as "the art of bowing to the East without mooning the West". Despite close relations with the Soviet Union, Finland managed to retain democratic multi-party elections and remained a Western European market economy, building close ties with its Nordic neighbours. While there were some tense moments, Finland pulled it off: in the subsequent half century, the country made a remarkable transformation from a farm/forest economy to a diversified modern industrial economy featuring high-tech giants like Nokia, and per capita income is now in the top 15 of the world.
After the implosion of the USSR, Finland joined the European Union in 1995, and was the only Nordic state to join the euro system at its initiation in January 1999.
Geography[ edit ]
Unlike craggy Norway and Sweden, Finland consists mostly of low, flat to rolling plains interspersed with lakes and low hills, with mountains (of a sort) only in the extreme north, while Finland's highest point, Fell Halti, rises only to a modest 1,328m. Finland has 187,888 lakes according to the Geological Survey of Finland, making the moniker Land of a Thousand Lakes actually an underestimation. Along the coast and in the lakes are—according to another estimate—179,584 islands, making the country an excellent boating destination as well.
Finland is not located on the Scandinavian peninsula, so despite many cultural and historical links, it is technically not a part of Scandinavia. Even Finns rarely bother to make the distinction, but a more correct term that includes Finland is the "Nordic countries" (Pohjoismaat). Still, the capital, Helsinki, has a lot of Scandinavian features, especially when it comes to the architecture of the downtown, and another Scandinavian language, Swedish, is one of the two official languages of the country.
See also Winter in Scandinavia .
Finland has a cold but temperate climate, which is actually comparatively mild for the latitude because of the moderating influence of the Gulf Stream. Winter, however, is just as dark as everywhere in these latitudes, and temperatures can (very rarely) reach -30°C in the south and even dip below -40°C in the north. The brief Finnish summer is considerably more pleasant, with temperatures around 20-23°C on sunny days (rarely closer to 30°C), and is generally the best time of year to visit. July is the warmest month. Early spring (March-April) is when the snow starts to melt and Finns like to head north for skiing and winter sports, while the transition from fall to winter in October-December — wet and dark— is the least pleasant time to visit. The southern coast where Helsinki and Turku are located is not really a winter destination, because there is no guarantee of snow even in January or February.
Due to the extreme latitude, northern parts of Finland experiences the famous Midnight Sun near the summer solstice, when (if above the Arctic Circle) the sun never sets during the night and even in southern Finland it never really gets dark. The flip side of the coin is the Arctic Night (kaamos) in the winter, when the sun never comes up at all in the North. In the South, daylight is limited to a few pitiful hours with the sun just barely climbing over the trees before it heads down again.
Culture[ edit ]
Väinämöinen defending the Sampo, by Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1896)
Buffeted by its neighbours for centuries and absorbing influences from west, east and south, Finnish culture as a distinct identity was only born in the 19th century: "we are not Swedes, and we do not wish to become Russian, so let us be Finns."
The Finnish founding myth and national epic is the Kalevala, a collection of old Karelian stories and poems collated in 1835 that recounts the creation of the world and the adventures of Väinämöinen, a shamanistic hero with magical powers. Kalevalan themes such as the Sampo, a mythical cornucopia, have been a major inspiration for Finnish artists, and figures, scenes, and concepts from the epic continue to colour their works.
While one of the essential preconditions for having full civil rights in the land of Finland used to be a membership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church (in which most Catholic traditions have been preserved, doctrines are pronouncedly Christocentric and still formally based on the Book of Concord only), Finland's constitution has guaranteed full freedom of religion since 1923. Today, the everyday observance of the great majority is lax at best or virtually non-existent (even among some of the ministry) and the membership of the Lutheran church has been in a sharp decline since the 1960's. Consequently, tourists and visitors do wisely by exercising a certain tact and being conscious of the fact that topics concerning religious practice and personal faith are considered a strictly private matter by most Finns. There is every likelihood that faith-related questions are found either intrusive or baffling in most cases. Politics and religion are differentiated in the Finnish debate to the extent that any participant is expected not to highlight their personal beliefs.
Finns share most virtues and downsides of their Scandinavian neighbours. These include uncompromising work ethic and an inclusive notion of equality. It became the second country after New Zealand that granted the universal suffrage. (Note: this is a common misconception. Finland was in 1907 the first country to grant women full eligibility to the Parliament, Norway in 1917 and New Zealand as late as 1919.)
Likewise, Finland is regularly top-ranked in the list of the least corrupted countries of Transparency International. By courtesy of its internationally vaunted tuitionless education system as well as comprehensive public health care and welfare system, Finland has acquired a worldwide reputation for one of the most advanced countries in the world. Meanwhile, the country is plagued by similar problems peculiar to Nordic welfare states that include the homogeneity of the ageing population and comparatively high rates of alcoholism, depression, social exclusion and suicide. However, the distinctive character of the Finns is often summed up with the word sisu, a mixture of admirable perseverance and pig-headed stubbornness in the face of adversity.
The foundation of the Finnish music culture and music education has been built mainly on the life work of a classical composer Jean Sibelius whose symphonies are regularly played by the most esteemed symphony orchestras of the world and whose name is borne by Sibelius Academy, Finland's top music institution. Composers of the modern classical music (Kaija Saariaho, Magnus Lindberg, Esa-Pekka Salonen etc.) and the Finnish electronic music (Pan Sonic, Darude, Rinneradio, Jimi Tenor, Jori Hulkkonen etc.) are held in great reverence among experts and enthusiasts. Additionally, some Finnish mainstream heavy metal and pop (Children of Bodom, Nightwish, HIM, The Rasmus, Bomfunk MC) have garnered global acclaim. Conspicuous metal band Lordi known for its latex monster outfit became an international sensation overnight by winning Eurovision Song Contest in 2006.
In the other arts, Finland has produced noted architect and designer Alvar Aalto, authors Mika Waltari (The Egyptian), Väinö Linna (The Unknown Soldier) and Tove Jansson (The Moomins) and painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela, known for his Kalevala illustrations.
-plats
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Finland has a 5.5% Swedish-speaking minority and is officially a bilingual country, so maps nearly always bear both Finnish and Swedish names for, e.g., cities and towns. For example, Turku and Åbo are the same city, even though the names differ totally. Roads can be especially confusing: what first appears on a map to be a road that changes its name is, in most cases, one road with two names. This is common in the Swedish-speaking areas on the southern and western coasts, whereas inland Swedish names are far less common. In anywhere outside bilingual areas and the far north Lapland of Finland you'll never see Swedish, and a bilingual sign is extremely rare; you will, occasionally, see signage in Sámi instead. Google Maps, in particular, seems to select the language randomly, even though the Swedish names are extremely rarely used in practice in most places.
Holidays[ edit ]
Finns aren't typically very hot on big public carnivals; most holidays are spent at home with family. The most notable exception is Vappu on 1 May, as thousands of people (mostly the young ones) fill the streets. Important holidays and similar happenings include:
New Year's Day (Uudenvuodenpäivä), 1 January.
Epiphany (Loppiainen), 6 January.
Easter (Pääsiäinen), variable dates, Good Friday and Easter Monday are public holidays. Tied to this are laskiainen 40 days before Easter, nominally a holy day that kicks off the Lent, practically a time for children and university students to go sliding down snowy slopes, and Ascension Day (helatorstai) 40 days after, just another day for the shops to be closed.
Walpurgis Night or more often Vappu, 1 May, although festivities start the day before (Vappuaatto). A spring festival that coincides with May Day. Originally a pagan tradition that coincides with the more recent workers' celebration, it has become a giant festival for students, who wear colourful signature overalls and roam the streets. Many people also use their white student caps between 18:00 on 30 April and the end of 1 May. The following day, people gather to nurse their hangovers at open-air picnics, even if it's raining sleet.
Midsummer Festival (Juhannus), the Saturday in the period 20-26 June. Held to celebrate the summer solstice, with plenty of bonfires, drinking and general merrymaking. Cities become almost empty as people rush to their summer cottages. It might be a good idea to visit one of the bigger cities just for the eerie feeling of an empty city.
Independence Day (Itsenäisyyspäivä), 6 December. A fairly sombre celebration of Finland's independence from Russia. The President holds a ball for the important people (e.g. MPs, diplomats, and merited Finnish sportspeople and artists).
Little Christmas (Pikkujoulu), people go pub crawling with their workmates throughout December. Not an official holiday, just a Viking-strength version of an office Christmas party.
Christmas (Joulu), 24-26 December. The biggest holiday of the year, when pretty much everything closes for three days. Santa (Joulupukki) comes on Christmas Eve on 24 December, ham is eaten and everyone goes to sauna.
New Year's Eve (Uudenvuodenaatto), 31 December. Fireworks time!
Typical vacation time is in July, unlike elsewhere in Europe, where it is in August. People generally start their summer holidays around Midsummer. During these days, cities are likely to be less populated, as Finns head for their summer cottages. Schoolchildren start their summer holidays in the beginning of June.
Åland
an autonomous and monolingually Swedish group of islands off the southwestern coast of Finland
While a convenient and unambiguous bureaucratic division, the provinces — now formally known as Regional State Administrative Agencies — do not really correspond to geographical or cultural boundaries very well. Other terms you may hear include Tavastia (Häme), covering a large area of central Finland around Tampere, and Karelia (Karjala) to the far east, the bulk of which was lost to the Soviet Union in World War II (still a sore topic in some circles). In 2010, Western Finland was formally split into "Western and Inner Finland" (for Tampere and the coast near Vaasa ) and "Southwest Finland" (the area near Turku ).
Cities and towns[ edit ]
Get in[ edit ]
Finland is a member of the Schengen Agreement .
There are no border controls between countries that have signed and implemented this treaty - the European Union (except Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland, Romania and the United Kingdom), Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. Likewise, a visa granted for any Schengen member is valid in all other countries that have signed and implemented the treaty. But be careful: not all EU members have signed the Schengen treaty, and not all Schengen members are part of the European Union. This means that there may be spot customs checks but no immigration checks (travelling within Schengen but to/from a non-EU country) or you may have to clear immigration but not customs (travelling within the EU but to/from a non-Schengen country).
Please see the article Travel in the Schengen Zone for more information about how the scheme works and what entry requirements are.
By plane[ edit ]
Finland's main international hub is Helsinki-Vantaa Airport near Helsinki . Finnair , and Flybe Nordic are based there. Around 30 foreign airlines fly to Helsinki-Vantaa.
Ryanair 's Finland hubs are Tampere in central Finland and Lappeenranta in the east near the Russian border, while Wizz Air is decreasing its hub at Turku in the southwest. Other airlines have limited regional services to other cities, mostly just to Sweden, and, in the winter high season, occasional direct charters (especially in December) and seasonal scheduled flights (Dec-Mar) to Lapland .
Air Baltic connects many provincial Finnish towns conveniently to Europe via Riga . It may also be worth your while to get a cheap flight to Tallinn and follow the boat instructions below to get to Finland.
Starting in early 2011, Norwegian Air Shuttle established Helsinki as one of its bases, and now offers both domestic and international flights.
By train[ edit ]
VR [2] and Russian Railways jointly operate services between Saint Petersburg and Helsinki, stopping at Vyborg , Kouvola and Lahti along the way. The line was upgraded in 2010 and the slick new Allegro-branded trains glide between the two cities in three and a half hours at up to 220km/h. Currently the route is served four times per day, returning to two daily from November 2011. This is certainly the most expensive method of getting to Helsinki from Saint Petersburg, with prices of €92 during summer and €84 rest of the year for a one-way ticket. However, tickets for the first train in the morning, which departures at 6:12 am, can be bought for a price as low as €39 in the summer months. There is also a traditional slow overnight sleeper from Moscow , which takes around 15 hours.
There are no direct trains between Sweden or Norway and Finland (the rail gauge is different), but the bus over the gap from Boden / Luleå (Sweden) to Kemi (Finland) is free with an Eurail / Inter Rail pass, and you can also get a 50% discount from most ferries with these passes.
By bus[ edit ]
Buses are the cheapest but also the slowest and least comfortable way of travelling between Russia and Finland.
Regular scheduled buses run between St. Petersburg , Vyborg and major southern Finnish towns like Helsinki , Lappeenranta , Jyväskylä and all the way west to Turku , check Matkahuolto for schedules. Helsinki-St. Petersburg is served three times daily, costs €38 and takes 9 hours during the day, 8 hours at night.
Various direct minibuses run between St. Petersburg's Oktyabrskaya Hotel (opp Moskovsky train station) and Helsinki's Tennispalatsi (Eteläinen Rautatiekatu 8, one block away from Kamppi). At €15 one-way, this is the cheapest option, but the minibuses leave only when full. Departures from Helsinki are most frequent in the morning (around 10:00), while departures from St. Petersburg usually overnight (around 22:00).
You can also use a bus from Sweden or Norway to Finland.
Haparanda in Norrbotnia area of Sweden has bus connections to Tornio , Kemi and Oulu . See more from Matkahuolto .
Eskelisen Lapinlinjat offers bus connections from northern parts of Norway, for example Tromsø . See more from Eskelisen Lapinlinjat .
By boat[ edit ]
Inside a Silja passenger ferry
One of the best ways to travel to and from Finland is by sea. The boats to Estonia and Sweden , in particular, are giant, multi-story floating palaces and department stores, with cheap prices subsidized by sales of tax-free booze: a return trip to Tallinn including a cabin for up to four people can go as low as €50. If travelling by Inter Rail , you can get 50% off deck fares. The best way to arrive in Helsinki is standing on the outside deck with a view ahead.
Estonia and the Baltic states[ edit ]
Helsinki and Tallinn are only 80km apart. Viking line , Eckerö line and Tallink Silja operate full-service car ferries all year round. Depending on the ferry type travel times are from slightly over two hours (Viking Line and Tallink Silja's Star, Superstar and Superfasts) to three and a half hours (Eckerö and Tallink Silja's biggest cruise ships). Some services travel overnight and park outside the harbor until morning. Linda Line offers fast services that complete the trip in 1.5 hours, but charge quite a bit more, have comparatively little to entertain you on board and suspend services in bad weather and during the winter. If the weather is looking dodgy and you're prone to sea sickness, it's best to opt for the big slow boats.
There is an additional ferry connection between Hanko and Paldiski , operated by NaviRail .
There are no scheduled services to Latvia or Lithuania , but some of the operators above offer semi-regular cruises in the summer, with Riga being the most popular destination.
Germany[ edit ]
Finnlines [3] operates from Helsinki to Travemünde (near Lübeck and Hamburg ) and from Helsinki to Rostock . Helsinki-Travemünde trip takes about 27 hours while Helsinki-Rostock takes about 34 hours. The Travemünde line is run by fast and large Star-class ships while a single, significantly smaller Hansa-class ship operates in the Rostock line. The latter is considered to be more luxurious and comfortable even though the trip takes much longer.
Russia[ edit ]
For years scheduled ferry services to Russia have been stop-and-go. Starting in April 2010 St Peter Line offers regular ferry service from Saint Petersburg to Helsinki for as low as €30 one way. Kristina Cruises also offers occasional cruises from Helsinki .
Sweden[ edit ]
Silja Serenade leaving Helsinki
Both Silja and Viking offer overnight cruises from Helsinki and overnight as well as daytime cruises from Turku to Stockholm , usually stopping in the Åland islands along the way. These are some of the largest and most luxurious passenger ferries in the world, with as many as 14 floors and a whole slew of restaurants, bars, discos, pool and spa facilities, etc. The cheaper cabin classes below the car decks are rather spartan, but the higher sea view cabins can be very nice indeed.
Note that, due to crowds of rowdy youngsters aiming to get thoroughly hammered on cheap tax-free booze, both Silja and Viking do not allow unaccompanied youth under 23 to cruise on Fridays or Saturdays. (The age limit is 20 on other nights, and only 18 for travellers not on same-day-return cruise packages.) In addition, Silja does not offer deck class on its overnight services, while Viking does.
Note also that with Viking Line it often is cheaper to book a cruise instead of "route traffic". The cruise includes both ways with one day in between. If you want to stay longer you simply do not go back - it might still be cheaper than booking a one-way "route traffic" ticket. This accounts especially to last minute tickets (you could, e.g., get from Stockholm to Turku for around €10 overnight - "route traffic" would be over €30 for a cabin with lower quality).
In addition to the big two, FinnLink offers the cheapest car ferry connection of all from Naantali to Kapellskär (from €60 for a car with driver).
Car ferries usually stop for a few minutes at Mariehamn in the Åland Islands , which are outside the EU tax area and thus allow the ferries to operate duty-free sales.
Between Vaasa and Umeå there is a ferry operated by Wasaline .
By car[ edit ]
Finland has a comprehensive road network that connects and runs through all of the major cities. Driving through Finland during anytime of the year is a treat with winding roads and gentle hills framed by pine and birch forests with agricultural farm lands here and there. Summertime evening drives with the midnight sun providing gentle light are particularly scenic and enjoyable. During summer months road repairs are in full swing so some minor delays may be experienced. Road patrol cameras are utilized extensively to monitor traffic and enforce speed limits.
Sweden[ edit ]
As mentioned above, one of the easiest ways to get by car from Sweden to Finland is a car ferry. The European Route E12 (Finnish national highway 3) includes a ferry line between Umeå and Vaasa . Another route that includes a car ferry is E18, from Stockholm to Turku.
Norway[ edit ]
European Routes E8 and E75 connect Finland and Norway. There are border crossings at Kilpisjärvi , Kivilompolo , Karigasniemi , Utsjoki , Nuorgam and Näätämö .
Russia[ edit ]
European route E18, as Russian route M10, goes from St. Petersburg via Vyborg to Vaalimaa/Torfyanovka border station near Hamina . From there, E18 continues as Finnish national highway 7 to Helsinki, and from there, along the coast as highway 1 to Turku. In Vaalimaa, trucks will have to wait in a persistent truck queue. This queue does not directly affect other vehicles. There are border control and customs checks in Vaalimaa and passports and Schengen visas if applicable will be needed.
From south to north, other border crossings can be found at Nuijamaa/Brusnichnoye ( Lappeenranta ), Vaalimaa/Torfyanovka, Imatra/Svetogorsk, Niirala ( Tohmajärvi ), Vartius ( Kuhmo ) Kelloselkä ( Salla ) and Raja-Jooseppi ( Sodankylä ). All except the first are very remote.
Estonia[ edit ]
As mentioned above, there is a car ferry between Tallinn and Helsinki. It forms a part of European route E67 Via Baltica that runs from the Estonian capital Tallinn, crosses Riga in Latvia and Kaunas in Lithuania to the Polish capital Warsaw . The distance from Tallinn to Warsaw is about 970km, not including any detours.
Get around[ edit ]
The Finnish rail network (passenger lines in green)
Finland's a large country and travelling is relatively expensive. Public transportation is well organized and the equipment is always comfortable and often new, and advance bookings are rarely necessary outside the biggest holiday periods. The domestic Journey Planner offers an useful website with integrated timetables for all trains, buses and planes including inter-city and local transport.
If you need information about an address in Finland, you can find it through Jokapaikka.fi (an free local area information search engine). It has Google translate included for non locals.
By plane[ edit ]
Flights are the fastest but generally also the most expensive way of getting around. Finnair and some smaller airlines operate regional flights from Helsinki to all over the country, including Kuopio , Pori , Rovaniemi and Ivalo . It's worth booking in advance if possible: on the Helsinki - Oulu sector, the country's busiest, a fully flexible return economy ticket costs a whopping €251 but an advance-purchase non-changeable one-way ticket can go as low as €39, less than a train ticket. You may also be able to get discounted domestic tickets if you fly into Finland on Finnair. Another possibility is Air Baltic which also flies the sector Turku-Oulu for very competitive prices, far less than the train. Additionally, in 2011 Norwegian Air Shuttle started flying from Helsinki to Oulu and Rovaniemi. A shuttle bus (Finnair city bus) operates between Helsinki-Vantaa airport and Helsinki central railway station in approx. 20 minute intervals (30 min trip duration, €6.30); bus line 615 (at day)/620 (at night) is a slightly cheaper alternative (36 minute trip duration, €5 day, €7 night, 10/2015 prices). There is also train connection at the airport and it takes you in 45 minutes (access to the new train terminal will be opened late 2015 and travel time will be approx. 35 minutes. There's a free shuttle bus to nearest train station at the moment) to Helsinki central railway station. Prices are €5 day, €7 night. Check out Helsinki Region transport journey planner for timetables and other information.
There are three major airlines selling domestic flights:
Finnair , the national flagship airline. Serves nearly all of the country, with some flights operated by their subsidiary Nordic Regional Airlines .
Norwegian flies to the cities in the north, such as Rovaniemi, Oulu, Ivalo, and Kittilä.
In addition, BASe Airlines and Air100 fill in a few gaps.
By train[ edit ]
A Pendolino train, the fastest in VR's fleet (220 km/h)
VR [4] (Finnish Railways) operates the fairly extensive railroad network. The train is the method of choice for travel from Helsinki to Tampere , Turku and Lahti , with departures at least once per hour and faster speeds than the bus. The following classes of service are available, with example prices and durations for the popular Helsinki - Tampere service in parenthesis.
Pendolino tilting trains (code S), the fastest option (€32, 1:26)
InterCity (IC) and InterCity2 (IC2) express trains, with IC surcharge (€26.9, 1:46)
Ordinary express (pikajuna, P), with express surcharge, only slow night trains for this connection (€24.6, 2:12-2:16)
Local and regional trains (lähiliikennejuna, lähijuna or taajamajuna), no surcharge, quite slow (€21, 2:03)
The trains are generally very comfortable, especially the express services. Pendolino and IC trains have restaurant cars, family cars (IC only, with a playpen for children) and power sockets; Pendolinos and Intercity/IC2 trains even offer free (though often very slow) Wi-Fi connectivity. Additional surcharges apply for travel in first class, branded "Business" on some trains, which gets you more spacious seating, newspapers and possibly a snack.
Overnight sleepers are available for long-haul routes and very good value at €11/21/43 for a bed in a three/two/one-bed compartment, but one-bed compartments are only available in first class.
One child under 7 can travel for free with each fare-paying adult, and seniors over 65 years old and students with Finnish student ID (ISIC cards etc not accepted) get 50% off. Groups of 3 or more get 15% off.
Finland participates in the Inter Rail and Eurail systems. Residents of Europe can buy InterRail Finland passes offering 3-8 days of unlimited travel in one month for €109-229 (adult 2nd class), while the Eurail Finland pass for non-residents is €178-320 for 3-10 days. VR's own Holiday Pass (LomaPassi), at €145 for 3 days including up to 4 free seat reservations, is available to all but only valid in summer. You would have to travel a lot to make any of these pay off though; by comparison, a full-fare InterCity return ticket across the entire country from Helsinki to Rovaniemi and back is €162.
Generally, the trains are most crowded at the beginning and end of the weekend, and that means Friday and Sunday evening. Shortly before and at the end of major holidays like Christmas/New Year and Easter, trains are usually very busy. If you try booking for these days at a late time, you may find the seat you reserve may be among the least desirable, that is, facing backwards, without recline, and facing towards and sharing the legroom with other passengers.
While VR's trains may be slick, harsh winter conditions and underinvestment in maintenance mean that delayed trains are not uncommon, with the fancy Pendolinos particularly prone to breaking down. As in the rest of the EU, you'll get a 25% refund if the train is 1-2 hours late and 50% if more.
By bus[ edit ]
Matkahuolto [5] offers long-distance coach connections to practically all parts of Finland. Bus is also the only way to travel in Lapland, since the rail network doesn't extend to the extreme north.
Buses are generally slightly higher priced than trains, although on routes with direct train competition they can be cheaper. Speeds are usually slower than trains, sometimes very slow (from Helsinki to Oulu), sometimes even faster (from Helsinki to Kotka and Pori). On many routes, though, buses are more frequent, so you may still get to your destination faster than if you wait for the next train.
Unlike the trains, student discounts are available also for foreign students by showing a valid ISIC card at Matkahuolto offices (in every bus station) and getting a Matkahuolto student discount card (€5). There is also BusPass travel pass from Matkahuolto [6] , which offers unlimited travel in specified time, priced at €149 for 7 days and €249 for 14 days.
Onnibus [7] offers a cheaper alternative (ticket prices beginning from €3 on all routes when bought online) for long-distance coaches on routes Helsinki–Turku, Helsinki–Tampere, Tampere–Pori and beginning from the autumn 2012 also Turku–Tampere–Jyväskylä and Jyväskylä–Oulu. Note that the routes in Tampere don't serve the city centre (with exception the Pori route) but instead stop in Hervanta (10km south of city centre), which will be Onnibus' "bus terminal" serving as an interchange station between different routes.
Local transport networks are well-developed in Greater Helsinki, Tampere and Turku. In smaller cities public transport networks are usable on weekdays, but sparse on weekends and during the summer. There are easy-to-use high-tech English route planners with maps to find out how to use local bus services provided by national bus provider Matkahuolto [8] .
Demand responsive transport[ edit ]
Demand responsive transport (DRT) is a form of public transport, in which the routes are determined based on the customers' needs. You can find the zones where DRT services are available by using the map or address search services [9] .
By ferry[ edit ]
In summertime, lake cruises are a great way to see the scenery of Finland, although most of them only do circular sightseeing loops and aren't thus particularly useful for getting from point A to point B. Most cruise ships carry 100-200 passengers (book ahead on weekends!), and many are historical steam boats. Popular routes include Turku - Naantali and various routes in and around Saimaa .
By car[ edit ]
Moose on the loose
The use of sand instead of potassium formate and salt leads to a dirty environment. In Spring, the breathing air is often polluted by dust and thus can result in respiratory malfunctions. Sörnäinen, Helsinki.
Car rental is possible in Finland but generally expensive, with rates generally upwards of €80/day, although rates go down for longer rentals. Foreign-registered cars can only be used in Finland for a limited time and registering it locally involves paying a substantial tax to equalize the price to Finnish levels. If you opt to buy a car in Finland instead, make sure it has all annual taxes paid and when its next annual inspection is due: the deadline is the same day as the car's first date of use unless the registration form says 00.00.xx in first date of use. In that case the inspection date is determined by the last number of the license plate. All cars must pass emissions testing and precise tests of brakes etc. Police may remove the plates of vehicles that have not passed their annual inspections in time and give you a fine.
Traffic drives on the right, and there are no road tolls in Finnish cities or highways so far. Roads are well maintained and extensive, although expressways are limited to the south of the country. Note that headlights or daytime running lights must be kept on at all times when driving, in and outside cities, whether it's dark or not. Drivers must stay very alert, particularly at dawn and dusk, for wild animals. Collisions with moose (frequently lethal) are common countrywide, deer (mostly survivable) cause numerous collisions in South and South West parts of the country, and semi-domesticated reindeer are a common cause of accidents in Lapland . Bear collisions happen sometimes in eastern parts of the country. VR's overnight car carrier trains [10] are popular for skipping the long slog from Helsinki up to Lapland and getting a good night's sleep instead: a Helsinki - Rovaniemi trip (one way) with car and cabin for 1-3 people starts from €215.
A few unusual or unobvious rules to beware of:
Headlights are mandatory even during daylight.
Always give way to the right, unless signed otherwise. There is no concept of minor and major road, so this applies even to smaller road on your right. Almost all intersections are explicitly signposted with yield signs (either the stop sign or an inverted triangle). There is no explicit sign on the road that has priority, instead watch out for the back of the yield sign on the other road.
Signs use the following shorthand: white numbers are for weekdays (eg. "8-16" means 08:00-16:00), white numbers in parentheses apply on Saturdays and red numbers on Sundays and holidays.
In Helsinki, trams always have the right of way. Collisions do a "surprising amount of damage". Don't get into arguments with a vehicle that can't change direction and weighs as much as a small battle tank.
A vehicle is required by law to stop at a zebra crossing, if at least one other car has stopped, regardless of whether or not there is a pedestrian (in a similar manner as if there were a stop sign).
A car is obliged to stop at a zebra crossing, if the pedestrian intends to cross the road. Many pedestrians intend to cross the road only when there is a sufficiently large gap in the traffic.
When crossing the road as a pedestrian at a zebra crossing, do not leave a shadow of a doubt that you will cross the road, and cars will stop. With some practice, this works out smoothly, efficiently and without taking undue risks. By default, drivers will assume that the pedestrian "does not intend to cross the road right now", in other words, cars will not stop.
A car horn may only be used to prevent a collision or a similar hazardous situation. Using the horn for other purposes such as expressing frustration in surrounding traffic is unlawful and quite strongly frowned upon.
Circular traffic can be rather complex. For example, in one spot, two new lanes are created while the outer lane is suddenly forced to exit. This creates a difficult situation, when the lines are covered by snow.
Pedestrians walking on unlighted roads without sidewalk or cycle tracks in the dark are required by law to use safety reflectors. Their use is generally recommended, since the visibility of pedestrians with reflector improves greatly.
Winter driving can be somewhat hazardous, especially for drivers unused to cold weather conditions. Winter tires (M+S) are mandatory from 1 December through the end of February. The most dangerous weather is in fact around the zero degree mark (C), when slippery but near-invisible black ice forms on the roads. Finnish cars often come equipped with an engine block heater (lohkolämmitin) used to preheat the engine and possibly the interior of the car beforehand, and many parking places have electric outlets to feed them. Liikenneturva, the Finnish road safety agency, maintains a Tips for winter driving page [11] in English. Note that especially in the Helsinki area, the majority of cars are equipped with steel-studded tires that allow more dynamic driving and shorter braking distances on frozen surfaces than conventional traction tires (M+S), as used in other European countries.
Finnish speeding tickets are based on your income, so be careful: a Nokia VP who'd cashed in some stock options the previous year was once hit for US$204,000! Fortunately, the police have no access to tax records outside Finland and will just fine non-residents a flat €100-200 instead. Speed limits are 50 km/h in towns, 80-100 km/h outside towns and usually 120 km/h on freeways. From around mid-october to april, speedlimits on freeways are lowered to 100 km/h and most 100 km/h limits are lowered to 80 km/h.
Software for GPS navigators that warns of fixed safety cameras is legal and installed by default in many mobile phones. Warning signs before fixed cameras are required by law.
A blood alcohol level of over 0.05% is considered drunk driving and 0.12% as aggrevated drunk driving, so think twice before drinking that second beer. Finnish police strictly enforce this by random roadblocks and sobriety tests.
If you are driving at night when the gas stations are closed (they usually close at 9 PM), always remember to bring some money for gas. Automated gas pumps in Finland in rare occasions do not accept foreign visa/credit cards, but you can pay with Euro notes. In the sparsely-populated areas of the country, distances of 50 km and more between gas stations are not unheard of, so don't gamble unnecessarily with those last litres of fuel.
If you come in your own car, note that all petrol in Finland contains ethanol. If your car should not be run on ethanol-containing petrol or you are unsure use the 98 octane petrol. This contains residual ethanol from the pump station up to a maximum of 5% and can be used in all cars that run on petrol.
By taxi[ edit ]
Finnish taxis are heavily regulated by the government, so they're comfortable, safe and expensive. No matter where you go in the country, the starting fee is fixed at €5.90, rising up to €9.00 at night and on Sundays. The per-kilometer charge starts at €1.52/km for 1 or 2 passengers, rising up to €2,13/km for 7 or 8 passenger minivans. A 20-25 km journey (say, airport to central Helsinki) can thus easily cost €40-50.
Taxis can come in any color or shape, but they will always have a yellow "TAXI" sign (sometimes spelled "TAKSI") on the roof. Hailing cabs off the street is difficult to impossible, so either find a taxi rank or order by phone (any pub or restaurant will help you on this, expect to pay 2 euros for the call). Taxi companies around the country can be found at the Taksiliitto [12] site.
In the Helsinki city center, long lines at the taxi stops can be expected on Friday and Saturday nights. It is not uncommon to share a taxi with strangers if going towards the same general direction.
Using of unofficial "taxis" is illegal and to be avoided. You might lose your wallet/purse/phone, despite Helsinki being maybe one of the safest capitals in Europe.
The Uber service is illegal in Finland and the driver may face a notable penalty. If you decide to use Uber and your driver gets caught by the police, you're on your own.
By thumb[ edit ]
Hitchhiking is possible, albeit unusual, in Finland, as the harsh climate and sparse traffic don't exactly encourage standing around and waiting for cars. The most difficult task is getting out of Helsinki . Summer offers long light hours, but in the fall/spring you should plan your time. The highway between Helsinki and Saint Petersburg has a very high percentage of Russian drivers. See Hitchhiking Club Finland liftari.org [13] or the Finland article [14] on Hitchwiki for further details if interested.
By bicycle[ edit ]
Most Finnish cities have good bike paths especially outside the centres, and taking a bike can be a quick, healthy and environmentally friendly method of getting around locally.
The roads are generally paved well, although gravel roads are sometimes unavoidable. As long as you don't go off-road, you will not need suspension or grooved tyres.
Because of the long distances, bicycle tourists are advised to plan well and be prepared to use public transport for the less interesting stretches. Long-distance coaches are well-equipped to take bicycles on board, trains take bicycles if there is enough space. Ferries take bikes for free or for a small fee.
Due to the relatively gentle topographic relief, too hilly terrain is rarely a problem, but in the cold months, windchill requires more protection against cold than in walking.
See also: Finnish phrasebook
Finnish language map. Finnish is a Official Language (dark blue) and Finnish spoken by a minority (aruba blue)
Finland is officially bilingual in Finnish (spoken by 90% of the population) and Swedish (spoken by 5,6 of the population), and both languages are compulsory in all schools, but in practice most of the population is monolingual in Finnish. Finnish is spoken everywhere in the country except Åland islands and Finnish is the main language of Finland. Finnish is not related to the Scandinavian languages (Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroese), Russian, or English. In fact, it is not even an Indo-European language, instead belonging in the Uralic group of languages which includes Hungarian and Estonian, making it hard for speakers of most other European languages to learn. Reading signboards can also be difficult as Finnish has relatively few loan words from common European languages, and as a result it is very hard to guess what words in Finnish mean.
Swedish is the mother tongue for 5.6% of Finns. There are no large towns with a Swedish majority, and the Swedish-speaking communities are mainly smaller rural communities along the Southwest coast. Many towns and road signs on the coast use alternate Finnish and Swedish names, so road signs can be confusing, but bilingual signs outside bilingual areas never appear. The small autonomous province of Åland and the municipalities of Närpes, Korsnäs and Larsmo are exclusively Swedish-speaking, and people there typically speak little or no Finnish at all, so English is a better bet. Swedish is a mandatory subject in Finnish-speaking schools (and Finnish in Swedish-speaking schools), so everyone is supposed to speak and understand it; in reality, though, only 41% of the Finnish-speaking population is conversant in it, and most of these people live in coastal areas and in predominantly Swedish-speaking areas. Even this varies: for example, in Helsinki and Turku most people can speak Swedish enough to deal with important conversations you engage in as a tourist and often somewhat beyond, but living would be impossible without knowledge of Finnish, whereas towns like Vaasa and Porvoo have significant Swedish-speaking minorities and are more genuinely bilingual (i.e. it would be possible to live there with Swedish only). Most hotels and restaurants, especially in areas where Swedish is widely spoken, do have some Swedish-proficient staff.
Russian is best understood near the Russian border, such as in Lappeenranta, Imatra and Joensuu, which are areas frequented by Russian tourists. Tourist destinations which are popular among Russians in Eastern and Northern Finland have some Russian-speaking staff. Elsewhere, knowledge of Russian is often far rarer.
In bigger towns, with the exception of the elderly, many people you would meet as a tourist speak good English, and even in the countryside younger people will nearly always know enough to communicate. In fact, outside of the Swedish-speaking communities, English is usually far better understood than Swedish. Conversely, within the Swedish-speaking communities, English is often better understood than Finnish. 73 % of the population in Finland can speak English. Don't hesitate to ask for help: Finns can be shy but will help you out in need. Besides English and Swedish, some Finns can speak German (18 %) or French (3 %), other secondary languages (Spanish, Russian) being rare.
Foreign TV series and movies are nearly always subtitled. Only children's fare gets dubbed into Finnish.
The grammar of Finnish language has relatively few exceptions but quite many rules (where some rules might be considered cleverly disguised exceptions). There are about 17 different cases for "getting some coffee and getting the coffee, going into a pub, being in a pub (or in a state of drunkenness), getting out of the pub, being on the roof, getting onto the roof, getting off the roof, using something as a roof" and so on that are encoded into the word endings. In written text, the plethora of cases makes it a challenging exercise to even look up a single word from the dictionary. The conjugation of verbs is unfortunately somewhat more complex.
Sunset with reflections on a lake in Finland.
A selection of top sights in Finland:
Central Helsinki , the Daughter of the Baltic, on a warm and sunny summer day
The Suomenlinna Sea Fortress, 15-minute ferry trip from Downtown Helsinki. A Unesco World Heritage Site.
The historical sites of Turku and the vast archipelago around it, best viewed from the deck of a giant car ferry.
Pottering around the picturesque wooden houses of Porvoo , Finland's second-oldest town
Renting a car and exploring the Lake Land of Eastern Finland, an area dotted with around 60 000 lakes with a similar number of islands, which in turn have their own lakes...
Olavinlinna Castle in Savonlinna , Finland's most atmospheric castle, especially during the yearly Opera Festival
Hämeenlinna Castle in Hämeenlinna is Finland's oldest castle. Built in 13th century.
Relaxing at a sauna-equipped cottage in the lake country of Eastern Finland
Icebreaker cruising and the world's biggest snow castle in Kemi
Seeing the Northern Lights and trying your hand sledding down a mile-long track at Saariselkä
A ride on the historical "Linnanmäki" wooden roller coaster (Helsinki). Unlike modern designs, only gravity keeps it on the track, and it requires a driver on each train to operate the brakes.
Sports[ edit ]
Notably lacking in craggy mountains or crenellated fjords, Finland is not the adrenalin-laden winter sports paradise you might expect: the traditional Finnish pastime is cross-country skiing through more or less flat terrain. If you're looking for downhill skiing, snowboarding etc, you'll need to head up to Lapland and resorts like Levi and Saariselkä .
During the short summer you can swim, fish or canoe in the lakes. They are usually warmest around 20th July. Local newspapers usually have the current surface temperatures, and a map of the surface temperatures can also be found from the Environment Ministry website [15] . During the warmest weeks, late at night or early in the morning the water can feel quite pleasant when the air temperature is lower than the water's. Most towns also have swimming halls with slightly warmer water, but these are often closed during the summer. Fishing permits, if needed, can be easily bought from any R-Kioski although they take a small surcharge for it.
For hikers, fishermen and hunters, the Ministry of Forestry maintains an online Excursion Map map [16] with trails and huts marked. The best season for hiking is early fall, after most mosquitoes have died off and the autumn colors have come out.
And if you'd like to try your hand at something uniquely Finnish, don't miss the plethora of bizarre sports contests in the summer, including:
Air Guitar World Championships [17] , August, Oulu .
Mobile Phone Throwing Championship [18] , August, Savonlinna . Recycle your Nokia!
Swamp Soccer World Championship [19] , July, Hyrynsalmi . Probably the messiest sporting event in the world.
Wife Carrying World Championship [20] , July, Sonkajärvi . The grand prize is the wife's weight in beer.
Sulkavan Suursoudut [21] , July, Sulkava Finland's biggest rowing event
Festivals[ edit ]
Finland hosts many music festivals (festari) during the summer. Some of the most notable include:
Provinssirock [22] One of the biggest rock festivals in Finland in the middle of June in Seinäjoki . [23] .
Tangomarkkinat [24] World's oldest tango festival. It is held early every July in Seinäjoki . [25]
Vauhtiajot [26] Motorsport and rock festival in July in Seinäjoki .
Nummirock [27] , heavy metal, Nummijärvi (near Kauhajoki ), late June (Midsummer)
Tuska Open Air [28] , heavy metal, Helsinki , late June
Sauna Open Air [29] , heavy metal, Tampere , early June
Ruisrock [30] , rock, Turku , July
Pori Jazz [31] , jazz/world music, Pori , mid-July
Flow [32] , indie/electronic/urban, Helsinki, mid-August
Most of the festivals last 2-4 days and are very well organized, with many different bands playing, with eg. Foo Fighters and Linkin Park headlining at Provinssi 2008. The normal full ticket (all days) price is about €60-100, which includes a camp site where you can sleep, eat and meet other festival guests. The atmosphere at festivals is great and probably you'll find new friends there. Of course drinking a lot of beer is a part of the experience.
There are also many more less-advertised underground festivals around the countryside every summer.
Northern Lights[ edit ]
Spotting the eerie Northern Lights (aurora borealis, or revontulet in Finnish) glowing in the sky is on the agenda of many visitors, but even in Finland it's not so easy. During the summer, it's light all day along and the aurora become invisible, and they're rarely seen in the south. The best place to spot them is during the winter in the far north, when the probability of occurrence is over 50% around the magnetic peak hour of 22:30 — if the sky is clear, that is. The ski resort of Saariselkä , easily accessible by plane and with plenty of facilities, is particularly popular among aurora hunters.
Buy[ edit ][ add listing ]
Finland has the euro (€) as its sole currency along with 24 other countries that use this common European money. These 24 countries are: Austria , Belgium , Cyprus , Estonia , Finland, France , Germany , Greece , Ireland , Italy , Latvia , Lithuania , Luxembourg , Malta , the Netherlands , Portugal , Slovakia , Slovenia and Spain (official euro members which are all European Union member states) as well as Andorra , Kosovo , Monaco , Montenegro , San Marino and the Vatican which use it without having a say in eurozone affairs and without being European Union members. Together, these countries have a population of more than 330 million.
One euro is divided into 100 cents. While each official euro member (as well as Monaco, San Marino and Vatican) issues its own coins with a unique obverse, the reverse, as well as all bank notes, look the same throughout the eurozone. Every coin is legal tender in any of the eurozone countries.
Finland does not use the 1 and 2 cent coins; instead all sums are rounded to the nearest 5 cents. The coins are, however, still legal tender and there are even small quantities of Finnish 1c and 2c coins, highly valued by collectors. It is common to omit cents and the euro sign from prices, and use the comma as a decimal separator: "5,50" thus means five euros and fifty cents.
Getting or exchanging money is rarely a problem, as ATMs ("Otto") are common and they can be operated with international credit and debit cards (Visa, Visa Electron, Mastercard, Maestro). Currencies other than the euro are generally not accepted, although the Swedish krona may be accepted in Åland and northern border towns like Tornio . Russian roubles are accepted in some select touristy shops, such as Stockmann in Helsinki. Money changers are common in the bigger cities (the Forex chain [33] is ubiquitous) and typically have longer opening hours and faster service than banks. Credit cards are widely accepted, and the payment is almost always accepted by your PIN code. Visa Electron and Visa Debit cardreaders are found in all major and most minor shops, so carrying large amounts of cash is not usually necessary.
As a rule, tipping is never necessary in Finland and restaurant bills already include service charges. That said, taxi fares and other bills paid by cash are are occasionally rounded up to the next convenient number. Cloakrooms (narikka) in nightclubs and better restaurants often have non-negotiable fees (usually clearly signposted, €3 is standard), and — in the few hotels that employ them — hotel porters will expect around the same per bag.
Costs[ edit ]
Declared the world's most expensive country in 1990, prices have since abated somewhat but are still steep by most standards. Rock-bottom traveling if staying in hostel dorms and self-catering costs at least €25/day and it's well worth doubling that amount. The cheapest hotels cost about €50 per night and more regular hotels closer to € 100. Instead of hotels or hostels, look for holiday cottages, especially when travelling in a group and off-season, you can find a full-equipped cottage for €10-15 per person a night. Camp-sites typically cost between €10 and €20 per tent.
Museums and tourist attractions have an entrance fee in the range of €5-25. Using public transport costs a few euros per day and depends on the city. One-way travel between major cities by train or by bus costs between €20 and €100, depending on the distance.
Note that a VAT of 24% is charged for nearly everything, but by law this must be included in the displayed price. Non-EU residents can get a tax refund for purchases above €40 at participating outlets, just look for the Tax-Free Shopping logo.
Shopping[ edit ]
As you might expect given the general price level, souvenir shopping in Finland isn't exactly cheap. Traditional buys include Finnish puukko knives, handwoven ryijy rugs and every conceivable part of a reindeer. For any Lappish handicrafts, look for the "Sámi Duodji" label that certifies it as authentic.
Popular brands for modern (or timeless) Finnish design include Marimekko [34] clothing, Iittala [35] glass, Arabia [36] ceramics, Kalevala Koru [37] jewelry, Pentik [38] interior design and, if you don't mind the shipping costs, Artek [39] furniture by renowned architect and designer Alvar Aalto. Kids and not a few adults love Moomin [40] characters, which fill up souvenir store shelves throughout the country. In case one prefers souvenirs that are made in Finland and do not just appear Finn Made, caution is advised. Many wooden products are actually imported and Marimekko, for instance, manufactures most of its products outside Finland. Safe bets for truly Finnish souvenirs are products made by Lapuan Kankurit [41] and Aarikka [42] , for example.
Grocery stores are rather common, and there is usually at least one supermarket in almost all localities. The range of products in Finnish grocery stores tends to be a little bit more limited than in neighboring countries (except perhaps in Norway). Many products need to be imported, and this unfortunately shows in the selection of goods and the pricing. It is not uncommon to see exactly the same product in different shops, at exactly the same price. Finnish food markets are mainly dominated by two large groups: S Group (supermarket chains Sale , Alepa , S-Market and hypermarket chain Prisma ), and K Group (supermarket chains K-Extra, K-Market, K-Supermarket and hypermarket chain K-Citymarket], while local market chains like Siwa, Valintatalo, Tarmo and M-Market covers lots of gaps where larger chains do not operate. In addition to these chains, international discount store chain Lidl operates around 150 stores in Finland, mainly in cities and towns with population over 5,000. It usually offers the cheapest prices, and product range is similar to the rest of Europe.
Previous restrictions on shopping hours were recently lifted, and now vary significantly by shop and location. For many smaller shops in large towns, normal weekday opening hours are around 08:00-22:00, but may be closed or have reduced hours during weekends. Larger shops and grocery stores in central locations are sometimes open later. Shopping hours for specialty stores, as well as shops in small towns and in the countryside, are often much shorter. Note that opening hours are often reduced considerably around national holidays, such as Christmas, Easter or Midsummer.
Convenience stores like the ubiquitous R-Kioski [43] tend to have longer hours, but are often closed when you most need them. Some shops in Central Helsinki are open 24/7 or until 22:00 every day of the year. If in desperate need of basic supplies, gas station convenience stores are usually open on weekends and until late at night. Most notable 24/7 Gas station-chains are "ABC" [44] and Shell [45] .
While shopkeepers may vehemently deny this to a foreigner, prices in smaller stores are by no means fixed. When buying hobby equipment, it is not uncommon to get 30 % discount (hint: Find the international price level from a web shop and print it out). The more specialized the goods, the higher the gap between Finnish and international prices, and mail order may save a lot of money. When a package is intercepted by customs (which is quite rate for physically small items), the buyer is notified and can pick it up from customs. VAT and possibly import duty are charged, bring a copy of the order that is then signed by the buyer and archived.
When buying consumer electronics, one should be aware that the shelf life of products can be rather long, especially if the shop isn't specialized in consumer electronics. There is a risk to buy an overpriced product that has already been discontinued by the manufacturer or replaced with a newer model.
Eat[ edit ][ add listing ]
A typical Finnish meal. Clockwise from bottom: warm smoked salmon, boiled potatoes, cream sauce with chantarelles, lightly pickled cucumbers with dill
Finnish cuisine is heavily influenced by its neighbors, the main staples being potatoes and bread with various fish and meat dishes on the side. Milk or cream is traditionally considered an important part of the diet and is often an ingredient in foods and a drink, even for adults. Various milk products such as cheeses are also produced. While traditional Finnish food is famously bland, the culinary revolution that followed joining the EU has seen a boom in classy restaurants experimenting with local ingredients, often with excellent results.
Seafood[ edit ]
With tens of thousands of lakes and a long coastline, fish is a Finnish staple, and there's a lot more on that menu than just salmon (lohi). Specialities include:
Baltic herring (silakka), a small, fatty and quite tasty fish available pickled, marinated, smoked, grilled and in countless other varieties
Gravlax ("graavilohi"), a pan-Scandinavian appetizer of raw salted salmon
Smoked salmon (savulohi), not just the cold, thinly sliced, semi-raw kind but also fully cooked "warm" smoked salmon
Vendace (muikku), a speciality in eastern Finland, a small fish served fried, heavily salted and typically with mashed potatoes
Other local fish to look out for include zander (kuha), an expensive delicacy, pike (hauki) and perch (ahven).
Milk products[ edit ]
Cheese and other milk products are very popular in Finland. The most common varieties are mild hard cheeses like Edam and Emmental, but local specialities include:
Aura cheese (aurajuusto), a local variety of blue cheese, also used in soups, sauces and as a pizza topping.
Breadcheese (leipäjuusto or juustoleipä), a type of very mild-flavored grilled curd that squeaks when you eat it, best enjoyed warm with a dab of cloudberry jam
Piimä, a type of buttermilk beverage, thick and sour
Viili, a gelatinous, stretchy and sour variant of yoghurt
Other dishes[ edit ]
Karelian pie (karjalanpiirakka), a signature Finnish pastry
Pea soup (hernekeitto), usually but not always with ham, traditionally eaten with a dab of mustard and served on Thursdays; just watch out for the flatulence!
Karelian pies (karjalanpiirakka), an oval 7 by 10 cm baked pastry, traditionally baked with rye flour, containing rice porridge or mashed potato, ideally eaten topped with butter and chopped egg (munavoi)
Porridge (puuro), usually made from oats (kaura), barley (ohra), rice (riisi) or rye (ruis) and most often served for breakfast
Bread[ edit ]
Bread (leipä) is served with every meal in Finland, and comes in a vast array of varieties. Rye bread is the most popular bread in Finland. Typically Finnish ones include:
hapankorppu, dry, crispy and slightly sour flatbread, occasionally sold overseas as "Finncrisp"
limppu, catch-all term for big loaves of fresh bread
näkkileipä, another type of dark, dried, crispy rye flatbread
ruisleipä (rye bread), can be up to 100% rye and much darker, heavier and chewier than American-style rye bread; unlike in Swedish tradition, Finnish rye bread is typically unsweetened and thus sour and even bitter.
rieska, unleavened bread made from wheat or potatoes, eaten fresh
Seasonal and regional specialities[ edit ]
Attack of the killer mushrooms
The false morel (korvasieni) has occasionally been dubbed the "Finnish fugu", as like the infamous Japanese pufferfish, an improperly prepared false morel can kill you. Fortunately, it's easily rendered safe by boiling (just don't breathe in the fumes!), and prepared mushrooms can be found in gourmet restaurants and even canned.
From the end of July until early September it's worthwhile to ask for crayfish (rapu) menus and prices at better restaurants. It's not cheap, you don't get full from the crayfish alone and there are many rituals involved, most of which involve large quantities of ice-cold vodka, but it should be tried at least once. Or try to sneak onto a corporate crayfish party guestlist, places are extremely coveted at some. Around Christmas, baked ham is the traditional star of the dinner table, with a constellation of casseroles around it.
There are also regional specialties, including Eastern Finland 's kalakukko (a type of giant fish pie) and Tampere 's infamous blood sausage (mustamakkara). Around Easter keep an eye out for mämmi, a type of brown sweet rye pudding which is eaten with cream and sugar. It looks famously unpleasant but actually tastes quite good.
Desserts[ edit ]
An assortment of pulla straight from the oven
For dessert or just as a snack, Finnish pastries abound and are often taken with coffee (see Drink ) after a meal. Look for cardamom coffee bread (pulla), a wide variety of tarts (torttu), and donuts (munkki). In summer, a wide range of fresh berries are available, including the delectable but expensive cloudberry (lakka), and berry products are available throughout the year as jam (hillo), soup (keitto) and a type of gooey clear pudding known as kiisseli.
Finnish chocolate is also rather good, with Fazer [46] products including their iconic Sininen ("Blue") bar exported around the world. A more Finnish speciality is licorice (lakritsi), particularly the strong, salty kind known as salmiakki, which gets its unique (and acquired) taste from ammonium chloride.
Places to eat[ edit ]
Cold fish buffet at Liekkilohi, Savonlinna
Finns tend to eat out only on special occasions, and restaurant prices are correspondingly expensive. The one exception is lunchtime, when thanks to a government-sponsored lunch coupon system company cafeterias and nearly every restaurant in town offers set lunches for around €8-9, usually consisting of a main course, salad bar, bread table and a drink. University cafeterias, many of which are open to all, are particularly cheap with meals in the €2-4 range for students, although without local student ID you will usually need to pay about €5-7. There are also public cafeterias in office / administration areas that are open only during lunch hours on working days. While not particularly stylish and sometimes hard to find, those usually offer high-quality buffet lunch at a reasonable price (typically €8.40 in 2011).
The cafe scene has quickly developed, especially since the 1990s and above all in Helsinki . The array of cakes and pastries is not perhaps as vast as in Central Europe , but the local special coffees (lattes, mochas etc.) are worth trying when it comes to the two big local coffee house chains: Wayne's Coffee (originated in Sweden) and Robert's Coffee (Finland). You can now also find Starbucks in Finland.
For dinner, you'll be limited to generic fast food (pizza, hamburgers, kebabs and such) in the €5-10 range, or you'll have to splurge over €20 for a meal in a "nice" restaurant. For eating on the move, look for grill kiosks (grilli), which serve sausages, hamburgers and other portable if not terribly health-conscious fare late into the night at reasonable prices. In addition to the usual hamburgers and hot dogs, look for meat pies (lihapiirakka), akin to a giant savoury doughnut stuffed with minced meat and your choice of sausage, fried eggs and condiments. Hesburger [47] is the local fast-food equivalent of McDonald's, with a similar menu. They have a "Finnish" interpretation of a few dishes, such as a sour-rye chicken sandwich. Of course most international fast food chains are present, especially McDonald's, which offers many of their sandwich buns substituted with a sour-rye bun on request.
The Finnish word for buffet is seisova pöytä ("standing table"), and while increasingly used to refer to all-you-can-eat Chinese or Italian restaurants, the traditional meaning is akin to Sweden's smörgåsbord: a good-sized selection of sandwiches, fish, meats and pastries. It's traditionally eaten in three rounds — first the fish, then the cold meats, and finally warm dishes — and it's usually the first that is the star of the show. Though expensive and not very common in a restaurant setting, if you are fortunate enough to be formally invited to a Finn's home, they will likely have prepared a spread for their guest, along with plenty of coffee. Breakfast at better hotels is also along these lines and it's easy to eat enough to cover lunch as well!
If you're really on a budget, you can save a considerable amount of money by self-catering. Ready-to-eat casseroles and other basic fare that can be quickly prepared in a microwave can be bought for a few euros in any supermarket. Note that you're usually expected to weigh and label any fruits or vegetables yourself (bag it, place it on the scale and press the numbered button. The correct number can be found from the price sign), and green signs mean possibly tastier but certainly more expensive organic (luomu) produce.
One should be aware that more often than not, cheap food contains disproportionate amounts of fat.
At restaurants, despite the high prices, portions tend to be quite small, at least when compared to USA and Canada , and even many European countries.
Dietary restrictions[ edit ]
Traditional Finnish cuisine relies heavily on meat and fish, but vegetarianism (kasvissyönti) is increasingly popular and well-understood, and will rarely pose a problem for travellers. Practically all restaurants offer vegetarian options, often marked with a "V" on menus.
Two ailments commonly found among Finns themselves are lactose intolerance (laktoosi-intoleranssi, inability to digest the milk sugar lactose) and coeliac disease (keliakia, inability to digest gluten). In restaurants, lactose-free selections are often tagged "L" (low-lactose products are sometimes called "Hyla" or marked with "VL"), while gluten-free options are marked with "G". However, hydrolyzed lactose (HYLA brand) milk or lactose-free milk drink for the lactose intolerant is widely available, which also means that a lactose-free dish is not necessarily milk-free. Allergies are quite common among Finnish people, too, so restaurant workers are usually quite knowledgeable on what goes into each dish and often it is possible to get the dish without certain ingredients if specified.
Kosher and halal food are rare in Finland and generally not available outside very limited speciality shops and restaurants catering to the tiny Jewish and Islamic communities. Watch out for minced meat dishes like meatballs, which very commonly use a mix of beef and pork. The Jewish Community of Helsinki [48] runs a small kosher deli in Helsinki , and there are Halal grocery stores and restaurants in some larger towns.
Drink[ edit ][ add listing ]
Thanks to its thousands of lakes, Finland has plenty of water supplies and tap water is always potable (In fact, never buy bottled water if you can get tap water!). The usual soft drinks and juices are widely available, but look out for a wide array of berry juices (marjamehu), especially in summer, as well as Pommac, an unusual soda made from (according to the label) "mixed fruits", which you'll either love or hate.
Coffee and tea[ edit ]
Finns are the world's heaviest coffee (kahvi) drinkers, averaging 3-4 cups per day. Most Finns drink it strong and black, but sugar and milk for coffee are always available and the more European variants such as espresso and cappuccino are becoming all the more common especially in the bigger cities. The biggest towns have had French-style fancy cafés for quite some time and modern competitors, like Wayne's or Robert's Coffee, are springing up in the mix. For a quick caffeine fix, you can just pop into any convenience store, which will pour you a cuppa for €2 or so. Tea hasn't quite caught on in quite the same way, although finding hot water and a bag of Lipton Yellow Label won't be a problem. For brewed tea, check out some of the finer downtown cafés or tea rooms.
Dairy[ edit ]
In Finland some people like to drink milk (maito) as an accompaniment to food at home or at the cafeteria at work or school. The most popular beverage is water, though. Another popular option is piimä, or buttermilk. Viili, a type of curd, acts like super-stretchy liquid bubble gum but is similar to plain yogurt in taste. It is traditionally eaten with cinnamon and sugar on top. Fermented dairy products help stabilize the digestion system, so if your system is upset, give them a try.
Alcohol[ edit ]
Chilling out at the Arctic Icebar, Helsinki
Alcohol is very expensive in Finland compared to most countries (though not to its Nordic neighbours Sweden and Norway ), although low-cost Estonia 's entry to the EU has forced the government to cut alcohol taxes a little. Still, a single beer will cost you closer to €4-5 in any bar or pub, or €1 and up in a supermarket. While beer and cider are available in any supermarket or convenience store (until 9 PM), the state monopoly Alko [49] is your sole choice for wine or anything stronger. The legal drinking age is 18 for milder drinks, while to buy hard liquor from Alko you need to be 20. ID is usually requested from all young-looking clients. Some restaurants have higher age requirements, up to 30 years, but these are their own policies and are not always followed, especially at more quiet times.
Surprisingly enough, the national drink is not Finlandia Vodka, but its local brand Koskenkorva [50] or Kossu in common speech. However, the two drinks are closely related: Kossu is 38% while Finlandia is 40%, and Kossu also has a small amount of added sugar, which makes the two drinks taste somewhat different. There are also many other vodkas (viina) on the market, most of which taste pretty much the same, but look out for Ström, "The Spirit of Santa", a Finnish attempt at a super-premium vodka.
A local speciality is Salmiakki-Kossu or Salmari, prepared by mixing in salty black salmiakki licorice, whose taste masks the alcohol behind it fearfully well. Add in some Fisherman's Friend menthol cough drops to get Fisu ("Fish") shots, which are even more lethal. In-the-know hipsters opt for Pantteri ("Panther"), which is half and half Salmari and Fisu. Other classic shots are Jaloviina (Jallu) cut brandy and Tervasnapsi "tar schnapps" with a distinctive smoke aroma.
Beer (olut or kalja) is also very popular, but Finnish beers are mostly nearly identical, mild lagers: common brands are Lapin Kulta, Karjala, Olvi, Koff and Karhu. Pay attention to the label when buying: beers branded "I" are inexpensive but has low alcohol content, while "III" and "IV" are stronger and more expensive. In normal shops you will not find any drinks with more than 4.7% alcohol. You may also encounter kotikalja (lit. "home beer"), a dark brown beer-like but very low-alcohol beverage. Imported beers are available in bigger grocery stores, most pubs and bars, and Czech beers in particular are popular and only slightly more expensive. In recent years, some microbreweries (Laitila, Stadin panimo, Nokian panimo etc.) have been gaining foothold with their domestic dark lagers, wheat beers and ales.
The latest trend is ciders (siideri). Most of these are artificially flavored sweet concoctions which are quite different from the English or French kinds, although the more authentic varieties are gaining market share. The ever-popular gin long drink or lonkero (lit. "tentacle"), a prebottled mix of gin and grapefruit soda, tastes better than it sounds and has the additional useful property of glowing under ultraviolet light. At up to 610 kcal/liter it also allows to skip dinner, leaving more time for drinking. Different variations of lonkero have become quite popular as well, for example karpalolonkero, which is made from gin and cranberry soda. Remember that most long drinks you buy from a supermarket are made by fermenting, and if you wan't to get real mixed drink you'll have to look for them in Alko.
During the winter don't miss glögi, a type of spiced mulled wine served with almonds and raisins which can easily be made at home. The bottled stuff in stores is usually alcohol free, although it was originally made of old wine and Finns will very often mix in some wine or spirits. In restaurants, glögi is served either alcohol-free, or with 2cl vodka added. Fresh, hot glögi can, for example, be found at the Helsinki Christmas market.
Quite a few unusual liquors (likööri) made from berries are available, although they're uniformly very sweet and usually served with dessert. Cloudberry liquor (lakkalikööri) is worth a short even if you don't like the berries fresh.
Homemade spirits: you have been warned! More common in rural areas, illegal and frequently distilled on modified water purification plants - which are subject to import control laws nowadays - anecdotical evidence suggests that those are occasionally played as a prank on unsuspecting foreigners. Note that "normal" alcohol slows the metabolism of poisonous methanol and thus acts as an antidote. Politely decline the offer, especially if still sober.
Finally, two traditional beverages worth looking for are mead (sima), an age-old wine-like brew made from brown sugar, lemon and yeast and consumed particularly around May's Vappu festival, and sahti, a type of unfiltered, usually very strong beer often flavored with juniper berries (an acquired taste).
Inside a Finnish sauna
Sauna
The sauna is perhaps Finland's most significant contribution to the world (and the world's vocabulary). The sauna is essentially a room heated to 70–120°C; according to an oft-quoted statistic this nation of 5 million has no less than 2 million saunas, in apartments, offices, summer cottages and even Parliament. In ancient times, saunas (being the cleanest places around) were the place to give birth and heal the sick, and the first building constructed when setting up a new household.
If invited to visit a Finnish home, you may be invited to bathe in the sauna as well — this is an honour and should be treated as such, although Finns do understand that foreigners may not be keen about the idea. Enter the sauna nude after taking a shower, as wearing a bathing suit or any other clothing is considered a bit of a faux pas, although if you are feeling shy, you can wrap yourself in a bath towel. (When there are guests, men and women usually bathe separately.) The temperature is regulated by throwing water onto the stove (kiuas): the resulting rush of heat, known as löyly, is considered the key to the sauna experience. Some sauna-goers also like to flagellate themselves with leafy branches of birch (vihta in western Finland, vasta in eastern Finland), which creates an enjoyable aroma and improves blood circulation.
Depending on the occasion, the temperature in a Finnish sauna may start quite hot and gradually cool down over the hours, especially in a wood-heated sauna. The lower benches are cooler, the corner that is the furthest away from the stove is usually the hottest place.
In work-related events, the actual decision-making frequently takes place in the sauna afterwards.
In "public" saunas (hotels, gyms and the like), it is customary to sit on a paper towel (don't forget to take it out when leaving). The environment is rather hostile towards germs, so there is no need to worry about catching a disease from the sweaty wooden bench. If the heat is too much, cup your hands in front of your mouth or move down to a lower level to catch your breath.
In winter, it is common to go for a swim in an ice hole in a nearby lake. The ground can be much colder than the water - use beach sandals or the like, if possible.
After you've had your fill of sauna, you can cool off by heading outside for a dip in the lake or, in winter, a roll in the snow — and then head back in for another round. Repeat this a few times, then cork open a cold beer, roast a sausage over a fire, and enjoy total relaxation Finnish style.
These days the most common type of sauna features an electrically heated stove, which is easy to control and maintain. In the countryside you can still find wood-fired saunas, but purists prefer the (now very rare) traditional chimneyless smoke saunas (savusauna), where the sauna is heated by filling it with hot smoke and then ventilated well before entering.
Anyone elderly or with a medical condition (especially high blood pressure) should consult their physician before using a sauna.
Accommodation in Finland is expensive, but many large hotels are cheaper during the weekends and summer. In addition to the usual international suspects, check out local chains Cumulus [51] , Scandic [52] , Finlandia [53] and Sokos [54] . The small but fast-growing Omena [55] chain offers cheap self-service hotels, where you book online and get a keycode for your room, with no check-in of any kind needed.
One of the few ways to limit the damage is to stay in youth hostels (retkeilymaja), as the Finnish Youth Hostel Association [56] has a fairly comprehensive network throughout the country and and a dorm bed usually costs less than €20 per night. Many hostels also have private rooms for as little as €30, which are a great deal if you want a little extra privacy.
An even cheaper option is to take advantage of Finland's right to access , or Every Man's Right (jokamiehenoikeus), which allows camping, hiking, and berry and mushroom picking as well as simple (rod and hook) fishing on uncultivated land. Since this is occasionally mis-interpreted by visiting foreigners, it may be a good idea to discuss travel plans with a local - or simply ask - to avoid embarrassing situations. Note that making a fire requires landowner's permission.
For a taste of the Finnish countryside, an excellent option is to stay at a cottage (mökki), thousands of which dot the lake shores. These are generally best in summer, but there are also many cottages around Lapland's ski resorts. Prices vary widely based on facilities and location: simple cottages can go for as little as €20/night, while luxurious multistory mansions can go for 10 times that. Beware that, while all but the most basic ones will have electricity, it's very common for cottages to lack running water: instead, the cottage will have an outhouse (pit toilet) and you're expected to bathe in the sauna and lake. Renting a car is practically obligatory since there are unlikely to be any facilities (shops, restaurants, etc) within walking distance. The largest cottage rental services are Lomarengas [57] and Nettimökki [58] , both of which have English interfaces.
Virtually every lodging in Finland includes a sauna (see box) for guests — don't miss it! Check operating hours though, as they're often only heated in the evenings and there may be separate shifts of men and women.
Learn[ edit ]
Finland's universities are generally well-regarded and offer many exchange programs, but the high cost of living and the prospect of facing the long, cold Finnish winter mean that the country is not a particularly popular choice. However, there are no tuition fees for regular degree students, including international exchange students. While lectures are usually conducted in Finnish, most universities offer the option to complete all courses through assignments and exams in English. Many universities also offer the option to study Finnish at various levels.
A reasonable monthly budget (excluding rent) would be €600 to €900. Rents vary depending on location such that in Greater Helsinki and particularly Helsinki proper prices may be two times that of cheaper locations or student housing. Many exchange programs fully or partly subsidize accommodation in student dorms. However, the state does not provide student accommodation and dorms are usually owned by student unions and foundations. Student union membership at around €70-100/year is obligatory, but this includes free access to student health services.
EU citizens can simply enter the country and register as a student after arrival, while students from elsewhere will need to arrange their residence permit beforehand. CIMO [59] (Centre for International Mobility) administers exchange programs and can arrange scholarships and traineeships in Finland, while the Finnish National Board of Education [60] offers basic information about study opportunities.
Work[ edit ]
There is little informal work to be found and most jobs require at least a remedial level of Finnish. Citizens of European Union countries can work freely in Finland, but acquiring a work permit from outside the EU means doing battle with the infamous Directorate of Immigration (Maahanmuuttovirasto) [61] . However, students permitted to study full-time in Finland are allowed work part-time (up to 25 h/week) or even full-time during holiday periods.
For jobs, you might want to check out the Ministry of Labour [62] . Most of the posted jobs are described in Finnish so you may need some help in translation, but some jobs are in English.
A rapidly growing trend in Finland, especially for the younger generation, is to work for placement agencies. Although there has been a massive surge of public companies going private in the last ten years, this trend seems to be fueled by the increased demand for more flexible work schedules as well as the freedom to work seasonally or sporadically. Due to the nature of these types of agencies as well as the types of work they provide, it is common for them to hire non-Finns. Some agencies include Adecco, Staff Point, Manpower, Aaltovoima and Biisoni.
If you are invited to a job interview, remember that modesty is a virtue in Finland. Finns appreciate facts and directness, so stay on topic and be truthful. Exaggeration and bragging is usually associated with lying. You can check expected salaries with the union for your field, as they usually have defined minimum wages. Salaries range from €1,200 - €6,500 per month (2010).
Crime[ edit ]
Finland enjoys a comparatively low crime rate and is, generally, a very safe place to travel. Use common sense at night, particularly on Friday and Saturday when the youth of Finland hit the streets to get drunk and in some unfortunate cases look for trouble. The easiest way to get beaten is to pay a visit at a grill kiosk after bars and pubs have closed and start arguing with drunken people. It is, anyway statistically more likely that your home country is less safe than Finland, so heed whatever warnings you would do in your own country and you will have no worries. If you yourself run in with the law, remember that Finland is one of the world's least corrupt countries and you will not be able to buy yourself out of trouble. Finnish police never requires a cash payment of fines which it gives. Do not ever give money to person who presents him/herself as a police officer. An obvious way to stay out of most kinds of trouble is to stay sober and act businesslike, when dealing with police, security or the like.
Racism is a generally of minor concern, especially in the cosmopolitan major cities, but there have been a few rare but highly publicized incidents of black, romani & Arab people getting beaten up, attacks against immigrants and group fights with native Finns & immigrants. Sometimes there might be group fights where immigrants do their part as well, but that's very uncommon. The average visitor, though, is highly unlikely to encounter any problems.
Pickpockets are rare, but not unheard of, especially in the busy tourist months in the summer and almost always done by foreigners. Most Finns carry their wallets in their pockets or purses and feel quite safe while doing it. Parents often leave their sleeping babies in a baby carriage on the street while visiting a shop, and in the countryside cars and house doors are often left unlocked. On the other hand, you have to be careful if you buy or rent a bicycle. Bicycle thieves are everywhere, never leave your bike unlocked even for a minute.
In case of emergency[ edit ]
112 is the national phone number for all emergency services, including police, and it does not require an area code, regardless of what kind of phone you're using. The number works on any mobile phone, whether it is keylocked or not, and with or without a SIM card. If a cellphone challenges you with a PIN code, you can simply type in 112 as a PIN code - most phones will give a choice to call the number. This is not possible with all phones!
For inquiries about poisons or toxins (from mushrooms, plants, medicine or other chemicals) call the national Toxin Information Office at (09) 471 977.
At sea, the maritime search and rescue number is 0294 1000.
apua!
help!
You're unlikely to have stomach troubles in Finland, since tap water is always drinkable (and generally quite tasty as well), and hygiene standards in restaurants are strict. If you have any sort of allergies, many restaurants often display in the menu the most common ingredients that people typically are allergic to. Examples: (L) = Lactose free, (VL) = Low Lactose, (G) = Gluten free, if you are unsure just ask the waitress or restaurant staff.
There are few serious health risks in Finland. Your primary enemy especially in wintertime will be the cold, particularly if trekking in Lapland. Finland is a sparsely populated country and, if heading out into the wilderness, it is imperative that you register your travel plans with somebody who can inform rescue services if you fail to return. Always keep your mobile phone with you if you run into trouble. Dress warmly in layers and bring along a good pair of sunglasses to prevent snow blindness, especially in the spring and if you plan to spend whole days outdoors. Always keep a map, a compass and preferably a GPS with you while trekking in the wilderness. Take extra precautions in Lapland, where it can be several days' hike to the nearest house or road. Weather can change rapidly, and even though the sun is shining now, you can have a medium sized blizzard on your hands (no joke!) an hour or two later.
If out on the lakes and sea, remember that wind and water will cool you faster than cold air, and keeping dry means keeping warm. A person that falls into cold water (close to zero °C) can die in a few minutes. Safety in small boats: Don't drink alcohol, wear a life vest at all times, if your boat capsizes - keep clothes on to stay warm, cling to the boat if possible (swim only if shore is a few hundred meters away, never try to swim in cold water below 20°C).
Finland hosts a number of irritating insects, but if you are planning to stay in the centres of major cities, you are unlikely to encounter them. A serious nuisance in summer are mosquitoes (hyttynen), hordes of which inhabit Finland (particularly Lapland) in summer, especially after rains. While they carry no malaria or other nasty diseases, many species of Finnish mosquitoes make a distinctive (and highly irritating) whining sound while tracking their prey, and their bites are very itchy. As usual, mosquitoes are most active around dawn and sunset — which, in the land of the Midnight Sun, may mean most of the night in summer. There are many different types of mosquito repellants available which can be bought from almost any shop. Another summer nuisance are gadflies (paarma), whose bites can leave a mark lasting for days, even for month. A more recent introduction to Finnish summers are deer keds (hirvikärpänen), that can be particularly nasty if they manage to shed their wings and burrow into hair (although they rarely bite as humans are not their intended targets, and mainly exist in deep forests). Use repellent, ensure your tent has good mosquito netting and consider prophylaxis with cetirizine (brand names include Zyrtec, Heinix, Cetirizin Ratiopharm), an anti-allergen that (if taken in advance!) will neutralize your reaction to any bites. Topical anti-allergens in the form of gels and creams are also available as over-the-counter medication. A flea comb can be useful for removing deer keds. As in other European countries, mites can become a major annoyance, if walking bare-footed. As a remedy, Permethrin creme is available from pharmacies without prescription.
In southern Finland, especially Åland , the Lappeenranta - Parikkala - Imatra -axis and areas near Turku 's coast, there are ticks (punkki) which appear on summertime and can transmit Lyme's disease (borreliosis) and viral encephalitis through a bite. Although these incidents are relatively rare and not all ticks carry the disease, it's advisable to wear dark trousers rather than shorts if you plan to walk through dense and/or tall grass areas (the usual habitat for ticks). You can buy special tick tweezers from the pharmacy (punkkipihdit) which can be used to remove a tick safely if you happen to get bitten. You should remove the tick from your skin as quickly as possible and preferably with the tick tweezers to reduce the risks of getting an infection. If the tick bite starts to form red rings on the skin around it or if you experience other symptoms relating to the bite, you should visit a doctor as soon as possible.
The only venomous insects in Finland are wasps (ampiainen), bees (mehiläinen) and bumblebees (kimalainen). Their stings can be painful, but are not dangerous, unless you receive several stings or if you are allergic to it.
There's only one type of venomous snake in Finland, the European adder (kyy or kyykäärme), which has a distinct zig-zag type of figure on its back, although some of them are almost completely black.They are mostly found near lake sides and sometimes in the streets like Kristianinkatu and Kamppi.The snake occurs across Finland all the way from the south to up north in Lapland. Although their bites are extremely rarely fatal (except for small children and allergic persons), one should be careful in the summertime especially when walking in the forests or on open fields at the countryside. Walk so that you make the ground vibrate and snakes will go away, they attack people only when somebody frightens them. If you are bitten by a snake, always get medical assistance. If you are planning to travel in the nature on summertime, it's advisable to buy a kyypakkaus ("Adder pack", a medicine set which contains a couple of hydrocortisone pills). It can be bought from any Finnish pharmacy. It is used to reduce the reactions after an adder bite, however it's still advisable to see a doctor even after you've taken the hydrocortisone pills. The kyypakkaus can also be used to relieve the pain, swelling and other allergic reactions caused by bee stings. If you see an ant nest, ants have quite likely taken care of all snakes nearby.
As for other dangerous wildlife, there's not much more than a few extremely rare encounters with brown bears (karhu) and wolves (susi) in the wilderness. Both of these animals are listed as endangered species. Contrary to popular belief abroad, there are no polar bears in Finland, let alone polar bears walking on the city streets. The brown bear, which occurs across Finland, has been spotted on a few very exceptional occasions even in the edges of the largest Finnish cities, but normally bears try to avoid humans whenever possible. The brown bear hibernates during the winter. In the least densely populated areas near the Russian border, there has been some rare incidents of wolf attacks - mainly lone, hungry wolves attacking domestic animals and pets. During the past 100 years there has been one recorded case of a human killed by a large predator. In general, there's no need to worry about dangerous encounters with wild beasts in Finland, other than traffic accidents.
In winter, lakes and the sea are frozen. Walking, skating or even driving a car on the ice is commonly seen, but fatal accidents aren't unheard of either, so ask and heed local advice. If the ice fails, it is difficult to get back out of the water, as the ice will be slippery. Small ice picks are sold as safety equipment (a pair of steel needles with bright plastic grips, connected with a safety line).
Given the size of the Finnish population, a surprisingly high number of people drown in the lakes every year in summer. As pointed out by an annual public awareness campaign (partly Finnish black humor, partly the truth), the stereotypical accident involves an intoxicated fisherman who capsizes his boat while standing up to pee.
Respect[ edit ]
Fishing Finnish style
It was a beautiful summer day, and Virtanen and Lahtinen were in a little rowboat in the middle of a lake, fishing. Two hours passed, both men sitting quietly, and then Lahtinen said "Nice weather today." Virtanen grunted and stared intently at his fishing rod.
Two more hours passed. Lahtinen said, "Gee, the fish aren't biting today." Virtanen shot back: "That's because you talk too much."
Drinking Finnish style
Virtanen and Lahtinen decided to go drinking at their lakeside cottage. For a couple hours, both men sat silently and emptied their bottles. After a few more hours, Lahtinen decided to break the ice: "Isn't it nice to have some quality time?" Virtanen glared at Lahtinen and answered: "Are we here to drink or talk?"
Finns generally have a relaxed attitude towards manners and dressing up, and a visitor is unlikely to offend them by accident. Common sense is quite enough in most situations, but there are a couple of things that one should keep in mind:
Finns are a famously taciturn people who have little time for small talk or social niceties, so don't expect to hear phrases like "thank you" or "you're welcome" too often. The Finnish language lacks a specific word for "please" so Finns sometimes forget to use it when speaking English, even when they don't mean to be rude. Also lacking in Finnish is the distinction between "he" and "she", which may lead to confusing errors.
Occasional silence is considered a part of the conversation, not a sign of hostility or irritation. Being loud in crowded places like public transport or a restaurant is considered rude. If you ever ended up to argue with someone, the social norm is to stay calm during an argument. Arguing loudly with a stranger is considered very rude. Personal space is important, and standing very near someone can make Finns feel uncomfortable.
All that said, Finns are generally helpful and polite, and glad to help confused tourists if asked. The lack of niceties has more to do with the fact that in Finnish culture, honesty is highly regarded and that one should open one's mouth only to mean what one is about to say. Do not say "maybe later" when there is no later time to be expected. A visitor is unlikely to receive many compliments from Finns, but can be fairly sure that the compliments received are genuine. Especially younger Finns speak usually excellent English due to the policy of subtitling foreign language movies and TV series instead of dubbing them.
Another highly regarded virtue in Finland is punctuality. A visitor should apologize even for being a few minutes late. Being late for longer usually requires a short explanation. 10 min is usually considered the threshold between being "acceptably" late and very late. Some will leave arranged meeting points after 15 min. With the advent of mobile phones, sending a text message even if you are only a few minutes late is nowadays a norm. Being late for a business meeting, even by 1 or 2 min, is considered rude.
The standard greeting is a handshake. Hugs are only exchanged between family members and close friends in some situations, kisses, even on the cheek, practically never.
If you are invited to a Finnish home, the only bad mistake visitors can make is not to remove their shoes. For much of the year, shoes will carry a lot of snow or mud. Therefore, it is customary to remove them, even during the summer. During the wet season you can ask to put your shoes somewhere to dry during your stay. Very formal occasions at private homes, such as baptisms (often conducted at home in Finland) or somebody's 50th birthday party, are exceptions to these rules. In the wintertime, this sometimes means that the guests bring separate clean shoes and put them on while leaving outdoor shoes to the hall. Bringing gifts such as pastry, wine, or flowers to the host is appreciated, but not required.
In Finland, there is little in the way of a dress code. The general attire is casual and even in business meetings the attire is somewhat more relaxed than in some other countries. Topless sunbathing is accepted but not very common on beaches in the summer, while going au naturel is common in lakeside saunas and dedicated nudist beaches.
Even though it is unlikely that you'll seriously offend anybody, certain topics of discussion can sometimes be slightly sensitive. Despite its proximity to Russia, Finns generally don't prefer being called Eastern Europeans, but rather Nordics or North Europeans. Although once a part of the Russian Empire, Finland fought against the Soviet Union in WWII and has remained unaligned since the Cold War, and referring to Finland as belonging to the Russian sphere of influence most likely won't be appreciated. A majority of Finnish men still serve for some time in the Finnish armed forces, and expressing strong views on the military or on wartime history can sometimes stir up emotions. Also war veterans are highly respected in Finnish society.
Although jokes concerning Finland's rather high levels of depression, suicide and alcoholism may be common amongst both Finns and foreigners alike, it's nevertheless good to remember that these are serious social problems that affect many people and excessive humorous remarks may not always be received well.
By mail[ edit ]
Finland's mail service, run by Posti , is fast, reliable and pricy. A postcard to Finland and anywhere in the world costs €1.
By phone[ edit ]
Not many of these left
As you'd expect from Nokia's home country, mobile phones are ubiquitous in Finland. GSM, WCDMA(3G) and LTE (4G) networks blanket all of the country, although it's still possible to find wilderness areas with poor signal, typically in Lapland and the outer archipelago. The largest operators are Sonera [63] and Elisa [64] , a Vodafone partner, but travellers who want a local number may wish to opt for DNA's [65] Prepaid package, which can cost as little as €6. Ask at any convenience store/R-Kioski for a list of prices and special offers.
Public telephones are close to extinction in Finland, although a few can still be found at airports, major train/bus stations and the like. It's best to bring along a phone or buy one - a simple GSM model can cost less than €40.
By net[ edit ]
Internet cafes are sparse on the ground in this country where everybody logs on at home and in the office, but nearly every public library in the country has free Internet access, although you will often have to register for a time slot in advance or queue. Wifi hotspots are also increasingly common. Elisa offers prepaid internet access.
This is a guide article. It has a variety of good, quality information about the country, including links to places to visit, attractions, arrival and departure info. Plunge forward and help us make it a star !
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Diplopia is the medical term for which condition of the human body? | Definition of Diplopia
Our Double Vision Main Article provides a comprehensive look at the who, what, when and how of Double Vision
Definition of Diplopia
Diplopia: A condition in which a single object appears as two objects. Also known as double vision .
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| Diplopia |
Battement tendu, Grand écart, Entrechat, Hortensia, and Sissonne are terms in what art form? | Deciphering Diplopia - American Academy of Ophthalmology
Deciphering Diplopia
Download PDF
The symptom is diplopia. But what’s the diagnosis?
When your patient sees two images, you may need to consider 20 possible causes, and ruling out 19 of those can be a headache.
The various etiologies of diplopia comprise one of the most sweeping differential diagnoses in all of ophthalmology. The patient who complains of double vision can have something as benign as dry eye or as life-threatening as an intracranial tumor. The cause may be as rare as Wernicke encephalopathy or as common as convergence insufficiency. “It’s a huge differential diagnosis,” said Nurhan Torun, MD, director of the neuro-ophthalmology service at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an instructor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School in Boston. “Diplopia tends to be intimidating for many practitioners.”
Intimidation may even turn to dread. “When most ophthalmologists see a patient with a chief complaint of diplopia, they hate it,” said Michael S. Lee, MD, associate professor of ophthalmology, neurology and neurosurgery at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. “They often don’t know what to do with the patient.” What they do know, of course, is that the proper workup will take longer than a standard office visit.
A multidisciplinary monster. Eric Eggenberger, DO, professor of neurology at Michigan State University in East Lansing, noted that diplopia challenges neurologists as well. “Ophthalmologists are not as comfortable with it as they are with vision loss because many of the diagnoses are neurologic. And neurologists are not comfortable with it because they’re not trained in techniques to measure ocular alignment.” But the consequences of a delayed or incorrect diagnosis are not comfortable, either. “Most double vision is not dangerous. But some is super dangerous,” said Andrew G. Lee, MD. “You have to do a complete and thorough exam to look for the distinctive dangerous sign. That sign could suggest a life-threatening diagnosis. It’s a red flag,” he said. Dr. Lee is professor of ophthalmology, neurology and neurosurgery at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York as well as chairman of ophthalmology at The Methodist Hospital in Houston, adjunct professor of ophthalmology at the University of Iowa in Iowa City and clinical professor of ophthalmology at the University of Texas in Galveston.
The exam of a diplopic patient demands a meticulous history and the posing of questions pertinent to the disposition of double images in various positions of gaze: Is the diplopia monocular or binocular? Are the images horizontal or vertical? Answers to these may determine whether the pathology is neurological or mechanical—involving a nerve, an extraocular muscle or a neuromuscular junction.
Question: Monocular or Binocular?
The first step in cornering diplopia is to determine whether it is monocular or binocular, said Karl C. Golnik, MD, professor of ophthalmology, neurology and neurosurgery at the University of Cincinnati.
If it’s monocular, the patient sees double with only one eye open, and the extra image typically appears as a ghost, Dr. Golnik said. Causes of this include media or refractive problems, dry eye, warped cornea, cataract, unstable tear film, IOL decentrations, media opacities, the wrong glasses and even uveitis.
With binocular diplopia, however, the patient sees double only if both eyes are open. Cover either eye and the patient’s problem disappears—though the physician’s trouble may have just begun.
Surprisingly, many doctors assume the diplopia is binocular, without considering monocular, though the differential diagnosis is different for each, Dr. Golnik said. In fact, he explains to referring colleagues that he does not need to see patients with monocular double vision because they typically don’t require a neurological evaluation. “Once you’ve determined it’s monocular, your level of anxiety goes down and your diagnostic techniques switch.”
Dr. Michael Lee agreed. “It’s really reassuring if someone has monocular double vision,” he said, explaining that the cause must be within the eye itself.
Binocular Dangers
Binocular diplopia can be a cause for alarm. It may be a symptom of aneurysm, stroke, neoplasm, myasthenia gravis or trauma. Even certain infections, such as sinus disease with a fungal infection, can present with double vision, especially in an immune-compromised patient. “There are literally hundreds of potential diagnoses,” Dr. Eggenberger said, and many of them are life-threatening.
“Begin by localizing,” he said. “Once you’ve determined location you need to incorporate the patient’s age, demographics, history and other findings on exam to help with understanding the pathophysiology. This keeps you from jumping to conclusions.”
Dr. Torun added that an assessment of ocular motility will help narrow things down. “That requires a very careful exam of the misalignment in different positions of gaze and looking for restriction of motility in any position of gaze,” she said. “Unless we make a correct diagnosis of the underlying eye movement problem, our differential is not going to be appropriate.”
Dr. Golnik agreed. After the physician establishes binoc- ular diplopia, the next step is to figure out whether there’s a pattern to the misalignment. For example, he said, if it’s comitant—the double vision is the same no matter where the patient turns his head—the problem is less worrisome. On the other hand, if it’s incomitant—the double vision goes away when the patient turns his head to the left but remains bad when turned right—then it’s time to worry. There are exceptions and nuances, but, said Dr. Golnik, “You can guide diagnostic evaluation better if you can find the pattern.”
Five to Fear
“There are clearly some life-threatening causes of double vision. Those are the ones an ophthalmologist can’t afford to miss,” Dr. Andrew Lee said. Following are five especially worrying possibilities.
Dangerous Sign: Pupil involvement suggesting third-nerve palsy.
Dangerous Diagnosis: Aneurysm.
Dangerous Prognosis: “The one that’s going to kill you is the third-nerve palsy,” said Dr. Michael Lee, explaining it’s the most common presentation of an aneurysm of the posterior communicating artery. Dr. Golnik added that a third-nerve palsy with a large and poorly reactive pupil is a big red flag, and he doesn’t let the technician dilate the patient until he does the exam. Sometimes, however, the red flag turns out to be a false alarm. While third-nerve palsy is a warning sign for aneurysm, it could also be associated with high blood pressure or diabetes. For example, Dr. Eggenberger said, an 85-year-old with high blood pressure, diabetes and normal pupils is probably not harboring a compressive lesion, but in a 25-year-old with pain and pupil involvement, the safer assumption would be that it’s compressive. As for those in-between cases, he said, “There’s no cookbook answer. It takes some time. It’s not a quick evaluation. And it’s very individualized. The challenge is in knowing which patient is going to get better in three months and which harbors a life-threatening diagnosis.”
Dangerous Sign: Problem with more than one of the following: lid, pupil or eye movement.
Dangerous Diagnosis: Horner syndrome (ptosis with small pupil), third-nerve palsy (ptosis with big pupil) or inflammatory disease, such as Guillain-Barré or Miller Fisher variant.
Dangerous Prognosis: If any one of the lid, pupil or motility appears abnormal, you have to check the other two, said Dr. Andrew Lee. “You’re not allowed to have more than one of these neuro-ophthalmic problems at a time.” More than one abnormality requires a referral or a more aggressive evaluation for the life-threatening etiologies, he said. The biggest dangers are aneurysmal third-nerve palsy and Horner syndrome from carotid dissection. Even mild third-nerve palsy could be due to aneurysm, which can kill the patient. Guillain-Barré also can cause death, or systemic paralysis.
Dangerous Sign: More than one cranial nerve palsy.
Dangerous Diagnosis: Multiple cranial neuropathy.
Dangerous Prognosis: Intracranial or meningeal-based tumors, meningitis or polyneuropathy. Involvement of more than one nerve is a huge red flag, Dr. Andrew Lee said. Sixth-nerve involvement by itself in a diabetic patient probably indicates an ischemic mononeuropathy. Likewise, an isolated, complete and pupil-spared third nerve may indicate a benign and isolated ischemic palsy. But involvement of both the third and the sixth is dangerous and could be a cavernous sinus lesion. Dr. Golnik remembers one patient referred to him with a diagnosis of unilateral sixth-nerve palsy who actually had metastatic lung cancer in the skull base. Dr. Golnik’s exam found involvement with the fifth and seventh nerves, something the referring physician might have found by checking facial sensation and facial muscle strength.
Dangerous Sign: Weakness or fatigue, often variable.
Dangerous Diagnosis: Myasthenia gravis.
Dangerous Prognosis: Respiratory failure or aspiration. Myasthenia gravis can mimic almost any ophthalmoplegia and should be considered in the differential diagnosis of any pupil-spared motility disturbance, said Dr. Andrew Lee. “An ophthalmologist doesn’t have to be a neurologist but does have to ask the neurologic questions,” he said. Those include: Do you have other symptoms? Do you experience weakness in the arms or legs? Hoarseness? Difficulty swallowing? Dr. Torun described a patient who had transient diplopia and a presumed diagnosis of internuclear ophthalmoplegia. Multiple brain scans revealed nothing so the patient was referred to her. Initially, she agreed with the presumptive diagnosis. “But I also saw she had quite variable eye movements. She had difficulty holding her eyes in an eccentric position, with the eyes drifting toward the center, which is a feature of myasthenia.” The workup for myasthenia was positive, and the patient was later admitted to the hospital in myasthenic crisis. The case illustrated the importance, Dr. Torun said, of early diagnosis of an ocular motility problem, which may be the initial presentation of a serious systemic disorder.
Dangerous Sign: Onset of new kind of headache, scalp tenderness, pain with chewing.
Dangerous Diagnosis: Giant cell arteritis.
Dangerous Prognosis: GCA is a life- and sight-threatening disease that is associated with aortic dissection, cerebral and myocardial infarction. “Remember that giant cell arteritis can cause double vision, either constant or transient,” said Dr. Golnik, who asks every patient over the age of 50 a few giant-cell questions: Have you experienced a new kind of headache? Scalp tenderness? Pain or weakness with chewing? Unexplained weight loss?
Scans Don’t Think, Doctors Do
Given the rigors of the diplopia differential diagnosis, it might be tempting to order a scan and let the machine figure it out. But in many situations, costly imaging may not catch a serious problem. For example, myasthenia gravis and giant cell arteritis aren’t apparent on imaging. Alternatively, imaging may indeed yield a life-saving diagnosis but only if the correct scan is aimed at the correct anatomy.
Good scan, bad interpretation. CT scans of the orbit can rule out diplopia secondary to thyroid eye disease and orbital tumors, according to Dr. Golnik. “But beware the reportedly ‘normal’ MRI or CT scan when you are looking for an extraocular muscle abnormality,” he warned, because he routinely sees scans that are misread as normal.
Pointless scan, pinhole better. What’s more, Dr. Golnik frequently sees patients with monocular diplopia who had had an MRI. “Thousands of dollars were spent, and all I needed was a pinhole test to tell it’s not a neurological problem,” he said. “If you just throw up the pinhole and the second image is gone, the patient can understand they don’t have a brain tumor.”
Two bottom lines. So when are scans warranted?
“If it’s not neurologically isolated, you have to image,” Dr. Andrew Lee said. “For example, if you identify a sixth-nerve palsy, you have to also check the fifth and seventh nerves. If one of those is also affected, you have to image.”
Age is a guide. In a patient under the age of 50, an image is advised unless there’s a long history of vasculopathic problems, Dr. Golnik said.
Conversely, an isolated cranial nerve palsy in a patient over 50 who has high blood pressure and vascular risk factors but no other findings is probably not urgent, Dr. Golnik said. But he advised a six-week follow-up exam. “Hopefully they’ll start to improve. If not, then you need to image.”
Transient Diplopia: Dr. Torun’s Differential Diagnosis
Decompensated phoria
Etiologies Overlooked
Some causes of diplopia are easily missed, including:
An extra hole in the iris from an iridotomy may cause diplopia, said Dr. Michael Lee. Double vision may occur if the laser hole falls within the palpebral fissure rather than being hidden underneath the upper lid or if the prismatic effect of the tear meniscus allows light into a superiorly placed iridotomy. “I don’t think it’s something someone would normally think of,” he said. “When you talk about the major causes of monocular double vision, you think of refractive error, dry eye, warped cornea, cataract. The iridotomy is less common.”
Thiamine deficiency can cause double vision, Dr. Torun said. Diplopia may be the earliest symptom of Wernicke encephalopathy, which consists of confusion and ataxia, along with ophthalmoplegia. The disease is typically associated with malnutrition and alcoholism, but it can also be seen in patients with gastric bypass procedures, as well as those with eating disorders—bulimia and anorexia. “These patients may have nystagmus or what mimics a sixth-nerve palsy. In severe cases, they may not be able to move their eyes at all,” Dr. Torun said. Untreated, the condition can lead to coma and eventually death. If treated too late, it can cause neurological problems. But timely administration of intravenous thiamine (vitamin B1) may prevent permanent neurologic sequelae.
Convergence spasm is a nonorganic cause of double vision, but it might easily be mistaken for a unilateral or bilateral sixth-nerve palsy or myasthenia, said Dr. Michael Lee. On first glance, the patient’s eyes are crossed and the complaint is double vision. But if the pupils are constricted, it’s likely the patient is deliberately crossing his eyes. “Miotic pupils, in a patient with variable esotropia and abduction deficits, can suggest convergence spasm,” Dr. Lee said. “When evaluating versions, there may be an abduction deficit and the pupils are miotic from convergence. When ductions are performed, the abduction deficit resolves.” He once saw a patient on referral who had undergone a few strabismus surgeries, but the diagnosis was convergence spasm.
Skew deviation is a prenuclear vertical misalignment that results from brainstem or cerebellar lesions. It may be com- itant or incomitant, but a diagnostic feature is a marked decrease in the vertical misalignment with the patient in supine position.
Patients may give history of a stroke before onset of diplopia, said Dr. Torun. “If there are no associated brainstem signs and the misalignment is relatively small, it is easy to overlook, especially since motility is usually full.”
An epiretinal membrane in one or both eyes can sometimes cause central binocular vertical diplopia, Dr. Torun said. Visual acuity could be quite good, though patients typically describe distortion on an Amsler grid. Motility is full. “This is easy to overlook if the maculopathy is subtle.”
Meet the Experts
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Who captained England's last Ashes winning cricket team in Australia prior to their 2010 victory? | England's former cricket captains - cricket - Telegraph
England's former cricket captains
11:31PM BST 03 Aug 2008
Mike Brearley (1977-81)
Tests record: P 31 W 18 L 4 D9
Rating: Outstanding
Inspirational captain and outstanding man-manager who led England to three Ashes series wins in his two stints as captain.
An outstanding leader who returned to motivate a demoralised side to victory in the 1981 Ashes following Ian Botham’s resignation.
Ian Botham (1980-81)
P 12 W 0 L 4 D 8
Rating: Flop
Botham’s heroics with bat and ball may have inspired England to victory in the 1981 Ashes series, but the burdens of captaincy weighed heavily upon him.
Botham resigned after the first two Tests of the 1981 Ashes series but was revitalised as a player when Brearley returned to inspire him.
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P 7 W 1 L 1 D 5
Rating: Flop
Fletcher could not repeat his success in county cricket, in which he led Essex to three County Championships, with England.
Defensive tactics after England lost the first Test in India cost Fletcher the captaincy.
Bob Willis (1982-84)
P 18 W 7 L 5 D 6
Rating: Moderate
Inspirational as a fast bowler but Willis took on the captaincy in the last two years of his career and proved the old adage that bowlers do not always make the best captains.
Home series wins over Pakistan and India in 1982 were balanced by Ashes defeat the following winter a series loss in New Zealand the following year.
David Gower (1982-89)
P 32 W 5 L 18 D 9
Rating: Flop
Gower’s languid approach may have helped him make batting look easy during an illustrious 177-Test career, but captaincy appeared more of a chore to him.
Though Gower led England to Ashes success in 1985 that series was sandwiched between 'Blackwashes’ by the West Indies. Regained the captaincy for the 1989 Ashes which Australia won 4-0.
Mike Gatting (1986-88)
P 23 W 2 L 5 D 16
Rating: Qualified success.
His captaincy was dogged by controversy including a row a row with umpire in Shakoor Rana in Pakistan in 1987 and an alleged encounter with a barmaid at the England team hotel during the Trent Bridge Test in 1988 which led to his sacking.
But Gatting will be remembered as the last England captain to win an Ashes series in Australia
Graham Gooch (1988-93)
P 34 W 10 L 12 D 12
Rating: Moderate
Hard work and determination turned Gooch into the leading run-scorer in top-class cricket and he brought those characteristics to his captaincy.
Despite Gooch’s emphasis on fitness England failed to win a major series under Gooch, including two Ashes defeats by Allan Border’s Australians.
Alec Stewart (1993-2001)
P 15 W 4 L 8 D 3
Rating: Disappoinment
Promoted from vice-captain when Mike Atherton resigned in 1998, Stewart enjoyed immediate success when he led England to their first major series win in 12 years against South Africa.
But he was axed the following year after another Ashes series flop and an ignominious early exit from the World Cup in England.
Mike Atherton (1993-2001)
P 54 W 13 L 21 D 20
Rating: Qualified success
Atherton’s captaincy was tainted by the 'dirt in pocket’ controversy against South Africa at Lord’s in 1993 and he was dubbed Captain Grumpy by the media for his sardonic press conferences.
But he led a moderate side from the front on the pitch, playing a series of determined gritty innings against the likes of Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, Allan Donald and Wasim Akram.
Nasser Hussain (1999-2003)
| Mike Gatting |
By which other name (alias) was the American outlaw Robert LeRoy Parker better known? | Ashes | History - SuperSport - Cricket
seconds
The Ashes: History
The Ashes is a test cricket series played between England and Australia. It is one of international cricket's most celebrated rivalries and dates back to 1882. It is currently played biennially, alternately in the United Kingdom and Australia. Cricket being a summer sport, and the venues being in opposite hemispheres, the break between series alternates between 18 and 30 months. A series of "The Ashes" comprises five test matches, two innings per match, under the regular rules for test match cricket. If a series is drawn then the country already holding the Ashes retains them.
The series is named after a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, The Sporting Times, in 1882 after a match at The Oval in which Australia beat England on an English ground for the first time. The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. The English media dubbed the next English tour to Australia (1882–83) as the quest to regain The Ashes.
During that tour a small terracotta urn was presented to England captain Ivo Bligh by a group of Melbourne women. The contents of the urn are reputed to be the ashes of an item of cricket equipment, possibly a bail, ball or stump. The Dowager Countess of Darnley claimed recently that her mother-in-law, Bligh's wife Florence Morphy, said that they were the remains of a lady's veil.
The urn is erroneously believed by some to be the trophy of the Ashes series, but it has never been formally adopted as such and Bligh always considered it to be a personal gift. Replicas of the urn are often held aloft by victorious teams as a symbol of their victory in an Ashes series, but the actual urn has never been presented or displayed as a trophy in this way. Whichever side holds the Ashes, the urn normally remains in the Marylebone Cricket Club Museum at Lord's since being presented to the MCC by Bligh's widow upon his death.
Since the 1998–99 Ashes series, a Waterford Crystal representation of the Ashes urn has been presented to the winners of an Ashes series as the official trophy of that series.
As of December 2013, Australia is the holder—having won all of the five tests, reclaiming the Ashes with a victory in the third test. The 2013–14 series played in Australia was a rare "back-to-back" follow-up to the 2013 series played in England. Overall, Australia has won 32 series, England 31 and five series have been drawn.
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LEGEND OF THE ASHES
The first test match between England and Australia was played in 1877, though the Ashes legend started later, after the ninth test, played in 1882.
On their tour that year (1882) the Australians played just one test, at The Oval in London. It was a low-scoring affair on a difficult wicket. Australia made a mere 63 runs in its first innings, and England, led by "Monkey" Hornby, took a 38-run lead with a total of 101. In their second innings, the Australians, boosted by a spectacular run-a-minute 55 from Hugh Massie, managed 122, which left England only 85 runs to win.
The Australians were greatly demoralised by the manner of their second-innings collapse, but fast bowler Spofforth, spurred on by some gamesmanship by his opponents, refused to give in. "This thing can be done," he declared. Spofforth went on to devastate the English batting, taking his final four wickets for only two runs to leave England just seven runs short of victory in one of the closest and most nail-biting finishes in the history of cricket.
When Ted Peate, England's last batsman, came to the crease, his side needed just ten runs to win, but Peate managed only two before he was bowled by Harry Boyle. An astonished Oval crowd fell silent, struggling to believe that England could possibly have lost to a colony. When it finally sank in, the crowd swarmed onto the field, cheering loudly and chairing Boyle and Spofforth to the pavilion.
When Peate returned to the pavilion he was reprimanded by his captain for not allowing his partner, Charles Studd (one of the best batsman in England, having already hit two centuries that season against the colonists) to get the runs. Peate humorously replied, "I had no confidence in Mr Studd, sir, so thought I had better do my best."
The momentous defeat was widely recorded in the British press, which praised the Australians for their plentiful "pluck" and berated the Englishmen for their lack thereof. A celebrated poem appeared in Punch on Saturday, 9 September. The first verse, quoted most frequently, reads:
Well done, Cornstalks! Whipt us
Fair and square,
N.B.—The body will be cremated and the
ashes taken to Australia.
Bligh promised that on the tour to Australia in 1882–83, which he was to captain, he would regain "the ashes". He spoke of them several times over the course of the tour, and the Australian media quickly caught on. The three-match series resulted in a two-one win to England, notwithstanding a fourth match, won by the Australians, whose status remains a matter of ardent dispute.
In the 20 years following Bligh's campaign the term "The Ashes" largely disappeared from public use. There is no indication that this was the accepted name for the series, at least not in England. The term became popular again in Australia first, when George Giffen, in his memoirs (With Bat and Ball, 1899), used the term as if it were well known.
The true and global revitalisation of interest in the concept dates from 1903, when Pelham Warner took a team to Australia with the promise that he would regain "the ashes". As had been the case on Bligh's tour 20 years before, the Australian media latched fervently onto the term, and, this time it stuck. Having fulfilled his promise, Warner published a book entitled How We Recovered The Ashes. Although the origins of the term are not referred to in the text, the title served (along with the general hype created in Australia) to revive public interest in the legend. The first mention of "The Ashes" in Wisden Cricketers' Almanack occurs in 1905, while Wisden's first account of the legend is in the 1922 edition.
THE ASHES URN
As it took many years for the name "The Ashes" to be given to the ongoing series between England and Australia, there was no concept of there being a representation of the ashes being presented to the winners. As late as 1925 the following verse appeared in The Cricketers Annual:
So here's to Chapman, Hendren and Hobbs,
Gilligan, Woolley and Hearne:
May they bring back to the Motherland,
The ashes which have no urn!
Nevertheless, several attempts had been made to embody The Ashes in a physical memorial. Examples include one presented to Warner in 1904, another to Australian Captain M.A. Noble in 1909, and another to Australian Captain W.M. Woodfull in 1934.
The oldest, and the one to enjoy enduring fame, was the one presented to Bligh, later Lord Darnley, during the 1882–83 tour. The precise nature of the origin of this urn is matter of dispute. Based on a statement by Darnley made in 1894, it was believed that a group of Victorian ladies, including Darnley's later wife Florence Morphy, made the presentation after the victory in the Third Test in 1883. More recent researchers, in particular Ronald Willis[7] and Joy Munns[8] have studied the tour in detail and concluded that the presentation was made after a private cricket match played over Christmas 1882 when the English team were guests of Sir William Clarke, at his property "Rupertswood", in Sunbury, Victoria. This was before the matches had started. The prime evidence for this theory was provided by a descendant of Clarke.
The contents of the Darnley urn are also problematic; they were variously reported to be the remains of a stump, bail or the outer casing of a ball, but in 1998 Darnley's 82-year-old daughter-in-law said they were the remains of her mother-in-law's veil, casting a further layer of doubt on the matter. However, during the tour of Australia in 2006/7, the MCC official accompanying the urn said the veil legend had been discounted, and it was now "95% certain" that the urn contains the ashes of a cricket bail. Speaking on Channel Nine TV on 25 November 2006, he said x-rays of the urn had shown the pedestal and handles were cracked, and repair work had to be carried out. The urn is made of terracotta and is about six inches (150 mm) tall and may originally have been a perfume jar.
This is the fourth verse of a song-lyric published in Melbourne Punch on 1 February 1883:
When Ivo goes back with the urn, the urn;
Studds, Steel, Read and Tylecote return, return;
The welkin will ring loud,
The great crowd will feel proud,
Seeing Barlow and Bates with the urn, the urn;
And the rest coming home with the urn.
In February 1883, just before the disputed Fourth Test, a velvet bag made by Mrs Ann Fletcher, the daughter of Joseph Hines Clarke and Marion Wright, both of Dublin, was given to Bligh to contain the urn.
During Darnley’s lifetime there was little public knowledge of the urn, and no record of a published photograph exists before 1924. However, when Darnley died in 1927 his widow presented the urn to the Marylebone Cricket Club and that was the key event in establishing the urn as the physical embodiment of the legendary ashes. MCC first displayed the urn in the Long Room at Lord's Cricket Ground and since 1953 in the MCC Cricket Museum at the ground. MCC’s wish for it to be seen by as wide a range of cricket enthusiasts as possible has led to its being mistaken for an official trophy.
It is in fact a private memento, and for this reason it is never awarded to either England or Australia, but is kept permanently in the MCC Cricket Museum where it can be seen together with the specially-made red and gold velvet bag and the scorecard of the 1882 match.
Because the urn itself is so delicate, it has been allowed to travel to Australia only twice. The first occasion was in 1988 for a museum tour as part of the Australian Bicentenary celebrations; the second was for the 2006/7 Ashes series. The urn arrived on 17 October 2006, going on display at the Museum of Sydney. It then toured to other states, with the final appearance at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery on 21 January 2007.
In the 1990s, given Australia's long dominance of the Ashes and the popular acceptance of the Darnley urn as ‘The Ashes’, the idea was mooted that the victorious team should be awarded the urn as a trophy and allowed to retain it until the next series. As its condition is fragile and it is a prized exhibit at the MCC Cricket Museum, the MCC were reluctant to agree. Furthermore, in 2002, Bligh's great-great-grandson Lord Clifton, the heir-apparent to the Earldom of Darnley, argued that the Ashes urn should not be returned to Australia because it belonged to his family and was given to the MCC only for safe keeping.
As a compromise, the MCC commissioned a trophy in the form of a larger replica of the urn in Waterford Crystal to award to the winning team of each series from 1998–99. This did little to diminish the status of the Darnley urn as the most important icon in cricket, the symbol of this old and keenly fought contest.
QUEST TO RECOVER "THOSE ASHES"
Later in 1882, following the famous Australian victory at The Oval, Bligh led an England team to Australia, as he said, to "recover those ashes". Publicity surrounding the series was intense, and it was at some time during this series that the Ashes urn was crafted. Australia won the First Test by nine wickets, but in the next two England were victorious. At the end of the Third Test, England were generally considered to have "won back the Ashes" 2–1. A fourth match was played, against a "United Australian XI", which was arguably stronger than the Australian sides that had competed in the previous three matches; this game, however, is not generally considered part of the 1882–83 series. It is counted as a Test, but as a standalone.
1884 to 1896
After Bligh's victory, there was an extended period of English dominance. The tours generally had fewer tests in the 1880s and 1890s than people have grown accustomed to in more recent years, the first five-test series taking place only in 1894–95. England lost only four Ashes tests in the 1880s out of 23 played, and they won all the seven series contested.
There was more chopping and changing in the teams, given that there was no official board of selectors for each country (in 1887–88, two separate English teams were on tour in Australia) and popularity with the fans varied. The 1890s games were more closely fought, Australia taking their first series win since 1882 with a 2–1 victory in 1891–92. But England dominated, winning the next three series to 1896 despite continuing player disputes.
The 1894–95 series began in sensational fashion when England won the first test at Sydney by just 10 runs having followed on. Australia had scored a massive 586 (Syd Gregory 201, George Giffen 161) and then dismissed England for 325. But England responded with 437 and then dramatically dismissed Australia for 166 with Bobby Peel taking 6 for 67. At the close of the second last day's play, Australia were 113–2, needing only 64 more runs. But heavy rain fell overnight and next morning the two slow left-arm bowlers, Peel and Johnny Briggs, were all but unplayable. England went on to win the series 3–2 after it had been all square before the final test, which England won by 6 wickets. The English heroes were Peel, with 27 wickets in the series at an average of 26.70, and Tom Richardson, with 32 at 26.53.
In 1896 England under the captaincy of W G Grace won the series 2–1, and this marked the end of England's longest period of Ashes dominance.
1897 to 1902
Australia resoundingly won the 1897–98 series by 4–1 under the captaincy of Harry Trott. His successor Joe Darling won the next three series in 1899, 1901–02 and the classic 1902 series, which became one of the most famous in the history of test cricket.
Five matches were played in 1902 but the first two were drawn after being hit by bad weather. In the first test (the first played at Edgbaston), after scoring 376 England bowled out Australia for 36 (Wilfred Rhodes 7/17) and reduced them to 46–2 when they followed on. Australia won the third and fourth tests at Bramall Lane and Old Trafford respectively. At Old Trafford, Australia won by just 3 runs after Victor Trumper had scored 104 on a "bad wicket", reaching his hundred before lunch on the first day. England won the last test at The Oval by one wicket. Chasing 263 to win, they slumped to 48–5 before Jessop's 104 gave them a chance. He reached his hundred in just 75 minutes. The last wicket pair of George Hirst and Rhodes were left with 15 runs to get, and duly got them. When Rhodes joined him, Hirst is famously supposed to have said: "We'll get them in singles, Wilfred." The story is apocryphal and they are believed to have scored at least one two among the singles.
The period of Darling's captaincy saw the emergence of outstanding Australian players such as Trumper, Warwick Armstrong, James Kelly, Monty Noble, Clem Hill, Hugh Trumble and Ernie Jones.
Reviving the Ashes legend
After what the MCC saw as the problems of the earlier professional and amateur series they decided to take control of organising tours themselves, and this led to the first MCC tour of Australia in 1903–04. England won it against the odds, and Plum Warner, the England captain, wrote up his version of the tour in his book How We Recovered The Ashes. The title of this book revived the Ashes legend and it was after this that England v Australia series were customarily referred to as "The Ashes".
1905 to 1912
England and Australia were evenly matched until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Five more series took place between 1905 and 1912. In 1905 England's captain Stanley Jackson not only won the series 2–0, but also won the toss in all five matches and headed both the batting and the bowling averages. Monty Noble led Australia to victory in both 1907–08 and 1909. Then England won in 1911–12 by four matches to one. Jack Hobbs establishing himself as England's first-choice opening batsman with three centuries, while Frank Foster (32 wickets at 21.62) and Sydney Barnes (34 wickets at 22.88) formed a formidable bowling partnership.
England retained the Ashes when they won the 1912 Triangular Tournament, which also featured South Africa. The Australian touring party had been severely weakened by a dispute between the board and players that caused Clem Hill, Victor Trumper, Warwick Armstrong, Tibby Cotter, Sammy Carter and Vernon Ransford to be omitted.
1920 to 1933
After the war, Australia took firm control of both the Ashes and world cricket. For the first time, the tactic of using two express bowlers in tandem paid off as Jack Gregory and Ted McDonald crippled the English batting on a regular basis. Australia recorded overwhelming victories both in England and on home soil. They won the first eight matches in succession including a 5–0 whitewash in 1920–1921 at the hands of Warwick Armstrong's team.
The ruthless and belligerent Armstrong led his team back to England in 1921 where his men lost only two games late in the tour to narrowly miss out of being the first team to complete a tour of England without defeat.
England won only one test out of 15 from the end of the war until 1925.
In a rain-hit series in 1926, England managed to eke out a 1–0 victory with a win in the final test at The Oval. Because the series was at stake, the match was to be "timeless", i.e., played to a finish. Australia had a narrow first innings lead of 22. Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe took the score to 49–0 at the end of the second day, a lead of 27. Heavy rain fell overnight, and next day the pitch soon developed into a traditional sticky wicket. England seemed doomed to be bowled out cheaply and to lose the match. In spite of the very difficult batting conditions, however, Hobbs and Sutcliffe took their partnership to 172 before Hobbs was out for exactly 100. Sutcliffe went on to make 161 and England won the game comfortably. Australian captain Herbie Collins was stripped of all captaincy positions down to club level, and some accused him of throwing the match.
Australia's aging post-war team broke up after 1926, with Collins, Charlie Macartney and Warren Bardsley all departing, and Gregory breaking down at the start of the 1928–29 series.
Despite the debut of Donald Bradman, the inexperienced Australians, led by Jack Ryder, were heavily defeated, losing 4–1. England had a very strong batting side, with Wally Hammond contributing 905 runs at an average of 113.12, and Hobbs, Sutcliffe and Patsy Hendren all scoring heavily; the bowling was more than adequate, without being outstanding.
In 1930, Bill Woodfull led an extremely inexperienced team to England.
Bradman fulfilled his promise in the 1930 series when he scored 974 runs at 139.14, which remains a world record test series aggregate. In the Headingley Test, he made 334, reaching 309* at the end of the first day, including a century before lunch. Bradman himself thought that his 254 in the preceding match, at Lord's, was a better innings. England managed to stay in contention until the deciding final test at The Oval, but yet another double hundred by Bradman, and 7/92 by Percy Hornibrook in England's second innings, enabled Australia to win by an innings and take the series 2–1. Clarrie Grimmett's 29 wickets at 31.89 for Australia in this high-scoring series were also important.
Australia had one of the strongest batting line-ups ever in the early 1930s, with Bradman, Archie Jackson, Stan McCabe, Bill Woodfull and Bill Ponsford. It was the prospect of bowling at this line-up that caused England's 1932–33 captain Douglas Jardine to adopt the tactic of fast leg theory, also known as Bodyline.
Jardine instructed his fast bowlers, most notably Harold Larwood and Bill Voce, to bowl at the bodies of the Australian batsmen, with the goal of forcing them to defend their bodies with their bats, thus providing easy catches to a stacked leg-side field. Jardine insisted that the tactic was legitimate and called it "leg theory" but it was widely disparaged by its opponents, who dubbed it "Bodyline" (from "on the line of the body").
Although England decisively won the Ashes 4–1, Bodyline caused such a furore in Australia that diplomats had to intervene to prevent serious harm to Anglo-Australian relations, and the MCC eventually changed the Laws of cricket to curtail the number of leg side fielders.
Jardine's comment was: "I've not travelled 6,000 miles to make friends. I'm here to win the Ashes".
Some of the Australians wanted to use Bodyline in retaliation, but Woodfull flatly refused. He famously told England manager Pelham Warner, "There are two teams out there. One is playing cricket; the other is making no attempt to do so" after the latter had come into the Australian rooms to express sympathy for a Larwood bouncer had struck the Australian skipper in the heart and felled him .
1934 to 1953
On the batting-friendly wickets that prevailed in the late 1930s, most tests up to the Second World War still gave results. It should be borne in mind that tests in Australia prior to the war were all played to a finish. Many batting records were set in this period.
The 1934 Ashes series began with the notable absence of Larwood, Voce and Jardine. The MCC had made it clear, in light of the revelations of the bodyline series, that these players would not face Australia. It should be noted that the MCC, although it had earlier condoned and encouraged bodyline tactics in the 1932–33 series, laid the blame on Larwood when relations turned sour. Larwood was forced by the MCC to either apologise or be removed from the Test side. He went for the latter.
Australia recovered the Ashes in 1934 and held them until 1953, although no international cricket was possible during the Second World War.
As in 1930, the 1934 series was decided in the final test at The Oval. Australia, batting first, posted a massive 701 in the first innings. Bradman (244) and Ponsford (266) were in record-breaking form with a partnership of 451 for the second wicket. England eventually faced a massive 707 run target for victory and failed, Australia winning the series 2–1. This made Woodfull the only captain to regain the Ashes and he retired upon his return to Australia.
In 1936–37 Bradman succeeded Woodfull as Australian captain. He started badly, losing the first two tests heavily after Australia were caught on sticky wickets. However, the Australians fought back and Bradman won his first series in charge 3–2.
The 1938 series was high-scoring affair with many high-scoring draws, resulting in a 1–1 result, Australia retaining the Ashes. After the first two matches ended in stalemate and the third test at Old Trafford never started due to rain. Australia then scraped home by five wickets inside three days in a low-scoring match at Headingley to retain the urn. In the timeless fifth test at The Oval, the highlight was Len Hutton's then world record score of 364 as England made 7/903 declared. Bradman and Jack Fingleton injured themselves during Hutton's marathon effort, and with only nine men, Australia fell to defeat by an innings and 578 runs, the heaviest in test history.
The Ashes resumed after the war when England toured in 1946–47, and as in 1920–21, found that Australia had made the best post-war recovery. Still captained by Bradman and now featuring the potent new ball partnership of Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller, Australia were convincing 3–0 winners.
Aged 38 and having been unwell during the war, Bradman had been reluctant to play. He batted unconvincingly and reached 28 when he hit a ball to Jack Ikin; England believed it was a catch, but Bradman stood his ground, believing it to be a bump ball. The umpire ruled in the Australian captain's favour and he appeared to regain his fluency of yesteryear, scoring 187. Australia promptly reached seized the initiative, won the first test convincingly and inaugurated a dominant post-war era. The controversy over the Ikin catch was one of the biggest disputes of the era.
In 1948 Australia set new standards, completely outplaying their hosts to win 4–0 with one draw. This Australian team, led by Bradman, who turned 40 during his final tour of England, has gone down in history as The Invincibles. Playing 34 matches on tour—three of which were not first-class—including the five Tests, they remained unbeaten, winning 27 and drawing only 7.
Bradman's men were greeted by packed crowds across the country, and records for test attendances in England were set in the second and fourth tests at Lord's and Headingley respectively; the crowd at Headingley remains a record, and it was there that Australia set a world record by chasing down 404 on the last day for a seven-wicket victory.
The 1948 series ended with one of the most poignant moments in cricket history, as Bradman played his final innings for Australia in the fifth test at The Oval, needing to score only four runs to end with a career batting average of exactly 100. However, Bradman made a second ball duck, bowled by a Eric Hollies googly that sent him into retirement with a career average of 99.94.
Bradman was succeeded as Australian captain by Lindsay Hassett, who led the team to 4–1 victory in 1950–51. The series was not as one-sided as the number of wins suggest, with several tight matches.
The tide finally turned in 1953 when England won the final test at The Oval to take the series 1–0, having narrowly evaded defeat in the preceding test at Headingley. This was the beginning of one of the greatest periods in English cricket history with players such as captain Len Hutton, batsmen Denis Compton, Peter May, Tom Graveney, Colin Cowdrey, bowlers Fred Trueman, Brian Statham, Alec Bedser, Jim Laker, Tony Lock and wicket-keeper Godfrey Evans.
1954 to 1971
In 1954–55, Australia's batsmen had no answer to the pace of Frank Tyson and Statham. After winning the first test by an innings after being controversially sent in by Hutton, Australia lost its way and England took a hat-trick of victories to win the series 3–1.
A dramatic series in 1956 saw a record that will probably never be beaten: off-spinner Jim Laker's monumental effort at Old Trafford when he bowled 68 of 191 overs to take 19 out of 20 possible Australian wickets in the fourth test. It was Australia's second consecutive innings defeat in a wet summer, and the hosts were in strong positions in the two drawn tests, in which half the playing time was washed out. Bradman rated the team that won the series 2–1 as England's best ever.
England's dominance was not to last. Australia won 4–0 in 1958–59, having found a high-quality spinner of their own in new skipper Richie Benaud, who took 31 wickets in the five-test series, and paceman Alan Davidson, who took 24 wickets at 19.00. The series was overshadowed by the furore over various Australian bowlers, most notably Ian Meckiff, whom the English management and media accused of illegally throwing Australia to victory.
Australia consolidated their status as the leading team in world cricket with a hard-fought 2–1 away series. After narrowly winning the second test at Lord's, dubbed "The Battle of the Ridge" because of a protrusion on the pitch that caused erratic bounce, Australia mounted a comeback on the final day of the fourth test at Old Trafford and sealed the series after a heavy collapse during the English runchase.
The tempo of the play changed over the next four series in the 1960s, held in 1962–63, 1964, 1965–66 and 1968. The powerful array of bowlers that both countries boasted in the preceding decade moved into retirement, and their replacements were of lesser quality, making it more difficult to force a result. England failed to win any series during the 1960s, a period dominated by draws as teams found it more prudent to save face than risk losing. Of the 20 Tests played during the four series, Australia won four and England three. As they held the Ashes, Australian captains Bob Simpson and Bill Lawry were happy to adopt safety-first tactics and their strategy of sedate batting saw many draws. During this period, spectator attendances dropped and media condemnation increased, but Simpson and Lawry flatly disregarded the public dissatisfaction.
It was in the 1960s that the bipolar dominance of England and Australia in world cricket was seriously challenged for the first time. West Indies defeated England twice in the mid-1960s and South Africa, in two series before they were banned for apartheid, completely outplayed Australia 3–1 and 4–0. Australia had lost 3–1 during a tour of the West Indies in 1964–65 the first time they had lost a series to any team other than England.
In 1970–71, Ray Illingworth led England to a 2–0 win in Australia, mainly due to John Snow's fast bowling, and the prolific batting of Geoffrey Boycott and John Edrich. It was not until the last session of what was the 7th test (one match having been abandoned without a ball bowled) that England's success was secured. Lawry was sacked after the sixth test after the selectors finally lost patience with Australia's lack of success and dour strategy. Lawry was not informed of the decision privately and heard his fate over the radio.
1972 to 1987
The 1972 series finished 2–2, with England under Illingworth retaining the Ashes.
In the 1974–75 series, with the England team breaking up and their best batsman Geoff Boycott refusing to play, Australian pace bowlers Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee wreaked havoc. A 4–1 result was a fair reflection as England were left shell shocked. England then lost the 1975 series 0–1, but at least restored some pride under new captain Tony Greig.
Australia won the 1977 Centenary Test which was not an Ashes contest, but then a storm broke as Kerry Packer announced his intention to form World Series Cricket. WSC affected all test playing nations but it weakened Australia especially as the bulk of its players had signed up with Packer; the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) would not select WSC-contracted players and an almost completely new test team had to be formed. WSC came after an era during which the duopoly of Australian and English dominance dissipated; the Ashes had long been seen as a cricket world championship but the rise of the West Indies in the late 1970s challenged that view. The West Indies would go on to record resounding Test series wins over Australia and England and dominated world cricket until the 1990s.
With Greig having joined WSC, England appointed Mike Brearley as their captain and he enjoyed great success against Australia. Largely assisted by the return of Boycott, Brearley's men won the 1977 series 3–0 and then completed an overwhelming 5–1 series win against an Australian side missing its WSC players in 1978–79. Allan Border made his test debut for Australia in 1978–79.
Brearley retired from Test cricket in 1979 and was succeeded by Ian Botham, who started the 1981 series as England captain, by which time the WSC split had ended. After Australia took a 1–0 lead in the first two Tests, Botham was forced to resign or was sacked (depending on the source). Brearley surprisingly agreed to be reappointed before the third test at Headingley. This was a remarkable match in which Australia looked certain to take a 2–0 series lead after they had forced England to follow-on 227 runs behind. England, despite being 135 for 7, produced a second innings total of 356, Botham scoring 149*. Chasing just 130, Australia were sensationally dismissed for 111, Bob Willis taking 8/43. It was the first time since 1894–95 that a team following on had won a test match. Under Brearley's leadership, England went on to win the next two matches before a drawn final match at The Oval.
In 1982–83 Australia had Greg Chappell back from WSC as captain, while the England team was weakened by the enforced omission of their South African tour rebels, particularly Graham Gooch and John Emburey. Australia went 2–0 up after three tests, but England won the fourth test by 3 runs (after a 70-run last wicket stand) to set up the final decider, which was drawn.
In 1985 David Gower's England team was strengthened by the return of Gooch and Emburey as well as the emergence at international level of Tim Robinson and Mike Gatting. Australia, now captained by Allan Border, had themselves been weakened by a rebel South African tour, the loss of Terry Alderman being a particular factor. England won 3–1.
Despite suffering heavy defeats against the West Indies during the 1980s, England continued to do well in the Ashes. Mike Gatting was the captain in 1986–87 but his team started badly and attracted some criticism. Then Chris Broad scored three hundreds in successive tests and bowling successes from Graham Dilley and Gladstone Small meant England won the series 2–1.
1989 to 2003
The Australian team of 1989 was comparable to the great Australian teams of the past, and resoundingly defeated England 4–0. Well led by Allan Border, the team included the young cricketers Mark Taylor, Merv Hughes, David Boon, Ian Healy and Steve Waugh, who were all to prove long-serving and successful Ashes competitors. England, now led once again by David Gower, suffered from injuries and poor form. During the fourth test news broke that prominent England players had agreed to take part in a "rebel tour" of South Africa the following winter; three of them (Tim Robinson, Neil Foster and John Emburey) were playing in the match, and were subsequently dropped from the England side.
Australia reached a cricketing peak in the 1990s and early 2000s, coupled with a general decline in England's fortunes. After re-establishing its credibility in 1989, Australia underlined its superiority with victories in the 1990–91, 1993, 1994–95, 1997, 1998–99, 2001 and 2002–03 series, all by convincing margins.
Great Australian players in the early years included batsmen Border, Boon and Taylor. The captaincy passed from Border to Taylor in the mid-1990s and then to Steve Waugh before the 2001 series. In the latter part of the 1990s Waugh himself, along with his twin brother Mark, scored heavily for Australia and fast bowlers Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie made a serious impact. The wicketkeeper-batsman position was held by Ian Healy for most of the 1990s and by Adam Gilchrist from 2001 to 2006–07. In the 2000s, batsmen Justin Langer, Damien Martyn and Matthew Hayden became noted players for Australia. But the most dominant Australian player was legspinner Shane Warne, whose first delivery in Ashes cricket in 1993 became known as the ball of the century.
Australia's record between 1989 and 2005 had a significant impact on the statistics between the two sides. Before the 1989 series began, the win-loss ratio was almost even, with 87 wins for Australia to England's 86, 74 having been drawn. By the 2005 series Australia's wins had increased to 115 whereas England's had increased to only 93 (and a further 82 draws). In the period between 1989 and the beginning of the 2005 series, the two sides had played 43 times; Australia winning 28 times, England 7 times, with 8 draws. Only a single England victory had come in a match in which the Ashes were still at stake, namely the First Test of the 1997 series. All others were consolation victories when the Ashes had been secured by Australia.
2005 to 2011
England began to recover in the early 2000s and were undefeated in test matches through the 2004 calendar year. This elevated them to second in the ICC Test Championship. Hopes that the 2005 Ashes series would be closely fought proved well founded, as the series was more competitive than anyone had predicted and was still undecided as the closing session of the final test began. Experienced journalists including Richie Benaud rated the series as the most exciting in living memory. It has been compared with the great series of the distant past, such as 1894–95 and 1902.
The first test at Lord's was convincingly won by Australia, but in the remaining four matches the teams were evenly matched and England fought back to win the second test by 2 runs, the smallest victory by a runs margin in Ashes history, and the second-closest such victory in all tests. The rain-affected third test ended with the last two Australian batsmen holding out for a draw and England won the fourth test by three wickets after forcing Australia to follow-on for the first time in 191 tests. A draw in the final test gave England victory in an Ashes series for the first time in 18 years and their first Ashes victory at home since 1985.
Australia regained The Ashes in the 2006–07 series with a convincing 5–0 victory, the second time an Ashes series has been won by that margin. Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Justin Langer retired from test cricket after the series, having been the backbone of the Australian team for almost a decade. Damien Martyn also retired during the series.
The 2009 series began with a tense draw in the first test at Cardiff, with final pair James Anderson and Monty Panesar surviving 69 balls. England then achieved their first Ashes win at Lord's since 1934 to go 1–0 up. After a rain-affected draw at Edgbaston, the fourth match at Headingley was convincingly won by Australia by an innings and 80 runs to level the series. England finally took the fifth and last test at The Oval by a large margin to regain the Ashes. The series also saw the emotional departure of Andrew Flintoff from test cricket.
The 2010–11 series was held in Australia. The first test at Brisbane ended in a draw, but England won the second test, at Adelaide, by an innings and 71 runs. Australia came back with a victory at Perth in the third test. In the fourth test at Melbourne Cricket Ground, England batting second scored 513 to defeat Australia (98 & 258) by an innings and 157 runs. This allowed England to take an unbeatable 2–1 lead in the series and so they retained The Ashes. Jonathan Trott (England) scored 168 not out while Peter Siddle (Australia) took 6–75. England went on to win the series 3–1, beating Australia by an innings and 83 runs at Sydney in the fifth test. Australia, captained by Michael Clarke, batted first on a cloudy day after winning the toss and were bowled out for 280. England made 644, their highest innings total since 1938. Alastair Cook scored 189 and both Ian Bell and Matt Prior made centuries. England bowled Australia out again for 281 and so won a series on Australian soil for the first time in 24 years. The 2010–11 Ashes series is the only one in which a team has won three tests by innings margins and it was the first time England had scored 500 or more four times in a single series.
2013/14
Australia's build-up to the 2013 Ashes series was far from ideal. Darren Lehmann took over as coach from Mickey Arthur following a string of poor results. A batting line-up weakened by the previous year's retirements of former captain Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey, was also shorn of opener David Warner, who was suspended for the start of the series following an off-field incident.
The tourists put those issues behind them to bowl England out for 215 after losing the toss in the first test at Trent Bridge. In the face of high-class swing bowling from James Anderson, who ended with 10 wickets in the match, Australia collapsed to 117-9. However, debutant 19-year-old Ashton Agar made a world-record 98 for a number 11 and Phil Hughes an unbeaten 81 to secure an unlikely lead of 65. England's second-innings total of 375 set Australia a target of 311, against which they fell short by only 14 runs in a tense finish.
In the second test, England beat Australia by 347 runs in a very one-sided contest.
In the third test, held at a newly refurbished Old Trafford, Australia won the toss and elected to bat first. Amassing a commanding score of 527-7 led by captain Michael Clarke's 187, the pressure was on the home side to avoid the follow-on. England scored 368 with a century for Kevin Pietersen. Australia's second innings score was 172-7 at the end of Day 4, characterised by batting order changes to achieve a fast run rate to allow enough time to bowl England out amid inclement weather forecasts. Australia declared overnight to post England a target of 332 to win. Contrary to expectations, play resumed with only a minor delay on Day 5, and with captain Alastair Cook being bowled out for 0 (his first duck in 26 innings as captain), Australia looked to be in with a significant chance of a win, keeping their series hope alive. By lunch England were 37-3, but on resumption of play only 3 balls were bowled before rain stopped play. This rain persisted and, at 16:40, the captains shook hands and the match was declared a draw. With England 2-0 up with two tests to play, England retained the Ashes on 5 August 2013.
In the fourth test, England won the toss and batted first, putting on 238 runs, Australia took a narrow lead scoring 270 in their first innings. In the second innings England scored 330, Ian Bell top-scoring with 113. Needing only 298 runs to win Australia was in a strong position at 138/2, only 160 short with eight wickets in hand. Following a rain delay, Australia crashed to a 74-run defeat, losing all eight wickets for only 56 runs. England had taken 9 wickets in the final session of the fourth day. Stuart Broad was England's top wicket-taker in the match with 11 wickets.
England held a 3-0 lead going into the final fifth test at The Oval. The final test was drawn. On the fourth day no play was possible due to rain, but on the final day after an aggressive Australian declaration, England came close to achieving its first 4-0 victory in an Ashes series. Australia's captain Michael Clarke imposed strategic time-wasting tactics to prevent the final four overs from being bowled, from which England needed only 21 runs for victory. Play was abandoned, owing to bad light, denying a thrilling finish to the large crowd of spectators. There was media criticism of the new ICC rules requiring umpires to stop play when failing light was measured at a specified level.
In the second of two Ashes series held in 2013, this time hosted by Australia, the home team won the series five test matches to nil. This was the third time Australia has completed a clean sweep (or "whitewash") in Ashes history, a feat never matched by England.
As at June 25, 2015
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On the Mohs' Scale of mineral hardness, what is number one and softest, with the formula Mg3Si4O10(OH)2 and found in many bathrooms? | * Mohs hardness (Jewelry) - Definition,meaning - Online Encyclopedia
A list of Precious and Semi Precious Gems tones and their Treatment s ...
The Mohs Hardness Scale is not a linear scale - and it only measures resistance to scratch ing.
This scale measures the surface hardness of minerals . Metal s are measured with the "Vickers" scale of hardness .
Mohs Hardness :
7.5 to 8.0
Heat treatment usually enhances the bluish appearance of Aquamarine . Light green Beryl can be transformed into Aquamarine if heated to 750º F (400º C). The green hues in most Aquamarine can also be removed th rough heat treatment .
Mohs Hardness Scale Numerical scale ranging from 1 to 10 developed by Friedrich Mohs that assigns a rating to a gem according to its ability to resist scratch ing. The hardest is 10 ( diamond ) and the softest is 1 ( talc ).
The scale used to measure the degree to which a stone or mineral is resistant to scratches . Hardness is measured from 1 to 10, 10 ( diamonds ) being the hardest.
Moisture Resistant ...
A scale that ranges from 1-10 in measuring a gem 's hardness .
Moh's scale ...
The Mohs Hardness of Coins
Experiments with using coins in your Mohs hardness kit.
Gallery of this key attribute of minerals : how they reflect light.
Pearls - Mohs Hardness: 2.5-4.5 - Treatment : most are bleached then dyed Pearls are formed in shell fish - especially oysters and mussels - as a natural defense against an irritant such as a piece of grit.
On the famous Mohs hardness scale of 1 to 10, everyone knows that a diamond , as the hardest natural substance on earth, rates a 10. Rubies, at Mohs 9, are harder than any other material except diamonds . You may already have noticed that rubies and sapphire s are often paired. For good reason.
Mohs hardness scale A scale of relevant Hardness , where 10 is the hardest and 1 is the softest. The Diamond ranks 10 on the Mohs Scale . Mother of Pearl The iridescent lining of the inside of a mollusk 's shell . Often used as decorative pieces, such as button s.
Stone s that have a Mohs hardness of less than 8 are highly subject to scratch ing; harder stone s are less likely to be scratch ed but are still subject to chipping and fracture . Remember that quartz , with a hardness of 7, is one of the most abundant minerals on earth, in the form of sand, or silica .
Alexandrite is a form of chrysoberyl and has a hardness of 8 on the Mohs Hardness Sale, making it extremely durable in jewelry . Alexandrite is one of June's alternative birthstones . Alloy :A blending of two or more metal s.
Each reference mineral will scratch a test specimen with a Mohs hardness less than or equal to its own. Each reference mineral can be scratch ed by a specimen with a hardness equal to or greater than its own.
Mohs Hardness Scale is the one we use to measure a gemstone ’s hardness on a scale from 1 to 10. Diamond ranks at 10 on the Mohs scale which is the hardest natural ly occurring substance. Corundum , of which ruby and sapphire are composed, is the next on Mohs scale .
The hardness of the gem varies, but on an average it remains between 5 and 6 on the Mohs hardness scale . It is also quite porous and this can cause it to dis color over time, unless it has been treated . Common treatment s include the use of wax, paraffin and resin.
5 on the Mohs hardness scale ) and should be spared rugged, regular wear if mount ed in a ring . This is why the gem is more often used as a side stone for more expensive gems than as the center stone .
The Mohs Hardness Scale is relative. Fluorite at 4 is not twice as hard as gypsum at 2; nor is the difference between calcite and fluorite similar to the difference between corundum and diamond . An absolute hardness scale looks a little different than the relative scale.
5-8 on the Mohs hardness scale . This means that emerald , while relatively hard, can still be scratch ed, chipped or split; Emeralds have been known to crack when exposed to extreme temperatures.
It is number 1 on the Mohs hardness scale , and can be easily scratch ed by a fingernail. Talc is not commonly seen in collections, as it is usually uninteresting and fairly common, although a few deeply color ed and crystallize d examples are known and well sought after.
Refractive index : Diamond has a refractive index of 2.42 vs. Cubic Zirconia has an index of 2.15-2.18 ...
It is number 8 in the Mohs hardness scale ; its refractive index is about 1.62; its specific gravity 3.53. Commonly confused with citrine or " topaz " quartz , but the latter is far softer, lower in refractive index and many times more common. Brown stone s of Brazil may be made pink by heat.
Chrome diopside has a Mohs hardness of 5.5, similar to opal or tanzanite , so it should be protected in rings that will receive a lot of wear. Remove your chrome diopside jewelry before strenuous activity and store it separately from your other gems and jewelry .
Topaz is a very hard gemstone , with a Mohs hardness of 8, but it can be split with a single sharp blow, a trait it shares with diamond . As a result it should be protected from hard knocks. Clean with mild dish soap; use a toothbrush to scrub behind the stone where dust can collect.
Rubies are extremely durable due to their hardness and toughness - second after diamond on the Mohs Hardness Scale . Ruby jewellery may be clean ed in an ultrasonic cleaner , or it may be steamed.
5 on Mohs hardness scale and mainly found in Russia, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Burma, Madagascar and USA. The most sensational feature about this stone is its surprising ability to change its color under different forms of light.
Sapphire s are a 9 on the Mohs hardness scale . The Mohs scale was developed by Friedrich Mohs in 1812 and has been a valuable aid in identifying minerals ever since. Here are the ten levels of hardness in minerals on the scale: ...
The portion of a cut stone above the girdle .
Hardness The measurement of resistance to permanent deformations (such as scratches ). On the Mohs hardness scale of mineral materials, the hardness of a diamond is a 10, the hardest rating of all minerals .
Heart Cut See Shape .
To the untrained eye they are very similar in appearance though Cubic Zirconia has a Mohs hardness rating of 8 as opposed to 10 for a Diamond . They are also result in a heavier stone than similar sized diamond . A process perfect ed in Russia, they have been available commercially since 1976.
Overview: Goldstone is man made . It had been around since the European renaissance period. It has a mohs hardness of 5.5. Goldstone symbolizes human ingenuity in the search for wealth and beauty.
Tourmaline is reputed to have a powerful positive influence on love and friendship. With a Mohs hardness rating of 7 to 7.5, tourmaline is a very durable and easy to maintain gemstone perfect for everyday wear.
Sapphire is one of the hardest gemstones to be found, second only to the diamond on Mohs Hardness Scale . The value of a sapphire is determined by its colour , purity , reflection (or optical properties ), and size .
aventurine cabochon Aventurine is a translucent to opaque variety of micro crystalline quartz . Small inclusions of shiny minerals give the stone a sparkling effect known as aventurescence . Aventurine ranges in color from green, peach, brown, blue and a creamy green. Mohs hardness is 6.5.
The same is true for gemstone earrings . A ring or bracelet , however, will come into contact with a variety of surface s, some of which can damage a gemstone . In selecting gems to be worn on the hand or wrist, chose a gem with a Mohs hardness rating of seven or higher.
Harder minerals of course tend to be more durable and will not scratch easily. They're good choices for jewelry because of their ability to withstand changes in element s or the arbitrary scratch or knock. Talc , with a Mohs hardness of 1, is the softest mineral and can be scratch ed with a fingernail.
Tap on your pearl to make sure that it is not loose.
Even though pearls are exceptionally cohesive and shock-resistant, they rank only 3.5 to 4.5 on the Mohs hardness scale , so they may be scratch ed by contact with sharp objects or other gemstones .
Mohs hardness is 1 to 2, luster is pearly to dull and glistening, and specific gravity is 2.65 to 2.90. Pyrophyllite is the main component of some schists and also occurs in hydrothermal veins with quartz and micas. Pyroxenite ... igneous rock .. var. websterite, bronzitite ...
| Talc |
What British coin, whose nickname strangely alludes to the leather industry, ceased to be legal tender in June 1980? | Nanokim Chemistry | blanc fixe precipitated baryte precipitated barium sulphate lithopone molecular sieve synthetic zeolite
LITERATURE ABOUT MINERALS
Calcium Carbonate
Calcite crystals are trigonal-rhombohedral, though actual calcite rhombohedra are rare as natural crystals. However, they show a remarkable variety of habits including acute to obtuse rhombohedra, tabular forms, prisms, or various scalenohedra. Calcite exhibits several twinning types adding to the variety of observed forms. It may occur as fibrous, granular, lamellar, or compact. Cleavage is usually in three directions parallel to the rhombohedron form. Its fracture is conchoidal, but difficult to obtain.
It has a Mohs hardness of 3, a specific gravity of 2.71, and its luster is vitreous in crystallized varieties. Color is white or none, though shades of gray, red, yellow, green, blue, violet, brown, or even black can occur when the mineral is charged with impurities.
Calcite is transparent to opaque and may occasionally show phosphorescence or fluorescence. A transparent variety called Iceland spar is used for optical purposes. Acute scalenohedral crystals are sometimes referred to as "dogtooth spar".
Single calcite crystals display an optical property called birefringence (double refraction). This strong birefringence causes objects viewed through a clear piece of calcite to appear doubled. The birefringent effect (using calcite) was first described by the Danish scientist Rasmus Bartholin in 1669. At a wavelength of ~590 nm calcite has ordinary and extraordinary refractive indices of 1.658 and 1.486, respectively. Between 190 and 1700 nm, the ordinary refractive index varies roughly between 1.6 and 1.4, while the extraordinary refractive index varies between 1.9 and 1.5.
Calcite, like most carbonates, will dissolve with most forms of acid. Calcite can be either dissolved by groundwater or precipitated by groundwater, depending on several factors including the water temperature, pH, and dissolved ion concentrations. Although calcite is fairly insoluble in cold water, acidity can cause dissolution of calcite and release of carbon dioxide gas. Calcite exhibits an unusual characteristic called retrograde solubility in which it becomes less soluble in water as the temperature increases. When conditions are right for precipitation, calcite forms mineral coatings that cement the existing rock grains together or it can fill fractures. When conditions are right for dissolution, the removal of calcite can dramatically increase the porosity and permeability of the rock, and if it continues for a long period of time may result in the formation of caverns, most notably the Snowy River Cave in Lincoln County, New Mexico.
Calcite is one of the most important minerals. It is extremely common and found throughout the world in sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks. In the form of limestone and marble it makes up a significant portion of Earth's crust and serves as one of the largest carbon repositories on our planet. The properties of calcite make it extremely useful as: construction materials, abrasives, agricultural soil treatments, construction aggregates, pigments, pharmaceuticals and more.
In a powdered form, calcite often has an extremely white color. This quality makes it often used as a pigment or "whiting". Calcite has long been used as a whitewash and it is also used as one of the inert coloring ingredients of paint.
Pulverized limestone or marble are often used as a dietary supplement in animal feed. Chickens that produce eggs and cattle that produce milk need to consume a calcium-rich diet. Small amounts of calcium carbonate are often added to their feeds to enhance their calcium intake.
Calcite has a hardness of three on the Mohs scale and that makes it suitable as a low-hardness abrasive. It is softer than the stone, porcelain and plastic surfaces found in kitchens and bathrooms but more durable than food and other debris that people want to remove. Its low hardness makes it an effective cleaning agent that does not damage the surface being cleaned.
Pulverized limestone is also used as a mine safety dust. This is a nonflammable dust that is sprayed onto the walls and roofs of underground coal mines to reduce the amount of coal dust in the air (which can be an explosion hazard). The mine safety dust adheres to the wall of the mine and immobilizes the coal dust. It's white color aids in illumination of the mine.
Baryte
Baryte (BaSO4) is a mineral consisting of barium sulfate. It is generally white or colorless, and is the main source of barium. Barite is the unofficial American spelling. The mineral is also called heavy spar or tiff. The radiating form, sometimes referred to as Bologna Stone, attained some notoriety among alchemists for the phosphorescent specimens found in the 1600s near Bologna by Vincenzo Cascariolo. Its Mohs hardness is 3, the refractive index is 1.63 and it has a specific gravity of 4.3-5. Its crystal structure is orthorhombic.
Baryte commonly occurs in lead-zinc veins in limestones, in hot spring deposits, and with hematite ore. It is often associated with the minerals anglesite and celestine.
The term "primary baryte" refers to the first marketable product, which includes crude baryte (run of mine) and the products of simple beneficiation methods, such as washing, jigging, heavy media separation, tabling, flotation, and magnetic separation. Most crude baryte requires some upgrading to minimum purity or density. Baryte that is used as an aggregate in a "heavy" cement is crushed and screened to a uniform size. Most baryte is ground to a small, uniform size before it is used as a filler or extender, an addition to industrial products, or a weighting agent in petroleum well drilling mud.
Some 77% worldwide is used as a weighting agent for drilling fluids in oil and gas exploration. Other uses are in added-value applications which include the car, electronics, TV screen, rubber, and glass ceramics and paint industry, radiation shielding and medical applications (barium meals). Baryte is supplied in a variety of forms and the price depends on the amount of processing; filler applications commanding higher prices following intense physical processing by grinding and micronising, and there are further premiums for whiteness and brightness and colour.
Baryte is used in the manufacture of paints and paper. Although baryte contains a "heavy" metal (barium), it is not considered to be a toxic chemical by most governments because of its extreme insolubility.
Talc
Talc is a mineral composed of hydrated magnesium silicate with the chemical formula H2Mg3(SiO3)4 or Mg3Si4O10(OH)2. In loose form, it is the widely used substance known as talcum powder. It occurs as foliated to fibrous masses, its monoclinic crystals being so rare as to be almost unknown. It has a perfect basal cleavage, and the folia are non-elastic, although slightly flexible. It is sectile and very soft, with a hardness of 1 (Talc is the softest of the Mohs' scale of mineral hardness, and can be easily scratched by a fingernail). It has a specific gravity of 2.5�2.8, a clear or dusty luster, and is translucent to opaque. Talc is not soluble in water, but it is slightly soluble in dilute mineral acids. Its colour ranges from white to grey or green and it has a distinctly greasy feel. Its streak is white.
Talc is a metamorphic mineral resulting from the metamorphism of magnesian minerals such as pyroxene, amphibole, olivine and other similar minerals in the presence of carbon dioxide and water. This is known as talc carbonation or steatization and produces a suite of rocks known as talc carbonates.
Talc is primarily formed via hydration and carbonation of serpentine, via the following reaction;
Serpentine + Carbon Dioxide ---> Talc + Magnesite + Water
Talc can also be formed via a reaction between dolomite and silica, which is typical of skarnification of dolomites via silica-flooding in contact metamorphic aureoles;
Dolomite + Silica + Water ---> Talc + Calcite + Carbon Dioxide
Talc can also be formed from magnesian chlorite and quartz in blueschist and eclogite metamorphism via the following metamorphic reaction:
Chlorite + Quartz ---> Kyanite + Talc + H2O
In this reaction, the ratio of talc and kyanite is dependent on aluminium content with more aluminous rocks favoring production of kyanite. This is typically associated with high-pressure, low-temperature minerals such as phengite, garnet, glaucophane within the lower blueschist facies. Such rocks are typically white, friable, and fibrous, and are known as whiteschist.
Talc is a tri-octahedral layered mineral; its structure is similar to that of pyrophyllite, but with magnesium in the octahedral sites of the composite layers.
A coarse grayish-green high-talc rock is soapstone or steatite and has been used for stoves, sinks, electrical switchboards, etc. Talc finds use as a cosmetic (talcum powder), as a lubricant, and as a filler in paper manufacture. Talc is used in baby powder, an astringent powder used for preventing rashes on the area covered by a diaper. Most tailor's chalk is talc, as is the chalk often used for welding or metalworking.
Talc is also used as food additive or in pharmaceutical products as a glidant. In medicine talc is used as a pleurodesis agent to prevent recurrent pneumothorax. In the European Union the additive number is E553b.
Talc is widely used in the ceramics industry in both bodies and glazes. In low-fire artware bodies it imparts whiteness and increases thermal expansion to resist crazing. In stonewares, small percentages of talc are used to flux the body and therefore improve strength and vitrification. It is a source of MgO flux in high temperature glazes (to control melting temperature). It is also employed as a matting agent in earthenware glazes and can be used to produce magnesia mattes at high temperatures.
Kaolin
Kaolinite is a clay mineral with the chemical composition Al2Si2O5(OH)4. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedral sheet of alumina octahedra. Rocks that are rich in kaolinite are known as china clay or kaolin. The Mohs hardness is 2 to 2.5 and the specific gravity is 2.16 to 2.68. Its luster is dull and earthy.It has a perfect cleavage and a perfect fracture.
Kaolinite is one of the most common minerals; it is mined, as kaolin, in Brazil, France, United Kingdom, Germany, India, Australia, Korea, the People's Republic of China, the Czech Republic, and the USA.
Kaolinite has a low shrink-swell capacity and a low cation exchange capacity (1-15 meq/100g.) It is a soft, earthy, usually white mineral (dioctahedral phyllosilicate clay), produced by the chemical weathering of aluminium silicate minerals like feldspar. In many parts of the world, it is colored pink-orange-red by iron oxide, giving it a distinct rust hue. Lighter concentrations yield white, yellow or light orange colours.
Kaolin is used in ceramics, medicine, coated paper, as a food additive, in toothpaste, as a light diffusing material in white incandescent light bulbs, and in cosmetics. It is generally the main component in porcelain.
It is also used in paint to extend titanium dioxide (TiO2) and modify gloss levels; in rubber for semi-reinforcing properties and in adhesives to modify rheology.
The largest use is in the production of paper, including ensuring the gloss on some grades of paper. Commercial grades of kaolin are supplied and transported as dry powder, semi-dry noodle or as liquid slurry.
A more recent, and more limited, use is as a specially formulated spray applied to especially organic fruits, vegetables, and other vegetation to repel or deter insect damage, and at least in the case of apples, to prevent sun scald. A traditional use is to soothe an upset stomach, similar to the way parrots (and later, humans) in South America originally used it.
Kaolin is or has been used as the active substance in liquid anti-diarrhea medicines such as Kaomagma and Kaopectate . Such medicines were changed away from aluminium substances due to a scare over Alzheimer's disease, but have since changed back to compounds containing aluminium as they are most effective.
Dolomite
Dolomite is the name of a sedimentary carbonate rock and a mineral, both composed of calcium magnesium carbonate CaMg(CO3)2 found in crystals.
Dolomite rock (also dolostone) is composed predominantly of the mineral dolomite. Limestone that is partially replaced by dolomite is referred to as dolomitic limestone, or in old U.S. geologic literature as magnesian limestone.
The mineral dolomite crystallizes in the trigonal-rhombohedral system. It forms white, gray to pink, commonly curved crystals, although it is usually massive. It has physical properties similar to those of the mineral calcite, but does not rapidly dissolve or effervesce (fizz) in dilute hydrochloric acid unless it is scratched or in powdered form. The Mohs hardness is 3.5 to 4 and the specific gravity is 2.85. Refractive index values are nω = 1.679 - 1.681 and nε = 1.500. Crystal twinning is common. A solid solution series exists between dolomite and iron rich ankerite. Small amounts of iron in the structure give the crystals a yellow to brown tint. Manganese substitutes in the structure also up to about three percent MnO. A high manganese content gives the crystals a rosy pink color noted in the image above. A series with the manganese rich kutnohorite may exist. Lead and zinc also substitute in the structure for magnesium.
Dolomite is used as an ornamental stone, a concrete aggregate and as a source of magnesium oxide. It is an important petroleum reservoir rock, and serves as the host rock for large strata-bound Mississippi Valley-Type (MVT) ore deposits of base metals (that is, readily oxidized metals) such as lead, zinc, and copper. Where calcite limestone is uncommon or too costly, dolomite is sometime used in its place as a flux (impurity remover) for the smelting of iron and steel. Large quantities of processed dolomite are used in the production of float glass (flat glass) In horticulture, dolomite and dolomitic limestone are added to soils and soilless potting mixes to lower their acidity ("sweeten" them). Home and container gardening are common examples of this use.
In nutrition, dolomite is sold sometimes as a dietary supplement on the assumption that it should make a good simultaneous source of the two important elemental nutrients calcium and magnesium. However, laboratory experiments conducted at the University of Alberta demonstrate that dolomite is practically insoluble in stomach acid and is eliminated from the body before significant magnesium or calcium can be absorbed.
Mica
The mica group of sheet silicate (phyllosilicate) minerals includes several closely related materials having highly perfect basal cleavage. All are monoclinic with a tendency towards pseudo-hexagonal crystals and are similar in chemical composition. The highly perfect cleavage, which is the most prominent characteristic of mica, is explained by the hexagonal sheet-like arrangement of its atoms.
Mica has a high dielectric strength and excellent chemical stability, making it a favoured material for manufacturing capacitors for radio frequency applications. It has also been used as an insulator in high voltage electrical equipment. It is also birefringent and is commonly used to make quarter and half wave plates.
Because mica is resistant to heat it is used instead of glass in windows for stoves and kerosene heaters. It is also used to separate electrical conductors in cables that are designed to have a fire-resistance rating in order to provide circuit integrity. The idea is to keep the metal conductors from fusing in order to prevent a short-circuit so that the cables remain operational during a fire, which can be important for applications such as emergency lighting.
Illites or clay micas have a low cation exchange capacity for 2:1 clays. K+ ions between layers of mica prevent swelling by blocking water molecules.
Because mica can be pressed into a thin film, it is often used on Geiger-M�ller tubes to detect low penetrating Alpha particles.
Aventurine is a variety of quartz with mica inclusions used as a gemstone.
Pressed mica sheets are often used in place of glass in greenhouses.
Mica is often found in mineral cosmetics.
Some brands of toothpaste include powdered white mica. This acts as a mild abrasive to aid polishing of the tooth surface, and also adds a cosmetically-pleasing glittery shimmer to the paste. The shimmer from mica is also used in makeup, as it gives a translucent "glow" to the skin or helps to mask imperfections.
Mica is used in the production of pearlescent pigments.
Many metallic looking pigments are composed of a substrate of mica coated with another mineral, usually TiO2. The resultant pigment produces a reflective color depending on the thickness of the coating. These products are used to produce automobile paint, shimmery plastic containers, high quality inks used in advertsing and security applications.
Mica sheets are used to provide structure for heating wire (such as in Kanthal or Nichrome) in heating elements and can withstand up to 900 �C (1,650 �F).
Another use of mica is in the production of ultraflat thin film surfaces (e.g. gold surfaces) using mica as substrate. Although the deposited film surface is still rough due to deposition kinetics, the back side of the film at mica-film interface provides ultraflatness, when the film is removed from the substrate.
Muscovite mica is the most common substrate for sample preparation for the atomic force microscope. Freshly-cleaved mica surfaces have been used as clean imaging substrates in atomic force microscopy, enabling for example the imaging of bismuth films, plasma glycoproteins, membrane bilayers, and DNA molecules.
Mica slices are used in electronics to provide electric insulation between a heat-generating component and the heat sink used to cool it . The same word is sometimes used by technicians to designate a synthetised gum (usually blue or gray) which is used for the same purpose, but which does not actually consist of silicate mineral.
Other Industrial Minerals
Diatomite
Diatomite is a powdery, non-metallic mineral composed of the fossilised skeletal remains of microscopic single-celled aquatic plants called diatoms. Over 10,000 species of these microscopic algae have been recognised, each with its own distinct shape, ranging in size from under 5 microns to over 100 microns. Diatomite deposits are usually categorised based upon their fresh water or salt water origin. Both the chemical composition and the physical structure of diatomite make it of great commercial value for a wide spectrum of uses, including filter aids, functional fillers, carriers for active ingredients and diluents, and aggregates.
Before the end of the 19th century, the diatomite deposits attracted attention as a potential industrial material. At that time the chemical and physical properties of diatomite as an insulation material were already recognised. It was not, however, until sometime later, that the mining and The unique properties of diatomite including:
� Light weight
� Inertness
Quartz
Quartz is the second most abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust (after feldspar). It is made up of a lattice of silica (SiO2) tetrahedra. Quartz has a hardness of 7 on the Mohs scale and a density of 2.65 g/cm�.
Pure quartz, sometimes called clear quartz, is colorless or white and transparent (clear) or translucent. Common colored varieties include citrine, rose quartz, amethyst, smoky quartz, milky quartz, and others. Quartz goes by an array of different names. The most important distinction between types of quartz is that of macrocrystalline (individual crystals visible to the unaided eye) and the microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline varieties (aggregates of crystals visible only under high magnification). The cryptocrystalline varieties are either translucent or mostly opaque, while the transparent varieties tend to be macrocrystalline. Chalcedony is a cryptocrystalline form of silica consisting of fine intergrowths of both quartz, and its monoclinic polymorph moganite.
Major Varieties of Quartz ;
Chalcedony Cryptocrystalline quartz and moganite mixture. The term is generally only used for white or lightly colored material. Otherwise more specific names are used.
Agate Multi-colored, banded chalcedony, semi-translucent to translucent
Onyx Agate where the bands are straight, parallel and consistent in size.
Jasper Opaque cryptocrystalline quartz, typically red to brown
Aventurine Translucent chalcedony with small inclusions (usually mica) that shimmer.
Tiger's eye Fibrous gold to red-brown coloured quartz, exhibiting chatoyancy.
Rock crystal Clear, colorless
Rose quartz Pink, translucent, may display diasterism
Rutilated quartz Contains acicular (needles) inclusions of rutile
Milk quartz White, translucent to opaque, may display diasterism
Smoky quartz Brown to grey, opaque
Carnelian Reddish orange chalcedony, translucent
Sepiolite
Sepiolite is a clay mineral, a complex magnesium silicate, a typical formula for which is Mg4Si6O15(OH)2 � 6H2O. It can be present in fibrous, fine-particulate, and solid forms. It is used in oil drilling, for cat litter and also in a solid form known as Meerschaum for carving.
The name comes from a perceived resemblance of the material to the porous bones of the cuttlefish or sepia. On account of its low specific gravity, one to two, and its porosity, it may float upon water, hence its German name Meerschaum ("sea foam").
Owing to its fibrous mineral nature, sepiolite veins may contain the hazardous material, asbestos; even where asbestos is not present, sepiolite is often mistaken for it. Careful analytical techniques may be required to distinguish the two.
Chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. It forms under relatively deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates (coccoliths) shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores. It is common to find flint and chert nodules embedded in chalk. Chalk can also refer to other compounds including magnesium silicate, Manganoan Calcite ((Ca,Mn)CO3), Calcium Oxide (CaO), and calcium sulfate.
Chalk is relatively resistant to erosion and slumping compared to the clays with which it is usually associated, thus forming tall steep cliffs where chalk ridges meet the sea. Chalk hills, known as chalk downland, usually form where bands of chalk reach the surface at an angle, so forming a scarp slope. Because chalk is porous it can hold a large volume of ground water, providing a natural reservoir that releases water slowly through dry seasons.
Chalk has been quarried since prehistory, providing building material and marl for fields. In southeast England, deneholes are a notable example of ancient chalk pits.
The traditional uses of chalk have in many cases been replaced by other substances, although the word "chalk" is often still applied to the replacements.
Blackboard chalk is a substance used for drawing on rough surfaces, as it readily crumbles leaving particles that stick loosely to these surfaces. Although traditionally composed of natural chalk, modern blackboard chalk is generally made from the mineral gypsum (calcium sulfate), often supplied in sticks of compressed powder about 10 cm long.
Sidewalk chalk is similar to blackboard chalk, except that is is formed into larger sticks and often colored. It is used to draw on sidewalks, streets, and driveways, mostly by children, but also in many cities used by talented adult artists create temporary masterpieces on the walkways.
In agriculture chalk is used for raising pH in soils with high acidity. The most common forms are CaCO3 (Calcium carbonate) and CaO (Calcium Oxide).
In lawn tennis, powdered chalk was used to mark the boundary lines of the court. This gives the advantage that, if the ball hits the line, a cloud of chalk or pigment dust can be seen. Nowadays the substance used is mostly titanium dioxide.
In gymnastics, rock-climbing, bouldering, weight-lifting and tug of war, chalk�now usually magnesium carbonate�is applied to the hands to remove perspiration and prevent slipping.
Tailor's chalk is traditionally a hard chalk used to make temporary markings on cloth, mainly by tailors. Nowadays it is usually made from talc (magnesium silicate).
Toothpaste also commonly contains small amounts of chalk.
Zeolite
Zeolites are microporous, aluminosilicate minerals commonly used as commercial absorbents. The term zeolite was originally coined in 1756 by Swedish mineralogist Axel Fredrik Cronstedt, who observed that upon rapidly heating the material stilbite, it produced large amounts of steam from water that had been absorbed by the material. Based on this, he called the material zeolite, from the Greek ζέω (zeō), meaning "boil" and λίθος (lithos), meaning "stone".
As of January 2008, 175 unique zeolite frameworks have been identified, and over 40 naturally occurring zeolite frameworks are known. Zeolites have a porous structure that can accommodate a wide variety of cations, such as Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+ and others. These positive ions are rather loosely held and can readily be exchanged for others in a contact solution. Some of the more common mineral zeolites are analcime, chabazite, clinoptilolite, heulandite, natrolite, phillipsite, and stilbite. An example mineral formula is: Na2Al2Si3O10-2H2O, the formula for natrolite.
Natural zeolites form where volcanic rocks and ash layers react with alkaline groundwater. Zeolites also crystallize in post-depositional environments over periods ranging from thousands to millions of years in shallow marine basins. Naturally occurring zeolites are rarely pure and are contaminated to varying degrees by other minerals, metals, quartz, or other zeolites. For this reason, naturally occurring zeolites are excluded from many important commercial applications where uniformity and purity are essential.
Medical:
Zeolite-based oxygen concentrator systems are widely used to produce medical-grade oxygen. The zeolite is used as a molecular sieve to create purified oxygen from air using its ability to trap impurities, in a process involving the absorption of nitrogen, leaving highly purified oxygen and up to 5% argon.
QuikClot brand hemostatic agent, which continues to be used successfully to save lives by stopping severe bleeding, contains a calcium-loaded form of zeolite.
Commercial and Domestic:
Zeolites are widely used as ion-exchange beds in domestic and commercial water purification, softening, and other applications. In chemistry, zeolites are used to separate molecules (only molecules of certain sizes and shapes can pass through), as traps for molecules so they can be analyzed.
Zeolites have the potential of providing precise and specific separation of gases including the removal of H2O, CO2 and SO2 from low-grade natural gas streams. Other separations include noble gases, N2, O2, freon and formaldehyde. However, at present, the true potential to improve the handling of such gases in this manner remains unknown.
Petrochemical industry:
Synthetic zeolites are widely used as catalysts in the petrochemical industry, for instance in fluid catalytic cracking and hydro-cracking. Zeolites confine molecules in small spaces, which causes changes in their structure and reactivity. The hydrogen form of zeolites (prepared by ion-exchange) are powerful solid-state acids, and can facilitate a host of acid-catalyzed reactions, such as isomerisation, alkylation, and cracking. The specific activation modality of most zeolitic catalysts used in petrochemical applications involves quantum-chemical Lewis acid site reactions.
Catalytic cracking uses a furnace and reactor. First, crude oil distillation fractions are heated in the furnace and passed to the reactor. In the reactor, the crude meets with a catalyst such as zeolite. It goes through this step three times, each time getting cooler. Finally, it reaches a step known as separator. The separator collects recycled hydrogen. Then it goes through a fractionator and becomes the final item.
Nuclear industry:
Zeolites have uses in advanced reprocessing methods, where their micro-porous ability to capture some ions while allowing others to pass freely allow many fission products to be efficiently removed from nuclear waste and permanently trapped. Equally important are the mineral properties of zeolites. Their alumino-silicate construction is extremely durable and resistant to radiation even in porous form. Additionally, once they are loaded with trapped fission products, the zeolite-waste combination can be hot pressed into an extremely durable ceramic form, closing the pores and trapping the waste in a solid stone block. This is a waste form factor that greatly reduces its hazard compared to conventional reprocessing systems.
Agriculture:
In agriculture, clinoptilolite (a naturally occurring zeolite) is used as a soil treatment. It provides a source of slowly released potassium. If previously loaded with ammonium, the zeolite can serve a similar function in the slow release of nitrogen. Zeolites can also act as water moderators, in which they will absorb up to 55% of their weight in water and slowly release it under plant demand. This property can prevent root rot and moderate drought cycles.
Animal welfare:
In concentrated animal growing facilities, the addition of as little as 1% of a very low sodium clinoptiloite was shown to improve feed conversion, reduce airborne ammonia up to 80%, act as a mycotoxin binder, and improve bone density. It can be used in general odor elimination for all animal odors.
Heating and Refrigeration:
Zeolites can be used as solar thermal collectors and for absorption refrigeration. In these applications, their high heat of absorption and ability to hydrate and dehydrate while maintaining structural stability is exploited. This hygroscopic property coupled with an inherent exothermic (heat-producing) reaction when transitioning from a dehydrated to a hydrated form make natural zeolites useful in harvesting waste heat and solar heat energy.
Detergents:
The largest single use for zeolite is the global laundry detergent market. This amounted to 1.44 million metric tons per year of anhydrous zeolite A in 1992.
Construction:
Synthetic zeolite is also being used as an additive in the production process of warm mix asphalt concrete. The development of this application started in Germany in the 1990s. It helps by decreasing the temperature level during manufacture and laying of asphalt concrete, resulting in lower consumption of fossil fuels, thus releasing less carbon dioxide, aerosols, and vapours. Other than that, the use of synthetic zeolite in hot mixed asphalt leads to easier compaction and, to a certain degree, allows cold weather paving and longer hauls.
When added to Portland cement as a pozzolan, it can reduce chloride permeability and improve workability. It reduces weight and helps moderate water content while allowing for slower drying which improves break strength.
Gemstones:
Thomsonites, one of the rarer zeolite minerals, have been collected as gemstones from a series of lava flows along Lake Superior in Minnesota and to a lesser degree in Michigan, U.S.A. Thomsonite nodules from these areas have eroded from basalt lava flows and are collected on beaches and by scuba divers in Lake Superior.
These thomsonite nodules have concentric rings in combinations of colors: black, white, orange, pink, red, and many shades of green. Some nodules have copper inclusions and rarely will be found with copper "eyes." When polished by a lapidary the thomsonites sometimes display chatoyancy.
Aquarium keeping:
Zeolites are marketed by pet stores for use as a filter additive in aquariums. In aquariums, zeolites can be used to absorb ammonia and other nitrogenous compounds. However, due to the high affinity of some zeolites for calcium, they may be less effective in hard water and may deplete calcium. Zeolite filtration is used in some marine aquaria to keep nutrient concentrations low for the benefit of corals adapted to nutrient-depleted waters.
Where and how the zeolite was formed is an important consideration for aquariums. Northern hemisphere natural zeolites were formed when molten lava came in contact with sea water, thereby 'loading' the zeolite with Na (sodium) sacrificial ions. These sodium ions will speciate with other ions in solution, thus the takeup of nitrogen in ammonia, with the release of the sodium. In southern hemisphere zeolites, such as found in Australia, which were formed with fresh water, thus the calcium uptake on formation.
Zeolite is an effective ammonia filter, but must be used with some care, especially with delicate tropical corals that are sensitive to water chemistry and temperature.
Space hardware testing:
Zeolites can be used as a molecular sieve in cryosorption pumps for rough pumping of vacuum chambers that can be used to simulate space-like conditions to test hardware bound for space.
Cat litter:
Non-clumping cat litter is often made of zeolite or diatomite.
Pyrophyllite
Pyrophyllite is a phyllosilicate mineral species belonging to the clay family and composed of aluminium silicate hydroxide: AlSi2O5OH. It occurs in two more or less distinct varieties, namely, as crystalline folia and as compact masses; distinct crystals are not known.
The folia have a pronounced pearly lustre, owing to the presence of a perfect cleavage parallel to their surfaces: they are flexible but not elastic, and are usually arranged radially in fan-like or spherical groups. This variety, when heated before the blowpipe, exfoliates and swells up to many times its original volume, hence the name pyrophyllite, from the Greek pyros (fire) and phyllos (a leaf), given by R. Hermann in 1829. The color of both varieties is white, pale green, greyish or yellowish; they are very soft (hardness of 1 to 1.5) and are greasy to the touch. The specific gravity is 2.65 - 2.85. The two varieties are thus very similar to talc.
The compact variety of pyrophyllite is used for slate pencils and tailors chalk (French chalk), and is carved by the Chinese into small images and ornaments of various kinds. Other soft compact minerals (steatite and pinite) used for these Chinese carvings are included with pyrophyllite under the terms agalmatolite and pagodite. In addition, pyrophyllite is widely used in high-pressure presses as a pressure-trasmitting medium.
Pyrophyllite occurs in phyllite and schistose rocks, often associated with kyanite, of which it is an alteration product. Pale green foliated masses, very like talc in appearance, are found at Beresovsk near Yekaterinburg in the Urals, and at Zermatt in Switzerland. The most extensive deposits are in the Deep River region of North Carolina, where the compact variety is mined, and in South Carolina and Georgia. Major deposits of pyrophyllite occur within region of Ottosdal, South Africa, where it is mined for the production of a variety of manufactured goods and blocks are quarried and marketed as "Wonderstone" for the carving of sculptures. In Australia, pyrophyllite has been mined at three sites near Pambula on the Sapphire Coast of NSW.
It is added to clay to reduce thermal expansion when firing but it has many other industry uses when combined with other compounds, such as in insecticide and for making bricks.
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What degrees temperature is the same in Centigrade/Celsius as it is in Fahrenheit? | Celsius, Centigrade and Fahrenheit
Celsius, Centigrade and Fahrenheit
What is the difference between Celsius, Centigrade and Fahrenheit?
What is Celsius?
°C
This is the most common temperature scale in the world and the simplest to understand.
Put simply, 0°C is the freezing point of water and 100°C is the boiling point of water.
Centigrade is an old fashioned name for Celsius.
You can abbreviate it to °C.
The scale is named after Swedish scientist Anders Celsius (1701-1744).
What is Fahrenheit?
°F
Fahrenheit is still in everyday use in the USA and preferred by older people in the UK.
In Fahrenheit the freezing point of water is 32°F and the boiling point is 212°F.
You can abbreviate it to °F.
The scale is named after its originator Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686-1736).
Centigrade is the old fashioned name for Celsius.
The name Centigrade was derived from the latin - meaning hundred degrees.
When Anders Celsius created his original scale in 1742 he inexplicably chose 0° for the boiling point and 100° for the freezing point.
One year later Frenchman Jean Pierre Cristin proposed an inverted version of the scale (freezing point 0°, boiling point 100°). He named it Centigrade.
In 1948, by international agreement, Cristin's adapted scale became known as Celsius to honour the Swedish Scientist.
What is the difference between them?
Celsius, Centigrade & Fahrenheit are all temperature scales.
All thermometer temperatures can be expressed in Celsius or Fahrenheit.
Both scales have the same value at -40°: -40°C = -40°F
To convert between Celsius or Fahrenheit you can use the following equations:
°C = °F - 32 x (5/9)
°F = °C / (5/9) + 32
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In what form does keratin, the substance human fingernails and hair are made from, sell for more than gold, and endanger a species? | Fahrenheit to Celsius conversion | °F to °C | Temperature conversion
Celsius
Although initially defined by the freezing point of water (and later the melting point of ice), the Celsius scale is now officially a derived scale, defined in relation to the Kelvin temperature scale .
Zero on the Celsius scale (0℃) is now defined as the equivalent to 273.15K, with a temperature difference of 1 deg C equivalent to a difference of 1K, meaning the unit size in each scale is the same. This means that 100℃, previously defined as the boiling point of water, is now defined as the equivalent to 373.15K.
The Celsius scale is an interval system but not a ratio system, meaning it follows a relative scale but not an absolute scale. This can be seen because the temperature interval between 20℃ and 30℃ is the same as between 30℃ and 40℃, but 40℃ does not have twice the air heat energy of 20℃.
A temperature difference of 1 deg C is the equivalent of a temperature difference 1.8°F.
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The nuclear disaster site at Chernobyl, to which tourist visits begin/began in 2011, is in which country? | Chernobyl | Chernobyl Accident | Chernobyl Disaster - World Nuclear Association
Chernobyl Accident 1986
(Updated November 2016)
The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel.
The resulting steam explosion and fires released at least 5% of the radioactive reactor core into the atmosphere and downwind – some 5200 PBq (I-131 eq).
Two Chernobyl plant workers died on the night of the accident, and a further 28 people died within a few weeks as a result of acute radiation poisoning.
UNSCEAR says that apart from increased thyroid cancers, "there is no evidence of a major public health impact attributable to radiation exposure 20 years after the accident."
Resettlement of areas from which people were relocated is ongoing. In 2011 Chernobyl was officially declared a tourist attraction.
The April 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl a nuclear power plant in Ukraine was the product of a flawed Soviet reactor design coupled with serious mistakes made by the plant operators b . It was a direct consequence of Cold War isolation and the resulting lack of any safety culture.
The accident destroyed the Chernobyl 4 reactor, killing 30 operators and firemen within three months and several further deaths later. One person was killed immediately and a second died in hospital soon after as a result of injuries received. Another person is reported to have died at the time from a coronary thrombosis c . Acute radiation syndrome (ARS) was originally diagnosed in 237 people on-site and involved with the clean-up and it was later confirmed in 134 cases. Of these, 28 people died as a result of ARS within a few weeks of the accident. Nineteen more subsequently died between 1987 and 2004 but their deaths cannot necessarily be attributed to radiation exposure d . Nobody off-site suffered from acute radiation effects although a large proportion of childhood thyroid cancers diagnosed since the accident is likely to be due to intake of radioactive iodine fallout d . Furthermore, large areas of Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and beyond were contaminated in varying degrees. See also sections below and Chernobyl Accident Appendix 2: Health Impacts .
The Chernobyl disaster was a unique event and the only accident in the history of commercial nuclear power where radiation-related fatalities occurred e . However, the design of the reactor is unique and in that respect the accident is thus of little relevance to the rest of the nuclear industry outside the then Eastern Bloc. However, it led to major changes in safety culture and in industry cooperation, particularly between East and West before the end of the Soviet Union. Former President Gorbachev said that the Chernobyl accident was a more important factor in the fall of the Soviet Union than Perestroika – his program of liberal reform.
The Chernobyl site and plant
The Chernobyl Power Complex , lying about 130 km north of Kiev, Ukraine, and about 20 km south of the border with Belarus, consisted of four nuclear reactors of the RBMK-1000 design (see information page on RBMK Reactors ), units 1 and 2 being constructed between 1970 and 1977, while units 3 and 4 of the same design were completed in 1983. Two more RBMK reactors were under construction at the site at the time of the accident. To the southeast of the plant, an artificial lake of some 22 square kilometres, situated beside the river Pripyat, a tributary of the Dniepr, was constructed to provide cooling water for the reactors.
This area of Ukraine is described as Belarussian-type woodland with a low population density. About 3 km away from the reactor, in the new city, Pripyat, there were 49,000 inhabitants. The old town of Chornobyl, which had a population of 12,500, is about 15 km to the southeast of the complex. Within a 30 km radius of the power plant, the total population was between 115,000 and 135,000.
Source: OECD NEA
The RBMK-1000 is a Soviet-designed and built graphite moderated pressure tube type reactor, using slightly enriched (2% U-235) uranium dioxide fuel. It is a boiling light water reactor, with two loops feeding steam directly to the turbines, without an intervening heat exchanger. Water pumped to the bottom of the fuel channels boils as it progresses up the pressure tubes, producing steam which feeds two 500 MWe turbines. The water acts as a coolant and also provides the steam used to drive the turbines. The vertical pressure tubes contain the zirconium alloy clad uranium dioxide fuel around which the cooling water flows. The extensions of the fuel channels penetrate the lower plate and the cover plate of the core and are welded to each. A specially designed refuelling machine allows fuel bundles to be changed without shutting down the reactor.
The moderator, whose function is to slow down neutrons to make them more efficient in producing fission in the fuel, is graphite, surrounding the pressure tubes. A mixture of nitrogen and helium is circulated between the graphite blocks to prevent oxidation of the graphite and to improve the transmission of the heat produced by neutron interactions in the graphite to the fuel channel. The core itself is about 7 m high and about 12 m in diameter. In each of the two loops, there are four main coolant circulating pumps, one of which is always on standby. The reactivity or power of the reactor is controlled by raising or lowering 211 control rods, which, when lowered into the moderator, absorb neutrons and reduce the fission rate. The power output of this reactor is 3200 MW thermal, or 1000 MWe. Various safety systems, such as an emergency core cooling system, were incorporated into the reactor design.
One of the most important characteristics of the RBMK reactor is that it it can possess a 'positive void coefficient', where an increase in steam bubbles ('voids') is accompanied by an increase in core reactivity (see information page on RBMK Reactors ). As steam production in the fuel channels increases, the neutrons that would have been absorbed by the denser water now produce increased fission in the fuel. There are other components that contribute to the overall power coefficient of reactivity, but the void coefficient is the dominant one in RBMK reactors. The void coefficient depends on the composition of the core – a new RBMK core will have a negative void coefficient. However, at the time of the accident at Chernobyl 4, the reactor's fuel burn-up, control rod configuration and power level led to a positive void coefficient large enough to overwhelm all other influences on the power coefficient.
The 1986 Chernobyl accident
On 25 April, prior to a routine shutdown, the reactor crew at Chernobyl 4 began preparing for a test to determine how long turbines would spin and supply power to the main circulating pumps following a loss of main electrical power supply. This test had been carried out at Chernobyl the previous year, but the power from the turbine ran down too rapidly, so new voltage regulator designs were to be tested.
A series of operator actions, including the disabling of automatic shutdown mechanisms, preceded the attempted test early on 26 April. By the time that the operator moved to shut down the reactor, the reactor was in an extremely unstable condition. A peculiarity of the design of the control rods caused a dramatic power surge as they were inserted into the reactor (see Chernobyl Accident Appendix 1: Sequence of Events ).
The interaction of very hot fuel with the cooling water led to fuel fragmentation along with rapid steam production and an increase in pressure. The design characteristics of the reactor were such that substantial damage to even three or four fuel assemblies can – and did – result in the destruction of the reactor. The overpressure caused the 1000 t cover plate of the reactor to become partially detached, rupturing the fuel channels and jamming all the control rods, which by that time were only halfway down. Intense steam generation then spread throughout the whole core (fed by water dumped into the core due to the rupture of the emergency cooling circuit) causing a steam explosion and releasing fission products to the atmosphere. About two to three seconds later, a second explosion threw out fragments from the fuel channels and hot graphite. There is some dispute among experts about the character of this second explosion, but it is likely to have been caused by the production of hydrogen from zirconium-steam reactions.
Two workers died as a result of these explosions. The graphite (about a quarter of the 1200 tonnes of it was estimated to have been ejected) and fuel became incandescent and started a number of fires f , causing the main release of radioactivity into the environment. A total of about 14 EBq (14 x 1018 Bq) of radioactivity was released, over half of it being from biologically-inert noble gases.*
*The figure of 5.2 EBq is also quoted, this being "iodine-131 equivalent" - 1.8 EBq iodine and 85 PBq Cs-137 multiplied by 40 due its longevity, and ignoring the 6.5 EBq xenon-33 and some minor or short-lived nuclides.
About 200-300 tonnes of water per hour was injected into the intact half of the reactor using the auxiliary feedwater pumps but this was stopped after half a day owing to the danger of it flowing into and flooding units 1 and 2. From the second to tenth day after the accident, some 5000 tonnes of boron, dolomite, sand, clay and lead were dropped on to the burning core by helicopter in an effort to extinguish the blaze and limit the release of radioactive particles.
The damaged Chernobyl unit 4 reactor building
The 1991 report by the State Committee on the Supervision of Safety in Industry and Nuclear Power on the root cause of the accident looked past the operator actions. It said that while it was certainly true the operators placed their reactor in a dangerously unstable condition (in fact in a condition which virtually guaranteed an accident) it was also true that in doing so they had not in fact violated a number of vital operating policies and principles, since no such policies and principles had been articulated. Additionally, the operating organisation had not been made aware either of the specific vital safety significance of maintaining a minimum operating reactivity margin, or the general reactivity characteristics of the RBMK which made low power operation extremely hazardous.
Immediate impact of the Chernobyl accident
The accident caused the largest uncontrolled radioactive release into the environment ever recorded for any civilian operation, and large quantities of radioactive substances were released into the air for about 10 days. This caused serious social and economic disruption for large populations in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. Two radionuclides, the short-lived iodine-131 and the long-lived caesium-137, were particularly significant for the radiation dose they delivered to members of the public.
It is estimated that all of the xenon gas, about half of the iodine and caesium, and at least 5% of the remaining radioactive material in the Chernobyl 4 reactor core (which had 192 tonnes of fuel) was released in the accident. Most of the released material was deposited close by as dust and debris, but the lighter material was carried by wind over Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and to some extent over Scandinavia and Europe.
The casualties included firefighters who attended the initial fires on the roof of the turbine building. All these were put out in a few hours, but radiation doses on the first day were estimated to range up to 20,000 millisieverts (mSv), causing 28 deaths – six of which were firemen – by the end of July 1986.
The next task was cleaning up the radioactivity at the site so that the remaining three reactors could be restarted, and the damaged reactor shielded more permanently. About 200,000 people ('liquidators') from all over the Soviet Union were involved in the recovery and clean-up during 1986 and 1987. They received high doses of radiation, averaging around 100 millisieverts. Some 20,000 of them received about 250 mSv and a few received 500 mSv. Later, the number of liquidators swelled to over 600,000 but most of these received only low radiation doses. The highest doses were received by about 1000 emergency workers and on-site personnel during the first day of the accident.
The effects of radiation exposure fall into two main classes: deterministic effects, where the effect is certain to occur under given conditions (e.g. individuals exposed to several grays over a short period of time will definitely suffer Acute Radiation Syndrome); and stochastic effects, where the effect may or may not occur (e.g. an increase in radiation exposure may or may not induce a cancer in a particular individual but if a sufficiently large population receive a radiation exposure above a certain level, an increase in the incidence of cancer may become detectable in that population). UNSCEAR, 2011.
Initial radiation exposure in contaminated areas was due to short-lived iodine-131; later caesium-137 was the main hazard. (Both are fission products dispersed from the reactor core, with half lives of 8 days and 30 years, respectively. 1.8 EBq of I-131 and 0.085 EBq of Cs-137 were released.) About five million people lived in areas of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine contaminated (above 37 kBq/m2 Cs-137 in soil) and about 400,000 lived in more contaminated areas of strict control by authorities (above 555 kBq/m2 Cs-137). A total of 29,400 km2 was contaminated above 180 kBq/m2.
* supposedly correlating with 1 mSv/yr dose with continuous exposure. About 23% of Belarus was contaminated to this level, with 7% of Ukraine and 1.5% of European Russia.
The plant operators' town of Pripyat was evacuated on 27 April (45,000 residents). By 14 May, some 116,000 people that had been living within a 30-kilometre radius had been evacuated and later relocated. About 1000 of these returned unofficially to live within the contaminated zone. Most of those evacuated received radiation doses of less than 50 mSv, although a few received 100 mSv or more.
In the years following the accident, a further 220,000 people were resettled into less contaminated areas, and the initial 30 km radius exclusion zone (2800 km2) was modified and extended to cover 4300 square kilometres. This resettlement was due to application of a criterion of 350 mSv projected lifetime radiation dose, though in fact radiation in most of the affected area (apart from half a square kilometre) fell rapidly so that average doses were less than 50% above normal background of 2.5 mSv/yr. See also following section on Resettlement.
Environmental and health effects of the Chernobyl accident
Several organisations have reported on the impacts of the Chernobyl accident, but all have had problems assessing the significance of their observations because of the lack of reliable public health information before 1986.
In 1989, the World Health Organization (WHO) first raised concerns that local medical scientists had incorrectly attributed various biological and health effects to radiation exposure g . Following this, the Government of the USSR requested the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to coordinate an international experts' assessment of accident's radiological, environmental and health consequences in selected towns of the most heavily contaminated areas in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. Between March 1990 and June 1991, a total of 50 field missions were conducted by 200 experts from 25 countries (including the USSR), seven organisations, and 11 laboratories 3 . In the absence of pre-1986 data, it compared a control population with those exposed to radiation. Significant health disorders were evident in both control and exposed groups, but, at that stage, none was radiation related.
Paths of radiation exposure h
Subsequent studies in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus were based on national registers of over one million people possibly affected by radiation. By 2000, about 4000 cases of thyroid cancer had been diagnosed in exposed children. However, the rapid increase in thyroid cancers detected suggests that some of it at least is an artifact of the screening process. Thyroid cancer is usually not fatal if diagnosed and treated early, and all but nine children were successfully treated.
In February 2003, the IAEA established the Chernobyl Forum, in cooperation with seven other UN organisations as well as the competent authorities of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine. In April 2005, the reports prepared by two expert groups – "Environment", coordinated by the IAEA, and "Health", coordinated by WHO – were intensively discussed by the Forum and eventually approved by consensus. The conclusions of this 2005 Chernobyl Forum study (revised version published 2006 i ) are in line with earlier expert studies, notably the UNSCEAR 2000 report j which said that "apart from this [thyroid cancer] increase, there is no evidence of a major public health impact attributable to radiation exposure 14 years after the accident. There is no scientific evidence of increases in overall cancer incidence or mortality or in non-malignant disorders that could be related to radiation exposure." As yet there is little evidence of any increase in leukaemia, even among clean-up workers where it might be most expected. However, these workers – where high doses may have been received – remain at increased risk of cancer in the long term. Apart from these, the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) says that "the great majority of the population is not likely to experience serious health consequences as a result of radiation from the Chernobyl accident. Many other health problems have been noted in the populations that are not related to radiation exposure."
The Chernobyl Forum report says that people in the area have suffered a paralysing fatalism due to myths and misperceptions about the threat of radiation, which has contributed to a culture of chronic dependency. Some "took on the role of invalids." Mental health coupled with smoking and alcohol abuse is a very much greater problem than radiation, but worst of all at the time was the underlying level of health and nutrition. Apart from the initial 116,000, relocations of people were very traumatic and did little to reduce radiation exposure, which was low anyway. Psycho-social effects among those affected by the accident are similar to those arising from other major disasters such as earthquakes, floods and fires.
According to the most up-to-date estimate of UNSCEAR, the average radiation dose due to the accident received by inhabitants of 'strict radiation control' areas (population 216,000) in the years 1986 to 2005 was 31 mSv (over the 20-year period), and in the 'contaminated' areas (population 6.4 million) it averaged 9 mSv, a minor increase over the dose due to background radiation over the same period (about 50 mSv) 4 .
The numbers of deaths resulting from the accident are covered most fully in the account of health effects is provided by an annex to the UNSCEAR 2008 report, released in 2011. 5
Some exaggerated figures have been published regarding the death toll attributable to the Chernobyl disaster. A publication by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) 6 lent support to these. However, the Chairman of UNSCEAR made it clear that "this report is full of unsubstantiated statements that have no support in scientific assessments" k , and the Chernobyl Forum report also repudiates them.
A particularly sad effect of the accident was that some physicians in Europe advised pregnant women to undergo abortions on account of radiation exposure, even though the levels concerned were vastly below those likely to have teratogenic effects. The foetal death toll from this is likely very much greater than directly from the accident.
UNSCEAR in 2011 concludes: In summary, the effects of the Chernobyl accident are many and varied. Early deterministic effects can be attributed to radiation with a high degree of certainty, while for other medical conditions, radiation almost certainly was not the cause. In between, there was a wide spectrum of conditions. It is necessary to evaluate carefully each specific condition and the surrounding circumstances before attributing a cause. 5
Conifers in about 10 square kilometres of forest close to the plant were killed by the high radiation levels, but regeneration got underway from the following year. The net environmental effect of the accident has been much greater biodiversity and abundance of species. The exclusion zone has become a unique sanctuary for wildlife.
Progressive closure of the Chernobyl plant
In the early 1990s, some US$400 million was spent on improvements to the remaining reactors at Chernobyl, considerably enhancing their safety. Energy shortages necessitated the continued operation of one of them (unit 3) until December 2000. (Unit 2 was shut down after a turbine hall fire in 1991, and unit 1 at the end of 1997.) Almost 6000 people worked at the plant every day, and their radiation dose has been within internationally accepted limits. A small team of scientists works within the wrecked reactor building itself, inside the shelter l .
Workers and their families now live in a new town, Slavutich, 30 km from the plant. This was built following the evacuation of Pripyat, which was just 3 km away.
Ukraine depends upon, and is deeply in debt to, Russia for energy supplies, particularly oil and gas, but also nuclear fuel. Although this dependence is gradually being reduced, continued operation of nuclear power stations, which supply half of total electricity, is now even more important than in 1986.
When it was announced in 1995 that the two operating reactors at Chernobyl would be closed by 2000, a memorandum of understanding was signed by Ukraine and G7 nations to progress this, but its implementation was conspicuously delayed. Alternative generating capacity was needed, either gas-fired, which has ongoing fuel cost and supply implications, or nuclear, by completing Khmelnitski unit 2 and Rovno unit 4 ('K2R4') in Ukraine. Construction of these was halted in 1989 but then resumed, and both reactors came on line late in 2004, financed by Ukraine rather than international grants as expected on the basis of Chernobyl's closure.
Chernobyl today
See Chernobyl website for details.
Unit 4 containment
Chernobyl unit 4 is now enclosed in a large concrete shelter which was erected quickly (by October 1986) to allow continuing operation of the other reactors at the plant. However, the structure is neither strong nor durable. The international Shelter Implementation Plan in the 1990s involved raising money for remedial work including removal of the fuel-containing materials. Some major work on the shelter was carried out in 1998 and 1999. About 200 tonnes of highly radioactive material remains deep within it, and this poses an environmental hazard until it is better contained.
A New Safe Confinement (NSC) structure is due to be completed in 2017, being built adjacent and then moved into place on rails. It is an arch 110 metres high, 165 metres long and spanning 260 metres, to cover both unit 4 and the hastily-built 1986 structure. The arch frame is a lattice construction of tubular steel members, equipped with internal cranes. The design and construction contract for this was signed in 2007 with the Novarka consortium and preparatory work on site was completed in 2010. Construction started in April 2012. The first half, weighing 12,800 tonnes, was moved 112 metres to a holding area in front of unit 4 in April 2014. The second half was completed by the end of 2014 and was joined to the first in July 2015. Cladding, cranes and remote handling equipment were fitted in 2015. The entire 36,000 tonne structure was pushed 327 metres into position over the reactor building in November 2016, over two weeks, and the end walls completed. The NSC is the largest moveable land-based structure ever built. Final delivery of the project is expected in November 2017.
The hermetically sealed building will allow engineers to remotely dismantle the 1986 structure that has shielded the remains of the reactor from the weather since the weeks after the accident. It will enable the eventual removal of the fuel-containing materials (FCM) in the bottom of the reactor building and accommodate their characterisation, compaction and packing for disposal. This task represents the most important step in eliminating nuclear hazard at the site – and the real start of dismantling. The NSC will facilitate remote handling of these dangerous materials, using as few personnel as possible. During peak construction of the NSC some 1200 workers were on site.
The Chernobyl Shelter Fund, set up in 1997, had received €864 million from international donors by early 2011 towards this project and previous work. It and the Nuclear Safety Account (NSA), set up in 1993, are managed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The total cost of the new shelter was in 2011 estimated to be €1.5 billion. In November 2014 the EBRD said the overall €2.15 billion Shelter Implementation Plan including the NSC had received contributions from 43 governments but still had a funding shortfall of €615 million. The following month the EBRD made an additional contribution of €350 million in anticipation of a €165 million contribution by the G7/European Commission, which was confirmed in April 2015. This left a balance of €100 million to come from non-G7 donors, and €15 million of this was confirmed in April 2015.
Chernobyl New Safe Confinement under construction and before being moved into place (Image: EBRD)
Funding other Chernobyl work
The Nuclear Safety Account (NSA), had received €321 million by early 2011 for Chernobyl decommissioning and also for projects in other ex-Soviet countries. At Chernobyl it funds the construction of used fuel and waste storage (notably ISF-2, see below) and decommissioning units 1-3. In April 2016 the European Commission pledged €20 million to the NSA, the largest part of €45 million expected from the G7 and the European Commission. A further €40 million is expected from the EBRD in May 2016.
In total, the European Commission has committed around €730 million so far to Chernobyl projects in four ways. First, €550 million for assistance projects, out of which €470 million were channelled through international funds, and €80 million implemented directly by the European Commission. Secondly, power generation support of €65 million. Thirdly, €15 million for social projects. And finally, €100 million for research projects.
Chernobyl used fuel: ISF-1 & ISF-2
Used fuel from units 1-3 was stored in each unit's cooling pond, and in an interim spent fuel storage facility pond (ISF-1). A few damaged assemblies remained in units 1&2 in 2013, with the last of these removed in June 2016. ISF-1 now holds most of the spent fuel from units 1-3, allowing those reactors to be decommissioned under less restrictive licence conditions. Most of the fuel assemblies were straightforward to handle, but about 50 are damaged and required special handling.
In 1999, a contract was signed with Framatome (now Areva) for construction of the ISF-2 radioactive waste management facility to store 25,000 used fuel assemblies from units 1-3 and other operational wastes long-term, as well as material from decommissioning units 1-3 (which are the first RBMK units decommissioned anywhere). However, after a significant part of the dry storage facility had been built, technical deficiencies in the concept emerged in 2003, and the contract was terminated amicably in 2007.
Holtec International became the contractor in September 2007 for new interim spent nuclear fuel storage facility (ISF-2 or SNF SF-2) for the state-owned Chernobyl NPP. Design approval and funding from the EBRD's Nuclear Safety Account (NSA) was confirmed in October 2010, and the final €87.5 million of €400 million cost was pledged in April 2016.
ISF-2 will be the world’s largest dry used fuel storage facility and will accommodate 21,217 RBMK fuel assemblies in dry storage for at least a 100-year service life. It was licensed in March 2013, allowing stage 2 to proceed to 2015, with completion expected by 2017. The works are being carried out by Ukrainian companies UTEM-Engineering (principal contractor) and Ukrtransbud.
The project includes a processing facility, able to cut the RBMK fuel assemblies* and to put the material in double-walled canisters, which will be filled with inert gas and welded shut. They will then be transported to concrete dry storage vaults in which the fuel containers will be enclosed for up to 100 years. This facility, treating 2500 fuel assemblies per year, is the first of its kind for RBMK fuel.
* According to Holtec: “Unique features of the Chernobyl dry storage facility include the world's largest 'hot cell' for dismembering the conjugated RBMK fuel assembly and a (Holtec patented) forced gas dehydrator designed to run on nitrogen.”
Other Chernobyl radwastes
Industrial Complex for Radwaste Management (ICSRM): In April 2009, Nukem handed over this turnkey waste treatment centre for solid radioactive waste. In May 2010, the State Nuclear Regulatory Committee licensed the commissioning of this facility, where solid low- and intermediate-level wastes accumulated from the power plant operations and the decommissioning of reactor blocks 1 to 3 is conditioned. The wastes are processed in three steps. First, the solid radioactive wastes temporarily stored in bunkers is removed for treatment. In the next step, these wastes, as well as those from decommissioning reactor blocks 1-3, are processed into a form suitable for permanent safe disposal. Low- and intermediate-level wastes are separated into combustible, compactable, and non-compactable categories. These are then subject to incineration, high-force compaction, and cementation respectively. In addition, highly radioactive and long-lived solid waste is sorted out for temporary separate storage. In the third step, the conditioned solid waste materials are transferred to containers suitable for permanent safe storage.
As part of this project, at the end of 2007, Nukem handed over an Engineered Near Surface Disposal Facility for storage of short-lived radioactive waste after prior conditioning. It is 17 km away from the power plant, at the Vektor complex within the 30-km zone. The storage area is designed to hold 55,000 m3 of treated waste which will be subject to radiological monitoring for 300 years, by when the radioactivity will have decayed to such an extent that monitoring is no longer required.
Another contract has been let for a Liquid Radioactive Waste Treatment Plant (LRTP), to handle some 35,000 cubic metres of low- and intermediate-level liquid wastes at the site. This will be solidified and eventually buried along with solid wastes on site. Construction of the plant has been completed and the start of operations was due late in 2015. LRTP is also funded through EBRD’s Nuclear Safety Account (NSA).
Non-Chernobyl used fuel
The Central Spent Fuel Storage Facility (CSFSF) Project for Ukraine’s VVER reactors is being built by Holtec International within the Chernobyl exclusion area, between the resettled villages Staraya Krasnitsa, Buryakovka, Chistogalovka and Stechanka, southeast of Chernobyl and not far from ISF-2. This will not take any Chernobyl fuel, though it will become a part of the common spent nuclear fuel management complex of the state-owned company Chernobyl NPP.
Decommissioning units 1-3
After the last Chernobyl reactor shut down in December 2000, in mid-2001 a new enterprise, SSE ChNPP was set up to take over management of the site and decommissioning from Energoatom. (Its remit includes eventual decommissioning of all Ukraine nuclear plants.)
In January 2008, the Ukraine government announced a four-stage decommissioning plan which incorporated the above waste activities and progresses towards a cleared site.
In February 2014 a new stage of this was approved for units 1-3, involving dismantling some equipment and putting them into safstor condition by 2028. Then, to 2046, further equipment will be removed, and by 2064 they will be demolished.
See also official website .
Resettlement of contaminated areas
In the last two decades there has been some resettlement of the areas evacuated in 1986 and subsequently. Recently the main resettlement project has been in Belarus.
In July 2010, the Belarus government announced that it had decided to settle back thousands of people in the 'contaminated areas' covered by the Chernobyl fallout, from which 24 years ago they and their forbears were hastily relocated. Compared with the list of contaminated areas in 2005, some 211 villages and hamlets had been reclassified with fewer restrictions on resettlement. The decision by the Belarus Council of Ministers resulted in a new national program over 2011-15 and up to 2020 to alleviate the Chernobyl impact and return the areas to normal use with minimal restrictions. The focus of the project is on the development of economic and industrial potential of the Gomel and Mogilev regions from which 137,000 people were relocated.
The main priority is agriculture and forestry, together with attracting qualified people and housing them. Initial infrastructure requirements will mean the refurbishment of gas, potable water and power supplies, while the use of local wood will be banned. Schools and housing will be provided for specialist workers and their families ahead of wider socio-economic development. Overall, some 21,484 dwellings are slated for connection to gas networks in the period 2011-2015, while about 5600 contaminated or broken down buildings are demolished. Over 1300 kilometres of road will be laid, and ten new sewerage works and 15 pumping stations are planned. The cost of the work was put at BYR 6.6 trillion ($2.2 billion), split fairly evenly across the years 2011 to 2015 inclusive.
The feasibility of agriculture will be examined in areas where the presence of caesium-137 and strontium-90 is low, "to acquire new knowledge in the fields of radiobiology and radioecology in order to clarify the principles of safe life in the contaminated territories." Land found to have too high a concentration of radionuclides will be reforested and managed. A suite of protective measures was set up to allow a new forestry industry whose products would meet national and international safety standards. In April 2009, specialists in Belarus stressed that it is safe to eat all foods cultivated in the contaminated territories, though intake of some wild food was restricted.
Protective measures will be put in place for 498 settlements in the contaminated areas where average radiation dose may exceed 1 mSv per year. There were also 1904 villages with annual average effective doses from the pollution between 0.1 mSv and 1 mSv. The goal for these areas is to allow their re-use with minimal restrictions, although already radiation doses there from the caesium are lower than background levels anywhere in the world.
The Belarus government decision was an important political landmark in an ongoing process. Studies reviewed by UNSCEAR show that the Chernobyl disaster caused little risk for the general population. A UN Development Program report in 2002 said that much of the aid and effort applied to mitigate the effects of the Chernobyl accident did more harm than good, and it seems that this, along with the Chernobyl Forum report, finally persuaded the Belarus authorities. In 2004 President Lukashenko announced a priority to repopulate much of the Chernobyl-affected regions of Belarus, and then in 2009 he said that he “wants to repopulate Chernobyl’s zone quickly”.
In 2011 Chernobyl was officially declared a tourist attraction, with many visitors.
In 2015 the published results of a major scientific study showed that the mammal population of the exclusion zone (including the 2162 sq km Polessian State Radiation-Ecological Reserve – PSRER in Belarus) was thriving, despite land contamination. The “long-term empirical data showed no evidence of a negative influence of radiation on mammal abundance.” The data “represent unique evidence of wildlife's resilience in the face of chronic radiation stress.” (Current Biology, Elsevier 8 )
What has been learned from the Chernobyl disaster?
Leaving aside the verdict of history on its role in melting the Soviet 'Iron Curtain', some very tangible practical benefits have resulted from the Chernobyl accident. The main ones concern reactor safety, notably in eastern Europe. (The US Three Mile Island accident in 1979 had a significant effect on Western reactor design and operating procedures. While that reactor was destroyed, all radioactivity was contained – as designed – and there were no deaths or injuries.)
While no-one in the West was under any illusion about the safety of early Soviet reactor designs, some lessons learned have also been applicable to Western plants. Certainly the safety of all Soviet-designed reactors has improved vastly. This is due largely to the development of a culture of safety encouraged by increased collaboration between East and West, and substantial investment in improving the reactors.
Modifications have been made to overcome deficiencies in all the RBMK reactors still operating. In these, originally the nuclear chain reaction and power output could increase if cooling water were lost or turned to steam, in contrast to most Western designs. It was this effect which led to the uncontrolled power surge that led to the destruction of Chernobyl 4 (see Positive void coefficient section in the information page on RBMK Reactors ). All of the RBMK reactors have now been modified by changes in the control rods, adding neutron absorbers and consequently increasing the fuel enrichment from 1.8 to 2.4% U-235, making them very much more stable at low power (see Post accident changes to the RBMK section in the information page on RBMK Reactors ). Automatic shut-down mechanisms now operate faster, and other safety mechanisms have been improved. Automated inspection equipment has also been installed. A repetition of the 1986 Chernobyl accident is now virtually impossible, according to a German nuclear safety agency report 7 .
Since 1989, over 1000 nuclear engineers from the former Soviet Union have visited Western nuclear power plants and there have been many reciprocal visits. Over 50 twinning arrangements between East and West nuclear plants have been put in place. Most of this has been under the auspices of the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO), a body formed in 1989 which links 130 operators of nuclear power plants in more than 30 countries (see also information page on Cooperation in the Nuclear Power Industry ).
Many other international programmes were initiated following Chernobyl. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safety review projects for each particular type of Soviet reactor are noteworthy, bringing together operators and Western engineers to focus on safety improvements. These initiatives are backed by funding arrangements. The Nuclear Safety Assistance Coordination Centre database lists Western aid totalling almost US$1 billion for more than 700 safety-related projects in former Eastern Bloc countries. The Convention on Nuclear Safety adopted in Vienna in June 1994 is another outcome.
The Chernobyl Forum report said that some seven million people are now receiving or eligible for benefits as 'Chernobyl victims', which means that resources are not targeting the needy few percent of them. Remedying this presents daunting political problems however.
Further Information
Notes
a. Chernobyl is the well-known Russian name for the site; Chornobyl is preferred by Ukraine. [ Back ]
b. Much has been made of the role of the operators in the Chernobyl accident. The 1986 Summary Report on the Post-Accident Review Meeting on the Chernobyl Accident (INSAG-1) of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA's) International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group accepted the view of the Soviet experts that "the accident was caused by a remarkable range of human errors and violations of operating rules in combination with specific reactor features which compounded and amplified the effects of the errors and led to the reactivity excursion." In particular, according to the INSAG-1 report: "The operators deliberately and in violation of rules withdrew most control and safety rods from the core and switched off some important safety systems."
However, the IAEA's 1992 INSAG-7 report, The Chernobyl Accident: Updating of INSAG-1, was less critical of the operators, with the emphasis shifted towards "the contributions of particular design features, including the design of the control rods and safety systems, and arrangements for presenting important safety information to the operators. The accident is now seen to have been the result of the concurrence of the following major factors: specific physical characteristics of the reactor; specific design features of the reactor control elements; and the fact that the reactor was brought to a state not specified by procedures or investigated by an independent safety body. Most importantly, the physical characteristics of the reactor made possible its unstable behaviour." But the report goes on to say that the International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group "remains of the opinion that critical actions of the operators were most ill judged. As pointed out in INSAG-1, the human factor has still to be considered as a major element in causing the accident."
It is certainly true that the operators placed the reactor in a dangerous condition, in particular by removing too many of the control rods, resulting in the lowering of the reactor's operating reactivity margin (ORM, see information page on RBMK Reactors ). However, the operating procedures did not emphasise the vital safety significance of the ORM but rather treated the ORM as a way of controlling reactor power. It could therefore be argued that the actions of the operators were more a symptom of the prevailing safety culture of the Soviet era rather than the result of recklessness or a lack of competence on the part of the operators (see Appendix to information page on Nuclear Power in Russia, Soviet Nuclear Culture ).
In what is referred to as his Testament – which was published soon after his suicide two years after the accident – Valery Legasov, who had led the Soviet delegation to the IAEA Post-Accident Review Meeting, wrote: "After I had visited Chernobyl NPP I came to the conclusion that the accident was the inevitable apotheosis of the economic system which had been developed in the USSR over many decades. Neglect by the scientific management and the designers was everywhere with no attention being paid to the condition of instruments or of equipment... When one considers the chain of events leading up to the Chernobyl accident, why one person behaved in such a way and why another person behaved in another etc, it is impossible to find a single culprit, a single initiator of events, because it was like a closed circle." [ Back ]
c. The initial death toll was officially given as two initial deaths plus 28 from acute radiation syndrome. One further victim, due to coronary thrombosis, is widely reported, but does not appear on official lists of the initial deaths. The 2006 report of the UN Chernobyl Forum Expert Group "Health", Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident and Special Health Care Programmes , states: "The Chernobyl accident caused the deaths of 30 power plant employees and firemen within a few days or weeks (including 28 deaths that were due to radiation exposure)." [ Back ]
d. Apart from the initial 31 deaths (two from the explosions, one reportedly from coronary thrombosis – see Note c above – and 28 firemen and plant personnel from acute radiation syndrome), the number of deaths resulting from the accident is unclear and a subject of considerable controversy. According to the 2006 report of the UN Chernobyl Forum's 'Health' Expert Group 1 : "The actual number of deaths caused by this accident is unlikely ever to be precisely known."
On the number of deaths due to acute radiation syndrome (ARS), the Expert Group report states: "Among the 134 emergency workers involved in the immediate mitigation of the Chernobyl accident, severely exposed workers and fireman during the first days, 28 persons died in 1986 due to ARS, and 19 more persons died in 1987-2004 from different causes. Among the general population affected by the Chernobyl radioactive fallout, the much lower exposures meant that ARS cases did not occur."
According to the report: "With the exception of thyroid cancer, direct radiation-epidemiological studies performed in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine since 1986 have not revealed any statistically significant increase in either cancer morbidity or mortality induced by radiation." The report does however attribute a large proportion of child thyroid cancer fatalities to radiation, with nine deaths being recorded during 1986-2002 as a result of progression of thyroid cancer. [ Back ]
e. There have been fatalities in military and research reactor contexts, e.g. Tokai-mura. [ Back ]
f. Although most reports on the Chernobyl accident refer to a number of graphite fires, it is highly unlikely that the graphite itself burned. According to the General Atomics website ( http://gt-mhr.ga.com/safety.php ): "It is often incorrectly assumed that the combustion behavior of graphite is similar to that of charcoal and coal. Numerous tests and calculations have shown that it is virtually impossible to burn high-purity, nuclear-grade graphites." On Chernobyl, the same source states: "Graphite played little or no role in the progression or consequences of the accident. The red glow observed during the Chernobyl accident was the expected color of luminescence for graphite at 700°C and not a large-scale graphite fire, as some have incorrectly assumed."
A 2006 Electric Power Research Institute Technical Report 2 states that the International Atomic Energy Agency's INSAG-1 report is
...potentially misleading through the use of imprecise words in relation to graphite behaviour. The report discusses the fire-fighting activities and repeatedly refers to “burning graphite blocks” and “the graphite fire”. Most of the actual fires involving graphite which were approached by fire-fighters involved ejected material on bitumen-covered roofs, and the fires also involved the bitumen. It is stated: “The fire teams experienced no unusual problems in using their fire-fighting techniques, except that it took a considerable time to extinguish the graphite fire.” These descriptions are not consistent with the later considered opinions of senior Russian specialists... There is however no question that extremely hot graphite was ejected from the core and at a temperature sufficient to ignite adjacent combustible materials.
There are also several referrals to a graphite fire occurring during the October 1957 accident at Windscale Pile No. 1 in the UK. However, images obtained from inside the Pile several decades after the accident showed that the graphite was relatively undamaged. [ Back ]
g. The International Chernobyl Project, 1990-91 - Assessment of Radiological Consequences and Evaluation of Protective Measures, Summary Brochure , published by the International Atomic Energy Agency, reports that, in June 1989, the World Health Organization (WHO) sent a team of experts to help address the health impacts of radioactive contamination resulting from the accident. One of the conclusions from this mission was that "scientists who are not well versed in radiation effects have attributed various biological and health effects to radiation exposure. These changes cannot be attributed to radiation exposure, especially when the normal incidence is unknown, and are much more likely to be due to psychological factors and stress. Attributing these effects to radiation not only increases the psychological pressure in the population and provokes additional stress-related health problems, it also undermines confidence in the competence of the radiation specialists." [ Back ]
h. Image taken from page 31 of The International Chernobyl Project Technical Report , Assessment of Radiological Consequences and Evaluation of Protective Measures, Report by an International Advisory Committee, IAEA, 1991 (ISBN: 9201291914) [ Back ]
i. A 55-page summary version the revised report, Chernobyl’s Legacy: Health, Environmental and Socio-Economic Impacts and Recommendations to the Governments of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine , The Chernobyl Forum: 2003–2005, Second revised version, as well as the Report of the UN Chernobyl Forum Expert Group “Environment” and the Report of the UN Chernobyl Forum Expert Group “Health” are available from the IAEA's webpage for the Chernobyl Forum ( http://www-ns.iaea.org/meetings/rw-summaries/chernobyl_forum.htm ) and the World Health Organization's webpage on Ionizing radiation ( http://www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/a_e/chernobyl/en/index1.html ) [ Back ]
j. The United Nations Scientific Commission on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) is the UN body with a mandate from the General Assembly to assess and report levels and health effects of exposure to ionizing radiation. Exposures and effects of the Chernobyl accident , Annex J to Volume II of the 2000 United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation Report to the General Assembly, is available at the UNSCEAR 2000 Report Vol. II webpage (www.unscear.org/unscear/en/publications/2000_2.html). It is also available (along with other reports) on the webpage for UNSCEAR's assessments of the radiation effects of The Chernobyl accident (www.unscear.org/unscear/en/chernobyl.html). The conclusions from Annex J of the UNSCEAR 2000 report are in Chernobyl Accident Appendix: Health Impacts [ Back ]
k. The quoted comment comes from a 6 June 2000 letter from Lars-Erik Holm , Chairman of UNSCEAR and Director-General of the Swedish Radiation Protection Institute, to Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations. The letter is available on the website of Radiation, Science, and Health ( www.radscihealth.org/rsh/ ) [ Back ]
l. A reinforced concrete casing was built around the ruined reactor building over the seven months following the accident. This shelter – often referred to as the sarcophagus – was intended to contain the remaining fuel and act as a radiation shield. As it was designed for a lifetime of around 20 to 30 years, as well as being hastily constructed, a second shelter – known as the New Safe Confinement – with a 100-year design lifetime is planned to be placed over the existing structure. See also ASE keeps the lid on Chernobyl , World Nuclear News (19 August 2008). [ Back ]
References
Chernobyl: Assessment of Radiological and Health Impacts - 2002 Update of Chernobyl: Ten Years On , OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (2002). This is also available as an HTML version
Zbigniew Jaworowski, Lessons of Chernobyl with particular reference to thyroid cancer, Australasian Radiation Protection Society Newsletter No. 30 (April 2004). The same article appeared in Executive Intelligence Review (EIR), Volume 31, Number 18 (7 May 2004) . An extended version of this paper was published as Radiation folly , Chapter 4 of Environment & Health: Myths & Realities , Edited by Kendra Okonski and Julian Morris, International Policy Press (a division of International Policy Network), June 2004 (ISBN 1905041004). See also Chernobyl Accident Appendix 2: Health Impacts
The chernobyl.info website www.chernobyl.info – out of date but some useful information
Chernobyl Forum information on IAEA website
Mikhail Balonov, The Chernobyl Forum: Major Findings and Recommendations , presented at the Public Information Materials Exchange meeting held in Vienna, Austria on 12-16 February 2006
European Centre of Technological Safety's Chernobyl website ( www.tesec-int.org/Chernobyl ) and its webpage on Sarcophagus and Decommissioning of the Chernobyl NPP
Chernobyl Legacy website ( www.chernobyllegacy.com )
Chernobyl 25th anniversary, Frequently Asked Questions , World Health Organization (23 April 2011)
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What symbol commonly used in print, and titles especially, derives from a combination of the letters E and T? | Chernobyl now a tourist zone - CNN.com
(CNN)
Three decades after the nuclear disaster there, the name Chernobyl still inspires dread.
When an explosion tore through Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl power plant on April 26, 1986, it was the worst nuclear accident the world had ever seen.
Clouds of highly radioactive particles were released into the air during an attempted routine shutdown of the power plant north of Kiev in the former Soviet Union (now Ukraine).
Today, the number of tourists seeking to head deep into Chernobyl's Exclusion Zone, a 30-kilometer radius of contaminated land around the power plant, supports several tour firms.
Even though recent instability in eastern Ukraine has pushed the country off most travelers' radars, Chernobyl still looms large in the global consciousness.
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Fears regularly circulating about the fallout zone, last year it was contamination via forest fires , seem to stoke just as much fascination, drawing a steady stream of tourists.
There are even hotels inside the Exclusion Zone.
Visits are governed by security checks and by strictly guided tours.
Visitors travel to the site, a two-hour drive north of Ukrainian capital Kiev, by tour bus.
Once there, they sign a disclaimer warning against touching any objects or vegetation, or even sitting on the ground.
Leaving the site is also highly regulated.
Body scanners test for high levels of radiation. If the scanner alarm sounds, guards sweep the individual for radioactive dust before they're allowed to leave.
A guide tests radiation levels inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
Frozen in time
The payoff is access to a city frozen in time.
The empty city of Pripyat, evacuated after the accident, is a snapshot of Eastern Europe before the fall of the Iron Curtain.
The zone's post-apocalyptic atmosphere exerts a strong pull.
Rusting boats list in the River Pripyat.
A Ferris wheel stands motionless among steadily encroaching trees.
Traces of life in the former USSR are scattered everywhere, from children's school books to Soviet propaganda posters.
The Chernobyl accident is ranked level 7, the highest on the International Nuclear Event Scale.
The severity of its widespread environmental and human cost has only been equaled by 2011's disaster at Fukushima in Japan.
Contaminated rain and wind depositing radioactive dust were recorded as far afield as Sweden and Wales.
Research continues to examine the complex effects of increased exposure to radiation on ecosystems.
Chernobyl church still active
Memories of the human toll remain vivid, though precise numbers are disputed.
Official records give a death toll less than 50, many of them firefighters sent to tackle the blaze at the power plant.
But birth defects and thyroid cancer in Ukraine, as well as neighboring Belarus and parts of Russia, have been attributed to the accident.
Some studies link as many as 1,800 childhood cases of thyroid cancer to the Chernobyl accident.
The effects of the disaster on mental health in Ukraine and beyond are also coming to light.
Stigmatization of local people and relocation of communities is blamed for widespread depression and social problems.
But visitors who expect to find a charred, uninhabited wasteland are surprised when they enter the Exclusion Zone.
Far from being empty, power plant workers still commute into the zone.
A place of worship, the turquoise and white St. Elijah Church continues to welcome devotees.
Approximately 200 people still live inside the Exclusion Zone, despite government orders to leave.
The gate of St. Elijah Church in Pripyat.
Ghost town a "scattered snapshot" of old USSR
Peaceful meadows inside the zone suggest nothing out of the ordinary.
But tour guides hover Geiger counters over rusted debris littering the grass.
Background radiation around the Exclusion Zone can be up to 10 times the normal level.
Slow-growing vegetation, especially prone to absorbing radioactive particles, tests even higher.
The most intriguing part of the Exclusion Zone is the ghost town of Pripyat.
Founded two kilometers from the power plant in 1970, the city soon swelled to nearly 50,000.
Its entire population was evacuated after the disaster.
Now abandoned and overgrown, Pripyat still resembles a shattered snapshot of the typical Soviet city it once was.
Visitors crunch through broken glass and sidestep bushes sprouting through corners of apartment blocks.
Textbooks are strewn in empty classrooms and a chipped swimming pool lies empty beneath rotting wooden beams.
Traces of the former USSR are everywhere.
Vivid Soviet murals dance on walls.
Faded gas masks in children's sizes lie in their dozens, a reminder of an era when fear of attack hung thick in the air.
"It is the preservation of Communist artifacts and atmosphere that people find so fascinating as well as the sad story behind it," says Dominik Orfanus,
Orfanus is a former tour guide of the fallout zone and now CEO of CHERNOBYLwel.come , a company arranging excursions to Chernobyl since 2008.
Photographer favorite
Such is the allure of Chernobyl to photographers that in 2012 a specific line of tours ( chernobylphoto.com ) was launched to meet the demand.
"The untouched scenery, wilderness, the contrast of the past and now, make Chernobyl really interesting for photographers," says Orfanus.
Pripyat's amusement park is its most photographed area.
The park's official opening had been planned for May 1, 1986, but the city was evacuated just days before.
Bumper cars, their yellow paint peeling, are at a standstill on cracked concrete.
The rusty funfair wheel has become almost iconic.
Barely used, the wheel has become a symbol of a once lively city silenced by disaster.
Though told the evacuation was temporary, Pripyat's citizens never returned.
In the months afterward, some people returned to loot the site.
Chairs were torn out of a cinema and anything of value was hurried away.
The passing decades have seen nature encroaching into these once peopled spaces.
Drifters still turn up in Pripyat -- their calling cards are occasional beer bottles and cigarette stubs around the city.
The boarding point of Pripyat's unmoving fairground wheel.
Haunting graffiti, glimmers of meaning
More haunting is the graffiti that now punctuates the atmosphere in this quiet place.
Silhouettes of dancing figures are daubed on the walls of Pripyat's buildings, perhaps an attempt to bring human life back.
In the months following the accident, a sarcophagus was built to cover Reactor 4 and contain the radioactive material.
Its other three reactors were still operational, but the last one shut down in 2000.
Efforts to contain the spread of radioactive particles continue to the present day.
A New Safe Confinement barrier is being built to replace the sarcophagus.
The final phase of construction is nearly underway, though reports suggest further funding needs to be secured.
The NSC is designed to contain radioactive waste and prevent further environmental contamination.
But curiously, increasing numbers of visitors to the area describe Chernobyl as a wildlife haven.
At first sight, Chernobyl's untended greenery gives the impression of a place reclaimed by nature.
Shrubs burst through the floors and plants strangle window frames.
Much was made of a brown bear sighting in the fallout zone at the end of 2014.
Could nature be thriving in Chernobyl?
"There are severely depressed populations of most species in the contaminated areas," says Anders Pape Moller who has been researching Chernobyl since 1991.
Moller, a senior scientist at French national research organization CNRS, has observed that while cleaner areas within the zone aren't impacted to the same degree, reduction in wildlife in contaminated areas is noticeable.
"You can hear it in spring because there are fewer birds singing. Like Rachel Carson's ' Silent Spring ,'" he adds, referring to the classic 1962 environmental science book.
The effects of the Chernobyl nuclear accident on wildlife -- including higher rates of tumors and albinism in the local bird population -- continue to be recorded.
But the idea that natural forces can repair the damage wrought by humankind is powerful.
Many tourists to Chernobyl's quiet meadows are seeking a glimmer of meaning.
But with statistics relating to Chernobyl hotly debated and the incident's long-term effects still being measured, answers are hard to come by.
This ambivalence seems sure to continue holding Chernobyl's visitors in thrall.
Anita Isalska is a digital editor and travel writer specializing in European travel, especially offbeat travel experiences.
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What is a filbert nut more commonly called, from the name of the tree bearing it? | Filbert | Define Filbert at Dictionary.com
filbert
noun
1.
the thick-shelled, edible nut of certain cultivated varieties of hazel, especially of Corylus avellana, of Europe.
2.
a tree or shrub bearing such nuts.
Origin of filbert
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1250-1300
1250-1300; Middle English, short for filbert nut, so called because ripe by Aug. 22 (St. Philbert's day)
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Examples from the Web for filbert
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Historical Examples
A lady came to the Consumptive's Home with a cancer in the cheek, which had attained the size of a filbert.
British Dictionary definitions for filbert
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noun
1.
any of several N temperate shrubs of the genus Corylus, esp C. maxima, that have edible rounded brown nuts: family Corylaceae
2.
Also called hazelnut, cobnut. the nut of any of these shrubs
See also hazel (sense 1), hazel (sense 3)
Word Origin
C14: named after St Philbert, 7th-century Frankish abbot, because the nuts are ripe around his feast day, Aug 22
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for filbert
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n.
"hazelnut," late 14c., from Anglo-French philber (late 13c.), from Norman dialect noix de filbert, in reference to St. Philbert, 7c. Frankish abbot, so called because the hazel nuts ripen near his feast day, Aug. 22 (Old Style). Weekley compares German Lambertsnuss "filbert," associated with St. Lambert (Sept. 17); also German Johannisbeere "red currant," associated with St. John's Day (June 24). The name is Old High German Filu-berht, literally "very bright."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
| Hazelnut |
On a western-style Qwerty keyboard, what number shares the key with the % symbol? | Add to Bookmarks
Most nut trees are too large to grow more than one or perhaps two in a home fruit and nut garden. However, a few familiar (and some unfamiliar) nut trees are suitable, depending on your climate zone. Almonds, cashews, filberts (hazelnuts), pine nuts and pistachios are some of the well-known smaller nut trees.
All around the world we celebrate today, April 22, as Earth Day , and it is a perfect time to consider planting trees with edible fruits and/or nuts here on our lovely blue planet. If your planting space is small, here are some smaller nut tree suggestions. The dwarf siberian pine with edible pine nuts grows only to about 9 feet tall. A few of the smaller nut producers are actually more of a bush, like the Allegheny chinquapin, and some filberts (hazelnuts) make a great hedge, providing nuts for both you and the wildlife. There are some hybrid nut trees that will bear fruit in as little as 3 years, unlike the large walnuts and butternuts which take at least 10 years to fruit.
Stages of hazelnuts
Baklava Hazelnut shrub
One of the best edible filberts is the European filbert, growing to about 15 feet tall. It thrives in cool, moist climates but is susceptible to winterkill. Here are a couple of filberts from PlantFiles: purple-leaf filbert (Corylus maxima 'Purpurea') , zones 6 to 10. Hazelnut (Corylus americana) is a small hedge bush, native to the eastern U.S. Two plants are needed to set fruit and they can grow to 8 feet or more. They grow in zones 5 to 8 and their nuts ripen in August. The fruits are edible although often left for wildlife. The wild filberts in the eastern United States often carry Eastern filbert blight , a fungal disease. You should not plant European filberts if eastern wild filberts are growing close by. The wild western filberts do not seem to carry the disease.
Almonds (Prunus dulcis) are a stone fruit like peaches, but you eat the nut. Grown in zones 8a to 10b, they are produced commercially in California in the valleys where it is drier. Cross-pollination is required (hence the rental of honeybee hives by commercial groves). Raintree Nursery lists 'Reliable' as an almond that is easily maintained at about 12 feet tall, and is self-fertile. It is not a true almond, but a hybrid seedling of peach and almond for zones 5 to 9. There is an edible ornamental almond (Prunus amygdalus) said to grow 12 to 20 feet tall, bears in 3 to 4 years, is disease-resistant and self-fertile. Two varieties I have seen advertised are 'Titan' and 'Halls Hardy'.
Cashew 'apples' with nuts
Pistachios
Cashew (Anacardium occidentale) is a fast growing evergreen tropical nut tree growing to a height of 30-plus feet. They are very susceptible to frost. Both the “apple” and the nut growing from the end of it are edible, and they contain five times the vitamin C of oranges. Pistachios (Pistacia vera) originated in Western Asia, where they are used in a variety of dishes; we probably know baklava best. The pistachio tree grows to 20 to 30 feet tall in zones 7a to 10b. They do well in the deserts if they are irrigated and have good drainage, but do poorly in high humidity and are subject to root-rot without good drainage. A male and a female are needed for fruit production.
Pine cone with edible nuts
Piñon (Pinus edulis) Piñon cone with nuts
Pine nuts… oh my, there are so many… and they have been a food source for so long! Over 20 pine species produce edible pine nuts and of those, 5 are commercially important: Siberian pine (Pinus sibirica), Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis), Italian Stone Pine (Pinus pinea), Chilgoza pine (Pinus gerardiana) and singleleaf pinyon (Pinus monophylla), Colorado pinyon (Pinus edulis) and other pinyon (or piñon) species. The Korean Nut Pine is very hardy, tolerates clay soil, is resistant to white pine blister rust ; and is a slow grower of medium height in zones 4 to 7. The Italian Stone Pine is not as winter hardy but it tolerates drought and heat better. It is the classic umbrella-shaped pine, said to grow in zones 7 to 9.[1] Many of the edible pine nut trees also make great ornamentals.
Allegheny chinquapin shrub
One small nut tree I have on my list to order is the Allegheny chinquapin (Castanea pumila), which is basically a shrub or dwarf tree growing 12 to 15 feet tall in zones 3 to 9. The nut tastes similar to the native chestnuts that were wiped out by the chestnut blight beginning in 1912. It is said to have a more flavorful taste than the modern chestnut hybrids. There is another small chinquapin, the Georgiana chinquapin (Castanea alnifolia), which is more of a creeping 4-foot tall shrub that grows in zones 8 to 10. The Allegheny chinquapin prefers neutral soils, preferably somewhat uphill, and develops a taproot. The Georgiana chinquapin prefers shady, sandy thickets and spreads by very large, underground, shallow roots. Both produce numerous sweet nuts on the female trees, and a male is needed for pollination.
Ginkgo nuts
Gingko leaves
Although not small trees, there are some visually interesting trees we don’t generally think of for edible nuts. Those include ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) . Ginkgo, also called maidenhair tree, is the oldest broad-leafed tree on earth, with existing fossils 150 million years old. They grow to 50 to 80 feet tall and are grown in zones 3 to 9 although they do better in zones 4 to 7. They need a male to pollinate the female for fruit, and it can take up to 10 years to produce the first fruits. The 1-inch nuts are stir-fried or roasted and are prized in Chinese, Japanese and Korean dishes. They are also among the few nut trees that are not affected by pests or disease.
Another unfamiliar nut tree is the Monkey Puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana) , which is an very sculptural looking tree. It is native to Chile and hardy to -10ºF, or zones 6 to 9. This evergreen tree is not self-fertile so you will need 2 to produce nuts. The 2-inch long nuts are grown on a large cone with as many as 250 nuts per cone. The nuts can be roasted and eaten like chestnuts, or dried and ground for use as a nut flour.
Monkey Puzzle nuts
Monkey Puzzle nuts on branch
Nuts are an excellent source of protein, averaging from around 20% to as much as 75% in butternuts. Most nuts also have a high fat content although most of the fat is polyunsaturated. Nuts also contain Vitamin E, many of the B vitamins, and some essential minerals like zinc and magnesium. Almonds are a good source of calcium. Nuts are also low glycemic so they break down slowly and do not cause a surge in insulin levels.
Is there space for a small nut tree in your garden?
End Notes
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What important river in south-west France and north-west Spain gives access to Bordeaux, and links the Mediterranean Sea to the Bay of Biscay? | Places in France
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Peillon is one of several perched villages in the Alpes-Maritimes department, just a few kilometres north of Monaco and the Cote d'Azur but at almost 400 metres altitude. It is in a startling location, on top of a cliff and with higher mountains rising behind the village, and one of the most attractive villages to be found in the area.
The view up to the village as you approach along the narrow road is also one of the highlights, creating a very dramatic contrast with the Riviera coast to the south that you have only just left behind you.
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Porto-Vecchio is a very popular town on the south-east coast of Corsica about 25 kilometres north-east of Bonifacio. The town also has easy access to both beautiful beaches and high mountain scenery, which explains its popularity with visitors to Corsica.
The marina part of the town is built on ex-salt marshes and salt continues to play an important role in the life of Porto-Vecchio. It was because of the marshes that this region was not developed earlier, since they were infested with mosquitoes and malaria until well into the 20th century, althouth the citadel on the hill dates back to the 16th century.
During the mid-20th century the marshes were drained, which in combination with improved communication links has enabled the town to develop its current role as a seaside resort.
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The Pyrenees National Park is located within the French departments of the Hautes-Pyrénées and Pyrénées-Atlantiques, in the Midi-Pyrenees region of France. The parc encompasses a large part of the central Pyrenees mountain region along the border with Spain and is one of the eight national parks in France .
It is a region with many scenic natural highlights including high mountains, lakes and waterfalls, forests and dramatic cliffs. While it is possible to enjoy some of the scenery from your car, typically by crossing the high mountain passes, the greatest enjoyment comes from walking or cycling in the region.
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Quimper is a popular and interesting town in south-west Brittany, and it is the capital (prefecture) of the Finistere department. The town is also in an attractive setting, in a pretty valley at the confluence of the Odet and Steir rivers.
Although the history of Quimper dates back to roman times it was in medieval times that the town became an important regional centre. The town became wealthy from the 17th century onwards due to and the growth of the pottery making industry here.
This long tradition of pottery making can be seen with lots of 'Quimper faience pottery' for sale with its trademark pattern as you explore the streets. We found a lovely plate, but the shop said it was 300 years old and cost £750. We didn't buy it!
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Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val is found in the south-east of the Tarn-et-Garonne department, close to Najac (Aveyron) and Cordes-sur-Ciel (Tarn). As well as being a charming French town, Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val is well placed for exploring the impressive scenery of the area and lies close to the beautiful Gorges de l'Aveyron.
Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val has its origins in a Benedictine Monastery built in the 8th century. Some of the buildings of the main square and the surrounding streets date from the first half of the 12th century - notably older than most 'medieval villages'. The town was historically a stopping point on the pilgrimage path to Santiago de Compostela.
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Saint-Emilion is a town 35 kilometres east of Bordeaux in the Gironde department and in the Aquitaine region of south-west France. It is best known (indeed renowned the world over) for the vineyards which surround the town, Saint-Emilion being one of the four Bordeaux red wine regions, but is also an exceptionally attractive small town.
The history of the town dates back almost 2000 years when the Romans planted vineyards here as early as the 2nd century AD, while Saint-Émilion itself dates from the 8th century when a Breton Monk called Emilion came to settle here in a hermitage carved into the rock. The cave where he lived from 750 - 767 AD subsequently became a pilgrim destination.
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The town of Saintes is in the south-east of Charente-Maritime department of western France between Royan and Cognac . It has been a busy town since Roman times, and perhaps existed as a celtic town even before that.
France This Way comment: apart from the fascinating La Rochelle , Saintes is our favourite town in the Charente-Maritime department of France and we recommend that you visit when in the region.
The Roman period is well represented by monuments in Saintes, as are the medieval and later periods, and there is a great deal to enjoy when visiting this lively town. Because of its gallo-roman, medieval and classical heritage Saintes is officially listed as a 'Ville d'Art et d'Histoire'.
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Situated on the west coast of France, just south of the well known seaside resort of Saint-Jean-de-Monts , Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie is a busy port and lively town with a long wide stretch of beautiful sandy beach.
The river ‘La Vie’ runs through the town leading from the salt marshes to the sea. Saint Gilles Croix de Vie was originally two separate communes – one on either side of the river: Saint-Gilles-Sur-Vie (on the left side of the river) and Croix-de-Vie (on the right side). These combined in 1967 to make the one town.
The port is known for its sardine fishing and Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie is also home to the fish factory ‘Les Dieux’, which depending on the direction of the wind can smell quite fishy!
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Saint-Paul-de-Vence is found on the French Riviera, a little way inland from Cagnes-sur-Mer and close to Vence . The 'correct' name for the town is simply 'Saint Paul' although 'Saint-Paul-de-Vence' has now been widely adopted (remember this if using a GPS to get here!)
St-Paul-de-Vence is small, and also one of the most beautiful and most visited villages in France. It is best summed up by the sign at the entrance to the village itself which reads 'authentic and touristy, quiet and buzzing, Saint-Paul is proud of its paradoxes - they are the key to its charm and identity'. I certainly couldn't put it better myself!
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Sarlat is without a doubt one of the most attractive and most visited medieval towns in France, with the extensive historic centre containing innumerable impressive medieval buildings and monuments. Equally important there are almost no new buildings in the centre to spoil the overall impression that you are in a medieval town.
The town is situated in the heart of the Dordogne department in the region referred to as the 'Perigord Noir'. The centre of Sarlat is listed as a 'secteur sauvegardé' to restrict future development and also officially listed as a 'Town of Art and History'.
There are more than 250 listed buildings in the old town, typically built in the 15th and 16th centuries: Sarlat has more listed buildings per square metre than any other town in Europe.
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The historical town of Sartene is situated in south-west Corsica between Bonifacio (to the south) and Ajaccio (to the north-west). Between the sea and the mountains, it refers to itself as 'the most Corsican of the towns in Corsica'.
Although the region has been occupied since prehistoric times, the founding of the town that we see today dates from the early 16th century, followed shortly after by the construction of the fortifications. Unfortunately the fortifications were not entirely successful and in 1583 the king of Algeria breached the defences and took much of the population for slavery.
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Sospel is a small town situated about 15km inland from the coastal resort of Menton and close to the French border with Italy. Standing at the entrance to the Roya Valley, the town is within the extensive Mercantour National Parc, with the busy Riviera resorts to the south and the mountains and remote perched villages of the Alpes-Maritimes to the north.
An ancient town, Sospel became prosperous in the 13th century when an important salt trading route between Nice and Turin passed through the town and those using the route paid tolls to use the bridge across the Bévéra river. In places this medieval town feels almost Italian in character.
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Saint-Malo is on the north-eastern coast of Brittany, near the border with Normandy. The town is perhaps best known as a major arrival point for ferries from the UK to France , but it is also a very impressive town to visit in its own right - don't just go hurtling through!
Having arrived in France by ferry several times without visiting Saint Malo itself I had not realised what a lovely town it is, but in the I future will make sure I have a night or two stopover here whenever I am using the St Malo ferry. Not only is the town lovely but the beaches are superb with the walks (at low tide) to the Grand Bé and the National Fort.
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Tende is a small town perched on the side a hill in the Alpes-Maritimes department of south-east Provence, about 80 kilometres inland from the the French Riviera and in the mountains close to the border with Italy. Interestingly it was only in 1947 that the town passed from Italy to France.
The town was established in its impressive location because of its position on the route between Provence and Piedmont and this route, which follows the picturesque Roya valley north from Sospel , is still the easiest way to reach the town. Tende falls within the eastern part of the Mercantour National Parc.
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The following is a guest article kindly contributed to France This Way by one of our visitors.
The town of Thiers is located east of Clermont-Ferrand , in the Puy-de-Dome department of the Auvergne. The sombre air of medieval Thiers, still best known as the home of the Sabatier knife, belies its centuries of international fame as the capital of French cutlery manufacturing.
On the edge of the mountains of the Bois Noirs, 800 metres high and beside the ravine of the fast flowing river Durolle that once powered the grinding wheels of the cutlery factories, Thiers looks over the Limagne plain across to the Chaîne des Puys: it is a spectacular view.
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In Roman times Toulon was known as 'Telo Martius', then Telo, Telonium and finally Toulon. The town was mentioned for the first time in the “Route from Rome to Arles” by Antoninus (II century B.C.) with the name Telone Martio. For some scholars 'Telo' derives from the Greek “telaneion,” indicating a 'place of toll' or ‘scaffolding’, or from the Gallic god Telonium. As for 'Martius', this was the name by which the Romans referred to the colour red - in the Imperial Age at Toulon there was a purple dye-works. But the true origin of the name remains uncertain.
After the fall of the Roman Empire Toulon suffered numerous invasions and it was attacked and plundered by the Arabs between the eighth and twelfth centuries.
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Located in southern France in the Midi-Pyrenees region, Toulouse is a very interesting city - it is the 4th largest city in France and succeeds very well at combining the attractive old centre of the city with modern success in industry, together creating a bustling and lively city.
The 'trademark' of Toulouse is perhaps the small pretty pink bricks with which many of the houses and important buildings have been constructed, which seem to change colour as the day (and the sun) passes. Hence the city is often referred to as the Ville Rose (pink city). These bricks are also often combined with the local white stone to create a decorative effect.
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Uzès is a town situated to the west of Avignon and north of Nimes in the Gard department of Languedoc-Roussillon. The centre of this active town is now a protected historical monument, with a good mix of medieval stone houses and fine townhouses constructed later to discover.
France This Way comment: before visiting Uzès we had been led to believe it was quite a normal, quiet provincial town. In fact it is very attractive with its large arcaded central square, numerous historic monuments, historic streets and alleys, broad tree-lined boulevards and lovely views across the countryside - one of our favourite towns in southern France and a visit is highly recommended.
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The following commentary was kindly contributed by Val Frost:
We live in a little hamlet called Verneuil-Moustiers in the Haute-Vienne at the very northern edge of the Limousin. The hamlet has just seven houses with only three occupied all year around and is surrounded by miles of open countryside and farmland.
I have lived in the commune of Verneuil-Moustiers for 3 years and will say that they have been the happiest years of my life. The countryside is fantastic. Because of the lack of pollution in the area you will find wild flowers that have disappeared in the UK, such as wild orchids that grow by the roadside and multiple each year to create an amazing spectacle in the last Spring. Wild Boar and Deer are a common sight grazing in the meadows and woods of the area.
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Villefranche-sur-Mer is a town and seaside resort in the Alpes-Maritimes department of the Cote d'Azur, just a short distance east of Nice and close to the French border with Italy. It is small but the picturesque harbour and setting make it a highlight when you are exploring here.
On a site occupied since roman times, it was in 1295 that 'modern' Villefranche-sur-Mer was founded by Charles II of Anjou, at that time Count of Provence. The town soon fell into the hands of the Dukes of Savoy and remained in Italian ownership until 1860, when the region was transferred back to France.
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Villeneuve-sur-Lot is in the Lot-et-Garonne department of south-west France, about 30 kilometres north of Agen . The ancient bastide town of Villeneuve-sur-Lot has now largely given way to a much larger town that surrounds the historic centre.
Despite this development there are still some interesting features to discover in the town, which is also noteworthy in the way it has escaped the excesses of tourism that have impacted the less developed bastide towns. Although not one of the most beautiful towns of the area, it does have some attractive buildings and is worth taking the trouble to wander around.
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La Roche Bernard is a town situated south-east of Vannes , in the Morbihan department of Brittany and listed as a 'Small City of Character'. Divided into two distinct parts, the main town is situated on a rocky promontory, while a small port sits on the river Vilaine below, with both together in a scenic setting.
The town dates its origins back 1000 years, and it is in the streets of the old town that you will best get a sense of this long history - although the houses we see today were built during or after the 16th century.
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Ainhoa is a village in the Labourd province and deep in the Basque country close to the Spanish border in south-west France. The village is classified among the ' most beautiful villages of France ' and often visited as an excursion from one of the nearby Atlantic coast resorts such as Saint Jean de Luz and Biarritz .
Ainhoa was an important stop on the pilgrim path to Santiago de Compostella, where many of the routes from France converged. The original village was destroyed by the Spanish in 1629 and the village you now see was built in the 17th and 18th centuries.
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Le Grau-du-Roi is a resort on the coast of Languedoc-Roussillon, in the Gard department between the historical walled town of Aigues-Mortes and the seaside resort of La Grande-Motte . The Camargue region is to the east, while beaches are plentiful along the Mediterranean coast near here.
Surrounded by the sea to the south and waterways (small rivers and a lagoon) to most other sides, the town itself is based around a canal, and has an attractive original centre to explore. There are also many resort type apartments and holiday houses at Le Grau-du-Roi, and the resort is a popular campsite destination.
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Which US president had the nickname 'King of Camelot'? | France travel guide - Wikitravel
Map of Metropolitan France, Overseas Departments and Overseas Territories.
France is the country that more people enjoy visiting than any other.
France is one of the most geographically diverse countries in Europe. Its cities contain some of the greatest treasures in Europe, its countryside is prosperous and well tended and it boasts dozens of major tourist attractions, like Paris , the French Riviera , the Atlantic beaches, the winter sport resorts of the French Alps , the castles of the Loire Valley , Brittany and Normandy . France is renowned for its gastronomy (particularly wines and cheeses), history, culture and fashion.
Understand[ edit ]
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye."
— Antoine de Saint Exupéry, from The Little Prince
France has been the world's most popular tourist destination for over twenty years (83 million visits in 2012). Metropolitan France is in Western Europe sharing borders with Belgium , Luxembourg and Germany to the northeast, Switzerland to the east, Italy to the south-east. Spain and the small country of Andorra are to the south-west, across the Pyrenees mountain range. The Mediterranean Sea laps the south of France, with the Principality of Monaco forming a small enclave. To the west, France has a long Atlantic Ocean coastline, while to the north lies the English Channel, across which lies the last of France's neighbours, England (part of the United Kingdom ).
In the Caribbean, France borders the Netherlands via the French territory of Saint-Martin which borders the Dutch territory of Sint Maarten . Five oversea regions also form part of France: Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean , French Guiana in South America , and Reunion and Mayotte , both off the coast of Madagascar . Numerous French oversea territories also exist around the Earth with varying status.
Climate[ edit ]
A lot of variety, but temperate winters and mild summers on most of the territory, and especially in Paris . Mild winters and hot summers along the Mediterranean and in the southwest (the latter has lots of rain in winter). You may likely even see a few palm trees on the Mediterranean coast. Mild winters (with lots of rain) and cool summers in the northwest ( Brittany ). Cool to cold winters and hot summer along the German border ( Alsace ). Along the Rhône Valley, there is an occasional strong, cold, dry, north-to-northwesterly wind known as the mistral.
Cold winters with lots of the snow in the Mountainous regions: Alps, Pyrenees, Auvergne.
Terrain[ edit ]
Mostly flat plains or gently rolling hills in north and west; remainder is mountainous, especially Pyrenees in south west, Vosges , Jura and Alps in east, Massif Central in the mid south.
When to travel[ edit ]
If possible, try to avoid French school holidays and Easter, because hotels are very likely to be overbooked and traffic on the roads is simply awful.
Holidays: search internet for "French school holidays", as they vary from region to region. Mostly, the winter holidays are 10 Feb-10 Mar. The spring holidays are often 10 Apr-10 May. Also try to avoid travel around the 14th of July. (quatorze juillet) These times the roads are full of people, leading to the much dreaded Black Friday traffic jams which can grow in length to over 160km (100 miles)!
Winter gets very cold, sometimes freezing. Make sure to bring appropriate clothing to keep you warm while visiting.
Hotels are very likely to be overbooked and road traffic will be awful during the 1 May, 8 May, 11 Nov, Easter Weekend, Ascension weekend too.
History[ edit ]
France has been populated since the Neolithic period. The Dordogne region is especially rich in prehistoric caves, some used as habitation, others are temples with remarkable paintings of animals and hunters, like those found at Lascaux .
Rise and fall of the Roman empire[ edit ]
Written History began in France with the invasion of the territory by the Romans, between 118 and 50 BC. Starting then, the territory which is today called France was part of the Roman Empire, and the Gauls (name given to local Celts by the Romans), who lived there before Roman invasions, became acculturated "Gallo-Romans".
With the fall of the Roman empire, what was left were areas inhabited by descendants of intermarriages between Gallo-Romans and "barbaric" easterners (Mainly the Franks, but also other tribes like the "burgondes").
The legacy of the Roman presence is still visible, particularly in the southern part of the country where Roman circuses are still used for bullfights and rock and roll shows. Some of the main roads still follow the routes originally traced 2,000 years ago, and the urban organisation of many old town centres still transcript the cardo and the decumanus of the former Roman camp (especially Paris ). The other main legacy was the Catholic Church which can be, arguably, considered as the only remnant of the civilization of that time
Middle-Ages[ edit ]
Clovis, who died in 511, is considered as the first French king although his realm was not much more than the area of the present Île de France, around Paris. Charlemagne, who was crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 800, was the first strong ruler. He united under his rule territories which extend today in Belgium, Germany and Italy. His capital was Aix-la-Chapelle (now in Germany, known as Aachen ).
The country was under attack by the Vikings who came from the north and navigated upstream the rivers to plunder the cities and abbeys, it was also under attack from the south by the Muslim Saracens who were established in Spain. The Vikings were given a part of the territory (today's Normandy) in 911 and melted fast in the feudal system. The Saracens were stopped in 732 in Poitiers by Charles Martel, grand father of Charlemagne, a rather rough warrior who was later painted as a national hero.
Starting with Charlemagne, a new society starts to settle, based on the personal links of feudalism. This era is named middle age. Although generally seen as an era of stagnation, it can more be described as a very complex mix of periods of economic and cultural developments (Music and poems of the Troubadours and Trouveres, building of the Romantic, then Gothic cathedrals), and recessions due to pandemic disease and wars.
In 987, Hughes Capet was crowned as king of France ; he is the root of the royal families who later governed France. In 1154 much of the western part of France went under English rule with the wedding of Alienor d'Aquitaine to Henry II (Count of Anjou, born in the town of Le Mans). Some kings of the Plantagenet dynasty are still buried in France, the most famous being Richard I, of Walter Scott's fame, and his father Henry II, who lies in the Abbaye de Fontevraud. The struggle between the English and French kings between 1337 and 1435 is known as the Hundred Years War and the most famous figure, considered as a national heroine, is Joan of Arc.
The making of a modern state nation[ edit ]
The beginning of the 16th century saw the end of the feudal system and the emergence of France as a "modern" state with its border relatively close to the present ones (Alsace, Corsica, Savoy, the Nice region weren't yet French). Louis XIV who was king from 1643 to 1715 (72 years) was probably the most powerful monarch of his time. French influence extended deep in western Europe, its language was used in the European courts and its culture was exported all over Europe.
That era and the following century also saw the expansion of France on the other continents. This started a whole series of wars with the other colonial empires, mainly England (later Britain) and Spain over the control of North America, the Caribbean, South American, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
The French Revolution started in 1789, leading to the overthrow of King Louis XVI of the House of Bourbon and the creation of the First French Republic. Although this period was also fertile in bloody excesses it was, and still is, a reference for many other liberation struggles. In 1791, the other monarchies of Europe looked with outrage at the revolution and its upheavals, and considered whether they should intervene, either in support of the deposed King Louis XVI, or to prevent the spread of revolution, or to take advantage of the chaos in France. The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts fought between the French Republic and several European Monarchies from 1792 to 1802.
Napoléon Bonaparte seized power in a coup d'état, reunited the country and declared himself Emperor of the French, he crowned by Pope Pius VII as Napoleon I of the French Empire, on 2 December 1804 at Notre Dame de Paris. His militaristic ambition which, at first, made him the ruler of most of western Europe were finally his downfall. In 1815 he was defeated in Waterloo (Belgium) by the Seventh Coalition - United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Hanover, Nassau, Brunswick, and Prussia. He is still revered in some Eastern European countries as its armies and its government brought with them the ideas of the French philosophers.
20th and 21st centuries[ edit ]
1905 saw the separation of the Church from the State. This was a traumatic process, especially in rural areas. The French state carefully avoids any religious recognition. The Church was badly hurt and lost half its priests. In the long run, however, it gained autonomy—for the French State no longer had a voice in choosing bishops. In the early 21st century, the French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP) 2009 study, based on self declaration in a percentage of the total French population, 64.4% of the population identified as Catholic but with only 15.2% regularly attending or occasionally attending Mass, and 4.5% attending Mass weekly.
The First World War (1914-1918) was a disaster for France, even though the country was ultimately a victor. At first many welcomed the war to avenge the humiliation of defeat and loss of territory to Germany following the Franco-Prussian War. However very high losses and almost no gain on the Western Front change opinions of the war. A significant part of the male workforce was killed or disabled and a large part of the country and industry destroyed. When the Second World War (1939-45) was declared there was little enthusiasm and much dread in France at the prospect of enduring another major war. In the spring of 1940 Hitler's army invaded France, the army and government of the Third French Republic collapse and France surrendered in June of 1940. With British troops fleeing France an atmosphere of humiliation and defeat swept over the country. On the other hand, the French Resistance conducted sabotage operations inside German-occupied France. To support the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944, various groups increased their sabotage and guerilla attacks.
Since the end of WWII France went through a period of reconstruction and prosperity came back with the development of industry. The Fifth Republic (1958-to the present) emerged from the collapse of the French Fourth Republic (1946-58) and replaced the prior parliamentary government with a semi-presidential system. It is France's third-longest-enduring political regime, after the pre-French Revolution Ancien Régime and the Third Republic.
France began the process of decolonisation after a rise in nationalism following WWII.
In 1963 France and West Germany signed the Élysée Treaty, known as the Friendship Treaty, the treaty established a new foundation for relations that ended centuries of rivalry between them. France would play a role in what would eventually became the European Union. One of the most visible consequence being the introduction in 2002 of the Euro (€), now the common currency of eighteen of the twenty-eight EU members and also used by seven other European countries.
In 2014, France was a republic with a President elected for a 5-year term (officially the French Republic and some would describe it as a "Unitary semi-presidential and constitutional republic"). Some current main issues are the further integration of the country into the EU and the adoption of common standards for the economy, defence, immigrant rights, and so on.
The ban on religious symbols of 15 March 2004 in public schools is an application of the French policy of laïcité (secularism) under which religious symbols such as Muslim veils, Jewish Kippahs and Sikh turbans have been banned from schools. This has meant that the guarantees for freedom of religion have been curtailed for faith groups in France. Although France is extremely safe, anyone from an openly religious, faith community may still need to exercise care when travelling in France.
Electricity[ edit ]
Electricity is supplied at 220 to 230V 50Hz. Outlets are CEE7/5 (protruding male earth pin) and accept either CEE 7/5 (Grounded), CEE 7/7 (Grounded) or CEE 7/16 (non-grounded) plugs. Older German-type CEE 7/4 plugs are not compatible as they do not accommodate the earth pin found on this type of outlet. However, most modern European appliances are fitted with the hybrid CEE 7/7 plug which fits both CEE 7/5 (Belgium & France) and CEE 7/4 (Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and most of Europe) outlets.
Plugs Travellers from the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Italy, Switzerland and other countries using 230V 50Hz which use different plugs simply require a plug adaptor to use their appliances in France. Plug adaptors for plugs from the US and UK are available from electrical and "do-it-yourself" stores such as Bricorama.
Voltage: Travellers from the US, Canada, Japan and other countries using 110V, 60Hz may need a voltage converter. However, some laptops, mobile phone chargers and other devices can accept either 110V or 230V so only require a simple plug adaptor. Check the voltage rating plates on your appliances before connecting them.
Regions[ edit ]
Metropolitan France is divided into 13 administrative regions, which themselves can be grouped into seven cultural regions:
Regions of France
Cities[ edit ]
France has numerous cities of interest to travellers, below is a list of nine of the most notable:
Paris — the "City of Light", romance and the Eiffel Tower
Bordeaux — city of wine, traditional stone mansions and smart terraces
Bourges — gardens, canals and a cathedral listed as a UNESCO heritage site
Lille — a dynamic northern city known for its handsome centre and active cultural life
Lyon — France's second city with a history from Roman times to the Resistance
Marseille — Third largest French city with a harbour as big as its place as the heart of Provence
Nantes — the "Greenest City" and, according to some, the best place to live in Europe
Strasbourg — famous for its historical centre, and home to many European institutions
Toulouse — the "Pink City", for its distinctive brick architecture, main city of Occitania
Entry requirements[ edit ]
Minimum validity of travel documents
EU , EEA and Swiss citizens need only have a national identity card or passport which is valid for the entirety of their stay in France.
Other nationals (regardless of whether they are visa-exempt (e.g. New Zealanders) or are required to have a visa (e.g. South Africans)) must have a passport which has at least 3 months' validity beyond their period of stay in France. In addition, the passport must have been issued in the previous 10 years.
View of Mont Saint Michel from the causeway carpark, Normandy, Northern France
Yachts moored in Honfleur, Normandy, Northern France
The French impressionist painter Claude Monet's house in Giverny, Normandy, Northern France
Interior of Bayeux Cathedral, Normandy, Northern France
Half-timbered facades in old town Strasbourg, Alsace, Northeastern France
The cathedral at Reims, Marne department, Northeastern France
The coast at Quiberon, Brittany
Place de la République in Rennes, Brittany
Boats in the harbour at St Malo, Brittany
Saumur, Pays de la Loire
The main street of old city of Le Mans, Pays de la Loire
The Saint-Julien Cathedral in Le Mans, Pays de la Loire
The Saint-Michel gate in Guerande, Pays de la Loire
Cathédrale Saint-Pierre in Nantes, Pays de la Loire
France is a member of the Schengen Agreement .
There are no border controls between countries that have signed and implemented this treaty - the European Union (except Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland, Romania and the United Kingdom), Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. Likewise, a visa granted for any Schengen member is valid in all other countries that have signed and implemented the treaty. But be careful: not all EU members have signed the Schengen treaty, and not all Schengen members are part of the European Union. This means that there may be spot customs checks but no immigration checks (travelling within Schengen but to/from a non-EU country) or you may have to clear immigration but not customs (travelling within the EU but to/from a non-Schengen country).
Please see the article Travel in the Schengen Zone for more information about how the scheme works and what entry requirements are. Citizens of Albania, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Holy See, Honduras, Israel, Macedonia, Mauritius, Monaco, Montenegro, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, San Marino, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Seychelles, Taiwan and Uruguay, as well as British Nationals (Overseas), are permitted to work in France without the need to obtain a visa or any further authorisation for the period of their 90 day visa-free stay. All other visa-exempt nationals are exempt from holding a visa for short-term employment if they possess a valid work permit and can present this work permit at the port of entry, with limited exceptions. However, this ability to work visa-free does not necessarily extend to other Schengen countries. For more information, visit this webpage of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs .
France Visa requirements[ edit ]
Foreign nationals who are not visa-exempt (e.g. South Africans) must make a 'declaration of entry' (déclaration d'entrée) at a police station or to border inspection personnel if they arrive in France directly from another country of Schengen Area (e.g. Italy ), unless they hold a long-term visa or residence permit issued by a Schengen member state. Their passports will be endorsed by the authorities to prove that such a declaration has been made .
Reading up
Before you leave you may want to read a book like French or Foe by Polly Platt or Almost French by Sarah Turnbull — interesting, well written records from English speaking persons who live in France. For the adult reader interested in the famous reputation enjoyed by Paris for romance and sensuality, try "SENSUAL PARIS: Sex, Seduction and Romance in the Sublime City of Light" by Jonathan LeBlanc Roberts
If you intend to stay in France for longer than 90 days, regardless of purpose and with extremely few exceptions, an advance long-stay visa is always required of non-EEA or non-Swiss citizens. It is almost impossible to switch from a "C" (visitor) entry status to a "D" (long-stay) status from inside France, and you must apply for a long-stay visa in-person at the consulate responsible for your place of residence.
As of 2009, certain categories of long-stay visa, such as visitor (visiteur), family (vie privée et familiale), student (étudiant), intern (stagiaire), scientist/researcher (scientifique-chercheur), salaried worker (salarié), and short-term worker (travailleur temporaire), do not require holders to obtain a separate residence permit (carte de séjour) for the first year of stay in France. However, the long-stay visa must be validated by the Office Française de l'Immigration et de l'Intégration (OFII) within the first three months of entering France to be valid for longer than those three months. This is done by sending in a form to the OFII received along with the visa with the address of residence in France, completing a medical examination, and attending an introductory meeting to validate the visa. The tax required for validation (€58 for students and interns, but €241 for workers except those under the short-term worker category and for scientists, visitors, and family) is, as of February 2013, collected at the end of the validation process inside France. This validated visa will serve as a residence permit and, likewise, allow travel throughout the other Schengen countries for up to 90 days in a six-month period. To stay in France after a validated visa expires, however, and/or if you hold a visa which states carte de séjour à solliciter dès l'arrivée, a carte de séjour (residence permit card) must be obtained at the préfecture responsible for your place of residence within two months of entry into France or two months before the visa expires. Please consult the OFII website for more information .
French overseas departments and territories (DOM-TOM) are not part of the Schengen Area and operate a separate immigration regime from mainland France. As such, if you intend to visit them, you will need a separate visa (if required for your nationality).
By plane[ edit ]
Flights to/from Paris[ edit ]
The main international airport, Roissy - Charles de Gaulle ( IATA : CDG) is likely to be your port of entry if you fly into France from outside Europe. CDG is the home of Air France (AF), the national company, for most intercontinental flights. AF and the companies forming the SkyTeam Alliance (Dutch KLM, Aeromexico, Alitalia, Delta Air Lines, Korean Air,) use Terminal 2 while most other foreign airlines use Terminal 1. A third terminal is used for charter flights. If transferring through CDG (especially between the various terminals) it is important to leave substantial time between flights. Ensure you have no less than one hour between transfers. Add more if you have to change terminals as you will need to clear through security.
Transfers to another flight in France: AF operates domestic flights from CDG too, but a lot of domestic flights, and also some internal European flights, use Orly, the second Paris airport. For transfers within CDG you can use the free bus shuttle linking all terminals, train station, parking lots and hotels on the platform. For transfers to Orly there is a bus link operated by AF (free for AF passengers). The two airports are also linked by a local train (RER) which is slightly less expensive, runs faster but is much more cumbersome to use with heavy luggage. AF has agreements with the SNCF, the national rail company, which operates TGVs (see below) out of CDG airports (some trains carry flight numbers). The TGV station is in Terminal 2 and is on the route of the free shuttle. For transfers to the city centre of Paris, see Paris . Paris Star Shuttle offers transfers from CDG into Paris.
Some low-cost airlines, including Ryanair and Volare, fly to Beauvais airport situated about 80km northwest of Paris. Buses to Paris are provided by the airlines. Check schedules and fares on their websites.
Flights to/from regional airports[ edit ]
Other airports outside Paris have flights to/from international destinations: Bordeaux, Clermont-Ferrand, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Nice, Toulouse have flights to cities in western Europe and North Africa; these airports are hubs to smaller airports in France and may be useful to avoid the transfer between the two Paris airports. Two airports, Bâle-Mulhouse and Geneva, are shared by France and Switzerland and can allow entry into either country.
Many airlines operate flights between regional airports in the UK and France and between Ireland and France:
Condor Ferries [5] - operate freight and passenger services from Portsmouth to Cherbourg , Poole to St Malo and Weymouth to St Malo .
Prices vary considerably depending on which route you choose. Generally the cheapest route is the short sea route across the English Channel which is Dover to Calais , so it is worth comparing prices before you decide which is the most suitable route to France.
Passengers travelling from Dover by ferry to France go through French passport/identity card checks in the UK before boarding, rather than on arrival in France. Passengers travelling from all other UK ports to France go through French passport/identity card checks on arrival in France.
There are also connections from Ireland to France:
Brittany Ferries [6] - operate ferry services from Cork to Roscoff
Celtic Link Ferries [7] - operate ferry services from Rosslare to Cherbourg
Irish Ferries [8] - operate ferry services from Rosslare to Cherbourg and from Rosslare to Roscoff
Numerous companies now act as agents for the various ferry companies much like Expedia and Travelocity act as agents for airlines allowing the comparison of various companies and routes. Two well known brands are Ferryonline [9] and AFerry.co.uk [10] .
By train[ edit ]
The French rail company, SNCF, provides direct service from most European countries using regular trains. French train tickets can be purchased directly in the US from RailEurope a subsidiary of the SNCF.
Eurostar [11] runs high-speed trains to France from the United Kingdom and Belgium . Passengers travelling from the UK to France go through French passport/identity card checks in the UK before boarding, rather than on arrival in France. Passengers travelling from Brussels to Lille/Calais/Paris are within the Schengen Area. Eurostar operates the following routes from France:
Paris (Gare du Nord) direct to London (St Pancras International) (2h 15min), Ebbsfleet and Ashford and via Lille to Brussels (Zuid-Midi).
Lille (Europe) direct to London (St Pancras International) (1h 20min), Ebbsfleet, Ashford and Brussels (Zuid-Midi)
Calais (Fréthun) direct to London (St Pancras International) (1h 2min; 2-3 daily), Ebbsfleet (44min; 3-4 daily), Ashford (35min; 1 daily) and Brussels (Zuid-Midi) (1h 9min; 2-3 daily) Note: Although Brussels Midi-Calais Fréthun can't be purchased on the Eurostar website, it is available on the Belgian Railways website [12]
Thalys uses high-speed TGV trains to connect Paris to Brussels and onward to cities in the Netherlands and Germany. It can be a bit expensive compared to normal trains.
From Belgium[ edit ]
As according to an agreement with the CFL, the Belgian railways are directing all passenger trains to France through Luxembourg (thus causing an extra unnecessary border crossing), it may be useful to cross the border directly, on foot. The terminus of the French railways in Longwy can be reached from the Belgian train station of Halanzy (the line operates only on work days, however), or from the bigger Belgian stations of Arlon or Virton. Between these two stations there's a bus operated by the TEC company which stops at Aubange Place, a good point of departure/arrival for the walking tour. The path leads almost exclusively through inhabited areas in the community of Mont-Saint-Martin (yet partially in a forest if you go to/from Halanzy) and takes some 7 km. The city of Longwy itself is quite steep in some of its parts, so pay attention to this when planning your route.
There are domestic Belgian trains that terminate in Lille (station Lille-Flanders).
Between the De Panne terminus of the Belgian railways (and the Coast tram – Kusttram) and the French coastal city of Dunkerque, there is a bus line run by DK'BUS Marine: [15] . It may, however, be operating only in certain time of the year. It is also possible to take a DK'BUS bus which goes to the closest possible distance of the border and then cross it on foot by walking on the beach and arriving at a convenient station of the Coast tram, such as Esplanade.
By plane[ edit ]
The following carriers offer domestic flights within France:
Air France [16] (Ajaccio (Campo Dell Oro Airport), Annecy-Meythet Airport, Avignon-Caum Airport, Bastia (Poretta Airport), Biarritz Parme Airport, Bordeaux Airport, Brest (Guipavas Airport), Caen (Carpiquet Airport), Calvi (Sainte Catherine Airport), Clermont-Ferrand (Aulnat Airport), Figari (Sud Corse Airport), Lannion (Servel Airport), Le Havre (Octeville Airport), Lille (Lesquin Airport), Limoges (Bellegarde Airport), Lorient (Lann Bihoue Airport), Lyon Satolas Airport, Marseille Airport, Metz/Nancy (Metz-Nancy-Lorraine Airport), Montpellier (Mediterranee Airport), Mulhouse/Basel (EuroAirport French), Nantes Atlantique Airport, Nice (Cote D'Azur Airport), Paris (Charles De Gaulle Airport), Paris (Orly Field), Pau (Uzein Airport), Perpignan (Llabanere Airport), Quimper (Pluguffan Airport), Rennes (St Jacques Airport), Rodez (Marcillac Airport), Rouen (Boos Airport), Strasbourg (Entzheim Airport), Tarbes Ossun Lourdes Airport, Toulon (Hyeres Airport), Toulouse (Blagnac Airport))
Hop! [17] (Aurillac Airport, Bastia (Poretta Airport), Beziers Vias Airport, Bordeaux Airport, Brest (Guipavas Airport), Brive-La-Gaillarde (Laroche Airport), La Rochelle (Laleu Airport), Lyon Satolas Airport, Mulhouse/Basel (EuroAirport French), Nantes Atlantique Airport, Paris (Orly Field), Poitiers (Biard Airport), Rennes (St Jacques Airport), Saint Nazaire (Montoir Airport), Toulouse (Blagnac Airport))
Air Corsica [18] (Ajaccio (Campo Dell Oro Airport), Bastia (Poretta Airport), Calvi (Sainte Catherine Airport), Figari (Sud Corse Airport), Lyon Satolas Airport, Marseille Airport, Nice (Cote D'Azur Airport))
Twin Jet [19] (Cherbourg (Maupertus Airport), Marseille Airport, Metz/Nancy (Metz-Nancy-Lorraine Airport), Paris (Orly Field), Saint Etienne (Boutheon Airport), Toulouse (Blagnac Airport))
easyJet [20] (Bastia, Biarritz, Brest, Lyon, Nantes, Nice (Côte D'Azur Airport), Paris (Charles De Gaulle Airport), Paris (Orly), Toulouse (Blagnac Airport))
Ryanair [21] (Marseille to/from Bordeaux/Brest/Lille/Nantes/Paris Beauvais/Paris Vatry/Tours; Paris Beauvais to/from Beziers/Marseille)
Eastern Airways [22] (Lyon to Lorient)
Hex'Air [23] (Le Puy (Loudes Airport), Lyon Satolas Airport, Paris (Orly Field), Rodez (Marcillac Airport))
Heli Securite [24] (Cannes (Croisette Heliport), Nice (Cote D'Azur Airport))
Nice Helicopteres [25] (Cannes (Croisette Heliport), Nice (Cote D'Azur Airport))
The following carriers offer direct flights between metropolitan France (French territory geographically situated in Europe) and DOM-TOM (French overseas departments and territories):
Air Austral [26] (Réunion)
Air Caraïbes [27] (French Guiana (Cayenne), Guadeloupe (Pointe-à-Pitre) and Martinique (Fort-de-France))
Air France [28] (French Guiana (Cayenne), Guadeloupe (Pointe-à-Pitre), Martinique (Fort-de-France), Réunion)
'Corsair International [29] (French Guiana (Cayenne), Guadeloupe (Pointe-à-Pitre), Martinique (Fort-de-France), Mayotte (Dzaoudzi), Réunion)
XL Airways [30] (Guadeloupe (Pointe-à-Pitre), Martinique (Fort-de-France), Mayotte (Dzaoudzi), Réunion)
Although the 5 DOM-TOM (French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte and Réunion) which can be reached directly by air from metropolitan France are part of the European Union, they are outside the Schengen Area and the EU VAT Area (and hence the 5 DOM-TOM apply a different, but similar, immigration regime to metropolitan France which applies the Schengen rules). Since 2009/2010, when flying from metropolitan France to these 5 DOM-TOM, there are only immigration checks on departure from metropolitan France (immigration checks on arrival in these 5 DOM-TOM have been removed). However, when flying from these 5 DOM-TOM to metropolitan France, there are immigration checks both on departure from the DOM-TOM and upon arrival in metropolitan (known in French as double contrôle d’identité). For EU, EEA and Swiss citizens, a valid passport or national identity card is sufficient for the immigration checks both in metropolitan France and in the DOM-TOMs. Non-EU/EEA/Swiss citizens who are visa-exempt for metropolitan France will also be visa-exempt for the DOM-TOMs (and, in addition, certain nationalities which require a visa for metropolitan France/Schengen Area will not require one for the DOM-TOMs).
It is possible to reach the French overseas territories of Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin (L'Espérance Airport) from metropolitan France by transiting onto a connecting flight at Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe without stopping in a third country. Therefore, it is possible for EU, EEA and Swiss citizens to visit these territories with a national identity card only (and not a passport).
The following carriers offer flights between metropolitan France and DOM-TOM with a stopover in a third country:
Air France [31] (French Polynesia (Papeete) via the United States (Los Angeles)
Air Tahiti Nui [32] (French Polynesia (Papeete) via the United States (Los Angeles))
To reach the other DOM-TOM (New Caledonia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon and Wallis and Futuna) from metropolitan France, it is necessary to transit between connecting flights in a third country.
See also: Driving in France
France drives on the right.
A French driver flashing headlights is asserting right of way and warning you of intentions and presence. Do not use it to mean thanks. Flashing headlights can also mean, "Watch out as there's a police speed-check ahead of you!" Horns should be used only in legitimate emergencies; use of the horn in urban areas outside such circumstances might win you a traffic ticket. Parisian drivers were notorious for honking their horns at anything and everything, though increased enforcement has greatly reduced this practice.
France has a well-developed system of highways. Most of the motorway (autoroute) links are toll roads. Some have toll stations giving you access to a section, others have entrance and exit toll stations. Don't lose your entrance ticket or you will be charged for the longest distance. All toll stations accept major credit cards although may not accept foreign credit cards, or you can use the automatic booth, but only if your card is equipped with a chip. Foreigners can get such a chip at tolltickets.com.
Roads range from the narrow single-lane roads in the countryside to major highways. Most towns and cities were built before the general availability of the automobile and thus city centres tend to be unwieldy for cars. Keep this in mind when renting: large cars can be very unwieldy. It often makes sense to just park and then use public transportation.
Renting a car[ edit ]
Once you land in France you may need to use car hire services. Most of the leading companies operate from French airports and there is good merit in booking car hire in advance. It is a regular experience at smaller French airports to not get the type of car you booked online but an alternative model. Sometimes the alternative model is quite different so check carefully before accepting the vehicle and stand your ground if it does not match your booking request and is not suitable to your needs.
Most cars in France are equipped with standard transmissions, a fact that derives equally from the preferences of the driving public and the peculiarities of French licensing laws (automatic transmissions are generally only used by the elderly or those with physical disabilities). This extends to vehicle categories that in the US are virtually never equipped with a manual transmission, such as vans and large sedans. Accordingly, virtually all of the vehicles available for rent at the average car hire depot will be equipped with a manual gearbox. If you do not know how to drive a car with a manual transmission and don't have the time to learn before your trip, be certain to reserve your rental car well in advance and confirm your reservation. Otherwise, you may find yourself in a car that is much larger than you can afford (or with no car at all).
It is a good tip when travelling in numbers to get one member of the party with hand luggage to go straight through to the car hire desk ahead of everybody else, this will avoid the crush once the main luggage is picked up from the conveyor.
For short term rentals, you will find numerous familiar big name agencies (Hertz, SIXT, Avis, Alamo) which you can book through a number of online portals and compare prices side by side (Orbitz, Kayak, Expedia). All of the above rental agencies usually have similar pricing, vehicles and rental policies. Although it not recommended, one will usually be able to wait until near last minute to book online and still get a car when it comes to short term rentals. In fact, there has been a recent surge in the last-minute car rental market, with an increasing number of start-ups promoting low-cost car hire services in different ways. One of these growing trends is car-pooling, which has exploded in the last decade. In fact, most of the biggest names in the market, such as BlaBlaCar and Covoiturage, are originally from France, though they have now expanded in neighbouring countries. Another novelty in this market, which is attracting a lot of attention, is renting cars for one-way trips around France, for one symbolic euro. Indeed, French startups such as DriiveMe now offer one-way, city-to-city car rentals for one Euro net by putting in relation the logistical and car-conveying aspect of the car hire business to the demand side. These innovative solutions and growing trends highlight a growing market and new possibilities for people to travel cheaply throughout France.
However, for rentals exceeding three weeks in duration, it is often advantageous to use a "short term" lease buy back programs in which you need to book at least a few weeks in advance before departing. The lease buy back programs are uniquely French and offer a tax-free alternative to car rentals that can often have an overall lower cost and better value than a traditional car rental. The programs are typically run by the big three French auto makers Peugeot, Renault, and Citroen. Short term leasing offers clients a brand new vehicle, full insurance, unlimited mileage, and flexible driving rules compared to traditional car rentals. You must be a NON European resident to take part in this and one downfall is that you must have need for a car for more then three weeks in order to benefit from the service. Only certain agencies are authorized to sell these leases to US residents. Some of them include; Auto France, Inc. Peugeot(US), Citroen Europass (US), Renault USA (US).
By thumb[ edit ]
France is a dreadful country for hitchhiking - especially if you're male. Be patient, prepare yourself for a long wait or walk and in the meantime enjoy the landscape. A ride will come along in a few days since a lot of foreigners are on French roads. People who stop are usually friendly and not dangerous. They will like you more if you speak a little French. They never expect any money for the ride.
Remember that getting out of Paris by thumb is almost impossible. You can try your luck at the portes, but heavy traffic and limited areas for stopping will try your patience. It's a good idea to take the local train to a nearby suburb as your chance of being picked up will increase dramatically.
Outside Paris, it's advisable to try your luck after roundabouts. As it's illegal to hitchhike on the motorways (autoroutes) and they are well observed by the police, you may try on a motorway entry. The greatest chance is at toll plazas (stations de péage), some of which require all cars to stop and are thus great places to catch a lift. Some tollbooths are really good, some not so good. If you've been waiting for a while with an indication of where to go, drop it and try with your thumb only. And also, you can try to get a ride to the next good spot in the wrong direction.
Note, though, that hitching from a péage, while a common practice, isn't legal and French police or highway security, who are normally very tolerant of hitchhikers, may stop and force you to leave. You can get free maps in the toll offices - these also indicate where you can find the "all-stop-Péage".
By train[ edit ]
Your rights as a rail passenger
On the TGV and Intercités, your rights are covered by the SNCF's 'Garantie Voyage' passenger charter:
Information guarantee (To ensure that you are kept informed and updated about schedule changes/cancellations by SNCF staff and station announcements/screens/signs)
Ticket change/refund guarantee (If your train is cancelled or delayed by more than 1 hour, you can change the ticket to take another train within the next 48 hours or receive a full refund.)
Seat guarantee (If you travel for more than 1hr30mins on a train with obligatory reservations on a ticket that states 'sans place attribuée' (no allocated seat), the train conductor will find you a seat, and if not, you will be offered a travel voucher of between €10 and €30 depending on the comfort of your journey, the journey length and the ticket price.)
Assistance guarantee (For train delays between 1 and 2 hours, you will be provided with a 'suitable and proportionate level of assistance'. For delays of over 2 hours, SNCF will try to reroute you by train, bus or taxi to your destination, offer you drinks and meals at lunchtime and dinner time, and, if necessary, overnight accommodation in a hotel. Note that the assistance guarantee applies regardless of the cause of the delay/cancellation.)
Punctuality guarantee (If your train is delayed because of SNCF, you will be compensated 25% of the ticket price in travel vouchers for a delay of 30 to 59 mins, 25% of the ticket price in travel vouchers or a bank transfer for a delay of 1 hr to 1hr 59mins, 50% for a delay of 2hrs to 2hr 59mins and 75% for a delay of 3hrs or more. The minimum amount of compensation is €4. For Intercités Eco 100% trains, compensation is only given for a delay of at least 1hr.)
Complaints guarantee (If you send a complaint to SNCF Customer Services, they will respond within 5 days, including weekends and public holidays.)
Note that the guarantees listed above are separate, so technically you could be entitled to more than one.
If you qualify for any of the above guarantees but it is not being delivered, you should speak to an SNCF member of staff. If the situation cannot be resolved to your satisfaction, you should keep your ticket and proof of any expenses which you incurred but which should have been covered by SNCF (e.g. food in the event of a long delay). After your journey, to request a reimbursement of your expenses get in touch with the SNCF Garantie Voyage centre (postal address: Service Garantie Ponctualité SNCF, BP 12013, 14089 CAEN cedex 6), which is obliged to respond within one month. If you are still dissatisfied, contact SNCF Customer Services (postal address: Service Relation clients SNCF, 62973 ARRAS cedex 9), which is obliged to respond within 5 days. If following a month, the situation has still not been fully resolved, you can contact the SNCF Mediator (postal address: Médiateur de la SNCF, 45 rue de Londres, 75008 PARIS), who makes decisions not merely on the basis of the law, but also common sense/morality/fairness ('le Médiateur intègre le bon sens, l’éthique et l’équité dans l’analyse le conduisant à l’avis qu’il rend').
For more information about the Garantie Voyage passenger charter, see this SNCF webpage (available in French only).
In addition, French courts have decided that all rail passengers are entitled to be compensated by SNCF for any losses (which were foreseeable at the time of purchasing the ticket) incurred as a result of a train delay/cancellation, unless it was caused by a force majeure. (French Civil Code, Articles 1147 and 1150) This legal right is separate to the passenger rights in the 'Garantie Voyage' charter, and can therefore be useful either if you are not covered by the 'Garantie Voyage' charter, or if your losses are not fully compensated by the charter. For example, if your train was scheduled to arrive at your destination station at 5:45pm, but was delayed by 25 mins and so arrived at 6:10pm, which meant that you could not pick up the hire car which you had booked as the car rental office in the station closed at 6pm, and so you had to take a taxi to reach your final destination, SNCF is legally obliged to compensate you for the cost of the taxi ride (and any no-show car rental charges) if both losses were foreseeable (e.g. if at the time you booked your train ticket on the SNCF website, you selected the option to book car rental at the same time on the booking page). Note that technical faults (e.g. engine/signalling failures), weather conditions (e.g. storms, snowfall) and strikes (except for surprise, unannounced strikes) are not considered by French courts to be force majeure events.
Trains are a great way to get around in France. You can get pretty much from anywhere to anywhere else by train. For long distances, use the TGV (Train a Grande Vitesse - High-Speed Train) on which reservations are obligatory. But, if you have time, take the slow train and enjoy the scenery. The landscape is part of what makes France one of the top tourist destinations in the world.
The French national railway network is managed by Réseaux Ferrés de France, and most of the trains are run by the SNCF [33] (Société nationale des chemins de fer français). For interregional trains you can get schedules and book tickets online. For regional trains, schedules can be found at ter-sncf.com [34] (choose your region, then "Carte and horaires" for maps and timetables). Booking is available in two classes: première classe (first class) is less crowded and more comfortable but can also be about 50% more expensive than deuxième classe (second class). Note that if your TGV is fully booked, step aboard seconds before the doors close, and look for the guard ("contrôleur"). He will find you a seat somewhere.
There are a number of different kinds of high speed and normal trains:
TER (Train Express Régional): Regional trains and the backbone of the SNCF system. TER are slow but do serve most stations. Available on Eurail and InterRail passes.
Intercités: As of 2012, the bundling of the former Corail services. Includes trains with compulsory reservation (former Téoz and the Lunéa night trains) and those for which reservations are optional (former Intercités). The reservation-optional trains are what one will often use on passes. Some trains go to regions that the TGV services don't, namely in Auvergne.
TGV (Trains à Grande Vitesse): The world-famous French high-speed trains run several times a day to the Southeast Nice (5-6h), Marseille (3h) and Avignon (2.5 h), the East Geneva (3h) or Lausanne , Switzerland and Dijon (1h15) , the Southwest Bordeaux (3h), the West Rennes (2h), Nantes (2h), Brest (4h) and the North Lille (1h). Eurostar to London (2h15) and Thalys to Brussels (1h20) use almost identical trains. Reservations are compulsory.
iDTGV [35] : A low-cost version of the TGV available to over 50 destinations on journeys of 3 hours or more. Tickets are only available online at the iDTGV website (prices starting from €19 (second class) and €29 (first class)) and must be printed out, or booked via the iDTGV mobile app.
OUIGO [36] : Another low-cost version of the TGV with tickets starting from €10. (Note that OUIGO does not go to central Paris, but rather Marne-la-Vallée/Chessy TGV station, which is 50 mins by RER A train from central Paris.) Tickets are only available online on the OUIGO website and must be printed out, or booked via the OUIGO mobile app. Also, an identity document (passport, national identity card or driving licence) must be presented with the ticket when boarding the train.
If you'll be doing more than about 2 return journeys in France and are younger than 26, getting a "Carte 12-25" will save you money. They cost €50, last a year, and give anywhere from a 25% to 60% discount depending on when you book the ticket and when you travel.
Booking tickets online can be quite a confusing process as it is possible to book the same journey through a number of different websites (in different languages and currencies). The fares are not always consistent so it pays to check the same trip on a number of sites.
www.voyages-sncf.com [37] This is the French language booking website of the SNCF. (To ensure that you get the best prices, make sure you select France as the country, as the website may redirect you to the English language version with higher prices if you access the website from outside France.)
www.tgv-europe.com [38] English language version of the SNCF site. Confusingly this site has a completely different layout and style from the French language version. There are a few strange quirks. The booking window requires you to enter your "country", and if you select France (as someone already in France is likely to do), you are directed back to the French language site.
www.raileurope.com [39] [40] [41] The RailEurope sites are booking agencies owned by the SNCF. Fares will often be more expensive on these sites than on the "official" sites, however they are generally easier to use than the SNCF sites.
Both TGV-Europe and Voyages-SNCF frequently report errors in booking attempts; one of the workarounds is to call SNCF to book over the phone (00.33.892.35.35.35 "from outside France" The most attractive internet-only rates are not available there, but still it secures you a seat, and likely cheaper than if you buy in ticket office upon arrival.
If you travel by TER, there are a number of offers available for leisure passengers in each different region:
TER Alsace: unlimited travel on regional trains and local transport - available in 2 formats ('Alsa+ 24h' as an individual ticket valid for 24 hours after validation, and 'Alsa+ Group Journée' as a ticket for a group of 2 to 5 valid on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday)
TER Aquitaine: unlimited travel for €11 between Bayonne and San Sebastian (Spain) for a weekend (or any 2 consecutive days during July and August)
TER Auvergne: unlimited one-day travel on the TER for €30 within the Auvergne region for a group of up to 5
TER Champagne-Ardennes: on Saturdays, a group of up to 4 can travel at the price of 1 person. Also, on Saturdays you can travel from a number of towns in Champagne-Ardennes to Paris for €10 return .
TER Franche-Comté: unlimited TER travel for one day (Saturdays and any day during school holidays) for €15.50 or for two days (weekend or any 2 consecutive days during school holidays) for €23.70
TER Languedoc-Roussillon: travel between any 2 stations on 5 TER lines for just €1
TER Lorraine: 40% discount off a regular price ticket on TER trains within the Lorraine region. With a Métrolor Loisirs ticket, a group of up to 5 passengers can enjoy a group discount on TER trains within the Lorraine region (2 passengers pay the Métrolor fare, and up to 3 others pay a €1 fare).
TER Midi-Pyrénées: travel on certain TER trains at a rate of €2.50 per 40km
TER Nord-Pas de Calais: unlimited one-day travel between Lille and Tournai/Courtai for €8 (free of charge for children under the age of 12 accompanied by an adult), and during the weekend, a 40% discount off train tickets between Lille and 125 stations in Belgium.
TER Picardie: 50% discount if travelling in a group of 5 to 9 on TER trains within the Picardy region or to/from Paris
TER Poitou-Charentes: a group of up to 5 can travel for €35 on TER trains within the Poitou-Charentes region on any 2 consecutive days
TER Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur.: from June to September, unlimited travel within one département of the region for €15. Also, a Pass Isabelle Famille is available all-year, allowing unlimited TER one-day travel in the Alpes-Maritimes for a group of up to 4 (with at least 2 children under the age of 16) for €35. In addition, the Pass Bermuda/Pass Bermuda Duo is available during the summer, allowing unlimited TER one-day travel between Marseille and Miramas for €6 (1 person) or €10 (2 people).
TER Rhône-Alpes: on certain Saturdays, if travelling in a group of 2 to 5 within the Rhône-Alpes/Geneva/Mâcon, you can get a 40% discount on the regular fare and children under the age of 12 travel free of charge.
If you've booked online on Voyages SNCF, you can pick up your ticket when you get to the train station. Contrary to a common misunderstanding, this web site allows you to order even if you live in the US; it is not concerned where you live, but where you will pick up the tickets or have them sent; thus if you wish to pick up the tickets at a SNCF train station or office, answer "France". When at the station, just go to the counter ("Guichet") and ask to have your ticket issued ("retirer votre billet"). You can ask "Je voudrais retirer mon billet, s'il vous plait", or 'zhe voo dray ruh teer ay mon bee yay, sill voo play' and then hand them the paper with the reference number.
To find your train, locate your train number and the departure time on the departures board. There will be a track ("Voie") number next to the train and departure time. Follow signs to that track to board the train. You will have a reserved seat on TGV trains. On other long-distance trains, you can optionally make reservations (at least one day in advance); if you do not have one you may use any unused seat not marked as reserved. To find your reserved seat, first look for the train coach number ("Voit. No"). Pay attention to the possible confusion between track number (Voie) and coach (voiture) number (abbreviated Voit) As you go down the track, the coach number will be displayed on an LCD screen on the car, or maybe just written in the window or right next to the doors.
The reserved seat rules are lax; you are allowed if you switch seats or use another seat (of the same class of course) if it is empty because the TGV is not fully booked or the other person agrees to switch with you. The only requirement is not to continue using a reserved seat if the person holding the reservation claims it.
On the main lines, TGVs often run in twos. There are two possibilities: either the two TGVs are considered as one train with one train number (in this case each coach has a different number); or the two TGVs are considered as separate trains which run together during a part of their journey, with two different train numbers (in this case, the two trains may have two close numbers such as 1527 and 1537), and each train will have its own coach numbering. So be sure you are in the right train (the train number is shown on the LCD screen, with the coach number).
If you are early, there is often a map somewhere on the track that will show how the train and car numbers will line up on the track according to letters that appear either on the ground or on signs above. That way, you can stand by the letter corresponding with your coach number and wait to board the train closest to your coach. You can easily go from one coach to another, so if you are very late, jump in any coach of the same class before the train starts, wait until most people are seated, then walk to your coach and seat number.
Beware: To avoid any form of fraud, your ticket must be punched by an automatic machine ("composteur") before entering the platform area to be valid. Older machines are bright orange, newer machines are yellow and gray. The machines are situated at the entrance of all platforms. Failure to punch the ticket may entitle you to a fine even if you are a foreigner with a limited French vocabulary, depending on how the conductor feels, unless you approach the conductor as quickly as possible and request that your ticket be validated. Likewise if you step aboard a train without a ticket, you must find the conductor ("contrôleur") and tell him about your situation before he finds you.
French information booths, especially in larger train stations, can be quite unhelpful, especially if you do not understand much French. If something does not seem to make sense, just say "excusez-moi" and they should repeat it.
Night train services also exist. These include couchettes second class (6 bunk beds in a compartment), first class (4 bunks) and Reclining seats. Wagon-lits (a compartment with 2 real beds) were totally withdrawn from French overnight trains. However, you can ask for a "private room" (in first class). Night trains have occasionally been targeted by criminals, though this is not a widespread problem.
Taking a dog[ edit ]
Dogs are allowed on trains in France. Dogs that fit in a carrier (maximum 55 x 30 x 30cm) travel for €6, while larger dogs travel for 50% of the full adult fare. Ouigo and IDTGV have a set fare of €30 and €35 respectively each way for larger dogs. For more information on where to go in France with your dog, how to get there and where to stay, check out France: A Woof Guide by Paul Wojnicki.
Troc des trains[ edit ]
As it is cheaper to book and purchase train tickets, especially those with reservations, in advance, there is a relatively lively trading of non-exchangeable and non-reimburseable train tickets on the Internet. See http://www.trocdestrains.com/recherche-billet-train.html and http://www.kelbillet.com/billet-de-train-pas-cher/
By taxi[ edit ]
Your rights as a taxi passenger
At a taxi stand/rank, you have the right to choose any taxi you want and not necessarily the first taxi at the front, unless there is a queue of taxis. Taxi drivers are forbidden from soliciting customers, so you should never feel threatened to choose a particular vehicle.
Make sure that the driver is a legally authorised taxi driver by checking his/her carte professionnelle. Also check that the vehicle is an authorised taxi which has a 'TAXI' panel at the top, a taximeter and a sheet displayed with the tariff information.
The taxi driver cannot refuse to take you unless his/her shift is about to end, your luggage cannot be moved by hand, you have a pet with you (not including guide dogs), you are clearly inebriated, you attempt to hail the taxi within 50 metres of a taxi stand/rank or your clothing or belongings will damage the inside of the taxi. The taxi driver cannot refuse to take you if you are a disabled passenger, and if you have a wheelchair, must carry it free of charge.
The driver cannot refuse to carry 4 passengers. Depending on the capacity of the taxi, the driver can refuse to carry 5 or more passengers.
You have the right to choose any passenger seat (including the front seat) inside the taxi.
The driver will often (but is not obliged) to help you with your baggage.
The route taken by the driver to your destination must be the most direct (you are entitled to ask the driver to take a route preferred by you and the driver cannot refuse).
You are obliged to wear your seat belt. Smoking is prohibited inside the taxi by both the driver and the passenger.
The use of a car seat for passengers under the age of 10 is not obligatory inside taxis.
The driver cannot carry anyone else other than you and your companions. On the other hand, you are free to request the driver to drop off/pick up any of your companions along the journey.
The taxi driver is obliged to accept payment by cash. Many taxi drivers accept payment by card (though this is not a legal obligation, so check with the driver in advance if you want to pay by card).
There must be a notice inside the taxis (in 3 languages – French, English and Spanish) with details of the fare calculation and the contact details if you wish to make a complaint.
The minimum charge for a taxi ride is 6.86€ (inclusive of supplements).
You can request a receipt from the taxi driver if you wish. If the ride costs less than 25€, the taxi driver can refuse to issue a receipt (though this is rare). If the ride costs 25€ or more, the taxi driver is legally obliged to issue a receipt.
It is customary to leave a tip (rounding up to the nearest Euro) for the driver if he/she has done a good job. However, there is no legal obligation to leave such a tip.
In France, taxis carry up to 9 passengers and are clearly marked with a 'TAXI' panel on top of the vehicle. The 'TAXI' panel will be green if the taxi is available and red if occupied or enroute to pick up a passenger. The term 'taxi' in France is the equivalent of a public hire taxi/cab in English-speaking countries - you can take a taxi either by hailing one on the street, going to a taxi stand/rank (station de taxi) or booking one through a taxi operator (central de radio taxi). On the other hand, the term 'VTC' (voiture de transport avec chauffeur) (see section below) in France is the equivalent of a private hire taxi/minicab in English-speaking countries - you can only take a VTC if it has been pre-booked.
Although, in general, you will be able to get a taxi relatively easily by going to a taxi stand (which you will often be able to find at airports, railway stations, town centres etc), you may need to book a taxi during peak hours, in rural towns/communities or if you require a large taxi. In Paris, you can book a taxi through the central taxi switchboard (tel: 01 45 30 30 30) or one of the 3 main taxi operators: Taxis G7 [42] , Alpha Taxis [43] and Taxis Bleus [44] . Outside Paris, you can find a list of taxi operators and independent taxi drivers by searching in the Yellow Pages (Pages Jaunes).
If you hail a taxi on the street without making a booking, the taximeter should only start at the moment you board the vehicle and should not already be running. If you book a taxi in Paris, the taximeter can only start running at the scheduled pick-up time (or, where the taxi is booked for an immediate pick-up, when it arrives at the pick-up point). If the taxi arrives at the pick-up point late after the scheduled pick-up time, the taximeter can only start running when it arrives at the pick-up point. Note that if you book a taxi in Paris, the taxi driver can charge an additional fee of up to €4 (for a booking for immediate pick-up) or €7 (for an advance booking) known as the supplément forfaitaire pour réservation. If you book a taxi outside Paris, the taximeter may already be running when it arrives at the pick-up point. This is legally permitted outside Paris as the taxi driver is allowed to turn on the meter as soon as he/she receives the request from the operator to pick you up (this journey to the pick-up point is known as the 'course d'approche'). Outside Paris, the taxi driver is not permitted to charge a supplément forfaitaire pour réservation.
All taxis are obliged to have a taximeter (taximètre). The fare will be determined according to the taximeter. The fare displayed on the taximeter is calculated according to the tariff which is set annually by the département where the taxi has been registered. The tariff information must be clearly displayed on a sheet inside the taxi. In Paris, the taxi fare is calculated based on a pick-up charge of €2.60 and 3 different types of tariffs (Tariff A is €1.06 per km/€32.05 per hour and applies Monday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm; Tariff B is €1.29 per km/€38.00 per hour and applies Monday to Saturday from 5pm to 10am, Sundays from 7am to midnight and all day on public holidays; Tariff C is €1.56 per km/€35.70 per hour and applies on Sundays from 12am to 7am). Outside Paris, the pick-up charge varies from €0.50 to €3.40 and there are 4 different types of tariffs (Tariff A applies for a return journey during the day Monday to Saturday; Tariff B a return journey during the evening Monday to Saturday and all day Sundays and public holidays; Tariff C a single journey during the day Monday to Saturday; Tariff D a single journey during the evening Monday to Saturday and all day Sundays and public holidays). The taximeter must indicate which type of tariff is being used to calculate the taxi fare. When a taxi is stationary or moving slowly, the taximeter calculates the fare per hour instead of per kilometre.
In addition to the fare indicated on the metre, the taxi driver is permitted to add certain fare supplements (e.g. 4th passenger supplement outside Paris; 5th passenger supplement in Paris; baggage supplement; pet animal supplement; supplement for picking up from a railway station or airport). However, all fare supplements must be clearly stated on the taxi fare information sheet displayed inside the taxi. If there are any road tolls, the taxi driver can only add the cost of the road toll to the fare if the passenger has agreed in advance, otherwise the fare includes the cost of the road toll. Road tolls can never been added to the fare if they were incurred during the 'course d'approche' before the driver picked up the passenger.
The tariff set by the departément where the taxi has been registered (which is the basis for the calculation by the taximeter) is the maximum amount which the taxi driver can legally charge for the taxi ride. However, you are free to ask for a quote (demande de devis)/negotiate another amount for the journey with the taxi driver. If you do obtain a quote/negotiate an amount for the journey with the taxi driver, he/she is nonetheless legally obliged to turn on the taximeter - the reason for this is that if the final fare displayed on the meter (plus supplements) is lower than the fare which you were quoted/negotiated, you are only obliged to pay the lower amount and not the higher amount which you had previously agreed with the driver.
Starting from 1 March 2016, if you take the taxi between Paris and Charles de Gaulle Airport/Orly Airport, the fare will not be calculated based on the distance/time using the meter, but will be instead be a fixed rate (tarif forfaitaire):
Between Charles de Gaulle Airport and Paris (Right Bank): 50€
Between Charles de Gaulle Airport and Paris (Left Bank): 55€
Between Orly Airport and Paris (Right Bank): 35€
Between Orly Airport and Paris (Left Bank): 30€
For more information, see the information sheet provided by the Préfecture de police de Paris . Note that the fixed rate is simply the maximum price which the taxi driver is legally permitted to charge; you are free to negotiate a lower rate with the taxi driver.
If you are dissatisfied with the service provided by the taxi driver, you should try to resolve any problems on the spot with him/her. If you are still dissatisfied, you can contact the taxi operator (unless the taxi driver is an independent driver). In Paris, you can contact the police which regulates taxis (Préfecture de police, Direction des transports et de la protection du public, Sous-direction des déplacements et de l’espace public, Bureau des taxis et transports publics, 36 rue des Morillons, 75015 PARIS, ☎ 01 55 76 20 05 ( [email protected] , fax: 01 55 76 27 01), [45] . A complaint form in English is available at [46] ). Outside Paris, taxis are usually regulated by the préfecture in the departément where the taxi is registered. In some departéments, you can complain directly to the préfecture about a taxi under its jurisdiction. For a list of préfectures by departément, see [47] . In other departéments, the prefect will have designated the consumer protection authority (Direction de la Protection des Populations) in the departément as the body responsible for receiving complaints about taxi drivers. For a list of the relevant Direction de la Protection des Populations, see [48] . When contacting the police in Paris or préfecture/Direction de la Protection des Populations outside Paris, you should include the following details: licence plate number of the taxi, time of the journey.
By VTC[ edit ]
The term 'VTC' (voiture de transport avec chauffeur) in France is the equivalent of a private hire taxi/minicab in English-speaking countries - you can only take a VTC if it has been pre-booked. (The term 'taxi' (see section above) in France is the equivalent of a public hire taxi/cab in English-speaking countries - you can take a taxi either by hailing one on the street, going to a taxi stand (station de taxi) or booking one through a taxi operator (central de radio taxi).)
Unlike taxis, by law a VTC can only charge a fare which is either a fixed price which has been agreed in advance or an amount calculated based on the time of the journey. A VTC is forbidden from charging a fare calculated based on the distance of the journey actually driven and having a taximeter installed. A VTC can only carry up to 9 passengers.
You can book a VTC through a number of operators:
Allocab [49] (available in Paris, Lyon, Lille, Cannes, Nice, Montpellier, Toulouse, Marseille, Bordeaux, Toulon, Nantes and Rennes)
Chauffeur06 [50] (available in Cannes, Nice, Monaco, Antibes, Saint-Tropez and Nice Airport)
Chauffeur-privé [51] (available in Paris and the French Riviera/Côte d'Azur)
Drive [52] (available in Paris and a number of other cities)
Le Cab [53] (operates a fleet of Peugeot 508 in Paris (with an internet-enabled iPad for passengers onboard))
Uber [54] (available in Paris, Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon, Nantes, Nice/Côte d'Azur, Strasbourg and Toulouse; note that all pickups are made on demand and it is not possible to make a booking in advance)
Make sure that the VTC which you have booked is legal by checking to see if there is a VTC vignette with the registration number of the company/operator both on the front and rear windows.
By bus[ edit ]
Intercity bus service is a relatively new concept in France. Megabus [55] and Ouibus [56] all offer domestic French tickets as part of their international networks.
Intercity coaches can only be found in departmental/regional service. So check for the peculiarities of bus service in the region you are in.
Eurolines [57] (Covers major cities and has international routes, €15 each way)
Isilines [58] (Available in all major cities)
Megabus [59] (Covers all major cities and operates as Flixbus in France)
Ouibus [60] (Fares from Paris to the rest of Europe range from €5-40)
Tickets for local service are usually affordable, i.e. in the region of Île De France generally cost €1.60 (10 cents more if purchased from the driver).
By boat[ edit ]
You can cruise down one of the French canals on a river boat to see the sites of the local countryside and moor by a local town/village to try the local produce and visit the cafes and bars. One of the most popular rivers being the Canal Du Midi located in the south of France in the departments of Hérault , Aude , and Haute-Garonne . Many boat charter companies offer this service.
See also: French phrasebook
L'anglais et les Français
Yes, it's true: while most people in France under the age of 60 have studied English, they are often unable or unwilling to use it. This is not necessarily linguistic snobbery, but is usually due to lack of practice, or fear that their little-used-since-high-school English will sound ridiculous. If you really must speak English, be sure to begin the conversation in French and ask if the person can speak English, as assuming someone can speak a foreign language is considered very rude. Please note that British English, spoken with the carefully articulated "received pronunciation", is what is generally taught in France; thus, other accents (such as Irish, Scottish, Southern US or Australian accents) may be understood with difficulty, if at all. Try to speak clearly and slowly, and avoid slang or US-specific words or phrases. There is no need to speak loudly (unless in a loud environment) to be understood; doing so is considered impolite. Don't forget that French people will really appreciate any attempts you do to speak French.
French (français) is the official language of France, although there are regional variations in pronunciation and local words. For example, throughout France the word for yes, oui, said "we", but you will often hear the slang form "ouais", said "waay." It's similar to the English language usage of "Yeah" instead of "Yes".
In Alsace and part of Lorraine , a dialect of German called "Alsatian", which is almost incomprehensible to speakers of standard High German, is spoken. In the south, some still speak dialects of the Langue d'Oc (because the word for "yes" is oc): Languedocien, Limousin, Auvergnat, or Provençal. Langue d'Oc is a Romance language, a very close relative of Italian, Spanish, or Catalan. In the west part of Brittany, a few people, mainly old or scholars, speak Breton; this Celtic language is closer to Welsh than to French. In parts of Aquitaine , Basque is spoken, but not as much as on the Spanish side of the border. In Corsica a kind of Italian is spoken. In Provence , Provençal is most likely to be spoken, especially along the Riviera.
However, almost everyone speaks French and tourists are unlikely to ever come across regional languages, except in order to give a "folkloric" flair to things.
Hardly anybody understands imperial units such as gallons or Fahrenheit. Stick to metric units (after all, French invented this system!).
The French are generally attached to politeness (some might say excessively) and will react coolly to strangers that forget it. You might be surprised to see that you are greeted by other customers when you walk into a restaurant or shop. Return the courtesy and address your hellos/goodbyes to everyone when you enter or leave small shops and cafes. It is, for the French, very impolite to start a conversation with a stranger (even a shopkeeper or client) without at least a polite word like "bonjour". For this reason, starting the conversation with at least a few basic French phrases , or some equivalent polite form in English, goes a long way to convince them to try and help you.
"Excusez-moi Monsieur/Madame": Excuse me (ex-COO-zay-mwah mih-SYOOR/muh-DAM)
"S'il vous plaît Monsieur/Madame" : Please (SEEL-voo-PLAY)
"Merci Monsieur/Madame" : Thank you (mare-SEE)
"Au revoir Monsieur/Madame" : Good Bye (Ore-vwar)
Avoid "Salut" (Hi); it is reserved for friends and relatives, and to use it with people you are not acquainted with is considered quite impolite.
Some travel phrases:
Où est l'hôtel? - Where is the hotel?
Où sont les toilettes? - Where can I find a restroom?
Où est la gare? Where is the train station
Parlez-vous français? Do you speak French?
Parlez-vous anglais? Do you speak English?
Note that French spoken with an hard English accent or an American accent can be very difficult for the average French person to understand. In such circumstances, it may be best to write down what you are trying to say. But tales of waiters refusing to serve tourists because their pronunciation doesn't meet French standards are highly exaggerated. A good-faith effort will usually be appreciated, but don't be offended if a waiter responds to your fractured French, or even fluent but accented, in English (If you are a fluent French speaker and the waiter speaks to you in English when you'd prefer to speak French, continue to respond in French and the waiter will usually switch back - this is a common occurrence in the more tourist-orientated areas, especially in Paris).
Please note that some parts of France (such as Paris ) are at times overrun by tourists. The locals there may have some blasé feelings about helping for the umpteenth time foreign tourists who speak in an unintelligible language and ask for directions to the other side of the city. Be courteous and understanding.
As France is a very multicultural society, many African languages, Arabic, Chinese dialects, Vietnamese or Cambodian could be spoken. Spanish , Italian , Portuguese and even Romanian are comprehensible to a French speaker to a reasonably wide extent, as they are all mutually intelligible through most words and come from the same family tree, but you should stick to French unless you're in a large city.
The standard sign language in France is French Sign Language, locally abbreviated LSF. Whenever an interpreter for the hearing-impaired is present at a public event, LSF will be used. Whether a user of a foreign sign language will be able to communicate in France depends on the user's specific language. For example, users of American Sign Language (also used in Anglophone Canada), Irish Sign Language, and Quebec Sign Language may be able to communicate to some degree. These languages are derived from LSF to a significant extent, and share a good deal of vocabulary and syntax. Languages in the LSF family also have one-handed manual alphabets that differ slightly from language to language. On the other hand, users of British Sign Language, New Zealand Sign Language, and Auslan will have great difficulty. These languages differ significantly in vocabulary and syntax from LSF, and also use the same two-handed manual alphabet.
Finally, foreign TV programmes shown on local or national TV networks are dubbed into French. Similarly, the audio of news interviews where the interviewee gives a response in another language is superimposed with a French translation. For foreign films shown in a cinema however, audiences, particularly in larger cities, usually have an option to watch the film in its original language (with French subtitles) or whose audio is dubbed into French.
See[ edit ][ add listing ]
Thinking of France, you might imagine the iconic Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe or the famous smile of Mona Lisa. You might think of drinking coffee in the lively Paris cafés where great intellectuals lingered in past times, or of eating croissants in a local bistro of a sleepy but gorgeous village in the countryside. Probably, images of splendid châteaux will spring to your mind, of lavender fields or perhaps of vineyards as far as the eye can see. Or perhaps, you'd envisage the chic resorts of the Cote D'Azur. And you wouldn't be wrong. However, they are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to France's many sights and attractions.
Cities[ edit ]
Paris . the "City of Light" and the capital of romance has been a travellers' magnet for centuries and a real must-see. Of course, no visit would be complete without a glance at its world famous landmarks. The Eiffel Tower is hard to miss, especially when it is lit beautifully at night, but the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame and Sacré Coeur are both famous and stunning sights too. With no less than 3,800 national monuments in and around Paris, history is literally around every corner. Stroll through the city's spacious green parks, with the Luxembourg Gardens as one of the favourites, and make sure to spend some time on the famous banks of the river Seine. Also, don't miss the magnificent Palace of Versailles , the most grand reminder of the Ancient Regime located just 20km away from the capital.
Bordeaux is famous for its wine but is also a bustling city with lots of historic sights to discover. It is listed as a World Heritage Site for being "an outstanding urban and architectural ensemble". Lyon , the country's second largest city, is listed too, and boasts a beautiful old centre as well as a number of Roman ruins. Strasbourg , one of the EU headquarters, has a character of its own, with clear German influences. Montpellier is one of the best places in the south, with lots of monumental buildings and nice cafés. In the west there's the beautiful historic city of Nantes , home to the Château des ducs de Bretagne and many other monuments. The Capitole de Toulouse is situated right at the heart that famous university city's street plan. Last but not least, don't overlook Arles , with its World Heritage Listed Roman and Romanesque Monuments.
French Riviera[ edit ]
And then there are the magnificent cities of the Côte d'Azur , once the place to be for the rich and famous but now equally popular with a general crowd. Its sandy beaches, beautiful bays, rocky cliffs and lovely towns has made it one of the main yachting and cruising areas in the world as well as popular destination for land-bound travellers. There's bustling Nice , where some 4 million tourists a year enjoy the stony beaches and stroll over the Promenade des Anglais. Avignon with its splendid ramparts and Palais-des-Papes was once the seat of popes. Although Saint-Tropez gets overcrowded in summer, it's a delightful place in any other season. The same goes for Cannes , where the jet-set of the film industry gathers each year for the famous Cannes Film Festival. From there, you can hop on a boat to the much more peaceful Îles de Lérins .
Much smaller in size but just as gorgeous (and popular) are the perched villages of Gourdon and Èze , which is located on a 427 meter high cliff, much like an “eagle's nest”. Both offer some stunning panoramic views. From Èze, its a very short trip to the glitter and glamour of Monaco . For the world's millionaires and aristocracy, the green peninsula of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat is an old time favourite with the impressive Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild full of impressionist art as its main sight. A bit more inland but well-worth a visit are the towns of Grasse , famous for its perfumeries, and Biot , known for its glass blowers. The huge city and arts-hub Marseille is usually not considered part of the Cote D'Azur, but is very close. It has plenty of historic sights and nearby are the stunning Calanques, a series of miniature fjords it shares with Cassis .
Countryside & villages[ edit ]
You haven't seen the best of France if you haven't had at least a taste of its amazing countryside, dotted with wonderful medieval villages and castles. There are great examples in any part of the country, but some 156 have been identified as the most beautiful villages in France . The country's landscapes vary from the snow-covered peaks of the Alps and the Pyrenees with their many winter sports resorts to lush river valleys, dense forests and huge stretches of farmland and vineyards. The Provence , backing a good part of the Côte d'Azur, is one of the most beloved regions. It has a typical Mediterranean atmosphere and is famous for its lavender fields and rosé wines. It's also home to the stunning Verdon Gorge , one of the most beautiful gorges in Europe . The rolling riverine landscape of the Loire Valley is home to many great castles, of which Châteaux Amboise , Château de Villandry , Azay-le-Rideau , Chambord and Châteaux du Pin are some of the finest examples. The western region of Brittany reaches far into the Atlantic and boasts many megalith monuments such as those near Carnac . The beaches of Normandy , also on the Atlantic coast, are famed for the D-Day Allied invasion on 6 June 1944. Although the humbling Normandy American Cemetery and countless museums, memorials and war time remains keep memory of those dark days alive, the region is now a pleasant and popular destination. Its picturesque coast line includes both long stretches of beach and steep limestone cliffs, such as those near Étretat ). The region is also home to the splendid and World Heritage listed Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay. The lush hills of the Dordogne form another region famous for its castles, with over 1500 of them on its 9000km² area.
Art museums[ edit ]
As the French have a real taste for art, the country has numerous art galleries and museums. Several of them are widely considered to be among the finest museums in the world of art, art-history, and culture. The grandeur and fame of the Musée du Louvre in Paris can hardly be matched by any other museum in the world. It boasts a fabulous collection of art from antiquity to the 19th century and is home of the Mona Lisa and many other renowned works. At just a 15 minute walk from there is the Musée d'Orsay, another world class museum that picks up roughly where the Louvre's collections ends. It's located in an old railway station and houses the national collection of art works from the 1848 to 1914 period. Its excellent collection includes some of the best French Impressionist, post-Impressionist and Art Nouveau works, including Degas' ballerinas and Monet's waterlillies. The Musée National d'Art Moderne in Centre Pompidou, still in France's capital, is the largest museum for modern art in Europe. The Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon has an excellent collection varying from ancient Egypt antiquities to Modern art paintings and sculptures. In Lille you'll find the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, one of the country's largest museums. Its varied collection is second in size after the Louvre and boasts anything from antiquities to modern art. Smaller but still outstanding are the collections of the Musée Fabre in Montpellier , Musée Toulouse-Lautrec in Albi and the Picasso Museum in Paris. Marseille has many galleries and its Musée Cantini has a good collection of modern art associated with Marseille as well as several works by Picasso. Fondation Maeght houses modern art too and is situated in Saint-Paul de Vence .
Parks & natural attractions[ edit ]
Disneyland Resort Paris is by far France's most popular park, visited by families from all over Europe. The country's national parks have quite some visitors too though, due to their splendid scenery and great opportunities for outdoor sports. Vanoise National Park is the oldest and one of the largest parks, named after the Vanoise massif. Its highest peak is the Grande Casse at 3,855 m. The impressive natural landscapes of Parc national des Pyrénées are right on the southern border of France and extend well into Spain , where they are part of the Parc National Ordesa y Monte Perdido The whole area is listed as UNESCO World Heritage. In the French part, the glacial cirques of Gavarnie, Estaubé and Troumouse are some of the best sights, as is the wall of Barroud. The again mountainous Cévennes National Park covers parts of the Languedoc-Roussillon (including te popular Ardèche ), Midi-Pyrénées and the Rhône-Alpes regions. Its headquarters is in the castle of Florac , but there are towns all over the park. Donkey rides are available and the Cave formation of Aven Armand is one of the parks' best sights.
Not yet under a protective status but highly popular is Mont Blanc , the highest peak in Europe and attractive for climbing, hiking and skiing. From the French side, it is mostly explored from Chamonix , a well known resort on the foot of the mountain.
Vacations[ edit ]
Many of the French take their vacations in August. As a result, outside of touristic areas, many of the smaller stores (butcher shops, bakeries...) will be closed in parts of August. This also applies to many corporations as well as physicians. Obviously, in touristy areas, stores will tend to be open when the tourists come, especially July and August. In contrast, many attractions will be awfully crowded during those months, and during Easter week-end.
Some attractions, especially in rural areas, close or have reduced opening hours outside the touristic season.
Mountain areas tend to have two touristic seasons: in the winter, for skiing, snowshoeing and other snow-related activities, and in the summer for sightseeing and hiking.
Money[ edit ]
France has the euro (€) as its sole currency along with 24 other countries that use this common European money. These 24 countries are: Austria , Belgium , Cyprus , Estonia , Finland , France, Germany , Greece , Ireland , Italy , Latvia , Lithuania , Luxembourg , Malta , the Netherlands , Portugal , Slovakia , Slovenia and Spain (official euro members which are all European Union member states) as well as Andorra , Kosovo , Monaco , Montenegro , San Marino and the Vatican which use it without having a say in eurozone affairs and without being European Union members. Together, these countries have a population of more than 330 million.
One euro is divided into 100 cents. While each official euro member (as well as Monaco, San Marino and Vatican) issues its own coins with a unique obverse, the reverse, as well as all bank notes, look the same throughout the eurozone. Every coin is legal tender in any of the eurozone countries.
Some foreign currencies such as the US dollar and the British Pound are occasionally accepted, especially in touristic areas and in higher-end places, but one should not count on it; furthermore, the merchant may apply some unfavourable rate. In general, shops will refuse transactions in foreign currency.
It is compulsory, for the large majority of businesses, to post prices in windows. Hotels and restaurants must have their rates visible from outside (note, however, that many hotels propose lower prices than the posted ones if they feel they will have a hard time filling up their rooms; the posted price is only a maximum).
Almost all stores, restaurants and hotels take the CB French debit card, and its foreign affiliations, Visa and Mastercard. American Express tends to be accepted only in high-end shops. Check with your bank for applicable fees (typically, banks apply the wholesale inter-bank exchange rate, which is the best available, but may slap a proportional and/or a fixed fee). If ever the merchant requires a minimum amount before purchasing, then they will post it in writing at the till or the shop's entrance.
French CB cards (and CB/Visa and CB/Mastercard cards) have a "smart chip" on them allowing PIN authentication of transactions. This system, initiated in France, has now evolved to an international standard and newer British cards are compatible. Some automatic retail machines (such as those vending tickets) may be compatible only with cards with the microchip. In addition, cashiers unaccustomed to foreign cards possibly do not know that foreign Visa or Mastercard cards have to be swiped and a signature obtained, while French customers systematically use PIN and don't sign the transactions.
There is (practically) no way to get a cash advance from a credit card without a PIN in France.
Automatic teller machines (ATM) are by far the best way to get money in France. They all take CB, Visa, Mastercard, Cirrus and Plus and are plentiful throughout France. They may accept other kinds of card; check for the logos on the ATM and on your card (on the back, generally) if at least one matches. It is possible that some machines do not handle 6-digit PIN codes (only 4-digit ones), or that they do not offer the choice between different accounts (defaulting on the checking account). Check with your bank about applicable fees, which may vary greatly (typically, banks apply the wholesale inter-bank exchange rate, which is the best available, but may slap a proportional and/or a fixed fee; because of the fixed fee it is generally better to withdraw money in big chunks rather than €20 at a time). Also, check about applicable maximal withdrawal limits.
Traveller's cheques are difficult to use — most merchants will not accept them, and exchanging them may involve finding a bank that accepts to exchange them and possibly paying a fee.
Note that the postal service doubles as a bank, so often post offices will have an ATM. As a result, even minor towns will have ATMs usable with foreign cards.
Exchange offices (bureaux de change) are now rarer with the advent of the Euro - they will in general only be found in towns with a significant foreign tourist presence, such as Paris. Some banks exchange money, often with high fees. The Bank of France no longer does foreign exchange.
Do's Put money into your checking account, carry an ATM card with a Cirrus or Plus logo on it and a 4-digit pin that does not start with '0' and withdraw cash from ATMs. Pay larger transactions (hotel, restaurants...) with Visa or Mastercard. Always carry some € cash for emergencies.
Don't's Carry foreign currency (USD, GBP...) or traveller's cheques, and exchange them on the go, or expect them to be accepted by shops.
Stores[ edit ]
Inside city centres, you will find smaller stores, chain grocery stores (Casino) as well as, occasionally, department stores and small shopping malls. Residential areas will often have small supermarkets (Champion, Intermarché). Large supermarkets (hypermarchés such as Géant Casino or Carrefour) are mostly located on the outskirts of towns and are probably not useful unless you have a car.
Prices are indicated with all taxes (namely, the TVA, or value-added tax) included. It is possible for non-EU residents aged 16 or over spending less than 6 months in France to get a partial refund of TVA upon departure from the EU when shopping at certain stores that have a "tax-free shopping" sticker (in French, 'la détaxe'); inquire within. A refund of TVA is only possible in you spend over €175 (inclusive of TVA) from a single shop in one day. TVA is 20.0% (as of January 2014) on most merchandise, but 10.0% on some things such as books, restaurant meals, and public transport and 5.0% on food purchased from grocery stores (except for sweets and candies!). Alcoholic beverages are always taxed at 20%, regardless of where they're purchased. For more information, see this French Customs webpage .
Always keep your receipt after purchasing an item in a shop, because if it turns out to be defective, you have the right to return it and get a refund/exchange.
Starting from 1 January 2015, shops in France will only be allowed to run sales for a maximum of 10 weeks per year (in 2015, the legal winter sales period runs between Wednesday 7 January and Tuesday 17 February and the summer sales period between Wednesday 24 June and Tuesday 4 August - outside these two periods, sales are forbidden, but shops are allowed to sell their products at reduced prices). For more information, see this French Government webpage .
Although it is not common to bargain/haggle on prices, especially in bigger/chain stores, more and more French people are starting to negotiate prices and ask for discounts when considering making a purchase, particularly in markets and in smaller, independent shops (in 2008, over half of French people admitted in a survey to negotiating prices). You are more likely to be successful if you smile when you bargain, purchase several products, and compare the price with that offered in other shops.
If you are still satisfied with the product which you purchased or the service you received in a shop, you should first try to resolve the problem with the shop staff/manager. If you are still dissatisfied, you can contact the responsible consumer protection authority if the shop has violated the law (e.g. it sold you a product at a higher price to the one advertised, it refused to refund/exchange a defective product, it gave you an inferior level of service on the basis of your race/sex/religion/beliefs/disability/family situation). In Paris, the relevant authority is the Direction départementale de la protection des populations (DDPP) (8 rue Froissart, 75153 PARIS Cedex 03, ☎ 01 40 27 16 00 ( [email protected] ). ). Outside Paris, you can find a list of consumer protection authorities by département at [61] .
Eat[ edit ][ add listing ]
Onion soup
With its international reputation for fine dining, few people would be surprised to hear that French cuisine can certainly be very good. Unfortunately, it can also be quite disappointing; many restaurants serve very ordinary fare, and some in touristy areas are rip-offs. Finding the right restaurant is therefore very important - try asking locals, hotel staff or even browsing restaurant guides for recommendations as simply walking in off the street can be a hit and miss affair.
There are many places to try French food in France, from three-star Michelin restaurants to French "brasseries" or "bistros" that you can find at almost every corner, especially in big cities. These usually offer a relatively consistent and virtually standardised menu of relatively inexpensive cuisine. To obtain a greater variety of dishes, a larger outlay of money is often necessary. In general, one should try to eat where the locals do for the best chance of a memorable meal. Most small cities or even villages have local restaurants which are sometimes listed in the most reliable guides. There are also specific local restaurants, like "bouchons lyonnais" in Lyon, "crêperies" in Brittany (or in the Montparnasse area of Paris), etc.
Chinese, Vietnamese, even Thai eateries are readily available in Paris, either as regular restaurants or "traiteurs" (fast-food). They are not so common, and are more expensive, in smaller French cities. Many places have "Italian" restaurants though these are often little more than unimaginative pizza and pasta parlors. You will also find North African (Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian) as well as Greek and Lebanese food. The ubiquitous hamburger eateries (US original or their French copies) are also available; note that McDonalds is more upmarket in France than in the US.
In France, taxes (10 per cent of the total in restaurants) and service (usually 15 per cent) are always included in the bill (the menu/bill will state 'prix service compris'), so anything patrons add to the bill amount is an "extra-tip" ('pourboire'). French people usually leave one or two coins if they are happy with the service.
Fixed price menus seldom include beverages (if drinks are included, the menu will state 'boisson comprise'). If you want water, waiters will often try to sell you still mineral water (Évian, Thonon) or sparkling water (Badoit, Perrier), at a premium; ask for a carafe d'eau (bottle of tap water), which is safe to drink (and, by law, must be provided free of charge when you order food at a restaurant). Water never comes with ice in it unless so requested (and water with ice may not be available).
As in other countries, restaurants tend to make a large profit off beverages. Expect wine to cost much more than it would in a supermarket. Some restaurants allow you to bring your own bottle of wine to drink with a corkage/BYOB fee (droit de bouchon).
You can order either from a fixed price menu (prix fixe) or à la carte. Many restaurants/eateries also offer a cheaper lunchtime fixed price menu (menu du midi or menu du jour).
A typical fixed price menu will comprise:
appetizer, called entrées or hors d'œuvres
main dish, called plat
dessert (dessert) or cheese (fromage)
Sometimes, restaurants offer the option to take only two of the three courses, at a reduced price.
When you order food at a restaurant, by law the price includes bread ('du pain'). Feel free to ask for more bread if you want.
If you order a steak/piece of meat (such as liver), you may be asked how you want it cooked ('Quelle cuisson?'):
very rare/blue rare (bleu)
well done (bien cuit)
very well done (très bien cuit)
Coffee is always served as a final step (though it may be followed by liquors). A request for coffee during the meal will be considered strange.
Not all restaurants are open for lunch and dinner, nor are they open all year around. It is therefore advisable to check carefully the opening times and days. A restaurant open for lunch will usually start service at noon and accept patrons until 13:30. Dinner begins at around 19:30 and patrons are accepted until 21:30. Restaurants with longer service hours are usually found only in the larger cities and in the downtown area. Finding a restaurant open on Saturday and especially Sunday can be a challenge unless you stay close to the tourist areas.
In a reasonable number of restaurants, especially outside tourist areas, booking a table is compulsory and people may be turned away without one, even if the restaurant is clearly not filled to capacity. For this reason, it can be worthwhile to research potential eateries in advance and make the necessary reservations to avoid disappointment, especially if the restaurant you're considering is specially advised in guide books.
It is illegal for a restaurant to turn you away unless there is an objectively justifiable and legitimate reason (for example, the restaurant is about to close, or you are clearly inebriated). The restaurant must not turn you away simply because you have children with you, or because you are alone/in a small group and the only table left can sit more people. The restaurant is permitted to turn you away if you have a pet animal with you (unless it is a guide dog). If the restaurant turns you away without a legitimate reason, the restaurateur will be liable for a minimum fine of €1500. If the restaurant turns you away based on your race, family situation (e.g. you have brought your children with you), disability, religion and/or beliefs/opinions, the restaurateur will be liable for a fine of €30000 and a 2 year prison sentence. If you are the victim of illegal treatment by a restaurant, you should report the incident to the responsible consumer protection authority (see below).
If you are a patron at a restaurant, by law the restaurant cannot charge you to use the toilet.
A lunch or dinner for two on the "menu" including wine and coffee will cost you (as of 2004) €70 to €100 in a listed restaurant in Paris. The same with beer in a local "bistro" or a "crêperie" around €50. A lunch or dinner for one person in a decent Chinese restaurant in Paris can cost as little as €8 if one looks carefully.
Outside of Paris and the main cities, prices are not always lower but the menu will include a fourth course, usually cheese. As everywhere beware of the tourist traps which are numerous around the heavy travelled spots and may offer a nice view but not much to remember in your plate.
If you are dissatisfied with the food and/or service you receive at a restaurant, you should speak to the waiter/manager. By law, the restaurant is obliged to provide a new plate of food if the one which has been served to you is not fresh, sufficiently hot, or inconsistent with the menu description. (However, if the plate served is merely not to your taste, the restaurant is not legally obliged to provide a new plate of food, and you are still obliged to pay for what you have ordered even if you do not consume it.) If you are still dissatisfied with the food/service, you can complain to the responsible consumer protection authority. In Paris, the relevant authority is the Direction départementale de la protection des populations (DDPP) (8 rue Froissart, 75153 PARIS Cedex 03, ☎ 01 40 27 16 00 ( [email protected] ). ). Outside Paris, you can find a list of consumer protection authorities by département at [62] . If, following your meal at a restaurant, you become unwell and suspect that it was because of the poor hygiene conditions at the restaurant, you should alert the relevant health protection authorities as soon as possible: in Paris, the consumer protection authority (DDPP) also acts as the regulator of hygiene conditions at restaurants, but outside Paris, it is the Direction régionale de l'Alimentation, de l'Agriculture et de la Forêt (DRAAF) which is responsible for monitoring hygiene conditions at restaurants (contact details by region can be found at [63] ).
Bread[ edit ]
All white bread variants keep for only a short time and must be eaten the same day. Hence bakers bake at least twice a day.
The famous baguette: a long, thin loaf
Baguette de tradition française: made from wheat flour, water, yeast and salt (not frozen dough), and may also contain broad bean flour (max 2%), soya flour (max 0.5%) and/or wheat malt flour (max 0.3%); by law, it must be prepared and baked in the same place where it is sold (usually sold for €1 to €1.20) - arguably the best type of baguette
Variants of the baguette : la ficelle (even thinner), la flûte
Pain de campagne or Pain complet: made from whole grain which keeps relatively well.
Boule: round loaf
Pastries[ edit ]
Pastries are a large part of French cooking. Hotel breakfasts tend to be light, consisting of tartines (pieces of bread with butter or jam) or the famous croissants and pains au chocolat, not dissimilar to a chocolate filled croissant (but square rather than crescent shaped).
Pastries can be found in a pâtisserie but also in most boulangeries. Within the culture of French pastries, we can also find traditional macarons, the most coveted cookie in France, particularly in Paris but born in Italy in 1533. Originated were simple cookies, made of almond powder, sugar and egg whites, now you can find them in almost all the bakeries in France as a “double-decker” affair with different kinds of cream flavors inside that stick two cookies together.
Regional dishes[ edit ]
Every French region has dishes all its own. These dishes follow the resources (game, fish, agriculture, etc) of the region, the vegetables (cabbage, turnip, endives, etc) which they grow there. Here is a small list of regional dishes which you can find easily in France. Generally each region has a unique and widespread dish (usually because it was poor people's food):
Cassoulet (in south west) : Beans, duck, pork & sausages
Choucroute, or sauerkraut (in Alsace) : stripped fermented cabbage + pork
Flammekueche (Alsace) : thin-crust pizza with cheese, crème fraîche, onions and bacon
Baeckeoffe (Alsace) : sliced potatoes, sliced onions, cubed mutton, beef and pork stew
Quiche Lorraine (Lorraine) : pie with custard, bacon and cheese
Fondue Savoyarde (central Alps) : Melted/hot cheese with alcohol
Fondue Bourguignonne (in Burgundy) : Pieces of beef (in boiled oil), usually served with a selection of various sauces.
Raclette (central Alps) : melted cheese & potatoes/meat
Pot-au-feu : boiled beef with vegetables
Tournedos Rossini : beef tenderloin pan-fried in butter, topped with a slice of pan-fried foie gras, garnished with slices of black truffle and finished in a rich Madeira sauce
Boeuf Bourguignon (Burgundy) : slow cooked beef with gravy
Navarin d'agneau : lamb version of boeuf bourguignon
Coq au vin : chicken stew with wine, lardons and mushrooms
Gratin dauphinois (Rhone-Alpes) : oven roasted slices of potatoes
Aligot (Auvergne) : melted cheese mixed with a puree of potatoes
Bouillabaisse (fish + saffron) (Marseille and French Riviera) : Don't be fooled. A real bouillabaisse is a really expensive dish due to the amount of fresh fish it requires. Be prepared to pay at least €30/persons. If you find restaurants claiming serving bouillabaisse for something like €15/persons, you'll get a very poor quality.
Soupe de poisson à la rouille (Marseille and French Riviera) : tomato and saffron fish soup, served with 'rouille' (saffron mayonnaise)
Pissaladière (French Riviera) : pizza with onion, olives and anchovies
Soupe au pistou (French Riviera) : soup with pesto
Ratatouille (Provence) : vegetable stew (tomatoes, onion, courgettes, aubergines, peppers)
Gigot D’Agneau Pleureur (Provence) : leg of lamb cooked slowly on top of potatoes
Tartiflette (Savoie) Reblochon cheese, potatoes and pork or bacon.
Confit de Canard (Landes) : Duck Confit, consists of legs and wings bathing in grease. That grease is actually very healthy and, with red wine, is one of the identified sources of the so-called "French Paradox" (eat richly, live long).
Foie Gras (Landes) : The liver of a duck or goose. Although usually quite expensive, foie gras can be found in supermarkets for a lower price (because of their purchasing power) around the holiday season. It is the time of year when most of foie gras is consumed in France. It goes very well with Champagne.
Magret de canard : Pan-fried duck breast
Confit de canard : Duck leg which is cured in salt and then cooked in its own fat
Garbure (Aquitaine) : Soup/stew of ham and cabbage
Quenelle de brochet (Lyon) : Pike fish combined with breadcrumbs and a light egg binding, served in an oval shape
Piperade (Basque country) : Stew made of tomatoes, onions and peppers with some eggs on top
Poulet basquaise (Basque country) : Stew made of chicken, tomatoes, onions and peppers
Accras de morue (Guadeloupe and Martinique) : deep-fried balls of cod
Cooking and drinking is a notable part of the French culture, take time to eat and discover new dishes...
Unusual foods[ edit ]
if you are served escargots or snails, you will usually also get a slim and specialised fork to eat them with.
Contrary to stereotype, snails and frog legs are quite infrequent foods in France, with many French people enjoying neither, or sometimes never having even tasted them. Quality restaurants sometimes have them on their menu: if you're curious about trying new foods, go ahead.
Frogs' legs have a very fine and delicate taste with flesh that is not unlike chicken. They are often served in a garlic dressing and are no weirder to eat than, say, crab.
Most of the taste of Bourgogne snails (escargots de bourgogne) comes from the generous amount of butter, garlic and parsley in which they are cooked. They have a very particular spongy-leathery texture that is the characteristic that is liked by people who like snails. Catalan style snails ("cargols") are made a completely different way, and taste much weirder.
Let us also cite:
Rillettes sarthoises also known as Rillettes du Mans. A sort of potted meat, made from finely shredded and spiced pork. A delicious speciality of the Sarthe area in the north of the Pays de la Loire and not to be confused with rillettes from other areas, which are more like a rough pate.
Beef bone marrow (os à moelle). Generally served in small quantities, with a large side. So go ahead: If you don't like it, you'll have something else to eat in your plate.
Veal sweetbread (ris de Veau), is a very fine (and generally expensive) delicacy, often served with morels, or in more elaborates dishes like "bouchees a la reine".
Beef bowels (tripes) is served either "A la mode de Caen" (with a white wine sauce, named after the town in Normandy) or "A la catalane" (with a slightly spiced tomato sauce)
Blood sausage (boudin noir) often served with potatoes and apples
Andouillettes are sausages made from tripe, a speciality of Lyon
Tricandilles are seasoned and grilled pork tripe from the Bordeaux region
Beef tongue (langue de bœuf) and beef nose(museau) and Veal head (tête de veau) are generally eaten cold (but thoroughly cooked!) as an appetizer.
Canard à la presse (pressed duck) the duck is asphyxiated to retain the blood, the meat is then roasted and the carcass is put through a press to extract the blood and juices. The extract is thickened and flavoured with butter, cognac and duck liver, and the sauce is then served on pan-fried duck breast.
Lamprey à la Bordelaise lamprey fish cooked in a stew with leeks, red wine, onions and ham
Oysters (Huîtres) are most commonly served raw in a half shell. They are often graded by size, No1 being the largest (and most expensive).
Oursins (sea urchins) For those who like concentrated iodine.
Steak tartare a big patty of ground beef cured in acid as opposed to cooked, frequently served with a raw egg. Good steak tartare will be prepared to order at your table. A similar dish is boeuf carpaccio, which is thin slices or strips of raw steak drizzled with olive oil and herbs.
Cervelle (pronounced ser-VELL), lamb brain.
Cheese[ edit ]
France is certainly THE country of cheese, with nearly 400 different kinds. Indeed, former president General Charles De Gaulle was quoted as saying "How can you govern a country which has 365 varieties of cheese?".
Here is a far from exhaustive list of what one can find:
Bleu des Causses
Dietary restrictions[ edit ]
Vegetarianism is more common than it used to be, especially in larger cities. Still, very few restaurants offer vegetarian menus, thus if you ask for something vegetarian the only things they may have available are salad and vegetable side dishes.
There may still be confusions between vegetarianism and pesce/pollotarianism. Vegetarian/organic food restaurants are starting to appear. However, "traditional" French restaurants may not have anything vegetarian on the menu, so you may have to pick something "à la carte", which is usually more expensive. Veganism is still very uncommon and it may be difficult to find vegan eateries.
Breakfast[ edit ]
Breakfast in France isn't the most important meal of the day and is usually very light. The most typical breakfast consists of a coffee and a croissant or some other "viennoiserie", but since it implies going to the baker's store early in the morning to buy fresh croissant, it's typically reserved for somewhat special occasions. On normal days most people have a beverage (coffee, tea, hot chocolate, orange juice) and either toasts ("tartines" made of baguette or toast bread with butter and jam/honey/Nutella) that can be dipped in the hot beverage, or cereals with milk. People who eat healthy may go for fruits and yoghurt. As a general rule, the french breakfast is mostly sweet, but everything changes and you can have salty breakfasts everywhere today.
Drink[ edit ][ add listing ]
Champagne, Burgundy, Bordeaux, Rhone, the Loire Valley... France is the home of wine.
Beer (lager) is also extremely popular, in particular in northern France, where " Biere de Garde " can be found.
The alcohol purchase age was recently raised to 18 for all drinks, but this is not always strictly enforced; however, laws against drunk driving are strictly enforced, with stiff penalties.
Wine and liquors may be purchased from supermarkets, or from specialized stores such as the Nicolas chain. Nicolas offers good advice on what to buy (specify the kind of wine and the price range you desire). In general, only French wines are available unless a foreign wine is a "speciality" with no equivalent in France (such as port), and they are classified by region of origin, not by grape.
Prices of food and beverages will vary according to whether they're served to you at the bar or sitting at a table - the same cup of espresso might cost €0.50 more if served at a table than at the bar, and €0.50 more again if served out on the terrace. Really, you're not paying so much for the beverage as for the table spot. Do consider the bar, though - while you will have to stand, café bars are often where a great deal of public discourse and interaction happens. In any event, cafés are required by law to post their prices somewhere in the establishment, usually either in the window or on the wall by the bar. Note also that cafés in touristy areas, especially in Paris, tend to serve very expensive food of rather average quality. Unless you are dying of hunger or thirst, avoid the places that have menus in multiple languages or are near heavily-trafficked attractions. Instead, consider buying snacks and beverages from a grocery store and enjoying them in a nearby park.
There are a couple of mixed drinks which seem to be more or less unique to France, and nearby francophone countries.
Panaché is a mix of beer and lemonade, basically a beer shandy. (Same as "Radler" in Central Europe.)
Monaco is a Panaché with some grenadine syrup added.
Kir is a pleasant aperitif of white wine (in theory, Bourgogne Aligoté) or, less frequently, of champagne (then named kir royal and about twice the price of regular kir) and cassis (blackcurrant liqueur), or peche (peach), or mûre (blackberry).
Pastis is an anise-based (licorice-flavoured) spirit, similar in taste to Sambuca or Ouzo, that is served with a few lumps of sugar and a small pitcher of cold water to dilute the liquor. It is traditionally enjoyed on very hot days, and as such is more popular in the south of the country but available more or less everywhere.
There is a variety of bottled water, including:
Évian, Thonon, Contrex, Volvic: mineral water
Perrier: fizzy water
Sleep[ edit ][ add listing ]
Short term rentals[ edit ]
Travellers should definitely consider short term villa/apartment/studio rentals as an alternative to other accommodations options. Short term can be as few as several days up to months at a stretch. Summer rentals are usually from Saturday to Saturday only (July & August). This type accommodation belongs to a private party, and can range from basic to luxurious. A particular advantage, aside from competitive prices, is that the accommodations come with fully fitted kitchens.
Hundreds of agencies offer accommodation for short term rentals on behalf of the owner, and can guide you into finding the best property, at the best price in the most suitable location for you. An internet search for the location and type of property you're looking for will usually return the names of several listing sites, each of which may have hundreds or thousands of properties for you to choose from. There are plenty of sites in both English and French, and the rental properties may be owned by people of any nationality.
France is a diverse and colourful country, and you'll find everything from stunning log chalets in the Alps, Chateaux in the countryside and beach front villas on the Riviera...plus everything in between!
Hotels[ edit ]
Hotels come in 5 categories from 1 to 5 stars. This is the official rating given by the Ministry of Tourism, and it is posted at the entrance on a blue shield. Stars are awarded according to objective yet somewhat outdated administrative criteria (area of the reception hall, percentage of rooms with en suite bathroom...).
Rates vary according to accommodation, location and sometimes high or low season or special events.
As of 2004, the rate for a *** hotel listed in a reliable guidebook falls between €70 (cheap) and €110 (expensive) for a double without breakfast.
All hotels, by law, must have their rates posted outside (or visible from outside). Note that these are maximal rates: a hotel can always propose a lower rate in order to fill up its rooms. Bargaining is not the norm but you can always ask for a discount.
Hotels located in city centres or near train stations are often very small (15-30 rooms) which means that you should book ahead. Many newer hotels, business oriented, are found in the outskirts of cities and are sometimes larger structures (100 rooms or more); they may not be easy to reach with public transportation. The newer hotels are often part of national or international chains and have high standards. Many older hotels are now part of chains and provide standardized service but they retain their own atmosphere.
When visiting Paris, it is essential to stay in the city; there are cheaper tourism hotels in the suburbs, but these cater to groups in motor coaches; they will be hard to reach by public transportation.
Along the highways, at the entrance of cities, you find US-like motels ; they are very often reachable only by car. Some motels (e.g. Formule 1) have minimal service, if you come in late you find an ATM-like machine, using credit cards, which will deliver a code in order to reach your assigned room.
B & Bs and Gîtes[ edit ]
Throughout France, mainly in rural areas but also in towns and cities, you can find B&Bs and gîtes.
B&B's are known in French as "Chambres d'hôtes" and are generally available on a nightly basis. By law, breakfast MUST be included in the advertised price for a "chambre d'hôte". Bear this in mind when comparing prices with hotels, where breakfast is NOT included in the room price.
Gites or gites ruraux are holiday cottages, and generally rented out as a complete accommodation unit including a kitchen, mostly on a weekly basis. There are very few near or in the cities. Finding them requires buying a guide or, for greater choice, using the internet, as you will not find a lot of signposts on the road.
Traditionally, gites provided basic good value accommodation, typically adjacent to the owners household or in a nearby outbuilding. More recently the term has been extended, and can now be used to describe most country-based self-catering accommodation in France. Hence it includes accommodation as varied as small cottages villas with private swimming pools.
During peak summer months the best self-catering gites require booking several months in advance.
There are thousands of B&Bs and gites in France rented out by foreign owners, particularly British and Dutch, and these tend to be listed, sometimes exclusively, with English-language or international organisations and websites that can be found by keying the words "chambres d'hotes", "gites" or "gites de france" into any of the major search engines.
There is a large number of organisations and websites offering "gites". Literally the French word gite just means a place to spend the night; however it now largely used to describe rental cottages or self-catering holiday homes, usually in rural parts of France.
Gîtes de France[ edit ]
A France-wide cooperative organisation, Gites de France regroups on a voluntary basis more than 50,000 rural accommodations and was the first in France to offer a consistent rating system with comprehensive descriptions.
Despite the name, Gites de France offers B&B as well as holiday rental (gite) accommodation.
The "Gites de France" rating system uses wheat stalks called Epis (equivalent to stars), based on amenities rather than quality - though generally the two go together.
Through its website, bookings can be done directly with owners or through the local Gîtes de France booking agency (no extra fee for the traveler). Although an English language version is available for many of the website pages, for some departments the pages giving details of an individual gite are only in French.
There is no particular advantage in using Gites de France rather than one of the other online gites sites, or booking directly with a gite. The procedure is pretty standard for all gite booking sites, whether French or foreign - with the advantage that absolutely all the booking process can be done in English if you use an English-language portal, which is not always the case with Gites de France.
After making a gite booking you will receive, by post, a contract to sign (gites only). Sign and return one copy. When signing write the words "Read and approved", and the name of your home town, before signing and dating the contract. You will normally be asked to pay a deposit of a quarter to a third of the booking fee. The rest will be required one month before the start of your holiday. When you arrive at the gite a security deposit, specified in the contact, should be given to the owner in cash. This will be returned at the end of your stay, less any fuel charges and breakages.
Another great resource for booking Gites and Villas in France is Holiday France Direct, It enables you to deal directly with the property owners and offers customers discounted ferry travel with Brittany Ferries. www.holidayfrancedirect.co.uk
Gîtes d'étape[ edit ]
Another possibility is gîtes d'étape. These are more like overnight stays for hikers, like a mountain hut. They are mostly cheaper than the Gîtes de France but also much more basic.
Camping[ edit ]
Camping is very common in France. Most campsite are a little way out of the city centre and virtually all cater not just for tents but for Camper Vans/Caravans also. While all campsites have the basic facilities of Shower/toilet blocks, larger sites tend to offer a range of additional facilities such as bars and restaurants, self-service laundries, swimming pools or bicycle hire. All campsites except for very small "farm camping" establishments must be registered with the authorities, and are officially graded using a system of stars.
In coastal areas, three-star and four-star campgrounds must generally be booked in advance during the months of July and August, and many people book from one year to the next. In rural areas, outside of popular tourist spots, it is usually possible to show up unannounced, and find a place; this is particularly true with the municipal campsites that can be found in most small towns; though even then it may be advisable to ring up or email in advance to make sure. There are always exceptions.
In France it's forbidden to camp:
in woods, natural, regional and national parks
on public roads and streets
on the seaside
Learn[ edit ]
France, of course, is the best place to acquire, maintain and develop your French. A number of institutions offer a variety of courses for travellers. SOFI 64 in Biarritz (South West) offers a special program for adults: French & Surf. Students can learn French and enjoy surfing in one of the most beautiful regions in France.
Work[ edit ]
If you are by law required to obtain a visa or other type of authorisation to work and fail to do so, you risk possible arrest, prosecution, expulsion and prohibition from reentering France and the Schengen area.
Citizens of EU and EEA countries (save from some Eastern European countries, for a temporary period) and Switzerland can work in France without having to secure a work permit. Most non-EU citizens will need a work permit - however, some non-EU citizens (such as Canadians, New Zealanders, etc) do not require a visa or work permit to work during their 90 day visa-free period of stay in France (see the 'Get in' section above for more information).
If you are an EU citizen or from an EEA country and want to earn money to continue travelling, Interim agencies (e.g. Adecco, Manpower) are a good source of temporary jobs. You can also consider working in bars, restaurants, and/or nightclubs (they are often looking for English-speaking workers, particularly those restaurants in tourist areas - fast-food restaurants such as McDonald's and Quick are also always looking for people).
A lot of "student jobs", if you happen to be in a big city, are also available for younger travelers, and foreigners are often very welcome. Such jobs include, for example, giving private English lessons , taking care of young children or many other things...check out the university buildings, they often have a lot of advertisements. An easy way to find job offers in France is to use the Jobbydoo.fr , search engine.
Don't forget that being an English speaker is a big advantage when you're looking for a job - French employers really have a problem finding English-speaking workers. Do note, however, that it will be much easier for you if you know a bit of French, for the same reason (your colleagues are not likely to speak English). However, don't overestimate your chances of finding work; there are a lot more people looking for jobs than there are jobs - except those unattractive jobs that no-one wants to do.
The French work market tends to operate through personal contacts - if you know someone that works somewhere, you can probably figure out quite an easy way to work at that place too. It always helps to know people living in the area you wish to work.
Crimes[ edit ]
Crime-related emergencies can be reported to the toll-free number 17. Law enforcement forces are the National Police (Police Nationale) in urban area and the Gendarmerie in rural area, though for limited issues such as parking and traffic offenses some towns and villages also have a municipal police.
France is a very low-crime area, and is one of the safest countries in the world, but large cities are plagued with the usual woes. Violent crime against tourists or strangers is very rare, but there is pickpocketing and purse-snatching.
The inner city areas and a few select suburbs are usually safe at all hours. In large cities, especially Paris, there are a few areas which are better to avoid. Parts of the suburban are sometimes grounds for youth gang violent activities and drug dealing; however these are almost always far from touristic points and you should have no reason to visit them. Common sense applies: it is very easy to spot derelict areas.
The subject of crime in the poorer suburbs is very touchy as it may easily have racist overtones, since many people associate it with working-class youth of North African origin. You should probably not express any opinion on the issue.
Usual caution apply for tourists flocking around sights as they may become targets for pickpockets. A usual trick is to ask tourists to sign fake petitions and give some money, which is a way to put pressure on the victim. Stay away from people requesting money without any organization badge.
While it is not compulsory for French citizens to carry identification, they usually do so. Foreigners should carry some kind of official identity document. Although random checks are not the norm you may be asked for an ID in some kinds of situations, for example if you cannot show a valid ticket when using public transportation; not having one in such cases will result in you being taken to a police station for further checks. Even if you feel that law enforcement officers have no right to check your identity (they can do so only in certain circumstances), it is a bad idea to enter a legal discussion with them; it is better to put up with it and show ID. Again, the subject is touchy as the police have often been accused of targeting people according to criteria of ethnicity (e.g. délit de sale gueule = literally "crime of a dirty face" but perhaps equivalent to the American "driving while black.")
Due to the terrorist factor, police, with the help of military units, are patrolling monuments, the Paris subway, train stations and airports. Depending on the status of the "Vigipirate" plan (anti terrorist units) it is not uncommon to see armed patrols in those areas. The presence of police is of help for tourists, as it also deters pickpockets and the like. However, suspicious behaviour, public disturbances etc., may result in policemen asking to see an ID.
In France, failing to offer assistance to 'a person in danger' is illegal. This means that if you fail to stop upon witnessing a motor accident, fail to report such an accident to emergency services, or ignore appeals for help or urgent assistance, you may be charged. Penalties include suspended prison sentence and fines. The law does not apply in situations where to answer an appeal for help might endanger your life or the lives of others.
LGBT support varies depending on the location and you should tread lightly in areas with larger Muslim populations such as Besancon and Paris. LGBT have been attacked for their orientation and discrimination still exists. Rural areas are especially areas you should be careful in. But if you see many people who are also LGBT, it's most likely safe. If not, keep it private or you could be in danger.
Controlled substances[ edit ]
Carrying or using narcotic substances, from marijuana to hard drugs, is illegal whatever the quantity. The penalty can be severe especially if you are suspected of dealing. Trains and cars coming from countries which have a more lenient attitude (like the Netherlands) are especially targeted. Police have often been known to stop entire coaches and search every passenger and their bags thouroughly just because they're coming from Amsterdam.
France has a liberal policy with respect to alcohol; there are usually no ID checks for purchasing alcohol (unless you look much younger than 18). However, causing problems due to public drunkenness is a misdemeanor and may result in a night in a police station. Drunk driving is a severe offense and may result in heavy fines and jail sentences.
A little etiquette note: while it is common to drink beer straight from the bottle at informal meetings, doing the same with wine is normally only done by tramps (clochards).
Tap water[ edit ]
Tap water (Eau du robinet) is drinkable, except in rare cases such as rural rest areas and sinks in train bathrooms, in which case it will be clearly signposted as Eau non potable. Eau potable is potable water. (You may, however, not like the taste which may be chlorinated, bottled water is common.)
Medical help[ edit ]
The health care in France is of a very high standard.
Pharmacies in France are denoted by a green cross, usually in neon. They sell medicines, contraceptives, and often beauty and related products (though these can be very expensive). Medicines must be ordered from the counter, even non-prescription medicines. The pharmacist is able to help you about various medicines and propose you generic drugs.
Since drug brand names vary across countries even though the effective ingredients stay the same, it is better to carry prescriptions using the international nomenclature in addition to the commercial brand name. Prescription drugs, including oral contraceptives (aka "the pill"), will only be delivered if a doctor's prescription is shown.
In addition, supermarkets sell condoms (préservatifs) and also often personal lubricant, bandages, disinfectant and other minor medical item. Condom machines are often found in bar toilets, etc.
Medical treatment can be obtained from self-employed physicians, clinics and hospitals. Most general practitioners, specialists (e.g. gynecologists), and dentists are self-employed; look for signs saying Docteur (médecine générale is general practitioner). The normal price for a consultation with a general practitioner is €23, though some physicians charge more (this is the full price and not a co-payment). Physicians may also do home calls, but these are more expensive.
Residents of the European Union are covered by the French social security system, which will reimburse or directly pay for 70% of health expenses (30% co-payment) in general, though many physicians and surgeons apply surcharges. Other travellers are not covered and will be billed the full price, even if at a public hospital; non-EU travellers should have travel insurance covering medical costs.
Hospitals will have an emergency room signposted Urgences.
The following numbers are toll-free:
15 Medical emergencies
17 Law enforcement emergencies (for e.g. reporting a crime)
18 Firefighters
112 European standard emergency numbers.
Operators at these numbers can transfer requests to other services if needed (e.g. some medical emergencies may be answered by firefighter groups).
Smoking[ edit ]
Smoking is prohibited by law in all enclosed spaces accessible to the public (this includes train and subway cars, train and subway station enclosures, workplaces, restaurants and cafés) unless in areas specifically designated for smoking, and there are few of these. There was an exception for restaurants and cafés, but since the 1st January 2008, the smoking ban law is also enforced there. You may face a fine of €68 if you are found smoking in these places.
Smoking is banned in métro and trains, as well as enclosed stations. Subway and train conductors do enforce the law and will fine you for smoking in non-designated places; if you encounter problems with a smoker in train, you may go find the conductor.
As hotels are not considered as public places, some offer smoking vs non-smoking rooms.
Only people over the age 18 may purchase tobacco products. Shopkeepers may request a photo ID.
Respect[ edit ]
On the Métro[ edit ]
The Métro subway system is a great way to get around Paris (or Lyon, Marseille, et al.), which is readily apparent in the throngs of people that use it to go to work, school, and the like. If you do not ride the train at home, or if you come from a place that doesn't have a subway system, there are certain points of etiquette that you may not be aware of. When boarding at the station, let those exiting the train step off onto the platform before boarding, and once aboard move to the centre of the car. If you have luggage, move it as far out of the path of others as possible (on the RER B to Charles de Gaulle airport, use the luggage racks above the seats instead). Certain stations have moving sidewalks to cover the distances between platforms - walk on the left and stand on the right! Finally, do note that the doors on French subway cars don't generally open automatically once the train has stopped at the station; rather, most cars have a small button or lever on the doors that opens them. If you should happen to be standing near the door in a crowded car you might hear someone behind you say "la porte, s'il vous plait," which means that person would like to get off the train and is asking you to open the door for him/her. Pop the door open and step aside (or down onto the platform) while that person exits the train - the driver will wait for you to get back on.
Loudness[ edit ]
It is considered very rude to be loud in a crowded place, such as a subway car or restaurant. Keep in mind that, though you may be enjoying your holiday, most people around you in the métro or other places are probably going to or back from work and may be tired and thus will react very coldly to tourists babbling at the top of their lungs. If you listen to the locals talk, you will notice that they talk rather softly.
Shopping etiquette[ edit ]
In many shops/stores in France, you should ask the shopkeeper to take items from the shelf; as opposed to picking it up yourself. This applies in liquor or wine stores, clothing stores, etc. Failure to respect this policy might result in confused and/or angered reactions from the shopkeeper.
Dress code[ edit ]
Dress codes are fast disappearing, but if you want to avoid looking like a tourist, then avoid white sneakers, baseball caps, tracksuit pants, shorts and flip-flops (except at the beach). Generally speaking, business casual dress code is sufficient in cities and in all but the most formal occasions.
When it comes to women's urban wear, very short skirts, largely open cleavage, or ostensibly sexy clothing in general, is considered poor taste in France, especially in the colder climates of northern France (including Paris). Women dressing this way taking public transportation or walking in the street to a club, may be heckled on the way, or get looks of disapproval.
Usual courtesy applies when entering churches, and although you may not be asked to leave, it is better to avoid short pants and halter tops.
Some restaurants will frown if you come in dressed for trekking but very few will insist upon a jacket and tie. You may be surprised by the number of French twenty-somethings who show up at a grungy bar in jacket and tie, even if obviously from a thrift-shop.
Beaches and swimming pools (in hotels) are used for getting a tan. Taking off your bra will not usually create a stir if you don't mind a bevy of oglers. Taking off the bottom part is reserved to designated nude beaches. People on beaches are usually not offended by a young boy or girl undressed. Most resort cities insist on your wearing a shirt when leaving the beach area. Many pools will not allow baggy or "board" swim trunks, insisting on snug fitting speedo type trunks.
Breastfeeding in public is very rare but nobody will mind if you do.
Talking to people[ edit ]
The French language has two different forms of the pronoun "you" that are used when addressing someone in the second person. "Tu" is the second-person singular and "Vous" is nominally the second-person plural. However, in some situations, French speakers will use "Vous" for the second-person singular. While one will use "Vous" to address a group of people no matter what the circumstances, non-native speakers will invariably have some difficulty when trying to determine whether to address a person with the informal and friendly "tu" or the formal and respectful "vous." The language even has two special verbs reflecting this difference: "tutoyer" (to address a person using "tu"), and "vouvoyer" (to address a person using "vous"), each of them carrying their own connotations and implications. Unfortunately, the rules as to when to use which form can sometimes seem maddeningly opaque to the non-native French speaker.
Generally speaking, one will only use the "tu" form to address someone in an informal situation where there is familiarity or intimacy between the two parties. For example, "tu" is used when addressing a close friend or spouse, or when an adult child is addressing a parent. "Tu" is also used in situations where the other party is very young, such as a parent speaking to a child or a schoolteacher to a student. In contrast, "vous" is used in situations where the parties are not familiar, or where it is appropriate to convey respect and/or deference. For example, an office worker might use "tu" to address co-workers that he works closely with, but he would probably use "vous" when speaking to the receptionist he rarely talks to. He certainly wouldn't use "tu" when speaking with his boss. In that same vein, police officers and other authorities should always be addressed with "vous."
If that's confusing (or not confusing enough) the key thing to remember is that it's all about distance. For example, a bartender is vous up until the moment that he or she gives you a complementary drink, at which point tu becomes more appropriate, and the use of vous would be a bit ungrateful and off-putting.
For foreigners, the best way to deal with the "tu" and "vous" problem is to address people using "vous" until invited to say "tu", or until addressed by the first name. Doing so will look perhaps a shade old fashioned, but always respectful. In most cases, if French is not your native language most French people will overlook any such overly formal and polite language without thinking much about it anyway. Doing the opposite can be pretty rude and embarrassing in some situations, so it's probably best to err on the side of caution.
Simplified: Use vous unless:
Sensitive topics[ edit ]
As a general rule, debates, discussions, and friendly arguments are something that the French enjoy, but there are certain topics that should be treated more delicately or indirectly than others:
Politics: French people have a wide variety of opinions about many subjects. Unless you really follow French news closely, you should probably steer clear of discussing internal French politics, especially sensitive issues such as immigration - you may come across as judgmental and uninformed. Reading French newspapers to get a feel for the wide spectrum of political opinions in France – from the revolutionary left to the nationalistic right – may help. That said, don't be discouraged from engaging in political discussions with French people, just be aware of the position that being a foreigner puts you in. Also, it is considered to be quite rude to ask a person point-blank about which candidate he/she voted for in the last election (or will vote for in the next); instead, talk about the issues and take it from there.
Religion: The French seldom advertise their religious feelings, however, and expect you to avoid doing so as well. Doing so might make people feel uneasy. It is also generally considered impolite to inquire about religious or other personal issues. While France has barred religious symbols from public places including Sikh turban, Islamic hijab and Jewish kippah on grounds of secularism, this controversial topic is best avoided in polite conversations. People practicing those faiths need to be aware of the unfriendly attitudes that some in France hold to expression of religion in public places.
Money: You should also avoid presenting yourself through what you own (house, car, etc.). It is also considered to be quite crass to discuss your salary, or to ask someone else directly about theirs. Instead express your enthusiasm about how great are the responsibilities, or how lucky you were to get there, etc.
City/Rural Differences: While it is true that roughly 1/6th of the country's population lives in the Paris region, don't make the mistake of reducing France to Paris or assuming that all French people act like Parisians. Life in Paris can be closer to life in London or New York City than in the rest of France; just as New Yorkers or Londoners might act and feel differently than people from, say, Oklahoma or Herefordshire, so might Parisian customs and opinions differ from those found "en province."
The pan-European emergency number is
112
and this is probably a better choice than the numbers listed below if you don't speak French.
Other emergency numbers are
17 for the police
18 for fire and rescue
These calls are free and accessible from virtually any phone, including locked cellphones. In case of a serious emergency, if you find a code-protected cellphone, enter a random code three times: the phone will lock, but you will be able to dial emergency numbers.
To call a French number from abroad, dial: international prefix + 33 + local number without the leading 0. For example: +33 247 664 118
All French numbers have 10 digits. The first two digits are:
01 for the Parisian region
02 for the Northwest
06 for cellphones
07 for cellphones since 2010.
08 have special prices (infuriatingly, from free of charge to very costly indeed - Skype numbers start with 08).
09 if they are attached to Voice over IP telephones connected to DSL modems from French DSL providers that integrate such functions.
You cannot drop the first two digits even if your call remains within the same area. The initial '0' may be replaced by some other digit or longer code indicating a choice of long-distance operator. Don't use this unless explicitly told to.
When speaking phone numbers, people will usually group the digits by sets of two. For example, 02 47 66 41 18 will be said as "zero two, forty-seven, sixty-six, forty-one, eighteen" (but in French, of course). The two-digit pair 00 is said as "zero zero", not "double zero". for example if your phone number is 02 47 66 41 18 in France, it would be said as "zéro deux, quarante-sept, soixante-six, quarante et un, dix-huit." Difficulties can arise when numbers between 60 and 99 exist in the phone number, as the French word for seventy, "soixante dix" literally means "sixty ten", the word for eighty, "quatre-vingt" means "four-twenty" and ninety, "quatre-vingt-dix" means "four-twenty-ten". So when giving a number such as "72", you might hear "soixante", start writing a 6, and have to correct yourself when the number turns out to be "soixante-douze".
If you find it too hard to follow, you may ask the person to say the number digit-by-digit ("chiffre par chiffre"). It would then be "zero, two, four, seven, six, six, four, one, one, eight" ("zéro, deux, quatre, sept, six, six, quatre, un, un, huit").
You can to visit International Dial Code Directory to find instructions about the nationals and internationals calls.
Toll-free[ edit ]
There are few companies that provide toll-free numbers (starting with 08 00) but many have numbers starting with 081, for which you pay the cost of a local call regardless of where you are in the country.
Numbers starting with 089 are heavily surcharged. They provide service to some legitimate businesses but the ones you see advertised all over the country are usually for adult services.
Cheap international calls[ edit ]
Dial-around services are directly available from any landline in France. No contract, no registration is required. Most dial-around services allows you to call USA, Canada, Western Europe and many other countries at local rate (tarif local) so you can easily save on your phone bill. They also work from payphones, though the first minute is surcharged by France Telecom.
You can also use Viber, WhatsApp, FaceTime using your phone and a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot. This is probably one of the cheapest solutions for travellers in France.
Fixed line[ edit ]
To find out how to get a landline (ligne fixe) in France Just Landed gives more information on the subject of French landline providers. Another method, if you are staying for a long period, is to use VoIP over DSL, such as the Livebox or Freebox service (free long distance calls within France and to a number of countries).
Public call boxes[ edit ]
Phone booths are available in train or subway stations, bus stops, near tourist attractions, etc. There is at least one phone booth in every village (look on the main plaza). Due to the widespread use of mobile phones, there are now fewer booths than a few years ago. Most use a card (no coins). France Télécom public phones accept CB/Visa/MasterCard cards but almost always only with a microchip. Otherwise, post offices, café-tabacs (recognizable by a red sign hanging outside), and stores that sell magazines sell phone cards. Ask for a "carte telephonique"; these come with differing units of credit, so you may want to specify "petit" if you just want to make a short local call or two. If you get the kind with a computer chip in it, you just have to slide it into the phone, listen for the dial tone, and dial. The US-style cards require you to dial a number and then enter a code (but with spoken instructions in French).
Mobile[ edit ]
France uses the GSM standard of cellular phones (900MHz and 1800MHz bands) used in most of the world outside of the US. There are 4 'physical' network operators in France: Orange, SFR, Bouygues Télecom and Free Mobile. Other providers are mobile virtual operators based on Orange, SFR or Bouygues Télécom. France is almost totally covered but you may have difficulties using your mobile phone in rural or mountainous areas. However, for emergency numbers, the four companies are required by law to accept your call if they technically can, even if you are not one of their customers, thus maximizing your chance of being helped even in areas with spotty service.
If you are staying for some time in France it is advisable to buy a prepaid SIM card for your phone so that incoming calls are free. Additionally, French businesses and individuals are unlikely to want to call an international number to get hold of you as there will be a surcharge to them. Most service providers such as (Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom) supply SIM cards in shops; for instance Orange promotes Orange holiday, which allows you to use 120 international minutes and 1000 texts within all Europe + 1GB data in France for about €40. The plan can be purchased quite easily in Orange shops. But be aware that the credit expires when you do not top-up.
If you want to sort out your phone before you leave, LeFrenchMobile provides a prepaid service for foreigners coming to France. You do not always need identification at the point-of-purchase but you need to be have your personal details (including an address: your hotel address will do) in-hand to activate the service, even on prepaid lines. Another company that can help you efficiently sort out your international sim card needs is TravelSim . Their prepaid sim card is one of the cheapest on the market and, since it is a callback service, your can save up to 85% on your roaming charges. Additionally, all incoming sms and Skype calls are free on TravelSim numbers. With this sim card you can easily make phone calls in France and when you go outside of the country.
Lebara offer relatively cheap pre-pay data plans. (€8 for 1GB) If your phone doesn't access the internet correctly you may need to manually set your phones' "access point name" username/pass to web/web.
Internet cafes[ edit ]
Internet access is available at cyber cafes in large and medium-sized cities all over. Service is usually around €4 per hour. However, with most homes now wired for the internet, cyber cafes are increasingly hard to find, especially outside the major cities.
Residential broadband[ edit ]
In all major cities, there are multiple companies offering residential broadband service. Typical prices are €30 a month for unmetered ADSL (in speeds up to 24 megabits per second), digital HDTV over DSL and free unlimited voice-over-IP phone calls to land lines within France and about twenty other countries (EU,US,...) with external SIP access too (the price includes a modem/routeur/switch with integrated Wi-Fi MiMo access point). Broadband services are very common in France, all over the country.
Wi-Fi[ edit ]
You'll also find Wi-Fi access in a lot of cafés usually those labelled a bit "trendy". There will be a sign on the door or on the wall. Also look for the @ symbol prominently displayed, which indicates internet availability. In Paris, one popular Wi-Fi free spot is the Pompidou Centre. There is talk that the city intends to become the first major European capital providing free Wi-Fi coverage for the whole city. Public parks and libraries in Paris are also covered.
Mobile Internet Access[ edit ]
MOXX.fr provides secure high quality internet network via pocket Wi-Fi rental on a short term basis for affordable prices. This service is powered by a main French internet provider.
Post[ edit ]
Post offices are found in all cities and villages but their time of operation vary. In the main cities the downtown office may be open during lunchtime, typically 09:00-18:00. Most offices are only open on Saturday morning and there is only one office in Paris which is open 24/7 (in rue du Louvre).
Letter boxes are yellow.
Parcels[ edit ]
International delivery services like FedEx, UPS, are available in cities, however you generally have to call them for them to come to you as they have very few physical locations.
Another option is to simply use La Poste with a wide network around the country and the same services as its competitors.
Cope[ edit ]
Toilets are available in restaurants, cafés; there are also public facilities, which generally charge a fee. Note that American euphemisms such as "restroom", "washroom" etc. will often not be understood; ask for "toilets". In older public facilities, particularly those that do not charge or isolated rest areas, you may encounter squat toilets.
| i don't know |
What is generally suggested to be the fourth spatial dimension in addition to the first three (of length, area and volume)? | Physicists continue work to abolish time as fourth dimension of space
Physicists continue work to abolish time as fourth dimension of space
April 14, 2012 by Lisa Zyga report
Light clocks A and B moving horizontally through space. According to length contraction, clock A should tick faster than clock B. In a new study, scientists argue that there is no length contraction, and both clocks should tick at the same rate in accordance with special relativity. Image credit: Sorli and Fiscaletti.
(Phys.org) -- Philosophers have debated the nature of time long before Einstein and modern physics. But in the 106 years since Einstein, the prevailing view in physics has been that time serves as the fourth dimension of space, an arena represented mathematically as 4D Minkowski spacetime. However, some scientists, including Amrit Sorli and Davide Fiscaletti, founders of the Space Life Institute in Slovenia, argue that time exists completely independent from space. In a new study, Sorli and Fiscaletti have shown that two phenomena of special relativity - time dilation and length contraction - can be better described within the framework of a 3D space with time as the quantity used to measure change (i.e., photon motion) in this space.
The scientists have published their article in a recent issue of Physics Essays. The work builds on their previous articles , in which they have investigated the definition of time as a numerical order of material change.
The main concepts of special relativity - that the speed of light is the same in all inertial reference frames, and that there is no absolute reference frame - are traditionally formulated within the framework of Minkowski spacetime. In this framework, the three spatial dimensions are intuitively visualized, while the time dimension is mathematically represented by an imaginary coordinate, and cannot be visualized in a concrete way.
In their paper, Sorli and Fiscaletti argue that, while the concepts of special relativity are sound, the introduction of 4D Minkowski spacetime has created a century-long misunderstanding of time as the fourth dimension of space that lacks any experimental support. They argue that well-known time dilation experiments, such as those demonstrating that clocks do in fact run slower in high-speed airplanes than at rest, support special relativity and time dilation but not necessarily Minkowski spacetime or length contraction. According to the conventional view, clocks run slower at high speeds due to the nature of Minkowski spacetime itself as a result of both time dilation and length contraction. But Sorli and Fiscaletti argue that the slow clocks can better be described by the relative velocity between the two reference frames, which the clocks measure, not which the clocks are a part of. In this view, space and time are two separate entities.
With clocks we measure the numerical order of motion in 3D space , Sorli told Phys.org. Time is 'separated' from space in a sense that time is not a fourth dimension of space. Instead, time as a numerical order of change exists in a 3D space. Our model on space and time is founded on measurement and corresponds better to physical reality.
To illustrate the difference between the two views of time, Sorli and Fiscaletti consider an experiment involving two light clocks. Each clock's ticking mechanism consists of a photon being reflected back and forth between two mirrors, so that a photon's path from one mirror to the other represents one tick of the clock. The clocks are arranged perpendicular to each other on a platform, with clock A oriented horizontally and clock B vertically. When the platform is moved horizontally at a high speed, then according to the length contraction phenomenon in 4D spacetime, clock A should shrink so that its photon has a shorter path to travel, causing it to tick faster than clock B.
But Sorli and Fiscaletti argue that the length contraction of clock A and subsequent difference in the ticking rates of clocks A and B do not agree with special relativity, which postulates that the speed of light is constant in all inertial reference frames. They say that, keeping the photon speed the same for both clocks, both clocks should tick at the same rate with no length contraction for clock A. They mathematically demonstrate how to resolve the problem in this way by replacing Minkowski 4D spacetime with a 3D space involving Galilean transformations for three spatial coordinates X, Y, and Z, and a mathematical equation (Selleri's formalism) for the transformation of the velocity of material change, which is completely independent of the spatial coordinates.
Sorli explained that this idea that both photon clocks tick at the same rate is not at odds with the experiments with flying clocks and other tests that have measured time dilation. This difference, he says, is due to a difference between photon clocks and atom-based clocks.
The rate of photon clocks in faster inertial systems will not slow down with regard to the photon clocks in a rest inertial system because the speed of light is constant in all inertial systems, he said. The rate of atom clocks will slow down because the 'relativity' of physical phenomena starts at the scale of pi mesons.
He also explained that, without length contraction, time dilation exists but in a different way than usually thought.
Time dilatation exists not in the sense that time as a fourth dimension of space dilates and as a result the clock rate is slower, he explained. Time dilatation simply means that, in a faster inertial system, the velocity of change slows down and this is valid for all observers. GPS confirms that clocks in orbit stations have different rates from the clocks on the surface of the planet, and this difference is valid for observers that are on the orbit station and on the surface of the planet. So interpreted, 'time dilatation' does not require 'length contraction,' which as we show in our paper leads to a contradiction by the light clocks differently positioned in a moving inertial system.
He added that the alternative definition of time also agrees with the notion of time held by the mathematician and philosopher Kurt Gödel.
The definition of time as a numerical order of change in space is replacing the 106-year-old concept of time as a physical dimension in which change runs, Sorli said. We consider time being only a mathematical quantity of change that we measure with clocks. This is in accord with a Gödel view of time. By 1949, Gödel had produced a remarkable proof: 'In any universe described by the theory of relativity, time cannot exist.' Our research confirms Gödel's vision: time is not a physical dimension of space through which one could travel into the past or future.
In the future, Sorli and Fiscaletti plan to investigate how this view of time fits with the broader surroundings. They note that other researchers have investigated abolishing the idea of spacetime in favor of separate space and time entities, but often suggest that this perspective is best formulated within the framework of an ether, a physical medium permeating all of space. In contrast, Sorli and Fiscaletti think that the idea can be better modeled within the framework of a 3D quantum vacuum. Rather than viewing space as a medium that carries light, light's propagation is governed by the electromagnetic properties (the permeability and permittivity) of the quantum vacuum.
We are developing a mathematical model where gravity is a result of the diminished energy density of a 3D quantum vacuum caused by the presence of a given stellar object or material body, Sorli said. Inertial mass and gravitational mass have the same origin: diminished energy density of a quantum vacuum. This model gives exact calculations for the Mercury perihelion precession as calculations of the general theory of relativity.
| Time |
What German word refers to a 'double' of a living person, often an evil version? | Multispatiality - Positive and Negative Volume
Multispatiality
The Construction of Positive and Negative Volume
Imagine living in a single enormous moment of now. There is no past, no future, only a present. At first it might seem that it would not be possible to observe one's surroundings in such a place. However, its not too difficult to consider that on the inside, you could experience this world as if it were instead an evolving existence. Your life between birth and death, like a story within a book, could all be solidly imprinted into the fabric of this eternal moment. In such a world your observations have already occurred, are occurring, and will always be occurring.
Your experience of time or change must then have two qualities. First it must include a linear string-like path through the permanent landscape, as opposed to let's say a single point or place. For your story to be cohesive and genuinely involve change, it must be more than a broken sequence of unrelated moments or story pages. Your story, like any story in book, must have a binding which connects together the pages or moments of your experience. We might call this requirement linear time. We might envision linear time much like we envision a single direction passing through an ordinary Euclidean space from point A to B.
Second and simultaneously, your story must include a series of unique patterns or conditions. There must be differences from point A to B seemingly lateral to the linear direction of your story. Note that the lateral patterns necessarily must be distinct. Each must possess a separate identity or dimensional form apart from other spaces along the linear time path which links the series of instances, such as your birth and death.
In order to observe and experience change, what ever we as an observer are in this case, must leap away from one state to another. The difference between each individually unique state may be immeasurable, perhaps infinitesimally small, but without this difference there would be no temporal experience, no sense of change, none of the illusions of time. We might call this necessity lateral time, and imagine each static state to be like a solid block of space, within which no possibility exists for change. Such a state is very much like a single possibility, for which there is no meaning to the idea of temporal evolution.
And so now we can see our problem. If we bind a series of three dimensional spaces together they inevitably lose their separateness and form a whole. They are no longer individually distinct. On the other hand, if each is a distinct dimension separate from others, no matter how close that we position them, as long as we maintain that required separation, time as we experience it cannot exist. Logically, the necessity of separation conflicts with the necessity of union.
Time Space
It is rather easy to describe the three spatial dimensions of height, width, and depth, but not so easy to describe the fourth dimension of time. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the best method of regarding time is to use photographs, showing a walkway or crossing. In a series of pictures a person walking across a courtyard is said to be moving through both space and time.
As the person pauses at the center of the crossing to wait for a friend his position in three dimensional space is no longer changing. Standing still at the center of the courtyard he is only moving through time. We can symbolize this unique type of movement, the movement through time alone, as successive photographs. Although the position of observer is now stationary and so each photograph is identical to the next, the lateral surroundings of this person is continuing to change. A clock for example in the photographers hand is moving. Other objects in the universe are changing position in relation to the center of the square. This allows us to make a distinction between each frame and to define each photo as a different position in time.
In many situations we portray spacetime events with a sequence of still frames, such as in movie films or television. No one has yet devised a method which is more like how we ordinarily assume time to be, a linear unbroken progression of events. There seems to be no way to avoid separating time into distinct individual moments. So why then have we not already considered that perhaps time in nature is purely sequential. Is it even possible for temporal evolution to be fused into a linear unified system? Again the paradox. The two elements necessary of time, as we envision it, are incompatible.
The gifted puzzler, the Italian philosopher Zeno, argued that if time were linear then no movement could occur, because every distance is infinitely divisible. His arguments have not been silenced by any modern philosophy or discovery, but the rule is not considered scientifically certain, even though modern quantum mechanics describes the particle world as leaping from one position to another as Zeno indirectly predicted.
If we had to choose, is time linear or a fragmented series? In one case the past and future of spacetime are entirely fused, so lateral change is the illusion and linear time is real. And in the other case, the moment of now that we believe transforms fluidly in a systematic evolution, is in reality a singular and separate universe, and no linear time exists. Time itself then is an illusion.
This question we confront here, about the structure or nature of time, looms at the heart of the distinction between Quantum theory and Relativity theory. Is time linear or sequentially constructed? To answer we ask, what do we observe? Do objects move along linear and continuous paths through space, or do objects leap from one position to the next? Actually the answer is known. On the small scale we recognize that particles travel as a wave from one position to the next without having a definite position in between. Quantum mechanics could easily be interpreted to indicate that spacetime is not linear, and has led many to challenge the common belief that we exist within a smooth flowing time continuum.
But Einstein stayed a neo-realist throughout his life, convinced that "God does not play dice". On the large scale of planets and galaxies, the relativistic field theory produced by Einstein himself, was able to describe an inseparable connection between space and time, as well as past and future. Einstein's belief in an undivided solid reality was so clear to him that he even rejected the separation we experience as the moment of now. Einstein not only believed time was relative. He believed all of spacetime forms a unified existence. His most descriptive testimony to this faith came when his lifelong friend Besso died, shortly before his own death, Einstein wrote a letter to Besso's family, saying that although Besso had proceeded him in death it was of no consequence, "for us physicists believe the separation between past, present, and future is only an illusion, although a convincing one."
The most radical and distinctive difference between Einstein's relativity theory and quantum theory is how each describes the moment of now. In the most common and conservative interpretation of quantum theory, the universe is physically indefinite until it is observed by a conscious being. Personally I prefer to say that physical reality is indefinite before it is interacted with. In either case, the ability for physical existence to be indefinite or wave-like is not only true of what is real in regards to the future, but is true of the past events as well. The observer literally determines the course time has chosen by observing an event.
In relativity theory there is no uncertainty or probability. The motion of a planet, for example, is highly predictable years into the future. There are not many unique futures possible, there is one that is inevitable. There are not many pasts possible, for the past is connected inseparably to the future. In Einstein's view the past and future are entwined without any now, or perhaps we begin to see in Einstein's view, as he suggested eloquently, that all moments of now are related to a single existence. Existence is then divided only by unique references of time for each spacetime traveler.
So now, with the inherent differences between relativity and quantum theory made clear, with the distinction made between linear and lateral time, we are better able to consider the following question. What if relativity also was reason to believe that spacetime is a sequence of events? In addition to the evidence that quantum theory provides as it describes the small scale, what if the large-scale curvature of spacetime could be viewed as evidence that time is a series of moments? What if both theories told the same story?
They do of course tell the same story about this one universe, both theories do, and we just haven't learned yet to fill in the pieces and hear the story right. So I submit there is a way to resolve linear and lateral time. The first stage is to show that when we explore lateral time in greater detail, we discover the curvature of space, time dilation, and spatial contraction. And so we now begin to explore spacetime as a direction through many spaces.
Two Dimensions of Time
It was said that the photographs of a person walking across the courtyard represent movement through space and time. That is the normal analogy, yet if we extend the analogy we might notice that the photographs represent block like spaces existent in their own separate unique reference of time. Not dissimilar, the photos exist in our present time even as they represent moments of another place in time, usually in the past. Certainly, it is equally possible that our own experience of time could be related to a series of block like spaces.
Just as the photographs above are displayed independent of the sense of time they portray, it is possible that elsewhere in existence there are spaces which exist independently. In each space we can imagine static matter fixed motionless, afloat in space, and in each world a unique pattern of such material distinguishes one from another. We might use the pages of a book as an analogy. We read a story in a book that flows and evolves like time yet each page is analogous to the spaces which I am proposing.
Like the photographs, there might be an infinite number of spaces in the aggregate cosmos. We should expect in this case that all patterns are equally possible. As this objective view grows more vivid, it becomes evident that any perception of change inside a series of such spaces ceases to be time in the full sense of the word. The existence of each space constitutes one aspect of time, as we presently define time. A series made of a space after a space after a space would constitute the element of time that is purely change. Therefore time is split into two dimensions, one related to the existence of each space, while time as measured by clocks relates to the so far mysterious union of spaces.
This is disorienting at first, because we are redefining, actually splitting, the meaning of the word time. Usually, part of the meaning of time is a reference to the duration of existence. Time is partly thought of as existence since most of us assume that the past no longer exists and the future only becomes real as time flows to it, so we think reality moves along with us through time. Clock time and existence are assumed inseparable.
The second notion of time is purely a reference to the progression of events, or change, which is less assumed. We measure movements, such as the moment of a clock, as time. Its not difficult to imagine that all motion in the universe could conceivably freeze, and if time stood still, objectively the universe would still exist and thus a form of time would be occurring, yet what we measure with clocks has stopped. So to review, there is existence which is innately one dimension of time, and there is physical change, which can hypothetically be a separate dimension of time.
The progression of photographs above can be considered more elementary or primary to the walking or standing activity of a person represented by a series of photos. The temporal existence of each block of space could conceivably be infinite. And so we notice that in respect to time as change, we would use the word timeless to describe the block of space. Likewise, in respect to the person evolving through a series of spaces, the past and future would be referred to as non-existent.
The reason of course is due to the fact that humans do not experience the infinite time period of each block of space that constructs linear time, even though what we experience may well be purely spatial. If indeed clock time is due to spatial change, we would then fully fuse the word space-time into one word; spacetime, and place all of the emphasis in pronunciation upon the word space. The future is in this case simply another place of space.
And here then is the relevant point I have been working up to. The person walking in the courtyard cannot measure the time spent within each space, because for the person to measure time, the physical shape of the surrounding world must change. Lateral changes in his environment must signal time has passed. The hands of the clock must move. The physical brain must actively process information, for only change allows the person to think and perceive. Otherwise time is stopped. Trapped in such a frozen moment the person would measure the length of time to be zero, as measured by a clock, even though the duration of one's existence in that moment might last five minutes or forever.
What is even more extraordinary, is that the same collapse to zero time we just witnessed, zero time as measured by a clock, is true also of the person's spatial volume. If the duration of linear time is zero, and the progression of spaces is halted, so also is the person's measurement of space. What I am pointing to is that an observer experiences and measures the volume of his space entirely dependent upon linear time, and does not experience the space of a single moment of lateral time. If we imagine the progression of spaces is halted, there does exist a surrounding world of space, yet in the static moment the observer has no experience of it.
Do not assume this has no greater significance. It would be a mistake to conclude this occurs simply due to the fact that temporal change must occur in order for the surrounding space to be experienced. The progression of spaces builds a volume which is secondary, for it is not purely an experience of the lateral block of space.
What I mean to say, is that both the time and spatial volume that an observer measures in the progression of both linear and lateral time, is fully secondary to the more primary time and volume of the individual constructive spaces, this being true, even if the difference between each state were infinitesimally fine. An observer merely borrows his experience of space and time. This is why we are forced to describe the experienced universe as space-time. The way I shall prove this convincingly is to expose the effect lateral state change has on an observers measured volume and to compare this to the distortions of space and time described by general relativity.
My immediate intention is to convey fully and graphically that space-time is secondary to a more primary multi-spatial existence. However, I have not forgotten the much greater issue at hand which is the requirement that we find some resolution to the stark conflict between the linear and lateral time components. So before we continue I will introduce the idea which I believe resolves this issue.
Time is Four Dimensional Space
The central question so far in this essay, and the central issue in the problems of spatiality, is concerned with how it is possible that many individual blocks of space which are necessarily distinct dimensions can simultaneously be spatially linked to form the fourth dimension of time. In this case it may be that the simplest solution is the only possible solution.
Well, the focus should not be upon how such spaces are linked, but instead how such spaces are maintained in nature as separate. The union of all possible space comes first and naturally so. So what then separates one static spatial dimension from another? The answer is, "only the definitive form of each space, and nothing more than that." Beyond the definition we know, the world is connected and inseparable. Just behind the forms of the world, there exists the formlessness of the infinite.
So why then is there a fourth dimension of time? In addition to all the ordinary expected directions embedded within and constructing a three dimensional block of space, there also exists directions in space which travel across or through the multiplicity of all possible 3D spaces. These directions in space are no less natural and inevitable than those which build an ordinary 3D field of space, except that each direction independently constructs the lateral component of its surrounding conditions. Said more simply, each linear direction in 4D space forges a unique path through the realm of multispatiality.
I believe this simple idea forges a bridge between quantum mechanics and relativity. Time is real because space is real. What isn't real is our sense that our existence is evolving. And yet our sense of our place in time is real. What is an illusion is only the seeming temporariness of the present. What we call time is really space. And the directions in this space travel away from the Alpha of the big bang and move toward the Omega of absolute zero. They do so because they are probabilistically influenced.
Considering all that we know of space-time, quantum mechanics, the conservation of matter and energy, and increasing entropy, combined with the aggregate superstructure of state space and other theories presented here in previous essays, it is not difficult to imagine that there are laws and forces that both probabilistically guide and conservatively rule the creation of lateral space, while remaining aware also that this seeming creation always is accomplished in reference to each single 4D direction passing through multiple spaces, as opposed to all 4D directions fusing two unique spaces together.
Note it has not been said that each 4D direction travels in a free fashion through the patterns of state space. Quite the contrary, at each position from point A to point B along the linear time direction there exists a distinct lateral space inseparably connected to that point. As for each proceeding space, the micro-state and macro-state conditions of each lateral space leads to a probabilistic decision, one that shapes both the future and the indeterminate past of the linear path's lateral identity. The particular states or patterns that each direction passes through are naturally determined relative to the definition of previous patterns and the construction method is probabilistic. Note also that this does not mean the build up of lateral spaces along the linear time line are individually separate or not spatially bonded together. The proposal here simply is that the 4D directions that pass through multi-spaces are always created in reference to each linear time line. Each direction through the spaces forms an independent time line. This is why every observer moves linearly through time while we also observe a quantum world around us, surrounding that linear time line. Each consciousness is associated with a time line.
Therefore, the formation of the lateral identity is not chaotic and instead ordered and systematic, conservation of mass and energy occurs in every production of 4D space, while each 4D space is shaped strictly in accordance with the probabilities of state space. This influence of aggregate state space is perpetually true of each direction of 4D space objectively. There are no exceptions. Each direction inevitably travels from the most extreme state of density to the extreme of flat space. Each point in 4D space will indicate a past that returns to the point of infinite density, and a future that leads to absolute flatness. This creates the Many-Worlds partition.
The Holograph Space Movie
The next step is to regard the fact that the conglomeration of spaces producing 4D space results in a volume of space that is unique from the lateral fields of space. As we shall discover, it is for this reason that spacetime can become distorted, in a way that the primary spaces themselves are not distorted. Our space and time becomes physically distorted by unique references of time. Just as the stoppage of time would cause a person's measure of volume to collapse to zero, when time is merely slower for an object we are observing, we observe its volume to shrink.
In order to fully understand how spacetime volume becomes distorted, we first have to understand how lateral movement through a progression of spaces or spatial fields creates unique references of time. It is somewhat easy to explain, if we use movie slides or frames as analogous to fields (note that the word field is being used to describe a field of space). Please allow yourself to be entertained. We are about to watch a movie about father time.
We are going to imagine a very detailed holographic movie created by a very creative computer. The setting is a courtyard like the one above. The movie is like any other, except this one isn't two dimensional but rather is made of three dimensional blocks. As this 3D movie progresses, a character in the movie experiences time just as we do. Suddenly our holographic person says "hello". Surprised, we say hello in return. Given the opportunity we start to question him about his sense of time. He tells us that time flows smoothly, that the past disappears, and he says the future isn't real. "The future is only potential and doesn't yet exist", he believes, contrary to our knowledge that he is part of a static multi-space. Convinced he remarks "All that is real is only what exists now" he states with undying certainty.
If we imagine this character can perceive our real world just as we observe his, we then have an opportunity to experiment. We increase the viewing speed of the movie film's 3-D frames, and so suddenly we observe our new friend in the film to walk faster, and the clock standing in his courtyard is visibly moving faster. We question him again and find that he doesn't notice anything wrong with his world. His sense of time has not been effected?
Why? Although we sped up the movie, from inside the movie, time is normal because twenty frames are still required for his clock to show that a second has passed, and no matter what speed we view the movie, it still requires fifteen frames for our friend inside to make one step forward.
We could divide the total number of frames in the movie, decreasing the difference between one and another by half, and play the movie again, but the effect is the same. We can even continue this division to the extreme of an infinitely small difference between one frame and the next, yet the person's sense of time in the movie is unchanged. In contrast we can limit the difference between the frames to zero, in which case time would appear to us to stop. And of course our friend would show no awareness of this.
However, if we set loose the requirement that the series of frames follows an order, a linear time direction, and let each next frame be chosen randomly, the previous sensible images in the movie will decay instantaneously as the projector displays a random assortment of images. What this reveals is that for the movie to mirror spacetime there must be a consistent measure of difference between each successive rearrangement of space. There must be a limitation of change in the movement of objects. If all the particles or objects stay in one place, or if any make sudden or instantaneous leaps in position, the movie will not remind us much of the real world.
In real spacetime, the speed of light acts as the speed of change. It is a measurable constant to which nature limits all change, in part by determining the maximum distance a body can travel in a measure of time. In every sense, the speed of light is the chief regulator of change. In this movie, if it is to accurately depict spacetime, there must also be an exact and limited measure of change. There must be a maximum measure of change in each successive rearrangement of 3D space which limits the distance objects can move in a set number of frames, just as we cannot travel faster than the speed of light in a set period of time. This change constant insures that the movie looks real and undistorted, both to us and even the person inside the movie.
So hopefully it is understood now that as we increase the speed at which we observe the moments of the movie, we do not change the overall number of moments which make up the movie. Nor do we effect the amount of change to each frame. We merely increase our viewing speed. And so even though we observe time moving faster from outside looking in, from the inside the movie, everything appears normal and undistorted to its tenants. Time is normal on the inside, but our friend is now looking out at us rather strangely.
He reports, astonished, that he is observing time in our world to be slowed. His own time seems perfectly normal, but after we increased the movie speed, he then observes our world as if it is moving slower. Why? Its easy to see it if we turn up the speed even faster. He then experiences his whole day, he goes to work, to the store, has dinner, and then comes outside to talk to us again. But we watched his whole day pass in only ten seconds. He says, "I kept an eye on you all day, and your clock ticked off ten seconds nearly as slow as the sun moved through my sky." To him each of our seconds lasted many hours.
So of course next we slow down the movie film, slower than normal, to see what he says. Then he reports that our clocks and movements have become fast and crazy, and after getting dizzy watching us he requests that we return the speed of our world back to normal, so both worlds appear to change at the same rate.
And so now we are done with step one. I've explained all this only to show two references of time. In one world time is faster than normal, as compared to the other, yet both we ourselves and or friend in the movie experience the rate of time to be normal.
Next step is to recognize that two people, both of which are inside the movie, can and will experience time differently. What happens if our friend in the movie travels away from another person sitting in the courtyard. He is now moving from one place to another? Notice that previously he was moving through many 3-D frames in order to experience time. As was explained before, time in his case is a special direction or movement through space. So as he changes position in reference to the courtyard where he stood previously talking to us, now he is moving through space in two ways. In each successive frame he is farther away from the courtyard.
The problem for him now, is that his lateral movement within the frames will constitute a measure of spatial change, and because the speed of change is a constant, his movement will use up some of his allotted change. The movie will only allow him a precise measure change. If he uses it up to change position in reference to the courtyard, he will not be able to use change to talk to us. Thus we can recognize a requirement that his personal clock time slows down in relation to places that are at rest within the movie. because his movement will use up change which otherwise would have been clock time.
It is perhaps easiest to envision the effect movement would have if the person moves away from the courtyard almost exactly at the greatest amount of change the sequence of frames allow, analogous to a speed near the speed of light. Again, the overall measure of change is constant, so nearly all change is being used to travel at a high rate of speed, and very little is left over to move his clock. The passage of time as measured by the traveler decreases, and yet it decreases unbeknownst to the traveler, since he perceives his own personal reference of time and ages equal to his slower clock.
The Space Age Bubble of Time
As we watch we can see that more clock time passes in the courtyard than for the traveler, but is this because the courtyard is stationary? I haven't heard it said this way before, but there is a base reference of time, an internal clock of sorts, for the universe. For example, if we travel away from the earth at 99% the speed of light for half a year, the Earth is traveling away from us also, relatively speaking, in the opposite direction. Yet when we turn around, and return, it has been only a year for us, but it has been approximately eighteen years for the Earth. Why is one more and one less?
One of the qualities about spacetime that many scientists don't consider is that not only are places of the universe younger than our own area, due to motion caused by expansion, there also must be areas where the universe is the oldest possible age, or where the universe has aged the most since the Big Bang. This old space is simply the flattest and coldest areas of the cosmos. Such an area can be said to be the threshold of time, where all motion has been turned into clock time, and consequently the directions in that space have aged toward the future the most. The conclusion I am suggesting is that clock time is fastest for those who are stationary within the forward direction of time, meaning here the direction toward the omega state.
The goal of this whole display was to show that a world created by of series of spaces has the same unique qualities as our own world. A progression of spaces would naturally create a limited amount of change. As spaces shift, the measure of change that is possible in each rearrangement of space will determine the speed limit of traveling objects, and will also determine the speed of clock time when objects are at rest in reference to the linear direction of time toward the omega space.
It might seem, at this time in history, that the speed of light is inherent and a necessary feature of nature, but long ago it was a rather unexpected and highly odd discovery. We did not expect that objects would have a speed limit. We still do not know why objects cannot move at any speed. Why should objects be limited in their speed? In this model where spaces create clock time, we find such an ultimate speed limit is inevitable. Why then is there a speed of light? First objects don't actually travel through space. Objects simply exist in many places which are sewn together by strings of time. And second, in a world created by shifting spatial fields, nothing can travel faster than that process. So as a friend of mine pointed out, motion can be seen as the secondary process of a system, rather than an elementary feature of existence as we naturally expect.
New ideas about the universe tend to make us feel like the supports we hold on to in life have been shaken. Here we are just beginning to see beyond our natural assumptions that describe the space and time we experience as primary. We are seeing beyond our common expectations about reality into the actual construction of a universe. And to highlight the differences, we have been moving our perspective back and forth from our personal place within spacetime, to the frames or space fields, considering time as many 'blocks of now', which they themselves exist in very permanent and even forever time.
But actually we have been encouraged toward a similar view of time for quite a while, since Einstein discovered relativity and Edwin Hubble discovered the expanding universe. Since we learned of distant quasars traveling away from us at nearly the speed of light, we have been led to imagine copies of ourselves out there, on some distant asteroid or planet, where time in reference to us here on Earth would be nearly at a standstill, yet we know also to not think of these distant and almost 'time frozen' relatives as genuinely frozen in time opposed to our time traveling.
Time evolves out there for them just as it evolves here for us, which means that we should elevate all the time references into the same existence, and acknowledge that most of the distant places of our own universe are actually evolving with no time relationship to our own clock time. We view only a fragment, and fleeting moments at best, of a much grander universe. There is only one common time reference, that being the primary time reference we are discovering here, the one enormous moment of now.
Distortions in Volume
We have already established two unique references of time within the movie, and can consider how the volume of the traveler becomes distorted in reference to a second person in the movie, an observer at the courtyard. I have already thoroughly explained two basic kinds of time, that of the permanent spaces, and changing time as measured by the person standing in the courtyard, and I explained that the person in the courtyard would not measure real time, but instead spatial change. In a sense I made a distinction between existential time and a secondary time made of space.
In spacetime, clock time, or more accurately, change, is needed to measure and experience spacetime. In fact the spatial volume of an observer is entirely dependent upon spatial change, and is observed by each place in time. What then does a stationary person in the courtyard observe when his friend is able to travel near to the speed of light, which is near the speed at which the spaces are progressing?
To the observer at the courtyard, the traveling friend is nearly frozen in time. As his speed increased, the rate of time for the traveler in reference to the stationary courtyard decreased. As time appears to slow, the person in the courtyard observes for his friend the same reaction he would experience of his own world without the continual progression of spaces. His four dimensional volume would collapse. Thus he sees that the traveler's space is distorted or squashed, because the other's volume is measured in reference to clock time in the courtyard. And of course the collapse occurs for the actual traveler. In the same way the traveler uses up time, he also uses up his 4D spatial volume. In his vigor to spend his clock time and 4D volume to travel into the future he is steadily transformed into a linear time direction , until finally, at the speed of light, his ordinary time and space is reduced to zero.
We cannot stop clock time, or even slow it down for ourselves, but if we could our reference of space-time volume would collapse. There would exist about us the stark reality of a primary volume of space, the space of a single moment, yet our ordinary senses would not witness the frozen expanse. We know there is no measurable volume without time from Einstein's general theory of relativity, and we can see it logically, by imagining time as a series of spaces. Volume as we know it simply disappears without the progression of spaces.
I propose that the distortions visible within a progression of spaces are the same as those known features described by general relativity. Since gravity is also a direction in time, and thus a direction in space, it also uses up clock time and bends space. The time dilation, and the decrease in volume and mass, which Einstein determined to be features of spacetime, are consequences of a four dimensional existence, or said another way, a five dimensional universe, in which there are three dimensions of space and two dimensions of time, the so called imaginary time or permanent existence of multispace, and the so called ordinary time experienced in space-time or 4D space.
Positive and Negative Volume
If I have been successful the reader can now sensibly recognize that a progression of spatial fields would create a unique volume that is dependent upon spatial change, and it should be evident the possibility of two distinct worlds, our spacetime, and multispace. If so, then the reader is now qualified and able to be introduced to the idea of positive and negative volume. I submit that there are two identical but opposite directions of spacetime, each moving toward the same point of equilibrium, with each having begun from opposite sides of nature, which separately produce two spatial volumes which are positive and negative to each other.
As we pass through spaces a volume is created within which we measure all material density to be positive. There is no negative density within our spacetime and there cannot be negative density within a positive volume, since that would create a negative mass. Mass is always positive or principally neutral relative most likely to existence itself or the general meaning of space.
The following philosophical argument shows the consistency of this approach. Mass is related to the density of space while space is fundamental. Space is in essence physical existence. Non-existence cannot be (Parmenides). And there is no such thing as a non-space or a non-existence to separate a form of existence from another form of existence. Non-space cannot be. If mass is related to fundamental space then negative mass cannot exist, since it would indicate a negative existence. Neither space nor existence is ever negative. However, a 4D volume, being a secondary aspect of multispace, can be either positive or negative in respect to the direction in state space producing the volume.
So we write:
| i don't know |
What is iron pyrites (iron disulfide, FeS2) commonly called, because it resembles a precious metal? | PYRITE (Iron Sulfide)
Specimens
Pyrite is the classic "Fool's Gold". There are other shiny brassy yellow minerals, but pyrite is by far the most common and the most often mistaken for gold . Whether it is the golden look or something else, pyrite is a favorite among rock collectors. It can have a beautiful luster and interesting crystals. It is so common in the earth's crust that it is found in almost every possible environment, hence it has a vast number of forms and varieties.
Bravoite
is the name given to a nickel-rich iron sulfide. It is closely related to pyrite but contains up to 20% nickel. Some mineral books treat it as a variety of pyrite.
Pyrite is a polymorph of marcasite , which means that it has the same chemistry, FeS2, as marcasite; but a different structure and therefore different symmetry and crystal shapes. Pyrite is difficult to distinguish from marcasite when a lack of clear indicators exists.
Pyrite's structure is analogous to galena's structure with a formula of PbS. Galena, though, has a higher symmetry. The difference between the two structures is that the single sulfur of galena is replaced by a pair of sulfurs in pyrite. The sulfur pair are covalently bonded together in essentially an elemental bond. This pair disrupts the four fold symmetry that a single atom of sulfur would have preserved and thus gives pyrite a lower symmetry than galena.
Although pyrite is common and contains a high percentage of iron, it has never been used as a significant source of iron. Iron oxides such as hematite and magnetite , are the primary iron ores. Pyrite is not as ecomonical as these ores possibly due to their tendency to form larger concentrations of more easily mined material. Pyrite would be a potential source of iron if these ores should become scarce.
Pyrite has been mined for its sulfur content, however. During WWII, sulfur was in demand as a strategic chemical and North American native sulfur mines were drying up. A sulfide deposit near Ducktown, Tennessee contained commercially valuable deposits of pyrite and other sulfides such as pyrrhotite and pentlandite and produced the needed sulfur as well as iron and other metals. The sulfur was used in the production of sulfuric acid, an important chemical for industrial purposes. Now most sulfur production comes from H2S gas recovered from natural gas wells.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS:
| Pyrite |
Related to the early development and measurement of steam engines what traditional unit of energy equates typically to between 735-746 watts? | * Iron (Jewelry) - Definition,meaning - Online Encyclopedia
See our: iron jewelry .
Articles of jewelry made of iron, some from ancient times but in small quantity until the 18th century in Europe. A few examples are known of Celtic jewelry and of Anglo-Saxon jewelry , mainly buckles.
Tiger Iron :
Walking Lightly on the Earth
A beautiful stone with black , golden, and red stripes, tiger iron blends the properties of three import ant grounding stone s: hematite , red jasper , and golden tiger's eye .
Iron has a great disadvantage, however - it rusts. Carbon dioxide , oxygen and moisture in the air react chemically with the iron to produce the familiar red-brown coating that eventually causes the metal to crumble away.
TIGER IRON is an altered rock composed chiefly of tiger's eye , red jasper and black hematite .
WEDDING ANNIVERSARY: Tiger Eye is the anniversary gemstone for the 9th year of marriage .
Click here to see our selection of tiger's eye and tiger iron beads.
Tiger Iron nugget gemstone bead s (N) 12 to 18mm
Tiger Iron nugget gemstone bead s (N) 11x12mm to at least 14x18mm, 5.5 to 9mm thick. 15.5 inch.
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Iron is the color ing agent responsible for the green color which is diagnostic of Moldavite . Brown, black and yellow tektite s are found in other locales. Typical inclusions are bubble s and swirls.
Iron
The most common metallic element which usually appears dark brown, from oxidation or im purity , but when pure is silver y-white. Iron is found abundantly in nature, usually in combined forms such as hematite , limonite, magnetite, and taconite.
Blue fluorite (see below), calcite , quartz and hematite ,
the latter in several habit s, including the famous botryoidal "Kidney Ore " habit , are famed mineral species from the iron ore deposits of the Egremont area of Cumbria.
Iron on patches can be ironed on to fabrics and clothing for adornment.
See our full Iron on Patches range
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Iron
Iron is a very reactive metal and rusts easily. Rust may turn the wound septic creating a mammoth problem.
like nickel , tin, copper , bronze , zinc , brass are highly inappropriate for body piercing .
iron oxide - ferric oxide ; iron dust; when pulverized, washed and decanted, it is turned into rouge for polishing metal .
K
karat - A measure of the fineness of gold . One karat is equal to one part in twenty-four in gold alloy .
iron glance - Hematite .
iron lap - A grinding lap made of malleable iron, used mostly with pulverized oil stone in oil as an abrasive for shaping and finish ing steel parts of timepiece s.
Sodalite
It's known that each gemstones have their own special abilities used in various ways so I had chosen specific gems to help protect me, assist me with energy, provide free-flow of creative ideas, have good communication and many other things to help equipt me.
Tiger Iron : A banded, opaque stone , with metallic grey, some red, and sometimes a little brown Tiger's eye .
Tiger Iron is thought to be a stone of clarity , particularly in regard to knowledge, in the belief that it helps one to see the truth below the surface . Tiger Iron is also credited for promoting creativity and inspiring all types of artistic abilities.
Berlin Iron - Cast iron jewelry worked into delica te openwork patterns, and made in Berlin during the first half of the nineteenth century ...
IRON
Iron is a metal rarely used in jewelry since it is so brittle and lacks luster (except in its mineral forms, pyrite or marcasite ). Iron jewelry was popular in Germany in the early 1800's during the war with Napoleon .
Iron colour s beryl in the most beautiful sea-blue hues, turning it into aquamarine , one of our best known and most popular gems.
Iron has a unique natural depth and beauty and is one of the oldest element s in the universe, created by nuclear fusion inside stars about 15 billion years ago. Melted iron, mixed with resin, is cast into specially shape d moulds. Cast iron is softer than steel.
Iron color s the stone in the most beautiful sea-blue hues, making it aquamarine , the best known and most popular gem . It shines in all the color s of water , from fine blue shades that complements almost any skin or eye color to a slight green shimmer.
Iron, smelted, discovered in approx. 1500 BC
Mercury, discovered in approx. 750 BC ...
iron
Iron is a metal . Its mineral forms include pyrite and marcasite ).
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marriage
A combination of element s in one piece of jewelry where the components are from different source s, not as originally made.
Iron is also the element that replaces the magnesium in the diopside [CaMgSi2O6] to hedenbergite [CaFeSi2O6] series, along with its intermediate members, salite and ferrosalite. Various element s, including manganese , zinc and chrome , are all incorporated into the structures.
Iron ore consisting of ferric oxide in crystalline form. Hematite is a silver y, shiny opaque stone that becomes a red powder when ground down.
Herringbone Stitch
A beading stitch in which the beads are sewn tog ether so that they make a texture resembling the chevrons in herringbone fabric.
Iron is a common chromophore in blue elbaite , but to create the blue color in elbaite it must form an intervalence charge transfer reaction (IVCT) between its two oxidation states (Fe+2 and Fe+3), and that is not common.
Iron- oxide replacement after roots collected in 1886-7 by Amos Smith at iron mines in Westerleigh, Staten Island, NY.
23x12 cm. Staten Island Museum #G4119.
Geography ...
Irradiated
A diamond which has been subject to radiation, usually to improve its colour . Most processes are kept as commercial secrets, but no residual radiation is retained by the treated stone .
An iron sulfide mineral , Pyrite is commonly found around the world in a variety of geological formations, from sedimentary deposits to hydrothermal veins , and as a constituent of metamorphic rocks.
Apache Tears
A glass y, lustrous form of obsidian , a volcanic glass . It is formed when viscous lava flows cool rapidly, and is is usually black in colour ...
A yellow iron sulphide mineral , normal ly of little value. It is sometimes referred to as 'fool's gold .'
A calcium / sodium ferro magnesium silicate . One of the major rock forming minerals .
A form of iron pyrite with a shiny appearance, typically has a faceted surface .
mass aqua
A misleading term for what is actually blue glass .
The nickel -iron matrix in which Fukang's 'space gems' are imbedded is classified as 'medium octahedrite' based on the size of the crystalline structures. These structures, known as 'Widmanstatten patterns,' are diagnostic of extraterrestrial metal . Nowhere on Earth is this pattern seen.
A mineral ( iron oxide ) that has a dark steel grey color and a high luster . Hematite is a popular component of fashion jewelry and has a hardness of 5 � to 6 � on the mohs scale .
Pyrites of iron sulfide , which is gold -like in appearance, and often taken as being gold to the untrained eye .
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Fools Gold - Iron pyrite is often mistaken by novices for gold . Although its color resembles gold , its properties are very different from gold . It is hard and brittle while gold is soft and malleable .
marquise
An oval shape gemstone cut with pointed ends. It's named for the Marquise de Pompadour, Mistress of King Louis XV.
2nd, slide an iron bead spacer to the 0.8mm copper wire , thread the shortest chain dangle to the wire , add an iron bead spacer again, do the rest three chain dangle s in the same way, remember arrange them from short to long; ...
In jewellery , iron pyrite used as gem is improperly termed " marcasite " Origin of name from Arabic or Moorish for pyrite . Pyrite and Marcasite share the same exact chemical make up; however they both differ in their interior structure.
encircling the forehead Bandelettes Decorated ribbons worn in the hair Bangle Non- flexible bracelet Baroque Irregular shape d stone or pearl Basse-taille French for ' shallow cut ', enameling technique worked in a chased relief metal and overlaid with translucent enamel Berlin Iron ...
Berlin Iron Jewelry : Pieces of jewelry , generally made in Germany during the 19th century. The jewelry was made out of cast iron; the majority of which was produced from 1813-1815, due to a scarcity of gold in Europe.
Berlin iron Cast iron jewelry usually in openwork designs and lacquer ed black . This jewelry is named after Berlin, Germany, where the technique was believed to have originated in the early nineteenth century.
Berlin Iron
Cast iron jewelry worked into delica te openwork patterns, and made in Berlin during the first half of the nineteenth century ...
Dapping-die: An iron cube with a variety of concave sinks on its faces , used with corresponding punches to produce cup- shape d forms in sheet metal .
Denatured Alcohol : Alcohol with small proportion of chemicals added to render it unfit for drinking; used for clean ing.
It is a mineral iron pyrite that is used in sterling silver jewelry . Small polished and faceted stones are inlaid into the silver which adds an extra sparkle to the jewelry . The stone s have a metallic luster and are opaque .
Bean (pisolitic) iron ore ... Globular aggregates of limonite that occur in karst cavities as weathering formations.
Beta rays...Electron rays
Bezel ... A rim of metal surrounding a gemstone securing it.
Almandine : Is an iron aluminum silicate . It is the most common of the Garnet s. Typically red to brown.
Modern Themes: Iron / Wood
You have to strike while the iron is hot. And since both iron and wood are used for carving , your goal on this anniversary is to carve your love for one another into anything you can think of.
In 1804, the Berlin Iron Foundry opened and began producing cast - iron jewelry . Lacquer ed a shiny black , this relatively cheap jewelry was first used as mourning jewelry . In 1813, when the Prussian states rebelled against Napoleon , gold was desperately needed for the war effort.
An oxide mineral of Iron, relatively hard and heavy . Hematite enhances personal magnetism, will and courage. Hematite is believed to be beneficial for blood flow, stress and the nerves.
Within normal diamond creation, the color will change to brown when the diamond undergoes incredible pressure .
An alloy of copper , iron and other metal s. Has a dark orange, brownish color .
Brooch
A clasp or ornament having a pin at the back for passing th rough clothing and a catch for securing the point of the pin .
scaife The cast iron wheel used for the polishing of diamond . Most cutters still use the bare scoured wheel (adding a diamond -dust-oil mixture onto the surface by hand) versus the diamond -imbedded scaife.
Aventurine Quartz Aventurine quartz is a type of quartz that has sparkling flecks (includions) of mica or iron. This color s of this stone include red-brown, yellow, gray, and green. Aventurine quartz has a hardness of 7 and a specific gravity of 2.64-2.69.
Its various shades of red are due to the presence of iron oxide . Stone s may be uniformly color ed or faintly banded. The best carnelian is from India, where it is placed in the sun to change brown tints to red. Although most carnelian on the market is stained chalcedony from Brazil or Uruguay.
Irradiation of Quartz containing iron can produce the well -known violet color of amethyst . At times irradiated Quartz crystals will show both the smoky and amethyst color .
A semi precious crystalline Quartz stone whose distinctive color s is caused by the presence of both iron and manganese at the point of formation. It is a formed in silica -rich liquids deposited in gas cavities, or geode s, in lava .
Typically these needle s would have been made from sheet iron cut into length s which was then hammered and rolled to the thickness required. The points would then hand filed, with the eye created by flattening the head and then forcing a hole th rough it with a punch .
For example, the iron-rich environment of the central Thai provinces of Chantaburi and Trat lends ruby from this area a distinctly brownish cast , whereas ruby from the iron-poor soil of northern Burma generally lacks a brownish color .
The forerunner of today's engagement ring , a slim iron hoop ring - symbolizing the cycle of life and eternity - was given to brides in ancient Rome from 23 to 79 A.D. as a public pledge that the marriage contract would be honored.
It will strengthen the heart, spleen and bone marrow and aids in balancing iron deficiencies. It is a powerful physical healer and reduces emotional/mental stress. It also stimulates the revitalization of friendships, love and other relationships.
The colour of a sapphire is borne from trace minerals , such as iron, chrome or metallic oxide s, present in the corundum . These minerals are known as "impurities" in the corundum , but their significance is almost exactly the opposite.
The most common cause is the trace element iron. In general, increased iron concentrations will increase color saturation . Yellow sapphire s can also be color ed natural ly by low-level radiation within the earth or by lab-induced irradiation .
It is composed of approximately 60% Iron, 18% Chromium , and 14% Nickel with small percentages of Molybdenum, Manganese , and others. Despite the fact that 316L has 14% Nickel , it is still considered among the most biocompatible of the stainless series.
Amethyst is a variety from Quartz family, color ed by traces of manganese , titanium and iron. Deeper- color ed amethyst s are more highly valued. It is available in color s like purple, pale lavender to deep reddish purple, bluish violet etc. Rich purple has always been a rare and noble color .
Diffusion - treated stones are already- cut stone s that are heated in the presence of other compounds (like iron oxide , chromium oxide , titanium dioxide , etc.) that will infuse the extreme outer surface stone with color . Under a microscope, you you can see the loss of color within each tiny scratch .
Derived of the natural ly occurring mineral Olivine , peridot is a rare stone rich in magnesium and iron. Most commonly found in an olive green color , its shade can vary from light yellow -green to a brilliant kelly-green, dependent on the abundance of iron present in the stone .
Some of the turquoise may contain iron, if it does, its color is pale green to yellow-green to yellow. The material can be solid color ed or spiderwebbed with either brown or black webbing; the spiderwebbing may occur in any of the different color s or shades.
Another unique type of Georgian ring was the iron cast ring first developed and crafted by the Royal Berlin Foundry. These rings were copies of gold ring s which the wealthy turned in to support the War of Liberation (against Napoleon ) at the start of 1813.
Allochroite : A dark color ed common garnet composed of iron lime .
Alloy : A compound comprised of two or more metal s to increase the hardness and/or luster of the resulting product.
Iron metal about 8, lead about 13, gold about 19, and osmium , the densest substance, and a native element mineral , is 22. Density may be measured by measuring the volume, usually by displacing water in a graduated cylinder, and the mass.
Ferro- Axinite - Axinite that has high iron content, typically purple, brown or black .
Magnesio- Axinite - Axinite that is rich with Magnesium , usually gray or blueish gray.
Mangan axinite - Axinite with high manganese content, can be range from yellow to orange. Quite rare.
Pyrite is actually di sulfide of iron, and the metallic crystal grows in cubes, nodules, masses of tiny crystals , and can even be found as flat discs.
Gold ring s could be worn on certain occasions, but they were set aside for iron signet ring s when one attended a funeral. Wealthy Romans had rings that fit the seasons, with thin ones for summer and large imposing ones for winter. These large rings were most often hollow and could be easily crushed.
Hematite is iron oxide (Fe2O3). Hematite has a hardness of 6.5 and a specific gravity of 4.95 to 5.16. When powdered, hematite is red; when rubbed on a hard stone , it leaves a red streak. Hematite was often used as seal stone s, cut as intaglio .
Hematite healing power : Silver -gray metallic is an iron ore which is iron oxide usually FeO2. It is one of the most grounding of all stone s; it reduces stress and combats insomnia. It is said to help increase courage, concentrate energy and strengthen the heart.
Iron and chrome are components of spinel , giving it its color . Spinel belongs to the feldspar species and is found in in Burma, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Chemical composition -- Iron sulfide . Often confused with pyrite or fool's gold , a slightly denser form of iron sulfide that crystallize s in the isometric (cubic) system.
Color -- Whitish to brass y yellow. Gradually darkens on exposure to air.
Optics -- Opaque , metallic luster .
Sapphire s come in a range of color deriving that color from impurities such as iron, titanium or chromium . The quality can vary enormously and one element of value can be the region it came from.
Bloodstone , or green jasper dotted with bright red spots of iron oxide , was treasured in ancient times and long served as the birthstone for March.
They were firstly introduced as plain rings of copper , iron, gold and silver . Discovery of gemstones imparted immense detailing and variety to this essential ornament. There is a lot to mention when it comes to gemstones . This article is particularly about sapphire earrings .
Tin: A malleable , silver y metallic element which is not easily oxidize d in the air, and so is used chiefly to coat iron to protect it from rusting. It is primarily extracted from the ore cassiterite where it is found as an oxide .
Composed of iron and oxygen (FE2O3). Also known as "red iron ore ". Its name comes from a Greek word "haimatitis", which means blood-red because of the red color . It appears to be silver as the stone reflects light on its surface after being polished .
The intensity of the color depends on the amount of iron in the crystal formation. The name of the gem is Old French in origin, and is said to have been first mentioned in the will of a bishop. He bequeathed three rings to the St. Albans Abbey, one being peridot .
A Ferrous metal is one that contains Iron, while a non-ferrous metal does not. Since these forms of metal s tend to rust, most jewelry is created with non-ferrous metal s. Normal ly, most jewelry is made from non-ferrous metal s with the exception of steel jewelry .
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Which famous composer is on the back of the UK £20 banknote withdrawn in 2010? | Final day for the Elgar £20 note - BBC News
BBC News
Final day for the Elgar £20 note
30 June 2010
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Image caption The Elgar £20 note which is being withdrawn from circulation
The £20 English banknote featuring the image of composer Edward Elgar will be accepted in shops for the last time on Wednesday.
Banks, building societies and post offices will only exchange the note for a newer replacement at each institution's discretion after then.
From 1 July, customers may find they can only swap it by sending it back to the Bank of England.
The alternative £20 note carries a picture of economist Adam Smith.
The Elgar £20 banknote, first issued in June 1999, has gradually been replaced by the Adam Smith note since March 2007.
Variations
The look of banknotes is sometimes changed by the Bank of England, partly to beat counterfeiters.
The removal of writing and music in the shape of Shakespeare and Elgar on Bank of England notes makes our currency much less colourful
Jeremy Dibble, Durham University
The demise of the Elgar £20 note
In 1993, William Shakespeare's image disappeared from the face of the £20 note.
Elgar's image appears on the banknote along with a picture of Worcester Cathedral, the scene of the first performance of one of his best-known works - the Enigma Variations.
His disappearance was branded as a "disgrace" by Jeremy Dibble, professor in the Department of Music at Durham University.
"Land Of Hope And Glory is one of the most stirring tunes ever composed and its composer, Edward Elgar, is an iconic figure and a fitting symbol of artistic inspiration in England," he said.
"Dropping Elgar tells us much about the way in which the arts is now viewed in England.
"The removal of writing and music in the shape of Shakespeare and Elgar on Bank of England notes makes our currency much less colourful. Science and economics are important but so too are the arts."
No penalty
There is no formal penalty for any bank that continues to use Elgar notes in their cash machines, although the Bank of England argues that they would suffer a loss of reputation among customers.
Until 1990, withdrawn notes - including those too damaged to use - were incinerated. But now, they are shredded before going to an industrial incinerator - or even being mixed with compost.
The new £20 note features father of modern economics Adam Smith. He joins social reformer Elizabeth Fry, whose image is on the £5 note, naturalist Charles Darwin, who features on the £10, and first governor of the Bank of England Sir John Houblon, who is on the £50 note.
Scottish banknotes feature various famous Scots, such as poet Robert Burns and biologist Sir Alexander Fleming.
| Edward Elgar |
In the conventional game of pool ('eight-ball', or 'spots and stripes') what colour are the 3 and 11 balls? | Elgar £20 Banknote to be Withdrawn | Lunaticg Coin
Elgar £20 Banknote to be Withdrawn
4:16:00 PM
Do you know that banknotes bearing the image of England's famed composer Sir Edward Elgar will be withdrawn from circulation at the end of June. The composer of the Pomp and Circumstance Marches has adorned the £20 note since 22 June 1999, but the Elgar note will cease to be legal tender after June 30. The Elgar notes are being withdrawn under authority given to the Bank by virtue of Section 1 (5) of the Currency and Banknotes Act 1954.n to the Bank by virtue of Section 1 (5) of the Currency and Banknotes Act 1954.
From 1 July 2010, only notes with the image of Adam Smith, the Scottish economist, will be legal tender. These notes came into circulation in 13 March 2007. The Adam Smith note is a brighter purple colour, with security features including a larger silver hologram and metallic thread recognition strip to combat fraudsters and a new colour tag which shows bright red and green under an ultraviolet light.
There are currently around 1.5 billion £20 notes in circulation (£30 billion), of which around 150 million (£3 billion) are Elgar notes. The £20 note is the UK's most common banknote and most subject to forgery. According to the Bank's figures, 675,000 counterfeit notes were withdrawn from circulation in 2008. Elgar note also features part of Worcester Cathedral to mark the city where he spent most of his life, and the venue where the first full performance of his Enigma Variations took place in 1899.
After June 30 if a bank or building society refuses to swap a note, consumers have the right to swap the notes at the Bank of England itself. The Bank promises that it will honour the face value of any note issued, even notes from before the Second World War. Old notes will eventually be sent to one of the official Government incinerators, where they will burned alongside damaged notes. A small amount of thermoelectric power is generated by these sites, which also burn illegal tobacco seized by HM Revenue & Customs at British ports.
Source: Associated Press, Telegraph.co.uk, Bank of England.
Related Posts:
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How many zeros are represented by the metric multiple prefix 'tera'? | Metric Numbers
Metric Numbers
What is kilo, mega, giga, tera ... ?
In the Metric System there are standard ways to talk about big and small numbers:
"kilo" for a thousand,
Example: A long rope measures one thousand meters
It is easier to say it is 1 kilometer long,
and even easier to write it down as 1 km.
So we used kilo in front of the word meter to make "kilometer".
And the abbreviation is "km" (k for kilo and m for meter, put together).
Some more examples:
Example: You put your bag on a set of scales and it shows 2000 grams, we can call that 2 kilograms, or simply 2 kg.
Example: The doctor wants you to take 5 thousandths of a liter of medicine (a thousandth is one thousand times smaller), he is more likely to say "take 5 milliliters", or write it down as 5 mL.
"kilo", "mega", "milli" etc are called "prefixes":
Prefix: a word part that can be added to the beginning of another word to create a new word
So, using the prefix "milli" in front of "liter" creates a new word "milliliter".
Here we list the prefix for commonly used big and small numbers:
Common Big and Small Numbers
Name
Try To Do Some Yourself!
How do you refer to a million liters?
How about one billionth of a meter?
See the bottom of this page for more questions to challenge yourself ...
How Big Are They?
There is a lot of difference between them. Think in terms of time:
A million seconds is about 12 days
A billion seconds is about 32 years
A longer list:
A thousand seconds is about a quarter of an hour
A million seconds is about 12 days
A billion seconds is about 32 years, almost half a lifetime
A trillion seconds is about 32,000 years (the last Ice Age finished 12,000 years ago)
Much Bigger and Smaller
There are also prefixes for much bigger and smaller numbers:
Some Very Big, and Very Small Numbers
Name
| twelve |
On a chessboard what square (using modern letter and number reference) would the white king pawn occupy if its first move was two squares forward? | SI prefixes for decimal multiples
SI prefixes for decimal multiples
There are 20 internationally accepted prefixes to denote 10n multiples of units. 10 of these prefixes denote (n>0) multiples, and other 10 denote (n<0) submultiples:
SI Prefixes for decimal multiples
Number
1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000
1024
1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000
1021
1 000 000 000 000 000 000
1018
1 000 000 000 000 000
1015
1 000 000 000 000
1012
0.000 000 000 000 001
10-15
0.000 000 000 000 000 001
10-18
0.000 000 000 000 000 000 001
10-21
0.000 000 000 000 000 000 000 001
10-24
yocto
y
Each prefix is represented by its own symbol. The symbols are case sensitive. Thus, m means milli and M means mega.
Prefixes ranging from milli to kilo were first introduced in 1793 by the French Academy of Sciences under direction of French National Assembly as part of the Metric System. Greek prefixes were used for multiples of 10 and Latin prefixes for submultiples of 10. In 1874 BAAS adapted these prefixes as part of their CGS system, and added prefixes micro and mega. Later, 12 prefixes ranging from pico to tera were defined as part of the International System of Units — SI , which was adopted in 1960. SI is maintained by BIPM under exclusive supervision of CIPM and resolutions made by CGPM . Further 8 prefixes were added to SI in years 1964 (femto, atto), 1975 (peta, exa) and 1991 (zetta, zepto, yotta, yocto).
The prefixes have the following etymology:
exa — alteration of hexa from Greek hex meaning “six” (the sixth power of 103)
peta — alteration of penta from Greek pente meaning “five” (the fifth power of 103)
tera — from Greek teras meaning “monster”
giga — from Greek gigas meaning “giant”
mega — from Greek megas meaning “great”
kilo — from Greek khilioi meaning “thousand”
hecto — French, alteration of Greek hekaton meaning “hundred”
deca — from Greek deka meaning “ten”
deci — from Latin decimus meaning tenth, from decem meaning “ten”
centi — from Latin centi-, from centum meaning “hundred”
milli — from Latin mille meaning “thousand”
micro — from Greek mikros meaning “small”
nano — from Greek nannos meaning “dwarf”
pico — from Spanish pico meaning “small quantity”
femto — from Danish, or Norwegian word femten meaning “fifteen”
atto — from Danish, or Norwegian word atten meaning “eighteen”
The names zepto and zetta are derived from septo, from Latin septem which means seven (the seventh power of 103) and the letter ‘z’ is substituted for the letter ‘s’ to avoid the duplicate use of the letter ‘s’ as a symbol in SI . The names yocto and yotta are derived from Latin octo which means eight (the eighth power of 103); the letter ‘y’ is added to avoid the use of the letter ‘o’ as a symbol because it may be confused with the number zero. The CGPM has decided to name the prefixes, starting with the seventh power of 103, with the letters of the Latin alphabet, but starting from the end. Therefore the choice of letters ‘z’ and ‘y’. The initial letter ‘h’ of the word hexa in standard French is silent, so it was removed in order to simplify things.
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Abraham Maslow's fundamentally meaningful theory of motivation, popularly shown as a pyramid of motivational factors in a person's life, is known widely as Maslow's what? | Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and diagrams of Maslow's motivational theory - pyramid diagrams of Maslow's theory
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maslow's hierarchy of needs
Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs motivational model
Abraham Maslow developed the Hierarchy of Needs model in 1940-50s USA, and the Hierarchy of Needs theory remains valid today for understanding human motivation, management training, and personal development. Indeed, Maslow's ideas surrounding the Hierarchy of Needs, concerning the responsibility of employers to provide a workplace environment that encourages and enables employees to fulfil their own unique potential (self-actualization), are today more relevant than ever. Abraham Maslow's book Motivation and Personality, published in 1954 (second edition 1970) introduced the Hierarchy of Needs, and Maslow extended his ideas in other work, notably his later book Toward A Psychology Of Being, a significant and relevant commentary, which has been revised in recent times by Richard Lowry, who is in his own right a leading academic in the field of motivational psychology.
Abraham Maslow was born in New York in 1908 and died in 1970, although various publications appear in Maslow's name in later years. Maslow's PhD in psychology in 1934 at the University of Wisconsin formed the basis of his motivational research, initially studying rhesus monkeys. Maslow later moved to New York's Brooklyn College.
The Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs five-stage model below (structure and terminology - not the precise pyramid diagram itself) is clearly and directly attributable to Maslow; later versions of the theory with added motivational stages are not so clearly attributable to Maslow. These extended models have instead been inferred by others from Maslow's work. Specifically Maslow refers to the needs Cognitive, Aesthetic and Transcendence (subsequently shown as distinct needs levels in some interpretations of his theory) as additional aspects of motivation, but not as distinct levels in the Hierarchy of Needs.
Where Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is shown with more than five levels these models have been extended through interpretation of Maslow's work by other people. These augmented models and diagrams are shown as the adapted seven and eight-stage Hierarchy of Needs pyramid diagrams and models below.
There have been very many interpretations of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in the form of pyramid diagrams. The diagrams on this page are my own interpretations and are not offered as Maslow's original work. Interestingly in Maslow's book Motivation and Personality, which first introduced the Hierarchy of Needs, there is not a pyramid to be seen.
Free Hierarchy of Needs diagrams in pdf and doc formats similar to the image below are available from this page.
See also the free Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Quiz , which can be used to test/reinforce the learning offered in this article.
(N.B. The word Actualization/Actualisation can be spelt either way. Z is preferred in American English. S is preferred in UK English. Both forms are used in this page to enable keyword searching for either spelling via search engines.)
maslow's hierarchy of needs
Each of us is motivated by needs. Our most basic needs are inborn, having evolved over tens of thousands of years. Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs helps to explain how these needs motivate us all.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs states that we must satisfy each need in turn, starting with the first, which deals with the most obvious needs for survival itself.
Only when the lower order needs of physical and emotional well-being are satisfied are we concerned with the higher order needs of influence and personal development.
Conversely, if the things that satisfy our lower order needs are swept away, we are no longer concerned about the maintenance of our higher order needs.
Maslow's original Hierarchy of Needs model was developed between 1943-1954, and first widely published in Motivation and Personality in 1954. At this time the Hierarchy of Needs model comprised five needs. This original version remains for most people the definitive Hierarchy of Needs.
maslow's hierarchy of needs - free pdf diagram and free doc diagram
1. Biological and Physiological needs - air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc.
2. Safety needs - protection from elements, security, order, law, limits, stability, etc.
3. Belongingness and Love needs - work group, family, affection, relationships, etc.
4. Esteem needs - self-esteem, achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, managerial responsibility, etc.
5. Self-Actualization needs - realising personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.
This is the definitive and original Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
While Maslow referred to various additional aspects of motivation, he expressed the Hierarchy of Needs in these five clear stages.
Here is a quick simple self-test based on the original Maslow's 5-level Hierarchy of Needs . It's not a scientific or validated instrument - merely a quick indicator, which can be used for self-awareness, discussion, etc.
1970s adapted hierarchy of needs model, including cognitive and aesthetic needs - free pdf diagram and free doc diagram
1. Biological and Physiological needs - air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc.
2. Safety needs - protection from elements, security, order, law, limits, stability, etc.
3. Belongingness and Love needs - work group, family, affection, relationships, etc.
4. Esteem needs - self-esteem, achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, managerial responsibility, etc.
5. Cognitive needs - knowledge, meaning, etc.
6. Aesthetic needs - appreciation and search for beauty, balance, form, etc.
7. Self-Actualization needs - realising personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.
N.B. Although Maslow referred to additional aspects of motivation, 'Cognitive' and 'Aesthetic', he did not include them as levels or stages within his own expression of the Hierarchy of Needs.
1990s adapted hierarchy of needs including transcendence needs - free diagram and free doc diagram
1. Biological and Physiological needs - air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc.
2. Safety needs - protection from elements, security, order, law, limits, stability, etc.
3. Belongingness and Love needs - work group, family, affection, relationships, etc.
4. Esteem needs - self-esteem, achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, managerial responsibility, etc.
5. Cognitive needs - knowledge, meaning, etc.
6. Aesthetic needs - appreciation and search for beauty, balance, form, etc.
7. Self-Actualization needs - realising personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.
8. Transcendence needs - helping others to achieve self actualization.
N.B. Although Maslow referred to additional aspects of motivation, 'Cognitive', 'Aesthetic', and 'Transcendence', he did not include any of these as additional stages in the Hierarchy of Needs.
Here is a quick self-test based on the extended 8-level Hierarchy of Needs . Like the 5-level Hierarchy of Needs self-test it is not a scientific or validated instrument - merely a quick indicator for helping self-awareness, discussion, etc.
See also the free Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Quiz , which can be used to test/reinforce the learning offered in this article.
what hierarchy of needs model is most valid?
Abraham Maslow created the original five level Hierarchy of Needs model, and for many this remains entirely adequate for its purpose. The seven and eight level 'hierarchy of needs' models are later adaptations by others, based on Maslow's work. Arguably, the original five-level model includes the later additional sixth, seventh and eighth ('Cognitive', 'Aesthetic', and 'Transcendence') levels within the original 'Self-Actualization' level 5, since each one of the 'new' motivators concerns an area of self-development and self-fulfilment that is rooted in self-actualization 'growth', and is distinctly different to any of the previous 1-4 level 'deficiency' motivators. For many people, self-actualizing commonly involves each and every one of the newly added drivers. As such, the original five-level Hierarchy of Needs model remains a definitive classical representation of human motivation; and the later adaptations perhaps serve best to illustrate aspects of self-actualization.
Maslow said that needs must be satisfied in the given order. Aims and drive always shift to next higher order needs. Levels 1 to 4 are deficiency motivators; level 5, and by implication 6 to 8, are growth motivators and relatively rarely found. The thwarting of needs is usually a cause of stress, and is particularly so at level 4.
Examples in use:
You can't motivate someone to achieve their sales target (level 4) when they're having problems with their marriage (level 3).
You can't expect someone to work as a team member (level 3) when they're having their house re-possessed (level 2).
maslow's self-actualizing characteristics
keen sense of reality - aware of real situations - objective judgement, rather than subjective
see problems in terms of challenges and situations requiring solutions, rather than see problems as personal complaints or excuses
need for privacy and comfortable being alone
reliant on own experiences and judgement - independent - not reliant on culture and environment to form opinions and views
not susceptible to social pressures - non-conformist
democratic, fair and non-discriminating - embracing and enjoying all cultures, races and individual styles
socially compassionate - possessing humanity
accepting others as they are and not trying to change people
comfortable with oneself - despite any unconventional tendencies
a few close intimate friends rather than many surface relationships
sense of humour directed at oneself or the human condition, rather than at the expense of others
spontaneous and natural - true to oneself, rather than being how others want
excited and interested in everything, even ordinary things
creative, inventive and original
seek peak experiences that leave a lasting impression
See the Maslow interviews DVDs - especially Maslow and Self-Actualization to understand the subject more fully. These films were made in 1968 and are helpful on several levels, and both wonderful teaching and learning aids.
See also the newer Maslow MP3 talks series .
These materials also help to illustrate the far-reaching and visionary nature of Maslow's thinking, several decades ago.
The above materials are published by Maurice Bassett on behalf of the estate of Abraham Maslow. Businessballs takes no commission and recommends them simply because they are wonderful materials for all students and followers of Maslow's very special work.
maslow's hierarchy of needs in advertising
To help with training of Maslow's theory look for Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs motivators in advertising. This is a great basis for Maslow and motivation training exercises:
Biological and Physiological needs - wife/child-abuse help-lines, social security benefits, Samaritans, roadside recovery.
Safety needs - home security products (alarms, etc), house an contents insurance, life assurance, schools.
Belongingness and Love needs - dating and match-making services, chat-lines, clubs and membership societies, Macdonalds, 'family' themes like the old style Oxo stock cube ads.
Esteem needs - cosmetics, fast cars, home improvements, furniture, fashion clothes, drinks, lifestyle products and services.
Self-Actualization needs - Open University, and that's about it; little else in mainstream media because only 2% of population are self-actualizers, so they don't constitute a very big part of the mainstream market.
You can view and download free Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs diagrams, and two free Hierarchy of Needs self-tests, based on the original Maslow's five-stage model and later adapted eight-stage model, ideal for training, presentations and project work, at the businessballs free online resources section .
Free diagrams include:
Pyramid diagram based on Maslow's original five-level Hierarchy of Needs (1954).
Adapted seven-level Hierarchy of Needs diagram (which seems to have first appeared in the 1970s - after Maslow's death).
Adapted eight-level Hierarchy of Needs diagram (appearing later, seemingly 1990s).
interpreting behaviour according to maslow's hierarchy of needs
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is an excellent model for understanding human motivation, but it is a broad concept. If you are puzzled as to how to relate given behaviour to the Hierarchy it could be that your definition of the behaviour needs refining. For example, 'where does 'doing things for fun' fit into the model? The answer is that it can't until you define 'doing things for fun' more accurately.
You'd need to define more precisely each given situation where a person is 'doing things for fun' in order to analyse motivation according to Maslow's Hierarchy, since the 'fun' activity motive can potentially be part any of the five original Maslow needs.
Understanding whether striving to achieve a particular need or aim is 'fun' can provide a helpful basis for identifying a Maslow driver within a given behaviour, and thereby to assess where a particular behaviour fits into the model:
Biological - health, fitness, energising mind and body, etc.
Safety - order and structure needs met for example by some heavily organised, structural activity
Belongingness - team sport, club 'family' and relationships
Esteem - competition, achievement, recognition
Self-Actualization drivers - challenge, new experiences, love of art, nature, etc.
However in order to relate a particular 'doing it for fun' behaviour the Hierarchy of Needs we need to consider what makes it 'fun' (i.e., rewarding) for the person. If a behaviour is 'for fun', then consider what makes it 'fun' for the person - is the 'fun' rooted in 'belongingness', or is it from 'recognition', i.e., 'esteem'. Or is the fun at a deeper level, from the sense of self-fulfilment, i.e., 'self-actualization'.
Apply this approach to any behaviour that doesn't immediately fit the model, and it will help you to see where it does fit.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs will be a blunt instrument if used as such. The way you use the Hierarchy of Needs determines the subtlety and sophistication of the model.
For example: the common broad-brush interpretation of Maslow's famous theory suggests that that once a need is satisfied the person moves onto the next, and to an extent this is entirely correct. However an overly rigid application of this interpretation will produce a rigid analysis, and people and motivation are more complex. So while it is broadly true that people move up (or down) the hierarchy, depending what's happening to them in their lives, it is also true that most people's motivational 'set' at any time comprises elements of all of the motivational drivers. For example, self-actualizers (level 5 - original model) are mainly focused on self-actualizing but are still motivated to eat (level 1) and socialise (level 3). Similarly, homeless folk whose main focus is feeding themselves (level 1) and finding shelter for the night (level 2) can also be, albeit to a lesser extent, still concerned with social relationships (level 3), how their friends perceive them (level 4), and even the meaning of life (level 5 - original model).
Like any simple model, Maslow's theory not a fully responsive system - it's a guide which requires some interpretation and thought, given which, it remains extremely useful and applicable for understanding, explaining and handling many human behaviour situations.
maslow's hierarchy of needs and helping others
There are certainly some behaviours that are quite tricky to relate to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
For example:
Normally, we would consider that selflessly helping others, as a form of personal growth motivation, would be found as part of self-actualisation, or perhaps even 'transcendence' (if you subscribe to the extended hierarchy).
So how can we explain the examples of people who seem to be far short of self-actualising, and yet are still able to help others in a meaningful and unselfish sense?
Interestingly this concept seems to be used increasingly as an effective way to help people deal with depression, low self-esteem, poor life circumstances, etc., and it almost turns the essential Maslow model on its head: that is, by helping others, a person helps themselves to improve and develop too.
The principle has also been applied quite recently to developing disaffected school-children, whom, as part of their own development, have been encouraged and enabled to 'teach' other younger children (which can arguably be interpreted as their acting at a self-actualising level - selflessly helping others). The disaffected children, theoretically striving to belong and be accepted (level 3 - belongingness) were actually remarkably good at helping other children, despite their own negative feelings and issues.
Under certain circumstances, a person striving to satisfy their needs at level 3 - belongingness, seems able to self-actualise - level 5 (and perhaps beyond, into 'transcendence') by selflessly helping others, and at the same time begins to satisfy their own needs for belongingness and self-esteem.
Such examples demonstrate the need for careful interpretation and application of the Maslow model. The Hierarchy of Needs is not a catch-all, but it does remain a wonderfully useful framework for analysing and trying to understand the subtleties - as well as the broader aspects - of human behaviour and growth.
self-actualisation, employees and organisations
Maslow's work and ideas extend far beyond the Hierarchy of Needs.
Maslow's concept of self-actualisation relates directly to the present day challenges and opportunities for employers and organisations - to provide real meaning, purpose and true personal development for their employees. For life - not just for work.
Maslow saw these issues fifty years ago: the fact that employees have a basic human need and a right to strive for self-actualisation, just as much as the corporate directors and owners do.
Increasingly, the successful organisations and employers will be those who genuinely care about, understand, encourage and enable their people's personal growth towards self-actualisation - way beyond traditional work-related training and development, and of course way beyond old-style X-Theory management autocracy, which still forms the basis of much organised employment today.
The best modern employers and organisations are beginning to learn at last: that sustainable success is built on a serious and compassionate commitment to helping people identify, pursue and reach their own personal unique potential.
When people grow as people, they automatically become more effective and valuable as employees.
In fact virtually all personal growth, whether in a hobby, a special talent or interest, or a new experience, produces new skills, attributes, behaviours and wisdom that is directly transferable to any sort of job role.
The best modern employers recognise this and as such offer development support to their staff in any direction whatsoever that the person seeks to grow and become more fulfilled.
classic 1968 maslow interviews now on dvd
Both filmed in 1968, after Maslow's heart attack, and obviously prior to his death in 1970, these superb Maslow DVDs show Dr Maslow being interviewed, respectively by Dr Everett Shostrom, and also interestingly, Warren Bennis.
Both films - available here - were made in 1968 and were remastered in black and white in 2007. The remarkable content, and the 1960s styling and production add to the seductive and powerful effect of these films, which stems chiefly from Maslow's brilliant thinking and natural charismatic presence.
Being Abraham Maslow is half an hour long, and features Maslow talking to Warren Bennis about his life, his views of the world and his work. It is utterly compelling and shows Maslow's staggering perception of the issues which challenge society and humankind today - and this was recorded in 1968. The film, basically irresistible throughout, includes some marvelous moments, such as Maslow's questioning observation as to "...how good a human nature does society permit?...", and the visionary statement that: "...The Good Society now has to be one world - it has to be one world or it won't work - nationalism is dead - it just doesn't know it yet..."
He said this in 1968 and still today our leaders don't see it.
Maslow and Self-Actualization is an hour long, in two parts, in which Maslow is interviewed by Dr Everett Shostrom about Self-Actualization, in which Shostrom uses references and quotes extracts from Maslow's book Motivation and Personality, and Maslow explains and develops the themes. The structure is excellent - ideal for teaching and training.
Self-Actualization is presented by Maslow through a series of answers, working through the concept in four sections: honesty, awareness, freedom and trust. Maslow brings these headings to life, conveying some very complex intangible ideas - such as objectivity, detachment, maturity, love, acceptance, modesty and grace - in the most understandable way. Personally this video is one of the most powerful things I've ever seen.
The film can be used as a teaching aid, and/or as the presenter suggests, to help people understand Self-Actualization as goals or values to aspire to: "...ideas for living and being, fully functioning to one's full capacity..."
For anyone teaching or studying motivation, psychology, Maslow, and related areas - or simply interested in living a fulfilled and good life - these films will be fascinating, and for some people deeply inspirational too. Both films are available here .
In terms of format/compatibility, these US-made films wouldn't play on my (cheap) UK DVD player, but they ran happily on my (cheap) UK PC.
The above dvd materials are published by Maurice Bassett on behalf of the estate of Abraham Maslow.
additional maslow talks now on mp3
In August 2009 further exciting Maslow material became available for download in mp3 format after extensive work by publisher Maurice Bassett.
Volumes One and Two include a total of 28 and a half hours of Abraham Maslow's talks and workshops at the Esalen Institute, Big Sur, California, from the mid and late-1960s. The materials comprise:
Volume One:
Self-Actualization (1 mp3 file, total playing time 1 hour)
Psychology and Religious Awareness (1 mp3 file, total playing time 1 hour)
The Aims of Education (1 mp3 file, total playing time 1 hour)
The B-language Workshop (5 mp3 files, total playing time 5 hours, 35 minutes)
Weekend with Maslow (9 mp3 files, total playing time 4 hours, 25 minutes)
Volume Two:
The Eupsychian Ethic (6 mp3 files, total playing time 5 hours, 45 minutes)
The Farther Reaches of Human Nature (10 mp3 files, total playing time 9 hours, 45 minutes)
Samples and the entire recordings are available at www.abrahammaslow.com/audio.html
The mp3 materials above are published by Maurice Bassett on behalf of the estate of Abraham Maslow.
maslow's modern relevance
When you read Maslow's work, and particularly when you hear him speak about it, the relevance of his thinking to our modern world of work and management is astounding.
The term 'Maslow's Hammer' is a simple quick example. Also called 'The Law of the Instrument', the expression refers metaphorically to a person having just one 'tool' (approach or method available or known/learnt) and so then treating every situation the same. Other writers have made similar observations, but 'Maslow's Hammer' is the most widely referenced comment on the subject. Maslow's quote is from his 1966 book The Psychology of Science - A Reconnaissance:
"I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.." ('Maslow's Hammer' - Abraham Maslow, 1966)
Maslow's explanations and interpretations of the human condition remain fundamentally helpful in understanding and addressing all sorts of social and behavioural questions - forty or fifty years after his death.
You will particularly see great significance of his ideas in relation to modern challenges for work such as in the Psychological Contract and leadership ethics , and even extending to globalization and society.
Maslow is obviously most famous for his Hierarchy of Needs theory, rightly so, because it is a wonderfully simple and elegant model for understanding so many aspects of human motivation, especially in the workplace. The simplicity of the model however tends to limit appreciation of Maslow's vision and humanity, which still today are remarkably penetrating and sensitive.
see also
| Maslow's hierarchy of needs |
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Abraham Maslow - Psychology of Science - A Reconnaissance
Abraham Maslow - Psychology of Science - A Reconnaissance
Apr 10, 2015
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The Psychology of Science: A Reconnaissance. By Abraham H. Maslow. Copyright © 1966, 2002 by Ann Kaplan. All rights reserved. No part of this eBook may be reproduced or copied in any form without permission from the publisher, Maurice Bassett: [email protected] ISBN 0-9760402-3-9 Published by Maurice Bassett Publishing http://www.ReinventingYourself.com Electronic Books by Abraham Maslow http://www.AbrahamMaslow.com Abraham Maslow Bibliography http://www.Maslow.com Produced by Zorba Press http://www.ZorbaPress.com Cover art by Pat Ellison This eBook is for personal, non-commercial use only, and is not for resale. Technical or other questions may be directed to [email protected] or 1-800-6169498. 2 2 Contents Preface..................................................................................................................................................5 Acknowledgments................................................................................................................................7 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. Mechanistic and Humanistic Science ............................................................................................8 Acquiring Knowledge of a Person as a Task for the Scientist ....................................................11 The Cognitive Needs Under Conditions of Fear and of Courage................................................18 Safety Science and Growth Science: Science as a Defense ........................................................24 Prediction and Control of Persons? .............................................................................................27 Experiential Knowledge and Spectator Knowledge ....................................................................29 Abstracting and Theorizing .........................................................................................................39 Comprehensive Science and Simpleward Science ......................................................................42 Suchness Meaning and Abstractness Meaning............................................................................48 Taoistic Science and Controlling Science ...................................................................................53 Interpersonal (I-Thou) Knowledge as a Paradigm for Science ...................................................57 Value-Free Science? ....................................................................................................................66 Stages, Levels, and Degrees of Knowledge [13-1] .....................................................................71 The Desacralization and the Resacralization of Science [14-1] ..................................................76 Endnotes .............................................................................................................................................83 Bibliography.......................................................................................................................................90 Index To The Original Hardcover Edition .........................................................................................94 Appendix: Personal Notes on Maslow by Colin Wilson (This chapter is the introduction to New Pathways in Psychology) 3 3 for Bertha 4 4 Preface This book concentrates on science as a product of the human nature of the scientist, not only of the cautious, conventional scientist but also of the daring, breakthrough revolutionary. To some extent this overlaps with the kind of science generated by the psychologically healthy scientist. This essay may be considered to be a continuation of my Motivation and Personality and especially of the first three chapters in which the psychology of science and of the scientist are dealt with specifically. One basic thesis which emerges from this approach is that the model of science in general, inherited from the impersonal sciences of things, objects, animals, and part-processes, is limited and inadequate when we attempt to know and to understand whole and individual persons and cultures. It was primarily the physicists and the astronomers who created the Weltanschauung and the subculture known as Science (including all its goals, methods, axiomatic values, concepts, languages, folkways, prejudices, selective blind nesses, hidden assumptions). This has been pointed out by so many as to amount to a truism by now. But only recently has it been demonstrated just how and where this impersonal model failed with the personal, the unique, the holistic. Nor has an alternative model yet been offered to deal validly with the fully human person. This I attempt to do in this book. I hope to show that these limitations of classical science are not intrinsically necessary. In the broad sense, science can be defined as powerful and inclusive enough to reclaim many of the cognitive problems from which it has had to abdicate because of its hidden but fatal weakness — its inability to deal impersonally with the personal, with the problems of value, of individuality, of consciousness, of beauty, of transcendence, of ethics. In principle, at least, science should be capable of generating normative psychologies of psychotherapy, of personal development, of eupsychian or utopian social psychology, of religion, of work, play, and leisure, of esthetics, of economics, and politics, and who knows what else? I conceive such a change in the nature of science to be one delayed fulfillment of the revolutionary potential of the psychoanalytic movement. This fulfillment was delayed ironically by the fact that Freud was raised in the nineteenth-century version of science along with its determinism, causality, atomism, and reductiveness. Even though he spent his whole life unwittingly cutting the ground out from under this version of science and, in fact, destroying it, along with all pure rationalisms, Freud remained loyal to its Weltanschauung so far as I can tell. Unfortunately, none of the other great contributors to the development of modern psychodynamics — Adler, Jung, Reich, Rank, Homey, Fromm — were scientists and so did not address themselves directly to this problem. The only psychoanalyst I can think of now who has taken this job seriously is Lawrence Kubie. I hope very much that other psychoanalysts and psychodynamicists will continue to criticize science from the point of view of their data. I remember bursting out in irritation at one meeting. "Why do you keep asking if psychoanalysis is scientific enough? Why don't you ask if science is psychodynamic enough?" I ask the same question here. This process of rehumanizing (and trans-humanizing) science can help to strengthen the nonpersonal sciences as well. Something like this is happening in various fields of biology, especially in experimental embryology. Out of the intrinsic dynamics of the facts themselves, this discipline has had to become holistic. See for instance the powerful writings of Ludwig von Bertalanffy. The hybrid "field" of psychosomatic medicine is also generating a profound critique of traditional science. So is endocrinology. Ultimately, I believe, all of biology will 5 5 have to shake itself loose from a pure physical-chemical reductiveness, or at least it will have to transcend it in an inclusive way, that is, in a hierarchical integration. My restlessness with classical science became serious only when I started asking new questions about the higher reaches of human nature. Only then did the classical scientific model in which I had been trained fail me. It was then that I had to invent, ad hoc, new methods, new concepts, and new words in order to handle my data well. Before this, for me, Science had been One, and there was but One Science. But now it looked as if there were two Sciences for me, one for my new problems, and one for everything else. But more recently, perhaps ten or fifteen years ago, it began to appear that these two Sciences could be generalized into One Science again. This new Science looks different however; it promises to be more inclusive and more powerful than the old One Science. I have been disturbed not only by the more "anal" scientists and the dangers of their denial of human values in science, along with the consequent amoral technologizing of all science. Just as dangerous are some of the critics of orthodox science who find it too skeptical, too cool and nonhuman, and then reject it altogether as a danger to human values. They become "antiscientific" and even anti-intellectual. This is a real danger among some psychotherapists and clinical psychologists, among artists, among some seriously religious people, among some of the people who are interested in Zen, in Taoism, in existentialism, "experientialism", and the like. Their alternative to science is often sheer freakishness and cultishness, uncritical and selfish exaltation of mere personal experiencing, over-reliance on impulsivity (which they confuse with spontaneity), arbitrary whimsicality and emotionality, unskeptical enthusiasm, and finally navel-watching and solipsism. This is a real danger. In the political realm, antiscience could wipe out mankind just as easily as could value-free, amoral, technologized science. We should remember the Nazis and Fascists with their call to blood and to sheer instinct, and their hostility to freely-probing intellect and to cool rationality. I certainly wish to be understood as trying to enlarge science, not destroy it. It is not necessary to choose between experiencing and abstracting. Our task is to integrate them. The discursive style used in this book follows the lecture form. Lecturing permits the speaker to be more personal, to use examples from his own experience, to express his own opinions, doubts, and conjectures. I have taken advantage of these possibilities. And for this same reason, I have not made any systematic effort to document my theses with detailed references to the scientific literature. Nor does this book attempt to "cover the subject", or to be scholarly in a comprehensive or systematic way. This book is a condensation of the systematic and comprehensive volume that I had hoped to write but couldn't. Partly this was due to the limitation of space and the pressure of time imposed by the lecture format. But it was also due to discovering Michael Polanyi's great book, Personal Knowledge, just as I had worked up a systematic outline and started writing. This profound work, which is certainly required reading for our generation, does much of what I had planned to do, and solves many of the problems which had concerned me. I changed my plans to focus particularly on some of the explicitly psychological problems and omitted or treated only briefly several of the topics I had planned to cover. 6 6 Acknowledgments I should like to refer the reader to the prefaces to my previous books in which I expressed many of my intellectual obligations. In addition to those acknowledgments, I should like to add the following. I made a most unusual experiment with my good friend and collaborator, Dr. Harry Rand, a psychoanalyst. He and I had been discussing through the years the psychodynamics of the intellectual and scientific life, of learning and teaching, and of their pathology. At one time or another, we talked about many of the topics touched on in this book, and I must owe far more to these discussions than I could be aware of. But more specifically, about a year ago, while preparing this manuscript, I fell simultaneously into a long spell of insomnia and into a writing block, something I had never experienced before. Although friendship has long been considered a bar to psychoanalytic work, we decided to try it. I am glad to report a most successful outcome after about thirty hours or so of "intellectual psychoanalysis" or whatever it ought to be called. We recommend that others try this most interesting experiment so that experience may accumulate and perhaps lead one day to more "normal" and generalized research. For this help, I owe a great debt of gratitude to Dr. Rand. Within the field of what I have called the psychology of science, overlapping often with the philosophy of science, I must refer to the bibliography of this book as a list of acknowledgments of intellectual indebtedness. Even this is far from complete. Within it, however, there are still more special obligations which I should like to acknowledge in addition to my very special one to Polanyi. I stumbled across the writings of David Lindsay Watson by sheer accident years ago and was much influenced by his iconoclasm. Like many forerunners, he has not been sufficiently appreciated, honored, or even noticed. Anyone interested in my book will certainly be interested in Watson's. I strongly urge that his works be read. I learned much from the pioneering researches of Anne Roe as well as from her most recent follow-ups. I regret that I was not able to include a chapter on her work and on later studies of this type. The writings of Jacob Bronowski were especially formative and influential. Frank Manuel's studies of Isaac Newton and our discussions of them taught me a great deal. The impact of these discussions is most evident in some portions of my last chapter, especially the section on good-humored skepticism. Northrop's The Meeting of East and West was important in developing my thinking. So also was Kuhn's monograph The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. I have profited much from discussions with Aldous Huxley as well as from his writings. I had so many references to and so many quotations from Manas that I finally deleted them in favor of this blanket acknowledgment of my heavy indebtedness to this most distinguished of the humanistic journals. Finally I wish to express my thanks to Mrs. Alice Duffy for her very professional job of typing and retyping this manuscript. Abraham H. Maslow Brandeis University Waltham, Massachusetts February 1966 7 7 Chapter 1 Mechanistic and Humanistic Science This book is not an argument within orthodox science; it is a critique (a la Gödel) of orthodox science and of the ground on which it rests, of its unproved articles of faith, and of its taken-for-granted definitions, axioms, and concepts. It is an examination of science as one philosophy of knowledge among other philosophies. It rejects the traditional but unexamined conviction that orthodox science is the path to knowledge or even that it is the only reliable path. I consider this conventional view to be philosophically, historically, psychologically and sociologically naive. As a philosophical doctrine orthodox science is ethnocentric, being Western rather than universal. It is unaware that it is a product of time and place, that it is not an eternal, unchangeable, inexorably progressing truth. Not only is it relative to time, place, and local culture, but it is also characterologically relative, for I believe it to be a reflection far more narrowly of the cautious, obsessional world view centered on the need for safety than of a more mature, generally human, comprehensive view of life. Such weaknesses as these become especially glaring in the area of psychology, where the goal is the knowledge of persons and of their actions and works. In spite of the fact that many great scientists have escaped these mistakes, and in spite of the fact that they have written much to support their larger view of science as nearly synonymous with all knowledge rather than merely as knowledge respectably attained, they have not prevailed. As T. S. Kuhn (30) [1-1] has shown, the style of "normal science" has been established not by the great eagles of science-the paradigm-makers, the discoverers, the revolutionizers — but on the contrary by the majority of "normal scientists", who are rather like those tiny marine animals building up a common coral reef. And so it is that science has come to mean primarily patience, caution, care, slowness, the art of not making mistakes, rather than courage, daring, taking big chances, gambling everything on a single throw, and "going for broke”. Or to say this another way: our orthodox conception of science as mechanistic and ahuman seems to me one local part-manifestation or expression of the larger, more inclusive world view of mechanization and dehumanization. (An excellent exposition of this development can be found in the first three chapters of Floyd Matson's Broken Image). But in this century, and especially in the last decade or two, a counter philosophy has been rapidly developing along with a considerable revolt against the mechanistic, dehumanized view of man and the world. It might be called a rediscovery of man and his human capacities, needs, and aspirations. These humanly based values are being restored to politics, to industry, to religion, and also to the psychological and social sciences. I might put it so: while it was necessary and helpful to dehumanize planets, rocks, and animals, we are realizing more and more strongly that it is not necessary to dehumanize the human being and to deny him human purposes. Yet a certain rehumanization is also taking place even in the nonhuman and impersonal sciences, as Matson points out. This change is part of a larger and more inclusive, more "humanistic" world view. For the time being these two great philosophic orientations, the mechanistic and the humanistic, exist simultaneously like some species-wide two-party system. [1-2] I consider that my effort to rehumanize science and knowledge for myself (but most particularly the field of psychology) is part of this larger social and intellectual development. It is definitely in accord with the Zeitgeist, as Bertalanffy pointed out in 1949 (7, 202): 8 8 The evolution of science is not a movement in an intellectual vacuum; rather it is both an expression and a driving force of the historical process. We have seen how the mechanistic view projected (itself) through all fields of cultural activity. Its basic conceptions of strict causality, of the summative and random character of natural events, of the aloofness of the ultimate elements of reality, governed not only physical theory but also the analytic, summative, and machine-theoretical viewpoints of biology, the atomism of classical psychology, and the sociological helium omnium contra omnes. The acceptance of living beings as machines, the domination of the modern world by technology, and the mechanization of mankind are but the extension and practical application of the mechanistic conception of physics. The recent evolution in science signifies a general change in the intellectual structure which may well be set beside the great revolutions in human thought. Or if I may quote myself (1943) saying this in another way (38, 23): ... The search for a fundamental datum (in psychology) is itself a reflection of a whole world view, a scientific philosophy which assumes an atomistic world — a world in which complex things are built up out of simple elements. The first task of such a scientist then is to reduce the so-called complex to the so-called simple. This is to be done by analysis, by finer and finer separating until we come to the irreducible. This task has succeeded well enough elsewhere in science, for a time at least. In psychology it has not. This conclusion exposes the essentially theoretical nature of the entire reductive effort. It must be understood that this effort is not of the essential nature of science in general. It is simply a reflection or implication in science of an atomistic, mechanical world view that we now have good reason to doubt. Attacking such reductive efforts is then not an attack on science in general, but rather on one of the possible attitudes towards science. And further on in the same paper (p. 60): This artificial habit of abstraction, or working with reductive elements, has worked so well and has become so ingrained a habit that the abstractors and reducers are apt to be amazed at anyone who denies the empirical or phenomenal validity of these habits. By smooth stages they convince themselves that this is the way in which the world is actually constructed, and they find it easy to forget that even though it is useful it is still artificial, conventionalized, hypothetical — in a word, that it is a man-made system that is imposed upon an interconnected world in flux. These peculiar hypotheses about the world have the right to fly in the face of common sense but only for the sake of demonstrated convenience. When they are no longer convenient, or when they become hindrances, they must be dropped. It is dangerous to see in the world what we have put into it rather than what is actually there. Let us say this flatly — that atomistic mathematics or logic is, in a certain sense, a theory about the world, and any description of it in terms of this theory the psychologist may reject as unsuited to his purposes. It is clearly necessary for methodological thinkers to proceed to the creation of logical and mathematical systems that are more closely in accord with the nature of the world of modern science. It is my impression that the weaknesses of classical science show up most obviously in the fields of psychology and ethnology. Indeed, when one wishes knowledge of persons or of societies, mechanistic science breaks down altogether. At any rate, this book is primarily an effort within psychology to enlarge the conception of science so as to make it more capable of dealing with persons, especially fully developed and fully human persons. I conceive this to be not a divisive effort to oppose one "wrong" view with another "right" 9 9 view, nor to cast out anything. The conception of science in general and of psychology in general, of which this book is a sample, is inclusive of mechanistic science. I believe mechanistic science (which in psychology takes the form of behaviorism) to be not incorrect but rather too narrow and limited to serve as a general or comprehensive philosophy. [1-3] 10 10 Chapter 2 Acquiring Knowledge of a Person as a Task for the Scientist What alterations in attitude toward science are called for by this change in world view? Where did these changes come from? What forced them upon our attention? Why is the mechanistic, nonhuman model giving way to a human-centered paradigm? In my own history this clash in scientific world view first took the form of living simultaneously with two psychologies that had little to do with each other. In my career as an experimentalism in the laboratory, I felt quite comfortable and capable with my heritage of scientific orthodoxy. (See complete bibliography in 51). Indeed it was John B. Watson's optimistic credo (in Psychologies of 1925) that had brought me and many others into the field of psychology. His programmatic writings promised a clear road ahead. I felt — with great exhilaration — that it guaranteed progress. There could be a real science of psychology, something solid and reliable to depend on to advance steadily and irreversibly from one certainty to the next. It offered a technique (conditioning) which gave promise of solving all problems and a wonderfully convincing philosophy (positivism, objectivism) that was easy to understand and to apply, that protected us against all the mistakes of the past. But insofar as I was a psychotherapist, an analysand, a father, a teacher, and a student of personality — that is, insofar as I dealt with whole persons — "scientific psychology" gradually proved itself to be of little use. In this realm of persons I found far greater sustenance in "psychodynamics", especially the psychologies of Freud and Adler, psychologies that were clearly not "scientific" by the definitions of the day. It was as if psychologists then lived by two mutually exclusive sets of rules, or as if they spoke two different languages for different purposes. If they were interested in working with animals, or with part-processes in human beings, they could be "experimental and scientific psychologists”. But if they were interested in whole persons, these laws and methods were not of much help. I think that we can understand these philosophical changes best if we contrast their relative effectiveness in handling these scientifically new human and personal problems. Let us ask the questions: suppose I wish to know more about the nature of the human person — about you, for instance, or about some other particular person — what is the most promising and most fruitful way to go about it? How useful are the assumptions and methods and conceptualizations of classical science? Which approach is best? Which techniques? Which epistemology? Which style of communication? Which tests and which measurements? Which a priori assumptions about the nature of knowledge? What do we mean by the word "know"? NOMOTHETIC AND IDIOGRAPHIC KNOWING First of all, we should be aware that this question itself about a person, is ruled out by many scientists as trivial or "unscientific”. Practically all scientists (of the impersonal) proceed on the tacit or explicit assumption that one studies classes or groups of things, not single things. Of course you actually look at one thing at a time, one paramecium, one piece of quartz, one particular kidney, one schizophrenic. But each one is treated as a sample of a species or of a class, and therefore as interchangeable. (See 31 on Galilean and Aristotelian science.) No ordinary scientific journal would accept a meticulous description of a particular white rat or a particular fish. The main business of classical science is generalization, abstracting what is 11 11 common to all white rats or fish, etc. (Teratology, the study of exceptions and of "marvels", i.e., of monsters, is of no great scientific interest except as it teaches more about the "normal" processes of embryology by contrast). Any one sample is just that, a sample; it is not itself. It stands for something. It is anonymous, expendable, not unique, not sacred, not sine qua non: it has no proper name all its own and is not worthwhile in itself as a particular instance. It is interesting only insofar as it represents something other than itself. This is what I mean when I say that orthodox, textbook science normally and centrally studies classes of things, or interchangeable objects. There are no individuals in a textbook of physics or chemistry, let alone mathematics. Taking this as a centering point, as typical and as paradigmatic, astronomers, geologists, and biologists, dealing as they sometimes do with unique instances such as a particular planet or a particular earthquake or a particular sweetpea or drosophila, yet move toward generality as the approved way of becoming more scientific. For most scientists this is the only direction in which scientific knowledge grows. And yet as we move further away from the central model of impersonal, generalizing, similarity-seeking science, we find that there are people who are systematically and persistently curious about unique, idiographic, individual instances that are not interchangeable, that are. sui generis and happen only once — some psychologists, for instance, and some ethnologists, some biologists, some historians and of course all human beings in their intimate personal relations. (I am sure physicists and chemists have spent as much time puzzling over their wives as they have over atoms.) My original question was: if I want to know a person, what is the best way to go about doing it? And now I can rephrase this question more pointedly. How good for this purpose are the usual procedures of normal physical science (which, remember, is the widely accepted paradigm for all the sciences and even for all knowledge of any kind)? In general my answer is that they are not very good at all. As a matter of fact, they are practically useless if I want not only to know about you but also to understand you. If I want to know a person in those aspects of personhood that are most important to me, I have learned that I must go about this task in a different way, use different techniques and operate upon profoundly different philosophical assumptions about the nature of detachment, objectivity, subjectivity, reliability of knowledge, value, and precision. I shall try to spell out some of these below. First of all I must approach a person as an individual unique and peculiar, the sole member of his class. Of course it is true that the normal scientific, abstract, psychological knowledge that I have accumulated through the years helps me to place him at least crudely in the classification of the whole human species. I know what to look for. I can make a rough characterological, constitutional, psychiatric, personological, and intellectual rating (IQ) far better than I could twenty-five years ago. And yet it is also true that all this nomothetic knowledge (of law, of generalization, of averages) is useful only if it can channel through and improve my idiographic knowledge (of this particular individual). Any clinician knows that in getting to know another person it is best to keep your brain out of the way, to look and listen totally, to be completely absorbed, receptive, passive, patient, and waiting rather than eager, quick, and impatient. It does not help to start measuring, questioning, calculating, or testing out theories, categorizing, or classifying. If your brain is too busy, you won't hear or see well. Freud's term "free-floating attention" describes well this noninterfering, global, receptive, waiting kind of cognizing another person. To the seeker for knowledge about persons, abstract knowledge, scientific laws and generalizations, statistical tables and expectations are all useful if they can be humanized, 12 12 personalized, individualized, focused into this particular interpersonal relationship. The good knower of people can be helped by classical "scientific" knowledge; the poor knower of people cannot be helped by all the abstract knowledge in the world. As some wit phrased it, "Any dope can have a high IQ." THE HOLISTIC APPROACH I don't wish to hazard any large generalizations here, but this I have learned also (as a therapist and as personologist). If I want to learn something more about you as an individual person, then I must approach you as a unit, as a one, as a whole. The customary scientific technique of dissection and reductive analysis that has worked so well in the inorganic world and not too badly even in the infrahuman world of living organisms, is just a nuisance when I seek knowledge of a person, and it has real deficiencies even for studying people in general. Psychologists have tried various atomistic dissections and reductions to fundamental building blocks of knowledge out of which, presumably, the whole was built — basic sensation bits, stimulus-response or associative bonds, reflex or conditioned reflexes, behavioral reactions, products of factor analysis, profiles of scores on various kinds of tests. Each of these efforts has left behind it some partial usefulness for the abstract, nomothetic science of psychology, but no one living would seriously propose any of them as a useful path to knowledge of members of a strange culture or of members of the John Birch Society, let alone of a blind date. Not only must I perceive you holistically, but I must also analyze you holistically rather than reductively. (If I had the space, I should also like to spell out the effects of Gestalt psychology upon experimental and laboratory psychology; for a fuller treatment, see 38, ch 3). SUBJECTIVE REPORT By far the best way we have to learn what people are like is to get them, one way or another, to tell us, whether directly by question and answer or by free association, to which we simply listen, or indirectly by covert communications, paintings, dreams, stories, gestures, etc. — which we can interpret. Of course everyone knows this, and in our ordinary daily life all of us take advantage of this. But the fact remains that it raises real scientific problems. For example, a person who is telling us his political attitude is, so to speak, the only witness to what he is reporting. He can easily fool us if he wants to. An element of trust and good will and honesty is required here that is not required with any other existing object of scientific study. The interpersonal relationships of the speaker and of the listener are very much involved. Astronomers, physicists, chemists, geologists, etc. need not concern themselves with such problems, at least not at first. It is possible for them to go far before needing to raise any questions about relationships between the knower and the known. RECEPTIVITY, NONINTERFERENCE; TAOISTIC SCIENCE Most young psychologists have been taught to use the controlled experiment as the model way of acquiring knowledge. Slowly and painfully we psychologists have had to learn to become good clinical or naturalistic observers, to wait and watch and listen patiently, to keep our hands off, to refrain from being too active and brusque, too interfering and controlling, 13 13 and — most important of all in trying to understand another person — to keep our mouths shut and our eyes and ears wide open. This is different from the model way in which we approach physical objects, i.e., manipulating them, poking at them, to see what happens, taking them apart, etc. If you do this to human beings, you won't get to know them. They won't want you to know them. They won't let you know them. Our interfering makes knowledge less likely, at least at the beginning. Only when we already know a great deal can we become more active, more probing, more demanding — in a word, more experimental. PROBLEM-CENTERING AND METHOD-CENTERING: INSISTENCE ON HIGHER QUESTIONS For me, the clash with method-centered scientists came only when I started asking questions about the so-called "higher life" of human beings and about more highly evolved human beings. So long as I worked behaviorally with dogs and monkeys and experimented with learning and conditioning and with motivated behavior, the available methodological tools served me well. These experiments could be suitably designed and controlled, and the data could be precise and reliable enough. I got into real trouble only when I started asking new questions for the researcher, questions which I couldn't handle well, questions about imprecise, undefined, unmanageable problems. I discovered then that many scientists disdain what they cannot cope with, what they cannot do well. I remember counterattacking in my irritation with an aphorism I coined for the occasion: "What isn't worth doing, isn't worth doing well”. Now I think I could add: "What needs doing, is worth doing even though not very well”. Indeed, I am tempted to claim that the first effort to research a new problem is most likely to be inelegant, imprecise, and crude. What one mostly learns from such first efforts is how it should be done better the next time. But there is no way of bypassing this first time. I remember a child who, when told that most train accidents involved the last car, suggested that accidents could be reduced by eliminating last cars! Neither can beginnings be eliminated. Even to think this, or to want it, is a denial of the very spirit of science. Cracking open new fields is certainly more exhilarating and rewarding and is also more socially useful. "You must love the questions themselves", Rilke said. The assault troops of science are certainly more necessary to science than its military policemen. This is so even though they are apt to get much dirtier and to suffer higher casualties. Bill Mauldin's cartoons during the war could serve as good illustrations of the clash in values between frontline fighting soldiers and rear echelon spit-and-polish officers. Somebody has to be the first one through the mine fields. (I wrote this first as "through the mind fields"!) When my work in psychopathology led me to explore nonpathology — psychologically healthy people — difficulties came up that I had never had to face before, problems of values and of norms, for instance. Health is itself a normative word. I began to understand why so little had been done here. By the normal canons of good "normal" research, this was not a good research. (Actually I called it not a research, but an exploration). It is easily criticized and I have done it too. There was a real] question about the possible intrusion of my own values in the people I selected for study. A group of judges would have been better, of course. Today we have tests that are more objective and impartial than any unaided judgment — but in 1935 they didn't exist. It was either do it this way or not do it at all. I'm glad I chose to do it; I learned a great deal, and perhaps others have learned, too. 14 14 The study of these relatively healthy people and their characteristics opened up dozens of new problems for me both personally and as a scientist, and it made me dissatisfied with dozens of old solutions and methods and concepts that I had taken for granted. These people raised new questions about the nature of normality, of health, of goodness, of creativeness and love, of higher needs, beauty, curiosity, fulfillment, of heroes and the godlike in human beings, of altruism and co-operativeness, of love for the young, protection of the weak, compassion and unselfishness and humanitarianism, of greatness, of transcendent experiences, of higher values. (I have worked since with all of these questions, and I am confident that it is possible to contribute something toward answering them. They are not untestable, "unscientific" problems). These "higher" psychological processes in the human being did not fit gracefully and comfortably into the extant machinery for achieving reliable knowledge. This machine, it turned out, was much like something I have in my kitchen called a "disposall", which nevertheless does not really dispose of all things but only of some things. Or to make another comparison. I remember seeing an elaborate and complicated automatic washing machine for automobiles that did a beautiful job of washing them. But it could do only that, and everything else that got into its clutches was treated as if it were an automobile to be washed. I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. In a word, I had either to give up my questions or else to invent new ways of answering them. I preferred the latter course. And so also do many psychologists who choose to work as best they can with important problems (problem-centering) rather than restricting themselves to doing only that which they can do elegantly with the techniques already available (method-centering). If you define "science" as that which it is able to do, then that which it is not able to do becomes "nonscience", i.e., unscientific. (A fuller treatment of this problem is in 38, ch. 2). THE FEAR OF KNOWING; FEAR OF PERSONAL AND SOCIAL TRUTH More than any other scientists we psychologists have to contend with the astonishing fact of resistance to the truth. More than any other kind of knowledge we fear knowledge of ourselves, knowledge that might transform our self-esteem and our self-image. A cat finds it easy to be a cat, as nearly as we can tell. It isn't afraid to be a cat. But being a full human being is difficult, frightening, and problematical. While human beings love knowledge and seek it — they are curious — they also fear it. The closer to the personal it is, the more they fear it. So human knowledge is apt to be a kind of dialectic between this love and this fear. Thus knowledge includes the defenses against itself, the repressions, the sugar-coatings, the inattentions, the forgettings. Therefore any methodology for getting at this truth must include some form of what psychoanalysts call "analysis of the resistance”, a way of dissolving fear of the truth about oneself, thus permitting one to perceive himself head on, naked — a scary thing to do. We can say something of the sort for knowledge in general. Darwin's theory of natural selection was a tremendous blow to the human ego. So also was the Copernican way of seeing things. And yet it is still true that there is a gradient of fear of knowledge; the more impersonal the knowledge, the less close to our personal concerns and to our emotions and needs, the less resistance to it there will be. And the closer our probings approach to our personal core, the more resistance there will be. There is a kind of "law of amount of 15 15 knowledge" that we might phrase so: the greater the distance from personal knowledge, the greater the amount of scientific knowledge, the longer the history of the subject, the safer the study, the more mature the science, etc. And thus it comes about that we know (scientifically) far more about chemicals and metals and electricity than we do about sex or prejudice or exploitation. One must sometimes talk to one's graduate students in the social and psychological sciences as if they were going off to war. One must speak of bravery, of morals and ethics, of strategy and tactics. The psychological or social scientist must fight to bring truth about the hot subjects. THE WISH TO BE KNOWN AND THE FEAR OF BEING KNOWN The person is different from things as an object of knowledge in that he has to want to be known, or at least he has to permit himself to be known. [2-1] He must accept and trust the knower, and even get to love him in certain cases. He may even be said to surrender to the knower (82) in various senses of that term, and vice versa. It feels good to be understood (73), even exhilarating (3) and therapeutic. Other examples are scattered through this book (and through the whole literature of psychotherapy and social psychology). MOTIVATION, PURPOSES, ENDS In dealing with persons, you must make your epistemological peace with the fact that people have purposes and goals of their own even though physical objects do not. Our classical science wisely tossed out of its study of the physical universe the projection of purposes, whether of a God or of man himself. As a matter of fact, this purging was a sine qua non for making physical science possible at all; the solar system is better understood so. The projection of purpose is not only unnecessary, it is actually harmful to full understanding. But the case is completely different with human beings. They do have purposes and goals directly perceptible by introspection and also easily studied behaviorally, as in infrahuman animals (71). This simple fact, which is excluded systematically from the model of classical physical science, automatically makes its methods less appropriate for studying most human behavior. This is so because it does not differentiate between means and ends. Because of this, as Polanyi (60) points out, it cannot discriminate between correct and incorrect instrumental behavior, between efficient and inefficient, right and wrong, sick and healthy, since all these adjectives refer to the suitability and efficacy of the means-behavior in actually attaining its goal. Such considerations are alien to the purely physical or chemical system which has no purposes and therefore needs no discrimination between good or bad instrumental behaviors. CONSCIOUS, UNCONSCIOUS, AND PRECONSCIOUS Our problems are further complicated by the fact that his purposes can be unknown to the person himself. For instance, his behavior can be what the psychoanalyst calls "acting out”, i.e., an apparent seeking for an overtly discernible goal which, however, is not the "real" goal of the behavior but is rather a symbolic substitute that will never satisfy the hunger. Any comprehensive psychology of science will have to go into great detail about the relations of consciousness to the unconscious and to the preconscious, and of so-called "primary process" cognition to "secondary process" cognition. We have learned to think of knowledge as verbal, 16 16 explicit, articulated, rational, logical, structured, Aristotelian, realistic, sensible. Confronted with the depths of human nature, we psychologists learn to respect also the inarticulate, the preverbal and subverbal, the tacit, the ineffable, the mythic, the archaic, the symbolic, the poetic, the esthetic. Without these data, no account of a person can possibly be complete. But it is only in human beings that these data exist and for which, therefore, ad hoc methods have proved to be necessary. The rest of the book pursues this same question and some of its offshoots. How adequate or inadequate are the concepts and methods of classical science if our task is the acquisition of knowledge about the human person? What are the consequences of these Inadequacies? What improvements do they suggest? What counterproposals can be offered for consideration and for testing? What can general science learn from person science? 17 17 Chapter 3 The Cognitive Needs Under Conditions of Fear and of Courage Science has its origins in the needs to know and to understand (or explain), i.e., cognitive needs (38,43). In another publication (50) I have summarized the various lines of evidence that make me feel these needs to be instinctlike and therefore defining characteristics of humanness (although not only of humanness), and of specieshood. In the same paper I tried to differentiate the cognitive activities instigated by anxiety and those that proceed without fear or by overcoming fear and can therefore be called "healthy”. That is, these cognitive impulses seem to function under conditions either of fear or of courage, but they will have different characteristics under these two different conditions. Curiosity, exploring, manipulating, when instigated by fear or anxiety, can be seen to have the primary goal of allaying anxiety. What looks behaviorally like an interest in the nature of the object being examined or the area being explored, may be primarily an effort by the organism to calm itself down and to lower the level of tension, vigilance, and apprehension. The unknown object is now primarily an anxiety-producer, and the behavior of examination and probing is first and foremost a detoxification of the object, making it into something that need not be feared. Some organisms, once reassured, may then go over into an examination of the object per se out of sheer, nonanxious curiosity in the independently existing reality out there. Other organisms may, however, lose all interest in the object once it is detoxified, familiarized (33), and no longer fearsome. That is to say, familiarization can produce inattention and boredom. Phenomenologically these two kinds of curiosity feel different from each other. They are also different clinically and personologically. And finally they are also different behaviorally in several infrahuman species as well as m the human being, as many ingenious experiments have shown. With human beings, we are irresistibly impelled by the same kinds of data to postulate another, "higher" concept beyond sheer curiosity. Different scholars have spoken variously of the need to understand, the need for meaning, the need for values, for a philosophy or a theory, or for a religion or cosmology, or for an explanatory or lawful "system" of some kind. These first approximations generally refer to some need to order, to structure, to organize, to abstract, or to simplify the chaotic multiplicity of facts. In most contexts, by contrast, the word "curiosity" can be interpreted as focusing upon a single fact, some single object, or at most a delimited set of objects or situations or processes rather than upon the whole world or large portions of it. This need to understand, like its prepotent need to know, can also be seen as expressing itself and organizing behavior in the service of either allaying anxiety or nonanxious interest in the nature of reality. In both cases clinical and personological experience shows that anxiety and fear are generally prepotent over impersonal interest in the nature of reality. In this context "courage" can be seen as either absence of fear or as the ability to overcome the fear and to function well in spite of It. Any cognitive activities, whether institutionalized ones like scientific work and philosophizing or personal ones like the search for insight in psychotherapy, can be better understood against this background. How much of anxiety and how much of anxiety-free interest are involved? Since most human activities are a mixture of both, what, we must ask, is the proportion of anxiety to courage? Behavior, including the behavior of the scientist, can 18 18 be seen in simplest schema as a resultant of these two forces, that is, as a mixture of anxietyallaying (defensive) devices and of problem-centered (coping) devices. I have described this basic dialectic in several different ways in differing contexts. Each of these can be useful for different purposes. First of all (34, ch. 10, "Coping with Dangers") I made the distinction between the Freudian "defense mechanisms" (for allaying anxiety while still seeking gratification) and what I called "coping mechanisms" (for positive, courageous, and victorious solution of life problems in the absence of anxiety or in spite of it). Another useful distinction (43, ch. 3) is that between deficiency-motivations and growth-motivations. Cognition can be more one or more the other. Where it is primarily deficiency-motivated, it is more needreductive, more homeostatic, more the relief of felt deficit. When behavior is more growthmotivated, it is less need-reductive and more a movement toward self-actualization and fuller humanness, more expressive, more selfless, more reality-centered. This is a little like saying, "Once we get our personal problems solved, then we can get truly interested in the world for its own sake". Thirdly (43, ch. 4), growth was seen as an endless series of daily choices and decisions in each of which one can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again. In other words, the scientist can be seen as relatively defensive, deficiency-motivated, and safety-need-motivated, moved largely by anxiety and behaving in such a way as to allay it. Or he can be seen as having mastered his anxieties, as coping positively with problems in order to be victorious over them, as growth-motivated toward personal fulfillment and fullest humanness, and therefore as freed to turn outward toward an intrinsically fascinating reality, in wholehearted absorption with it rather than with its relevance to his personal emotional difficulties, i.e., he can be problem-centered rather than ego-centered. [3-1] THE PATHOLOGY OF COGNITION: ANXIETY-ALLAYING MECHANISMS IN COGNITION Seeing this motivation at work in the most pathological instances demonstrates unmistakably that the search for knowledge can be anxiety-allaying. First of all, let us examine briefly the brain-injured soldiers from whom Kurt Goldstein (22) learned so much. Their very real injuries and the real losses in capacity that ensued not only made them feel less capable but also made the world look more overwhelming. Much of their behavior could be understood as an attempt to retain self-esteem and to avoid anxietyproducing confrontation with problems from which they could expect only defeat. To this end they first of all narrowed their worlds in order to avoid problems that they were incapable of handling and to restrict themselves to the problems they were capable of handling. Within such constricted worlds, daring less and trying less, being "modest" about aspirations and goals, they could function well. Secondly they ordered and structured these narrowed worlds carefully. They made a place for everything, and everything was in its place. They geometrized their little realms in an effort to make them predictable, controllable, and safe. Thirdly they tended to freeze them into static and unchanging forms and to avoid change and flux. Their worlds were thus made more predictable, more controllable, and less anxiety-producing. For people who have limited capacities that they cannot trust, who see the world as too much for them, and who can't accept this state of affairs, these are sensible, logical, understandable things to do. They work. The soldiers' anxiety and pain were in fact reduced thereby. To the casual observer the patients looked normal. 19 19 That these safety-producing mechanisms are pragmatically sound (rather than "crazy" or weird and mysterious) can easily be seen from the close parallel with, let us say, newly blinded people, who, because they are less capable than before, must also see the world as more dangerous, more overwhelming, and must at once elaborate all sorts of safety mechanisms to protect themselves from actual harm. So they at once have to narrow the world, perhaps confining themselves to their homes until they can get it "under control”. Every piece of furniture must be fixed into place; everything must remain where it is. Nothing unpredicted or unexpected should happen; this is dangerous. The world must remain as it is. Change becomes dangerous. The routes from one place to another must be memorized by rote. All necessary objects must stay where they belong. Something like this can be seen in compulsive-obsessive neurotics. A basic problem here seems to be, if I may oversimplify, a fear of the impulses and emotions within the person himself. Unconsciously he fears that if they should get out of control, terrible things might happen, murder perhaps. So on the one hand he keeps himself under tight control, and on the other hand he projects this intrapsychic drama on the world and tries also to control it. What he rejects within himself — emotion, impulsiveness, spontaneity, expressiveness — he rejects out there, too, although in an ambivalent way. As he rejects his inner voices and signals and consequently loses his trust in his spontaneous wishes and instinctlike impulses, he has to rely on external signals to tell him what to do and when to do it, e.g., calendars, clocks, schedules, agenda, quantifications, geometrizations, laws, rules of all sorts. Since change, flux, and unexpectedness may catch him with his controls down, he must also layout the future, program it, make it exactly, make it predictable. His behavior also tends to get organized" into repeatable rituals and ceremonials. Here too we recognize the same safety-mechanisms. The obsessional person narrows his world by avoiding uncomfortable kinds of people, problems, impulses, and emotions, i.e., he lives a constricted life and tends to become a constricted person. He diminishes the world so that he may be able to control it. To avoid what he fears, he orders, regulates, and even freezes his world so that it can be predictable and therefore controllable. He tends to live "by the numbers”, by the rule book, and to rely on external rather than internal cues, on logic and fact rather than on impulse, intuition, and emotion. (One obsessional patient once asked how he could prove that he was in love!) The extreme hysterical neurotic, who is usually contrasted to the obsessional, is of less interest to us here because his massive repressions and denials avoid painful knowledge. It is hard to conceive of such a person being able to be a scientist at all, much less an engineer or technologist. Finally we can learn from certain suspicious and paranoid people who compulsively need to know everything that is going on, i.e., who are afraid of not knowing. They have to know what is going on behind the closed door. The strange noise must be explained. The barely heard words must be fully heard. Danger lies in the unknown, and it stays dangerous so long as it is unknown. This knowledge-seeking behavior is primarily defensive. It is compulsive, inflexible, anxiety-instigated, and anxiety-producing. It is only apparently knowledgeseeking, because the reality, once it is known to be not dangerous, ceases to be interesting. That is, reality itself doesn't matter. OTHER COGNITIVE PATHOLOGIES 20 20 Some other sick (or primarily anxiety-instigated), clinically observed expressions of our needs to know and to understand (whether in scientist or lay knowers) can be listed: 1. The compulsive need for certainty (rather than the enjoyment and appreciation of it). 2. The premature generalization that so often is a consequence of the desperate need for certainty (because one cannot bear the state of waiting, of not knowing what the decision will be). 3. For the same reasons, desperately and stubbornly hanging on to a generalization, in spite of new information that contradicts it. 4. The denial of ignorance (for fear of looking stupid, weak, ludicrous) — the inability to say "I don't know", "I was wrong". The denial of doubt, confusion, puzzlement: the need to appear decisive, certain, confident, sure of oneself; the inability to be humble. 6. The inflexible, neurotic need to be tough, powerful, fearless, strong, severe. Counterphobic mechanisms are defenses against fear, i.e., they are ways of denying that one is afraid when one really is afraid. Ultimately the fear of looking weak, soft, or mushy may turn out to be a defense against (misconceived and misinterpreted) femininity. Among scientists the legitimate wish to be "hard-nosed”, or tough-minded, or rigorous may be pathologized into being "merely hard-nosed”, or exclusively tough-minded, or of finding it impossible not to be rigorous. There may develop an inability to be gentle, surrendering, noncontrolling, patient, receptive even when the circumstances clearly call for it as prerequisite to better knowing, e.g., as in psychotherapy. 7. The ability to be only active, dominant, masterful, controlling, "in charge”, "masculine”, and the inability to be also noncontrolling, noninterfering, receptive. This is a loss of versatility in the knower. 8. Rationalization of the psychoanalytic sort ("I don't like that fellow and I'm going to find a good reason why"). 9. Intolerance of ambiguity: the inability to be comfortable with the vague, the mysterious, the not yet fully known. 10. The need to conform, to win approval, to be a member of the group — the inability to disagree, to be unpopular, to stand alone. What this does to cognizing can be seen in the experiments of Asch (4), Crutchfield (14), and others. 11. Grandiosity, megalomania, arrogance, egotism, paranoid tendencies. Very often this turns out, in deep therapy, to be a defense against deeper lying feelings of weakness, worthlessness. In any case, this kind of ego gets in the way of a clear view of reality. 12. The fear of paranoia, grandiosity or hubris. Defenses against one's own pride, greatness, godlikeness. Lowering of levels of aspiration. Evasion of one's own growth. The inability to believe that one could discover something important, therefore blindness to such discoveries, disbelief in them, inability to rush in and exploit the discovery. Assigning oneself to trivial problems. 13. Overrespect for authority, for the great man. The need to keep his love. Becoming only a disciple, a loyal follower, ultimately a stooge, unable to be independent, unable to affirm himself. ("Don't be a Freudian; be a Freud”. "Don't follow in the footsteps of the masters; seek their goals.") 14. Underrespect for authority. The need to fight authority. The inability to learn from one's 21 21 elders or teachers. 15. The need to be always and only rational, sensible, logical, analytic, precise, intellectual, etc. Inability to be also non-rational, wild, crazy, intuitive, etc., when this is more suitable. 16. Intellectualization, i.e., transforming the emotional into the rational, perceiving only the intellectual aspect of complex situations, being satisfied with naming rather than experiencing, etc. This is a common shortcoming of professional intellectuals, who tend to be blinder to the emotional and impulsive side of life than to its cognitive aspects. 17. The intellect may be used as a tool for dominating, one-upmanship, or for impressing people often at the cost of part of the truth. 18. Knowledge and truth may be feared, and therefore avoided or distorted, for many reasons (43, ch. 5). 19. Rubricizing, i.e., pathological categorizing as a flight from concrete experiencing and cognizing (38, ch. 14). 20. Dichotomizing compulsively; two-valued orientation; either-or; black or white (38, 232234). 21. The need for novelty and the devaluation of the familiar. The inability to perceive a miracle if it is repeated one hundred times. Devaluing what is already known, as, e.g., truisms, platitudes, etc. And so on and so on. The list could be extended almost endlessly. For instance, all the Freudian defense mechanisms make for cognitive inefficiency, in addition to their other effects. Neuroses and psychoses in general can all be considered to be cognitive illnesses in addition to their other aspects. This is almost as true for the character disorders, the existential "disorders”, the "value pathologies”, and the diminishing, stunting, or loss of the human capacities. Even cultures and ideologies, many of them, can be analyzed from this point of view, e.g., as encouraging stupidity, as discouraging curiosity, etc. The path to the full truth is a rocky one. Full knowing is difficult. This is true not only for the layman but also for the scientist. The main difference between him and the layman is that he has enlisted in this search for truth deliberately, willingly, and consciously and that he then proceeds to learn as much as he can about the techniques and ethics (11) of truth-seeking. Indeed, science in general can be considered a technique with which fallible men try to outwit their own human propensities to fear the truth, to avoid it, and to distort it. The systematic study of the cognitive pathologies, then, would seem to be an obvious and normal part of scientific studies. Clearly such a branch of knowledge should help the scientist to become a better knower, a more efficient instrument. Why so little has been done in this direction is a puzzle. THE INTEGRATION OF CAUTIOUS KNOWING AND COURAGEOUS KNOWING It seems, then, that these "good”, "nice" scientific words — prediction, control, rigor, certainty, exactness, preciseness, neatness, orderliness, lawfulness, quantification, proof, explanation, validation, reliability, rationality, organization, etc. — are all capable of being pathologized when pushed to the extreme. All of them may be pressed into the service of the safety needs, i.e., they may become primarily anxiety-avoiding and anxiety-controlling mechanisms. They may be mechanisms for detoxifying a chaotic and frightening world as well as ways of loving and understanding a fascinating and beautiful world. Working for certainty or exactness or 22 22 predictability, etc. may be either healthy or unhealthy, either defense-motivated or growthmotivated, and may lead either to the relief of anxiety or to the positive joy of discovery and understanding. Science can be a defense, and it can also be a path to the fullest self-actualization. Just to make sure that a vital point be not misunderstood, we must also look at the courageous, growth-motivated, psychologically healthy scientist, again taking an extreme type for the moment in order to get sharp differentiations and contrasts. All of these same mechanisms and goals are also found in the growth-motivated scientist. The difference is that they are not neuroticized [3-2]. They are not compulsive, rigid, and uncontrollable, nor is anxiety produced when these rewards have to be postponed. They are not desperately needed, nor are they exclusively needed. It is possible for healthy scientists to enjoy not only the beauties of precision but also the pleasures of sloppiness, casualness, and ambiguity. They are able to enjoy rationality and logic but are also able to be pleasantly crazy, wild, or emotional. They are not afraid of hunches, intuitions, or improbable ideas. It is pleasant to be sensible, but it is also pleasant to ignore common sense occasionally. It is fun to discover lawfulness, and a neat set of experiments that solve a problem can and does produce peakexperiences. But puzzling, guessing, and making fantastic and playful surmises is also part of the scientific game and part of the fun of the chase. Contemplating an elegant line of reasoning or mathematical demonstrations can produce great esthetic and sacral experiences, but so also can the contemplation of the unfathomable. All of this is exemplified in the greater versatility of the great scientist, of the creative, courageous, and bold scientists. This ability to be either controlled and/or uncontrolled, tight and/or loose, sensible and/or crazy, sober and/or playful seems to be characteristic not only of psychological health but also of scientific creativeness. Ultimately, I am convinced, we shall have to include in the education of the young scientist both the techniques of caution and of boldness. Mere caution and soberness, mere compulsiveness can produce only good technicians who are much less likely to discover or to invent new truths or new theories. The caution, patience, and conservatism which are sine qua non for the scientist had better be supplemented by boldness and daring if creativeness is also the hope, Both are necessary. They need not be mutually exclusive. They can be integrated with each other. Taken together they constitute flexibility, adaptability, versatility. Or as psychoanalysts often say, the best psychoanalyst (or scientist or general human being) is the one who combines the good characteristics of the hysterical and of the obsessional, without having the bad characteristics of either. From the epistemological point of view, if we accept the isomorphic and parallel interrelationships between knower and known (52), then we can confidently expect the "taller”, bolder, more Olympian knower to be able to cognize higher truths. The merely cautious knower, avoiding everything that could produce anxiety, is partially blind. The world that he is able to know is smaller than the world that the strong man can know. 23 23 Chapter 4 Safety Science and Growth Science: Science as a Defense Science, then, can be a defense. It can be primarily a safety philosophy, a security system, a complicated way of avoiding anxiety and upsetting problems. In the extreme instance it can be a way of avoiding life, a kind of self-cloistering. It can become — in the hands of some people, at least — a social institution with primarily defensive, conserving functions, ordering and stabilizing rather than discovering and renewing. The greatest danger of such an extreme institutional position is that the enterprise may finally become functionally autonomous, like a kind of bureaucracy, forgetting its original purposes and goals and becoming a kind of Chinese Wall against innovation, creativeness, revolution, even against new truth itself if it is too upsetting. The bureaucrats may actually become covert enemies to the geniuses, as critics so often have been to poets, as ecclesiastics so often have been to the mystics and seers upon whom their churches were founded (48, ch. 4). Taking it for granted that the function of science is not only revolutionary but also conserving, stabilizing, and organizing — like every social institution — how can the pathologizing of this conserving function be avoided? How can we keep it "normal”, healthy, and fruitful? The essential answer is, I believe, about the same as the one in the previous chapter: to become more aware of the psychology of individual scientists, to realize fully their individual characterological differences, to recognize that any of the goals or methods or concepts of science can be pathologized either in the individual or in the social institution. If there are enough of these individuals, they may "capture" the institution and then label their constricting point of view "the philosophy of science". This pulling and hauling between individuals is paralleled by a similar conflict within each individual. The struggle between fear and courage, between defense and growth, between pathology and health is an eternal, intrapsychic struggle. The great lesson we have learned from the pathology and therapy of this conflict within the individual is that to be on the side of courage, of growth and health, means also to be on the side of truth (especially since healthy courage and growth include healthy soberness, caution, and toughmindedness). [4-1] In other publications (38, 43, 44, 49) I have tried to demonstrate that dichotomizing is responsible for much of the pathologizing of thought. In contrast to thinking that is inclusive, integrative, and synergic, dichotomizing splits apart that which belongs together. What is left appears to be a whole and self-sufficient entity, but it is really separated and isolated pieces. Boldness and caution can be either dichotomized or integrated with each other. Boldness that remains integrated with caution within the same person is very different from boldness not tempered with caution ("mere boldness") which thereby turns into rashness and lack of judgment. The sensible caution of the healthily bold man is different from caution dichotomized from boldness, which is often a crippler and a paralyzer. The good scientist must be both versatile and adaptable, that is, he must be capable of caution and skepticism when they are called for and capable of daring when it is called for. This sounds like the not very helpful recommendation of the intuitive cook to add "not too much salt, not too little, but just the right amount”. But the situation for the scientist is different because for him there is a way of judging the "right amount”, namely, that which is best for discovering truth. [4-2] 24 24 THE MATURE AND IMMATURE SCIENTIST To some extent, the distinction between Kuhn's (30) normal scientist and his revolutionary one parallels the development from the adolescent to the adult male, or from immaturity to maturity. The boy's conception of what a man should be like is more embodied in the "normal" scientist, the obsessional character, the practical technologist, than it is in the great creator. If we could understand better the difference between the adolescent's misconception of maturity and actual maturity, we should thereby understand better the deep fear of creativeness and the counterphobic defenses against it. This in turn should illuminate the eternal struggle within each of us against our own self-actualization and our own highest destiny. The female version of immaturity, which is more apt to take a hysterical form, is less relevant to the formation of scientists. The pre- and postadolescent boy is caught in a conflict between wanting to stay young and childish and also wanting to grow up. Childhood and maturity both have their pleasures and their disadvantages. In any case, both biology and society give him little choice. He is in fact growing biologically older, and society generally demands that he behave as the culture dictates. So he has to tear himself loose — in our society at any rate — from his love for his mother. It is a force pulling him backward, and he fights it and her. He tries to achieve both independence and freedom from dependence on woman. He wants to join the company of men, to be the autonomous companion of his father rather than his dutiful, subordinated son. He sees men as being tough, fearless, impervious to discomfort and pain, independent of emotional ties, dominant, quick to anger and frightening in their anger, earthshakers, doers, builders, masters of the real world. All of this he tries to be. He drowns his fears and timidities — overdoing it, of course, with his counterphobic defenses — in an inability to refuse any challenge or dare. He enjoys striking fear into the hearts of all the little girls — and the big girls, too. He taboos his tenderness, his loving impulses, his compassion, his sympathy — all in the effort to be tough or at least to look tough. He fights the adults, the establishment, the authorities, and all the fathers, for the ultimate toughness is not to fear the father. He tries to throw his lifelong dominators (as he sees them) off his back and out of his own psyche while he still feels the yearning to depend on them. And of course the elders are, to some extent, real dominators and think of him as a child to take care of. We can see these concepts incarnated and projected before our eyes, if we know where to look. For instance, we can find them made visible in the figure of the cowboy, of the tough delinquent or the gang leader, of the "Fearless Fosdick" type of detective, or of the G-man, or perhaps also many "sports-men”. To consider only one example, look at the acting-out and fantasy elements in the cowboy figure in the standard Western movie. The most obvious characteristics of the boy's dream of glory are all there. He is fearless, he is strong, he is "lone”. He kills easily and in a magical, wish-fulfilling way: he never misses, and there is no blood, pain, or mess. Apart from his horse he doesn't love anyone, or at least he doesn't express it except in the most understated, implied, reverse-English way. Least of all does he have any romantic or tender love for women, who are either prostitutes or "good women”. He is in every respect imaginable the far, polar opposite of the pansy type of homosexual in whose realm he includes all the arts, all of culture, all intellect, education, and civilization. These for him are all feminine, as are also cleanliness, emotion of any kind (except perhaps anger), facial expressions, orderliness, or religion. Fantasy cowboys never have children, nor do they have mothers or fathers or sisters (they may have brothers). Observe also the revealing fact that while there is much death, there is little or no blood, mutilation, or agony. And observe also that there is always a hierarchy of dominance, or pecking order, and the 25 25 hero is always at the top of it. The actually mature man, mature not only in years but also in personality development, is, to say it briefly, not threatened by his "weaknesses”, by his emotions, by his impulses or cognitions. Therefore he is not threatened by what the adolescent would call "femininity" but what he would prefer to call humanness. He seems able to accept human nature, and therefore he doesn't have to fight against it within himself, he doesn't have to subdue portions of himself. A certain bullfighter, is reputed to have said, "Sir, anything I do is masculine”. This kind of acceptance of one's own nature instead of living up to some external ideal is characteristic of the more mature male who is so sure of himself that he doesn't have to bother proving anything. Openness to experience is characteristic. So also is postambivalence, i.e., being able to love wholly, without tinctures of hostility or fear or the necessity of control. To get a little closer to our topic I would also use the word for being able to give oneself over completely to an emotion, not only of love but also of anger, fascination, or total surrender to a scientific problem. But just these characteristics of emotional maturity correlate highly with the characteristics of the creative man that have so far been discovered (I won't say "eminent" or "talented" men; that can be quite different). For instance, Richard Craig (13) has demonstrated an almost complete overlap between the personality characteristics of creative men listed by Torrance (72) and those that I had listed for self-actualizing people (38). The two concepts in fact seem almost to be the same. Which characteristics of average scientists might be expressions of immaturity and are therefore to be worried about and examined closely? There are many that are relevant, but a single example will do. Let us examine one excessive emphasis on controlling and excluding in the senses that I have described for adolescents. These latter suppress and exclude whatever they fear looks weak or feminine. So also the overdefensive or overobsessional or "immature" scientists, in accordance with his basic dynamics of mistrusting his impulses and his emotions and in his stress on control, tends to exclude, to set up hurdles and to close doors, to be suspicious. He is apt to dislike lack of control in others as well and to dislike impulsiveness, enthusiasm, whimsicality, and unpredictability. He is apt to be cool, sober, and stern. He is apt to prefer toughness and coolness in science to the point of synonymizing them. Clearly, such considerations are relevant and should be researched far more than they have. 26 26 Chapter 5 Prediction and Control of Persons? The ultimate goals of knowledge about persons are different from the goals of knowledge about things and animals. It makes a certain sense to talk about prediction and control as exclusive desiderata when we speak of molecules or paramecia or domestic animals, although I would argue it even there. But how could it seriously be said that our efforts to know human beings are for the sake of prediction and control? The opposite is more often the case — that we would be horrified by this possibility of prediction and control. If humanistic science may be said to have any goals beyond sheer fascination with the human mystery and enjoyment of it, these would be to release the person from external controls and to make him less predictable to the observer (to make him freer, more creative, more innerdetermined) even though perhaps more predictable to himself. And as for the goals of self-knowledge, that is still a different and even more complex story. Self-knowledge is first and foremost, for no sake other than itself. It is intrinsically fascinating. It feels good and tastes good (in the long run, at least). And also we have been assured in our time that even when it is a painful process, it is the preferred path to the removal of symptoms. It is a way of removing unnecessary anxiety, depression, and fear. It is a means to the end of feeling good. Even, we have learned, the nineteenth-century goal of self-control (that in any case was through will power, not self-knowledge) is being replaced by the notion of spontaneity, almost the opposite of the older concept of self-control. What this means is that if we know our own biological nature, i.e., the intrinsic self, well enough, then this knowledge indicates to us our personal destiny. That is, it implies that we would love our own nature and would yield to it, enjoy it, and express it fully if only we knew it well enough. In turn this implies a rejection of many historical philosophies of the good life. The way to be a good person, for most Western philosophers and religionists, has been to control and suppress the lower, animal biological nature. But the spontaneity theory of the humanistic psychologists implies a profoundly different schema (the model instance to which the exceptions are peripheral instances). The most basic impulses are not seen as necessarily evil or dangerous in themselves. The problems of expression and gratification of these impulses are essentially problems of strategy rather than of right and wrong or of good and evil. The "controls" upon need expression and need gratification now become questions of how best to gratify, when to gratify, where and in what style. Such "Apollonizing" controls do not call the needs into question. And I would go so far as to say that any environment or culture that does call them into question, that makes a permanent ethical problem of sex, hunger, love, self-respect, etc., may be suspected a priori of being a "bad" society. The upshot is that the word "control" can have a different meaning for humanists, one synergic with impulse, not in contradiction to it. This meaning enables us to say that the goal of self-knowledge is closer to what we call freedom than it is to suppressive self-control. So also for predictability. This too seems to undergo great changes in definition when applied to knowledge of self or of a person. This too can be studied empirically by studying people after therapy, people in their fully human moments, etc. PREDICTABILITY AS A GOAL The word "predictable" as customarily used means "predictable by the scientist" and also 27 27 carries the implication of "control by the scientist”. It is interesting that when I can predict what a person will do under certain circumstances, this person tends to resent it. Somehow he feels that it implies a lack of respect for him, as if he were not his own master, as if he couldn't control himself, as if he were no more than a thing. He tends to feel dominated, controlled, outwitted (43, ch. 9). I have observed instances of a person deliberately upsetting the predictions simply to reaffirm his unpredictability and therefore autonomy and self-governance. For instance, a ten-year-old girl, known for being always a good citizen, law-abiding and dutiful unexpectedly disrupted classroom discipline by passing out French fried potatoes instead of notebooks simply because, as she later said, everyone just took her good behavior for granted. A young man who heard his fiancée say of him that he was so methodical that she always knew what to expect of him, deliberately did what was not expected of him. Somehow he felt her statement to be insulting. Being predictable is often a sign of severe pathology. Goldstein's brain-injured soldiers (22), for instance, could be easily manipulated because of their predictable responses to certain stimuli: being stimulus-bound means being both predictable and controllable. And yet we also use the word in a complimentary way: "You can really count on him in an emergency"; "He'll always come through in a pinch"; "I would stake my life on his honesty”. We seem to wish for continuity in the basic structure of the personality but not in all its details. The goal of predictability is even more complex if we consider self-knowledge. There seems to be a parallel to the fact that self-knowledge decreases control from outside the person and increases control from within the person, i.e., less other-determined and more selfdetermined. As self-knowledge in-creases, it certainly seems to increase self-predictability, at least where important and basic issues are concerned. And yet this may mean being less predictable to others in many ways. Finally I want to add a few words about these concepts of prediction, control, and understanding at the highest level that we now know, that is, at the Being level (48). At this level the Being values have become incorporated into the self. Indeed they have become defining characteristics of the self. Truth, justice, goodness, beauty, order, unity, comprehensiveness, etc. have now become metaneeds, thereby transcending the dichotomy between selfish and unselfish, between personal needs and impersonal desiderata. Freedom has now become Spinozistic, i.e., the freedom to embrace and to love one's own destiny, which is certainly determined at least in part by the discovery and the understanding of what and who one is, of one's Real Self (a la Horney), and of being eager to surrender to it. This is to let it control, to choose freely to be determined by it; thus it is to transcend the dichotomies "freedom vs. determinism " or "freedom vs. control" or "understanding as a goal vs. prediction and control as goals". The meanings of these words shift and to some extent approach merging with each other in ways that demand careful study. In any case, by now one thing must be clear. The simplistic conceptions of "prediction" and "control" that were suitable to a Newtonian "billiard-table" (matter in motion) conception of science are left behind as soon as we get to the humanistic and transhumanistic levels of science. 28 28 Chapter 6 Experiential Knowledge and Spectator Knowledge Many things in life cannot be transmitted well by words, concepts, or books. Colors that we see cannot be described to a man born blind. Only a swimmer knows how swimming feels; the nonswimmer can get only the faintest idea of it with all the words and books in the world. The psychopath will never know the happiness of love. The youngster must wait until he is a parent in order to know parenthood fully and to say "I didn't realize”. My toothache feels different from your toothache. And so it goes. Perhaps it is better to say that all of life must first be known experientially. There is no substitute for experience, none at all. [6-1] All the other paraphernalia of communication and of knowledge – words, labels, concepts, symbols, theories, formulas, sciences — all are useful only because people already know experientially. The basic coin in the realm of knowing is direct, intimate, experiential knowing. Everything else can be likened to banks and bankers, to accounting systems and checks and paper money, which are useless unless there is real wealth to exchange, to manipulate, to accumulate, and to order. It is easy to carry this simple truth beyond its proper limits. For instance, while it is mostly true that the color red cannot be described to a congenitally blind man, yet this does not mean that words are useless, as some are prone to conclude. Words are fine for communicating and sharing experiences with those who have already experienced. Alcoholics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Synanon, and similar groups of people who have "been there" prove both points: first, that words fail before lack of experience; and second, that they are quite good between people who have shared an experience (48, Appendix on rhapsodic communication). Daughters must wait until they themselves give birth before being able to "understand" their mothers and to be fully friendly with them. Even more, words and concepts are absolutely necessary for organizing and ordering the welter of experiences and the ultra experiential world of which they apprise us. (Northrop [59] is especially good on this point). If we add to these considerations the whole world of the primary processes, of the unconscious and preconscious, of metaphorical communications, and of the nonverbal communications — as between two dancing partners, let us say — we get a further enrichment of the total picture, namely, that experiential knowledge is sine qua non but not all, i.e., it is necessary but not sufficient. Also we avoid thereby the trap of dichotomizing experiential knowledge from and against conceptual knowledge. My thesis is that experiential knowledge is prior to verbal-conceptual knowledge but that they are hierarchically-integrated and need each other. No human being dare specialize too much in either kind of knowing. Science with the psyche left in can be shown to be more powerful than the science which excludes experiential data. Nor need these affirmations in any way contradict a "minimal" behaviorism, that is, a doctrine of levels in the reliability of knowledge in which public knowledge is granted to be more trustworthy and more constant for many purposes than private and subjective knowledge. Psychologists are only too aware of the shortcomings and even impossibility of a pure and sole introspectionism. We know too much of hallucinations, delusions, illusions, denials, repressions, and other defenses against knowing reality. Since you don't have my repressions or my illusions, comparing my subjective experience with your subjective experience is an easy and obvious way of filtering out the distorting power of my intrapsychic defensive forces. One might call this the easiest kind of reality-testing. It is a first step toward checking knowledge by making sure it is shared, i.e., that it is not a 29 29 hallucination. This is why I can think that (I) most psychological problems do and should begin with phenomenology rather than with objective, experimental, behavioral laboratory techniques, and also (2) that we must usually press on from phenomenological beginnings toward objective, experimental, behavioral laboratory methods. This is I think a normal and usual path — from a less reliable beginning toward a more reliable level of knowledge. To begin the scientific study of love, for instance, with physicalistic methods would be to be meticulous about something only crudely known, like exploring a continent with a pair of tweezers and a magnifying glass. But also to restrict oneself to phenomenological methods is to be content with a lower degree of certainty and reliability than is actually attainable. THE GOOD KNOWER The last few decades of clinical and experimental psychology have brought into clearer focus the logically prior need, before knowing, to be a good knower. The distorting power not only of the various psychopathologies but also of the more "normal" ungratified needs, hidden fears, characteristic defenses, i.e., of the "normal" or average personality, are far greater than mankind ever thought before this century. In my opinion we have learned from clinical and personological experience (1) that improvement of psychological health makes the person a better knower, even a better scientist, and (2) that a very good path to improved and fuller humanness or health has been via self-knowledge, insight, and honesty with oneself. In effect what I am implying is that honest knowing of oneself is logically and psychologically prior to knowing the extrapsychic world. Experiential knowledge is prior to spectator knowledge. If you want to see the world, it is obviously sensible to be as good a seer as you can make yourself. The injunction might read, then: make yourself into a good instrument of knowledge. Cleanse yourself as you would the lenses of your microscope. Become as fearless as you can, as honest, authentic and ego-transcending as you can. Just as most people (or scientists) are not as fearless, ego-transcending, honest, unselfish, or dedicated as they could be, so most people are not as efficient cognizers as they are capable of becoming. (I pause only to ask the question: What might all this mean for the education of scientists and for the scientific education of nonscientists? Even asking the question is enough to make us doubtful about what is called science education). But the statement must be rounded out. We can't stop there. It is all very well to be honest, authentic, decent. But beyond honesty, what? Authenticity is not the same as knowledge, any more than a clean microscope is. It is fine to be honest, in fact it is prerequisite and sine qua non to being a good scientist. But it is also necessary to become skilled, competent, professional, knowledgeable, learned. Health is necessary but not sufficient for the would-be knower and doer. That is to say, experiential knowledge is not enough. Self-knowledge and self-improvement are not enough. The task of knowing the world and of being competent within it still remains, and therefore also does the task of accumulating and ordering knowledge — about, that is, spectator knowledge, knowledge of the nonhuman. I hope I make myself clear. Again I have been substituting a hierarchical integration for a dichotomous antagonism. The two kinds of knowledge are necessary to each other and under 30 30 good circumstances can be and should be intimately integrated with each other . SPECTATOR KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THINGS What does the orthodox scientist mean by "knowing"? Let us remember that at the beginning of science the word "knowing" meant "knowing of the external physical world”, and for the orthodox scientist it still does. It means looking at something that is not you, not human, not personal, something independent of you the perceiver. It is something to which you are a stranger, a bystander, a member of the audience. You the observer are, then, really alien to it, uncomprehending and without sympathy and identification, without any starting point of tacit knowledge that you might already have. You look through the microscope or the telescope as through a keyhole, peering, peeping, from a distance, from outside, not as one who has a right to be in the room being peeped into. Such a scientific observer is not a participant observer. His science can be likened to a spectator sport, and he to a spectator. He has no necessary involvement with what he is looking at, no loyalties, no stake in it. He can be cool, detached, emotionless, desireless, wholly other than what he is looking at. He is in the grandstand looking down upon the goings on in the arena; he himself is not in the arena. And ideally he doesn't care who wins. He can be and should be neutral if he is looking at something utterly strange to him. It is best for the veridicality of his observations that he lay no bets, be neither for nor against, have no hopes or wishes for one outcome rather than another. It is most efficient, if he seeks a truthful report, that he move toward being nonaligned and uninvolved. Of course we know that such neutrality and noninvolvement is theoretically almost impossible. Yet movement toward such an ideal is possible, and is different from movement away from it. It will help communication with those who have read Martin Buber if I call this I-It knowledge by contrast with the I-Thou knowledge that I shall try to describe. I-It knowledge is sometimes all you can do with things, with objects that have no human qualities to be identified with and to be understanding about. See also Sorokin (69, 287), who comes to similar conclusions from a different starting point. I do not mean here that this alien knowledge of the alien is the best that can be managed, even for things and objects. More sensitive observers are able to incorporate more of the world into the self, i.e., they are able to identify and empathize with wider and wider and more and more inclusive circles of living and nonliving things. As a matter of fact, this may turn out to be a distinguishing mark of the highly matured personality. It is likely that some degree of such identification makes possible some corresponding degree of experiential knowledge, by becoming and being what is to be known rather than remaining totally the outside spectator Since this identification can be subsumed under "love" broadly defined, its ability to increase knowledge from within may be considered for research purposes an instance of improvement of knowledge by love. Or perhaps we might formulate a general hypothesis to read so: love for the object seems likely to enhance experiential knowledge of the object, with lack of love diminishing experiential knowledge of the object, although it may very well increase spectator knowledge of that same object. An obvious illustration supported by common sense experience might be this. Researcher A is really fascinated with schizophrenics (or white rats or lichens). Researcher B, however, is much more interested in manic-depressive insanity (or monkeys or mushrooms). We may confidently expect that Researcher A will (a) freely choose or prefer to study schizophrenics, etc., (b) work better and longer at it, be more patient, more stubborn, more tolerant of 31 31 associated chores, (c) have more hunches, intuitions, dreams, illumination about them, (d) be more likely to make more profound discoveries about schizophrenia, and (e) the schizophrenics will feel easier with him and say that he "understands" them. In all these respects he would almost certainly do better than Researcher B. But observe that this superiority is in principle far greater for acquiring experiential knowledge than it is for acquiring knowledge about something, or spectator knowledge, even though Researcher A probably could do a bit better at that, too. So far as spectator knowledge of the alien is concerned, any competent scientist or research assistant may confidently be expected to accumulate knowledge about anything in a normal, routine way, e.g., external statistics. As a matter of fact, this is exactly what happens a great deal today in an age of "projects”, grants, teams, and organizations. Many scientists can be hired to do one disconnected, passionless job after another, just as a good salesman prides himself on being able to sell anything, whether he likes it or not, or as a horse pulls whatever wagon he happens to get hitched to. This is one way of describing the Cartesian split between the knower and the known that the existentialists, for instance, speak of today. We might also call it the "distancing" or perhaps even the alienation of the knower from his known. It must be clear from what has gone before that I can conceive of other kinds of relationships between knower and known or between perceiver and percept. I-Thou knowledge, knowledge by experiencing, knowledge from within, love knowledge, Being-Cognition, fusion knowledge, identification knowledge — all these have been or will be mentioned. Not only do these other forms of knowing exist, but also they are actually better, more efficacious, more productive of reliable and valid knowledge if we are trying to acquire knowledge of a particular person or even persons in general. If we wish to learn more about persons, then this is the way we'd better go about it. SOME PROPERTIES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF EXPERIENCING [6-2] Fullest and richest experiencing of the kind described by the Zen Buddhists, the general semanticists, and the phenomenologists includes at least the following aspects (my own primary source of data here are studies of peak experiences): 1. The good experiencer gets "utterly lost in the present”, to use Sylvia Ashton-Warner's beautiful phrase. He loses his past and his future for the time being and lives totally in the here-now experience. He is "all there”, immersed, concentrated, fascinated. 2. Self-consciousness is lost for the moment. 3. The experiencing is timeless, placeless, societyless, historyless. 4. In the fullest experiencing a kind of melting together of the person experiencing with that which is experienced occurs. This is difficult to put into words but I shall try below. 5. The experiencer becomes more "innocent”, more receptive without questioning, as children are. In the purest extreme the person is naked in the situation, guileless, without expectations or worries of any kind, without "shoulds" or "oughts”, without filtering the experience through any a priori ideas of what the experience should be, or of what is normal, correct, proper, right. The innocent child receives whatever happens without astonishment, shock, indignation, or denial and without any impulse to "improve" it. The full experience inundates the "helpless”, will-less, amazed, and unselfishly interested experiencer. 32 32 6. One especially important aspect of full experiencing is the abeyance of importanceunimportance. Ideally the experience is not structured into relatively important or unimportant aspects, central or peripheral, essential or expendable. 7. In the good instance fear disappears (along with all other personal or selfish considerations). The person is then nondefensive. The experience rushes in upon him without hindrance. 8. Striving, willing, straining tend to disappear. Experience happens without being made to happen. 9. Criticism, editing, checking of credentials or passports, skepticism, selecting and rejecting, evaluating — all tend to diminish or, in the ideal, to disappear for the time being, to be postponed. 10. This is the same as accepting, receiving, being passively seduced or raped by the experience, trusting it, letting it happen, being without will, noninterfering, surrendering (82). 11. All of this adds up to laying aside all the characteristics of our most prideful rationality, our words, our analysis, our ability to dissect, to classify, to define, to be logical. All of these processes are postponed. To the extent that they intrude, to that extent is the experience less "full”. Experiencing of this sort is much closer to Freud's primary process than to his secondary processes. It is in this sense nonrational — although it is by no means antirational. [6-3] THE PERSON AS SUBJECTIVELY ACTIVE OR PASSIVE One trouble with classical science applied to psychology is that all it knows how to do well is to study people as objects, when what we need is to be able to study them also as subjects. To be a passive spectator of ourselves and our own subjective processes is to be like a spectator at a movie. Something is happening to us; we are not making it happen. We do not have the feeling of willing it to happen. We simply observe. The feeling of being an active subject (or agent) is quite different. We are involved, we try, we strive, we make efforts and we get tired, we can succeed or fail, we can feel strong or weak, when, for instance, we try to recall, to understand, to solve a problem, to call up an image deliberately. These are the experiences of willing, of being responsible, of being a prime mover, of being able, of being in command of oneself, self-determined rather than other-determined, caused, helpless, dependent, passive, weak, unable, bossed, commanded, or manipulated (43, 100). Apparently, some people are not aware of having such experiences or have them only weakly, although I am sure it would be possible to teach an average person to be conscious of such experiencing. Difficult or not, it has to be done. Otherwise we shall be unable to understand the concepts variously called individuation, the real self, self-actualization, and identity. Furthermore we shall never be able to make any headway with the phenomena of willing, spontaneity, fully functioning, responsibility, self-esteem, and confidence. Ultimately, this stress on man as active subject makes possible the image of man as an initiator, a creator, a center of action, as one who does things rather than one who is done to. The various behaviorisms all seem to generate inexorably such a passive image of a helpless 33 33 man, one who (or should I say "which "?) has little to say about his (its?) own fate, who doesn't decide anything. Perhaps it is this ultimate philosophical consequence that makes all such psychologies totally unacceptable to so many because they neglect what is so richly and undeniably experienced. And it does no good to cite here the ways in which common sense perceptions are contradicted by scientific knowledge, e.g., the sun circling the earth. It is not a real parallel. My crucially important experience of being an active subject is — depending on the comprehensiveness of the objectivism — either denied altogether or is melted down into stimuli and responses, or is simply pushed aside as "unscientific”, i.e., beyond respectable scientific treatment. An accurate parallel would be either to deny the existence of the sun, to insist that it was really something else, or else to deny that it could be studied. All these errors would be avoided if the people who espouse positivism and behaviorism were not so often too sweeping, too doctrinaire, too monistic, too excluding. I have no doubt that objective, measurable, recordable, repeatable movements or responses are often more reliable, more trustworthy forms of knowledge than are subjective observations. Neither am I in any doubt about the frequent desirability, as a strategy, of moving in this direction nor about anyone's right to prefer it. Today we must study anxiety, depression, or happiness mostly as private experiences and verbal reports. But this is because we can't do any better today. On the day when we discover an externally and publicly observable and measurable correlate of anxiety or of happiness, something like a thermometer or a barometer, on that day a new era in psychology will have begun. Since I think this is not only desirable but possible, I have pressed in this direction. This amounts to seeing data as arranged in a hierarchy of greater and lesser reliability, a hierarchy of knowledge that parallels an equally necessary idea of "stages or levels of development of science”. [6-4] Such an approach is quite compatible with a problem-centered orientation and with an experiential psychology, a self-psychology, etc. It is, so to speak, an open-door policy rather than an excluding policy in science, a tolerant pluralism rather than a "true faith”. Any question can be asked, any problem raised. Once it is raised, you go on from there to do the best you can to get the answer to that particular question, the solution to that particular problem, without permitting yourself to be hampered by any conceptual or methodological pieties that might forbid you to use all your wits, all your capacities in the enterprise. One could almost say at such a moment that there are no rules, at least none that is binding a priori. Methods must be created as necessary, and so also must any heuristic framework of definition and concept that may be useful or necessary. The only requirement is to do the best you can with the problem at the time and under the circumstances. [6-5] Certainly I would not care to give instructions about how to tackle all future problems, and certainly I wouldn't give much respect to the doctrinaire scientist who assumes in effect that what was good enough for his daddy is good enough for him. Nor do I wish to imply that a scientist may not choose the limited objectives and aspirations of classical science if he wishes. Some people dislike skating on thin ice. And why should they not do as they please? It would be a blow to science if all scientists preferred the same problem, the same method, the same philosophy, just as it would be a deathblow to the orchestra if everyone preferred to play the oboe. Clearly science is a collaboration, a division of labor, and no single man is responsible for the whole of it, nor could he be. No, this is not the issue. Rather it is the tendency to get pious and metaphysical about these personal preferences and to exalt them into rules for everyone else. It is the insistence on generating sweeping and excluding philosophies of knowledge, of truth, and therefore of human nature that makes trouble. This is hard to make clear, as I discovered long ago when I tried to argue with a woman who lived exclusively on Brazil nuts and cabbage. It was all useless because she concluded only that I was "prejudiced" against nuts and cabbage. Or, to the same point, we can share the bafflement of the man whose 34 34 mother gave him two ties for his birthday. He put one on to please her, only to be asked, "Why do you hate the other tie?" A LESSON FROM SYNANON Inductive knowledge can never bring certainty. It can only generate higher subjective and objective probabilities. But in a real sense experiential knowledge can be certain and perhaps even is the only certainty, as so many philosophers have thought (passing over, for the moment, the question of mathematical certainty). In any case, it is real and, at times, certain for the psychotherapist. Of course, such statements are debatable, resting as heavily as they do on particular definitions of particular words. It is not necessary to enter upon these debates here. And yet it should be possible to convey some of the operational meanings to which such statements refer, since they are indubitable to most clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists, and personologists. If these meanings can be communicated, this should contribute to greater understanding between scientists of the personal and of the impersonal. The mode of operation of Synanon, Alcoholics Anonymous, "street-corner workers”, and other similar groups can supply us with excellent examples. These subcultures work on the principle that only a (cured) drug addict or alcoholic can fully understand, communicate with, help, and cure another drug addict or alcoholic. Only the one who knows is accepted at all by addicts. Addicts permit themselves to be known only by addicts. Furthermore only addicts passionately want to cure addicts. [6-6] Nobody else loves them enough and understands them enough. As they themselves say, "Only somebody who has been through the same mill really knows". One major consequence of having shared the experience and of knowing it from within is the great sureness and skill that permits one of the ultimate tests of knowledge, namely, the ability to inflict helpful pain without fear, without guilt, without conflict or ambivalence. I have pointed out elsewhere (46) that the perception of oughtness and requiredness is an intrinsic consequence of clearly perceived realness and sureness of knowledge, and that decisiveness and sure action, relentless and tough if need be, is a kind of Socratic consequence of "ought-perception”. (Socrates taught that ultimately evil behavior can come only from ignorance. Here I am suggesting that good behavior needs as a precondition good knowledge and is perhaps a necessary consequence of good knowledge). That is, from sureness of knowledge — and from the fact that some kinds of sureness of knowledge can come only from experiencing — comes effective, successful, efficient, decisive, stern, strong, unambivalent action. It is precisely this kind of action — and perhaps only this kind of action — that can help addicts because their way of life so often rests on "conning" others, on false tears and promises, on seducing and ingratiating, on wearing a false front, on fooling people with it and therefore feeling contempt for them. Only other addicts, who know, cannot be fooled. I have seen them in the process of contemptuously, brutally, obscenely ripping away this false front, the hitherto accepted lies and promises, the successful defenses, the phony mask that formerly worked so well. I have seen the experienced ones laughing at the tears, touching and poignant to the inexperienced spectator but soon exposed as fake, maudlin, guileful. To date this is the only way that works. This seeming harshness is pragmatically "called for”. It is therefore ultimately compassionate rather than sadistic. It is far more truly loving than the lack of sternness which is falsely labeled affection, which creates the addict, and which "supports his habit" rather than letting him become strong enough to go away. In this subsociety the contempt for social workers, psychiatrists, and other "experts" is thick and 35 35 heavy. There is a total mistrust and hatred and sometimes fear of "mere" book knowledge, of people with degrees, of people who are certified as knowing but who in fact know nothing. This itself is probably a potent dynamic factor in helping to maintain this "world". In this realm spectator knowledge is unmistakably different from and opposed to experiential knowledge, and it is clearly far less effective. And because this difference makes a difference, it is thereby proved to be real. If I may milk still another moral from this experience, I would like to call attention to the lunatic fact that as nearly as I can make out, the Synanon type of treatment cures many of its addicts, while our whole apparatus of hospitals, physicians, police, prisons, psychiatrists, and social workers cures practically none. But this ineffective and perhaps worse than useless apparatus has the complete support of the whole society, of all the professions, and eats up huge amounts of money. The effective method, as nearly as I, a lay observer, can make out, gets practically no money at all, no official support, and indeed it is officially neglected or opposed by all the professions, by the government, by the foundations. Former drug addicts normally do not have degrees and professional training for obvious reasons, and therefore they do not have "standing" and "status" in the conventional world. Thus they cannot get jobs, money, or backing in spite of the clear fact that they are the only effective therapists available. [6-7] In the conventional world actual success seems to be no substitute for "normal professional or scientific training”, however ineffective this may be. Six credits of "How to Cure" can carry more weight than actual curing, as in some places two years of teaching in the Peace Corps does not satisfy the requirement for courses in how to teach. I could list dozens of examples of this confusion between the sign and the reality signified, the map and the territory, the medal and the hero, the college degree and the educated person. The literature of General Semantics is full of them. Think how easy it is to get a grade of A in a course on marriage and how difficult it is to achieve a good marriage, as Trainer has pointed out. In the realm of science there are also plenty of situations of this sort in which experiential knowledge counts for much or is even sine qua non, fields in which mere spectator knowledge is helpful only when it is added to experiential knowledge rather than substituted for it. What we approach in the Synanon story is the ultimate absurdity of bureaucratic science, in which some portions of the truth may have to be defined as "unscientific”, in which truth is really true only when gathered by properly certified and uniformed "truth collectors" and according to traditionally sanctified methods or ceremonies. [6-8] KNOWLEDGE WHICH BLINDS We can view this set of problems from still another angle, which I can illustrate with the Maslow Art Test, something my wife and I made up to test for holistic perception and intuition by testing the ability to detect the style of an artist (55, 57). One of our discoveries was that "knowledge of art”, as in art majors, professional artists, etc., sometimes helped and some times hurt performance in this test. The better way to perceive "style" is not to analyze or dissect it but to be receptive, global, intuitive. For instance, so far there is some evidence to indicate that a quick reaction is apt to be more successful (57) than long, careful, meticulous study. This prerequisite for holistic perception of qualities of wholeness I shall call "experiential 36 36 naïveté”, and I define it as a willingness and an ability to experience immediately without certain other ways of "knowing”. It means setting aside all our tendencies to rubricize, to know instead of to perceive, to dissect into elements, to split apart. After all, a quality of wholeness is something which pervades the whole and is lost by dissecting. So those individuals who "know" art only in the analytic, atomistic, taxonomic, or historical sense are less able to perceive and enjoy. And the possibility must be admitted that education of a merely analytic sort may actually diminish originally present intuitiveness. (A better example might be conventional mathematics "education”, which is far more successful in teaching children to be blind to the beauties and wonders of mathematics). In every field of knowledge, there exist some "blind knowers" of this sort — botanists who are blind to the beauty of flowers, child psychologists who make children flee in terror, librarians who hate their books to be taken out, literary critics who condescend to poets, the dried-out teacher who ruins his subject for his students, etc. There are the Ph.D.'s who are "licensed fools" and the joyless non-scholars who publish only to avoid perishing, the ones of whom one girl whispered to another at a party, "He's no fun; he doesn't know anything but facts". Some artists, some poets, some "hysterical" people who rely heavily on feeling, emotion, intuition, and impulsiveness, some religious people, the more mystical people are apt to stop right there. They may then repudiate knowledge, education, science, and intellect as destroyers of instinctive feeling, of innate intuition, of natural piety, of innocent perspicuity. I think this strain of anti-intellectual suspicion runs far deeper than we realize, even in intellectuals themselves. For instance, I think it is one of the sources of the deeper misunderstandings between women and men in our culture. And recent history has shown how it can erupt into terrible political philosophies. Orthodox, analytic, mechanistic science has no really good way of defending itself against these charges because there is a fair amount of truth and justice in them. A more inclusive conception of science can, however, meet and answer these accusations, i.e., a science that includes the idiographic, the experiential, the Taoistic, the comprehensive, the holistic, the personal, the transcendent, the final, etc. Our art test can serve us as an instance. Assuming that more careful research will confirm our strong first impressions, then it seems also to be true that there are other people whose perspicuity, intuitiveness, and ability to perceive style are improved and enriched by education and by knowledge. Somehow they are able to bring nomothetic, abstract, lawful, verbal knowledge to bear upon their experiencing of the individual instance. Their knowledge helps them to perceive and makes their perceiving richer, more complex, and more enjoyable. In the extreme instance it can enhance even the transcendent aspects of reality, the sacred, the mysterious, the miraculous, the awe-inspiring, the final. Even saintliness, that was supposed by many to come only with naïveté and innocence, we are now finding may come rather with sophistication and knowledge, at least with the kind of more inclusive knowledge that I am talking about. (This observation or hypothesis or guess is an extrapolation from my studies of self-actualizing people and of the effects of psychotherapy rather than from the art test). It is just these people, the sages, in whom wisdom, goodness, perspicuity, and learning become a unity, who manage somehow to retain this "experiential naïveté”, this "creative attitude" (45) , this ability to see freshly as a child sees, without a priori expectations or demands, without knowing in advance what they will see. I have tried to understand how and why this happens (45, 47), but the ability to transform abstract knowledge into richer experiencing is still a mystery and is therefore most obviously a rich question for research. The broader research questions are: when does knowledge conceal and when does it reveal? 37 37 "PROOF" OF EXPERIENCE What can the word "proof' mean in the experiential realm? How can I prove to someone that I am experiencing vividly, that, for example, I am profoundly moved? And how can this be "validated" in the usual external sense of this term? Of course it is valid to me if I am authentically and vividly experiencing it. But how to prove this to someone else? Is there some shared external thing that we can both point to simultaneously? How describe it, communicate it, measure it, verbalize it? There are special difficulties here. Many people have called experience ineffable, incommunicable, unverbalizable, impossible for scientists to work with. But often these difficulties are consequences more of the world of abstraction than of the world of experience. Communications of a kind and of a degree are possible, but they are of a kind different from that which exists between chemists (see 48, app. F on "rhapsodic communication”, 43, app). . Abstract, verbal, unambiguous communication may be less effective for some purposes than metaphorical, poetic, esthetic, primary process techniques. 38 38 Chapter 7 Abstracting and Theorizing Now that I have expounded on the virtues, the necessities and the priority of experiential knowledge to abstract knowledge, I turn to the virtues and beauties and necessities of abstract knowledge as well. By now my general point must be clear. It is the dichotomized, solely abstract knowledge that is so dangerous, the abstractions and the systems that are opposed to or dichotomized from experience instead of being built upon it and integrated with it. If I may say it so, abstract knowledge dichotomized from experiential knowledge is false and dangerous; but abstract knowledge built upon and hierarchically-integrated with experiential knowledge is a necessity for human life. Abstractness begins with all orderings of experience, all interpretations of it, and all the hierarchical and Gestaltlike arrangements of experiential knowledge that make it possible for the limited human being to encompass it, grasp it, not be overwhelmed by it. In the same way that our immediate memory span for separate objects is about seven or eight or so, it is also known that six or seven or eight groups of separate objects may also be perceived and encompassed in an immediate perception. This is the simplest example of the holistic hierarchizing of many objects that I can think of. Make these groupings more and more inclusive, and finally it is possible for a human being, limited though he is, to encompass the whole world in a single unified perception. The contrast is with total anarchy, total chaos, a total lack of ordering, or clustering, or of relationships among all these separate things. This is the world, perhaps, of the newborn baby in some respects, or like the world of the panicky schizophrenic in another respect. In any case, it is hardly possible to live with for any length of time or to endure (although it can be enjoyed for a short time). This is even more true if we take into account the necessity for pragmatic living within the world, surviving in it, dealing with it, and having commerce with it. All the means-end relationships, and all the differential perception of ends and means also come under the head of abstractness. Purely concrete experience does not differentiate one experience from another experience in any way, certainly not in terms of relative importance or of relative hierarchy of means and ends. All classifications of our experiences of reality are abstractions, and so is all awareness of similarities and differences. In other words, abstractness is absolutely necessary for life itself. It is also necessary for the fullest and highest development of human nature. Self-actualization necessarily implies abstractness. It is not even possible to conceive of human self-actualization without whole systems of symbols, abstractions, and words, i.e., language, philosophy, world view. The attack upon abstractness dichotomized from concreteness must never be confused with an attack upon abstractness hierarchically-integrated with concreteness and experience. We might remind ourselves here of the contemporary situation in philosophy. Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, to take two major examples, attacked not philosophy in general but the great abstract systems of philosophy that had long since cut themselves off from their foundations in actual living experience. Existentialism and phenomenology are in large part also a repudiation of these huge, verbal, a priori, abstract, total systems of philosophy. This is an attempt to get back to life itself, that is to say, to concrete experience upon which all abstractions must be based if they are to remain alive. It will help here to make the distinction between an empirical generalization or theory and an a priori generalization or theory. The former is simply an effort to organize and to unify experiential knowledge so that we can grasp it with our limited human brain. An a priori 39 39 theory makes no such effort. It can be spun entirely inside one's own head and can proceed without reference either to experiential knowledge or to areas of ignorance. Generally it is presented as a certainty. In effect it commits the great sin of denying human ignorance. The true empiricist or the empirical-minded layman is always aware of what he knows and what he doesn't know and of the relative reliabilities and different levels of validity of what he does know. An empirical theory is in a real sense humble. The classical, abstract, a priori theory need not be humble; it can be and often is arrogant. One might also say that the abstract theory or abstract system becomes functionally autonomous in the sense of divorcing itself from its empirical foundations, from the experiences upon which it rests and which it is supposed to explain or give meaning to or organize. It proceeds thereafter to live its own life as a theory per se, sufficient unto itself, having its own life. In contrast the empirical theory or empirical system remains connected with the experiential facts that it organizes into a manageable, graspable unity and in close parallel with these facts. As a consequence it can shift and change and easily modify itself as new information becomes available. That is, if it purports to interpret and organize our knowledge of reality, then it must of necessity be a changing thing, since our knowledge of reality keeps on changing, and it must be adaptable and flexible in the sense of adapting itself to this foundation of changing and increasing knowledge. There is a kind of mutual feedback involved here between theory and facts, a feedback which can be totally lacking in the functionally autonomous abstract theory or system which has become self-borne. To add a final touch to this differentiation, I refer to a previously made distinction between reduction to the concrete as Goldstein described it (22) and reduction to the abstract as I described it (47). I will then contrast both of these with the finding in self-actualizing people that characteristically they were able to be both concrete and abstract. I can push the whole matter even further. In a certain sense I see the acceptance of the prepotency and the logical priority of experience as another version of the spirit of empiricism itself. One of the beginnings of science, one of the roots from which it grew, was the determination not to take things on faith, trust, logic, or authority but to check and to see for oneself. Experience had shown how often the logic or the a priori certainty or Aristotle's authority failed to work in fact. The lesson was easy to draw. First, before everything else comes the seeing of nature with your own eyes, that is, experiencing it yourself. Perhaps an even better example is the development of the empirical or the scientific attitude in the child. Here the major injunction is "let's take a look for ourselves”, or "go and see with your own eyes”. For the child this contrasts with taking things on faith, whether from daddy or mommy or from the teacher or from the book. It can be phrased in the harshest terms of "don't trust anyone, but look with your own eyes”. Or else it can be phrased more mildly: "it's always a good idea to check just to make sure. There are individual differences in perceiving; somebody else might see it in one way, and you perhaps will see it in another”. This is to teach the child that one's own perceptions usually constitute the court of last resort. If the empirical attitude means anything at all, it means at least this. First comes "knowing" in the experiential sense; then come the checks on the fallibilities of the senses and of experiential knowledge; then come the abstractions, the theories, i.e., orthodox science. As a matter of fact, the concept of objectivity itself (in the sense of the need to make knowledge public and to share it and not to trust it completely until it has been shared by at least several people) may be seen as a more complex derivative of a primary empirical rule, i.e., to check by one's own experience. This is so because public knowledge constitutes an experiential check by several people on your report of your private experience. If you go into the desert and discover some unexpected mine or some improbable animal, your experiential knowledge may be certain and valid, but you can hardly expect others to believe you entirely and on faith. They also have a right to see for themselves, 40 40 that is, to acquire the ultimate validity of their own experiential knowledge. And that is just what objective public checking is, i.e., an extension of "see for yourself". This insistence upon the priority of the empirical theory over the a priori theory or system and the consequent insistence upon a close parallelism of the empirical theory with the facts that it ties together in a unity, differentiates between the person with the empirical attitude on the one hand and the doctrinaire on the other. For instance, Max Eastman in his autobiography thinks of himself, by contrast with the Soviet intellectuals, as a "vulgar empiricist who saw Socialism as a hypothesis, an experiment that ought to be tried”. He was restless with the Soviet theorists, among whom he felt "an atmosphere of theology rather than of science”. I have criticized the religious establishments on a similar basis (48). Since most of them have claimed to be revealed religions, that is, to be based upon an original prophets' vision of the perfect, final, and absolute truth, there is obviously nothing more to learn. There is no need for openness, for checking, for experimentation, not even for improvement (since it is already perfect). This is as sharp a contrast with the empirical attitude as I can find. But in a milder form it is widespread and perhaps we could say almost universal in the mass of humankind. And I am not even inclined to exempt all professional scientists from this indictment. The empirical attitude is in its essence a humble attitude, and many or most scientists are not humble except in their own chosen areas of professional work. They are, many of them, as likely to charge out of their laboratory doors with a priori faiths and prejudgments of all kinds as are some theologians, if only about the nature of science itself. This humility that I consider to be a defining characteristic of the empirical or scientific attitude includes the ability to admit that you are ignorant and that mankind in general is ignorant about many things. Such an admission has the necessary consequence of making you in principle willing and eager to learn. It means that you are open rather than closed to new data. It means that you can be naive rather than all-knowing. And all of this means, of course, that your universe keeps on growing steadily in contrast to the static universe of the person who already knows everything. This is a long way off from the point at which I started, that is, of simply insisting on a place in knowledge and in science for experiential data. But I believe that making a respectable place for experiential data finally strengthens the empirical attitude and therefore strengthens science rather than weakens it. It expands the jurisdiction of science because of its faith that the human mind need not be shut out of any area of life. 41 41 Chapter 8 Comprehensive Science and Simpleward Science The inclusion of subjective experiences in the world of reality knowable by the scientist (for us now defined as wanting to know all of reality, not just the shared, public portions of it) breeds two consequences at least. One is the obvious differentiation between the immediacy of experiential knowledge and the distance of what I have called "spectator knowledge”. The other is the notion that scientific work has two directions or poles or goals: one is toward utter simplicity and condensation, the other toward total comprehensiveness and inclusiveness. If there is any primary rule of science, it is, in my opinion, acceptance of the obligation to acknowledge and describe all of reality, all that exists, everything that is the case. Before all else science must be comprehensive and all-inclusive. It must accept within its jurisdiction even that which it cannot understand or explain, that for which no theory exists, that which cannot be measured, predicted, controlled, or ordered. It must accept even contradictions and illogicalities and mysteries, the vague, the ambiguous, the archaic, the unconscious, and all other aspects of existence that are difficult to communicate. At its best it is completely open and excludes nothing. It has no "entrance requirements". Furthermore it includes all levels or stages of knowledge, including the inchoate. Knowledge has an embryology, too; it cannot confine itself to its final and adult forms alone. Knowledge of low reliability is also part of knowledge. At this point, however, my main intention is to include subjective experiences in this all-inclusive realm of being and then to pursue some of the radical consequences of this inclusion. Such knowledge is of course apt to be less reliable, less communicable, less measurable, etc. And of course one push of science is toward the more public, toward the more "objective”. In that direction lies the shared certainty that we all seek and enjoy. And ordinarily this is ultimately the direction in which technological progress is most likely. If I could only discover some external indicator of, for example, happiness or anxiety, some litmus paper test of the subjective, I would be a very happy man. But happiness and anxiety now exist even in the absence of such objective tests. It is the denial of this existence that I consider so silly that I won't bother arguing about it. Anyone who tells me that my emotions or desires don't exist is in effect, telling me that I don't exist. Once the break has been made and experiential data have been acknowledged as part of knowledge and therefore of science (comprehensively defined), we are confronted with many real problems, difficulties, and paradoxes. For one thing, it seems that we must begin, philosophically and scientifically, with experience. For each of us it is precisely some of his subjective experiences that are the most certain, the most undoubted, the least questionable of all data. Especially is this true if I am a schizophrenic. Then my subjective experiences may become the only reliable reality. But just as the schizophrenic is not content with his subjective world alone and makes desperate efforts to reach the reality outside and to cling to it, so do we all seek to know and to live in the extra-psychic world of "reality”, almost from birth on. We need to know it at all the levels of meaning of the word "know”. The intrapsychic world, much of it, is too fluctuating, too changeable. It doesn't stay put. Too often we don't know what to expect of it. And it is obviously influenced by happenings "outside" of it. Not only the world of nature but also the social world of people beckon us out of our private inner worlds. From our beginnings we cling to the mother as she clings to us, and here too an outside-the-ego kind of reality starts forming. In such ways we begin to make the 42 42 differentiation between our subjective experiences that we share with others and those which we discover to be peculiarly our own. And it is this world that correlates with the shared experiences that we finally learn to call external reality, a world of happenings and things that you and I can point to, i.e., that produce similar experiences in you and me at the same time. In various senses this external world is discovered to be independent of our wishes and fears, our attention to it, etc. Science or knowledge in sum total can be considered a codification, a purification, a structuring and organizing of all these shared experiences. It has been a way of enabling us to grasp them and to make them comprehensible by unifying and simplifying them. This monistic trend, this pressure toward simplicity and parsimony, this yearning to make a single inclusive formula out of a lot of little ones, has come to be identified with science and with knowledge. For most people the far goal of science, its end and therefore its ideal and defining essence, still is its comprehensive "laws”, elegant and "simple" mathematical formulas, pure and abstract concepts and models, ultimate and irreducible elements and variables. And so for these people these ultimate abstractions have become the most real reality. Reality lies behind the appearances and is inferred rather than perceived. The blueprints are more real than the houses. The maps are more real than the territory. What I propose here is that this is only one direction in which science can develop, one limit toward which it yearns to approach. Another direction is toward comprehensiveness, allness, and the acceptance of all concrete experience, all suchness, all esthetic savoring of the full richness of everything without needing to abstract. I would equally avoid reduction to the concrete or reduction to the abstract [8-1]. I would remind you again that any abstraction loses something of concrete, experiential reality. And with equal emphasis I would remind you that the abstractions are necessary if we are to avoid total insanity and if we wish to live in the world. The solution of this dilemma that I have worked out for myself and that works well for me is to know when I am abstracting and when I am concretizing, to be able to do both, to enjoy them both, and to know the values and shortcomings of both. With Whitehead, we can then "seek simplicity and distrust it". Accepting experiential data as scientific data creates problems. But also many problems disappear if we accept both worlds. On the one hand we have the traditional scientific world, unifying and organizing multiplex experience, moving toward simplicity, economy, parsimony, succinctness, and unity. On the other hand we accept also the world of subjective experiences, affirming that these too exist, that they are part of reality, that they are worthy of our interest, and that there is even some possibility of understanding and organizing them (quite apart from the primary rule of science — to accept what exists as real, i.e., not to deny any reality, even if we cannot understand it or explain it or communicate it). Science, then, has two directions or tasks, not just one. It moves toward abstractness (unity, parsimony, economy, simplicity, integration, lawfulness, "graspability"). But it also moves toward comprehensiveness, toward experiencing everything, toward describing all these experiences, toward accepting all that exists. Thus we may speak about the two kinds of reality that many have spoken of, for instance Northrop (58) [8-2]. The world of experience exists and comprehends all experiences, i.e., the experiential, phenomenological, or esthetically experienced world. The other, the world of the physicists, mathematicians, and chemists, of abstractions, "laws”, and formulas, of systems of postulates, is a world that is not directly experienced but rather rests upon the experiential world, is inferred from it, and is an effort to comprehend it and to make sense of it, to see behind its contradictions, to order it and structure it. Is the abstract world of the physicist more "real" than the world of the phenomenologist? 43 43 Why need we think so? If anything the contradiction of this statement is easier to defend. What exists here and now and what we actually experience is certainly more immediately real than the formula, the symbol, the sign, the blueprint, the word, the name, the schema, the model, the equation, etc. What exists now is in this same sense more real than its origins, its putative constituents or causes or precursors; it is experientially more real than anything it can be reduced to. At the very least we must reject the definition of reality as being only the abstractions of science. EMPIRICAL AND ABSTRACT THEORIES This continuum from comprehensiveness to simplicity can help us to understand better the important difference between "empirical theories" and "constructed" or "abstract theories”. The former are more an expression of science's effort to be comprehensive (at the same time that it organizes and classifies multiplicity in order to make it more graspable by the limited human being). It is essentially an effort to order the facts rather than to explain them. The Linnaean system is the classical example. The original Freudian system is another such "empirical theory”, in my opinion. It seems to me to be primarily a taxonomy, one might say almost a filing system in which all the clinical discoveries can find a place. The abstract (or constructed) system is determined far more by its system properties than by its loyalty to the facts, as the empirical theory is. In principle it need have nothing to do with facts; it can be an arbitrary construction, e.g., the non-Euclidean geometries. A good theory in this sense is primarily like a good mathematician's demonstration. It is as succinct as possible, moving ideally toward a single equation. It is like a good system of logic, obeying its own given rules. It may or may not be "useful" but need not be. This kind of "pure" theory has often come before the fact, like a suit of clothes playfully designed for some fantasied, nonexistent species that later may have turned out to be useful for some other, unforeseen purpose; or like a chemical newly synthesized for its own sake, for which uses are subsequently sought and perhaps found ("I have discovered a cure; but for what disease?"). A good empirical theory may be a sloppy abstract theory, self-contradictory, complicated, incoherent, with overlapping categories (rather than mutually exclusive ones), with unclear and equivocal definitions. Its first loyalty is to include all the facts somewhere within its jurisdiction, even if this makes for sloppiness. A good abstract theory stresses rather the simplifying and neatening function of science. In other words, we see exemplified also here in the realm of theory-making the twofold task of science. On the one hand it must describe and accept the "way things are”, the actual world as it is, understandable or not, meaningful or not, explainable or not. Facts must come before theories. On the other hand it also presses steadily toward simplicity, unity, and elegance, toward condensed, succinct, and abstract formulas for describing the essence of reality, its skeletal structure, the ultimate to which it can be reduced [8-3]. Ultimately the good theory does both, or at least tries to. Or more accurately said, the good theorist does both and gets satisfactions from both kinds of success, especially if both can come simultaneously. Any scientific theory has not only system properties, which are the characteristics of a "good theory”, but also empirical determinants. That is, it tries not only to be a good theory but also to be true as a description and organization of what exists. It is faithful to the nature of reality and tries to make it more graspable, essentially by simplifying and abstracting. 44 44 If this twofold nature of any scientific theory were fully accepted, we should have far less trouble with crude empirical theories like psychoanalysis. The Freudian system is primarily a description of many experiences. It is far from being a "formal" or elegant theory. But the fact that it is not "formal" or "hypothetico-deductive" is distinctly secondary to the fact that it describes systematically and correctly a multitude of clinical experiences. First one should ask how accurate and how true to experience it is rather than how elegant and how abstracted it is. Most qualified people — that is, with the proper kind of experience and training-would agree, I think, that Freud's set of clinical descriptions is mostly veridical, i.e., that his collection of "facts" is largely true. This is so even though certain of his specific efforts at grand theorizing and at constructing a "system" can be argued with or rejected. A scientist's first duty, then, is to describe the facts. If these conflict with the demand for a "good system”, then out with the system. Systematizing and theorizing come after the facts. Or, to avoid ruminating over what a fact is, let us say that the first task of the scientist is to experience truly that which exists. It is amazing how often this truism gets lost. SYSTEM PROPERTIES Much confusion in the world of science could be bypassed by realizing that "system properties”, i.e., the properties that inhere in theoretical, abstract structures of thought, apply only to the simplifying direction of scientific thought. They do not apply to the world of comprehensive experience, in which the only scientific requirement is to accept what exists. Whether experience is meaningful or not, mysterious or not, illogical or contradictory simply does not matter in the realm of experience. Nor is it required that experience be structured, organized, measured, weighed, or aligned in any way to other experiences. The ideal pole here is the innocent and fully concentrated experiencing of the suchness of the experience. Any other process or activity can only detract from the full reality of the experience and therefore constitutes a kind of interference with the perception of this kind of truth. The ideal model of a theoretical or abstract system is a mathematical or logical system like Euclid's geometry, or better for our purposes, the Lobachevski geometry or one of the other non-Euclidean geometries because they are more independent of reality, i.e., of nonsystem determinants. Here apart from truth, reality, or veridicality we can talk about a theory being a "good" theory because it is internally consistent, it covers everything, it is parsimonious, economical, condensed, and "elegant”. The more abstract it is, the better theory it is. Each variable or separable aspect of the theory has a name and just this name, and nothing else has this name. Furthermore it is definable. One can say exactly what it is and what it is not. Its perfection consists in the most fully abstracted inclusion of everything in the system in a single mathematical formula. Each statement or formula or equation has a single meaning and can have no other (unlike a figure of speech or a painting), and it conveys this and only this same meaning to each onlooker. The good theory is obviously a generalization. That is, it is a way of classifying, organizing, structuring, simplifying huge numbers of separate instances, even infinite numbers of them. It does not refer to any one experience or to any one thing or object but to categories or kinds of things or experiences. This can be a game in itself and has been used often enough precisely as an intellectual exercise having nothing whatsoever to do with reality. One could manufacture a theory to cover some class of objects or happenings or some imaginary world, starting with completely arbitrary definitions, going on to completely arbitrary operations, and then playing the game of generating deductions from them. It is in this kind of system that many of our "scientific" 45 45 words and concepts belong, "Definition" and especially "exact or rigorous definition" is of the world of abstractions, i.e., it is a system property. It is completely irrelevant to experienced suchness. It just doesn't apply. An experience of redness or of pain is its own definition, i.e., its own felt quality or suchness. It is what it is. It is itself. So ultimately is any process of classifying that is always a reference to something beyond the suchness of an experience. Indeed, this holds true for any abstracting process whatsoever, which by definition is a cutting into the suchness of an experience, taking part of it and throwing the rest away. In contrast the fullest savoring of an experience discards nothing but takes it all in. So for the concepts "law" and "order" — these, too, are system properties, as are also "prediction" and "control”. Any "reduction" is a happening within a theoretical system. EXPERIENCING AND RUBRICIZING Long ago I learned from my artist-wife of her irritation with some of my scientist's obsessional classifying ways. For example, I asked always, in a kind of conversational tic, for the name of the bird or the flower or the tree that I admired. It was as if I were not content to admire and to enjoy but also had to do something intellectual about it. And often that "something intellectual" substituted for or displaced altogether the drinking in and contemplative enjoyment of "the way things are”. This process of classifying in lieu of real perceiving and experiencing I call "rubricizing" (38) , which means the pathologizing of the "normal" or "healthy" effort to organize and unify a truly experienced world. The reader may perhaps profit from my mistakes. I saw myself sometimes "rubricizing" in the art gallery as well, looking first at the name plate rather than the painting, and again not really perceiving but rather classifying, e.g., "Oh yes! a Renoir, quite typical, nothing unusual or startling, easily recognizable, nothing to attract attention, no need to study it (since I already "know" it), no novelty here, what's next?" And once, when I looked first at a most beautiful drawing — really looked and really enjoyed — I was startled to find out later that it was by Gainsborough — of all unfashionable people! I think that had I first looked at the name, I might not have really seen the drawing because of the a priori classification and filing system I carried in my head and in which I had already decided that Gainsborough gave me no pleasure and wasn't worth looking at. I learned also, in a well-remembered illumination, that a robin or a bluejay is a most beautiful and miraculous thing, as all birds are. Even common ones are just as beautiful as the rare birds. The judgment of commonness is outside the experience itself and has nothing to do with its own nature. Such a judgment can be a way of dismissing the experience, a way of not paying attention to it. That is, it can be a way of blinding ourselves. Any sunset or oak tree or baby or pretty girl is a fantastic and unbelievable, unassimilable miracle if seen for the first time, or if seen as if for the first time (or as if for the last time), as a good artist sees or as any good experiencer sees. This fresh and defamiliarized experiencing becomes easy for any person as soon as he has sense enough to realize that it is more fun to live in a world of miracles than in a world of filing cabinets and that a familiar miracle is still a miracle. The pertinent (and sententious) moral for both the lay knower and the scientist knower is that not fully experiencing is a form of blindness that no would-be scientist can afford. Not only does this maneuver deprive him of many of the joys of science, but it threatens to make him a poor scientist. Another blessing that came to me from insight into my rubricizing is that I did not have to oppose "experiencing" to "organizing-integrating" nor the esthetic to the scientific way. I learned that "scientific knowledge" actually enriched my experiencing rather 46 46 than impoverishing it, if only I didn't use it as a substitute for experiencing. The knowledgeable experiencer can often be a better enjoyer than the ignorant experiencer, if we accept the formula "First look, and then know”. We can now add to it, "and then look again”, and we will see how much better cognizing becomes, how much more enjoyable, how much richer, how much more mysterious and awesome. Fortunately "real experiencing" is so often enjoyable and even rapturous, if it is holistic enough, i.e., cosmic and mystical enough. It is often "enjoyable" even when it is also painful and sad. At any rate, by comparison with mere rubricizing, it is more often enjoyable. Rubricizing, i.e., shuffling, classifying, and filing the nonexperienced, is a thin and bloodless activity, rarely happy or enjoyable except at a low level in the hierarchy of pleasures. At best it is a kind of "relief" rather than a kind of positive enjoyment. To fall into this mode of "knowing" is, then, not only a way of being blind but also a way of being unhappy. 47 47 Chapter 9 Suchness Meaning and Abstractness Meaning For my own thinking one important by-product of the foregoing considerations has been the illumination of the concept of "meaning”. In general we — the intellectuals, the philosophers, the scientists — have meant by it that it integrates, coordinates, classifies, and organizes the chaos, the multiple, and the meaningless many. It is a gestalting, holistic activity, the creation of a whole. This whole and its parts then have the meaning that the parts did not hitherto have. "Organizing experience into meaningful patterns" implies that experience itself has no meaningfulness, that the organizer creates or im-poses or donates the meaning, that this giving of meaning is an active process rather than a receptive one, that it is a gift from the knower to the known. In other words, "meaningfulness" of this kind is of the realm of classification and abstraction rather than of experience. It is an aspect of economical, simpleward knowledge and science rather than of all-descriptive and comprehensive knowledge and science. Frequently I sense also the implication that it is "human-created”, i.e., that much of it would vanish if human beings disappeared. And this in turn leads me to align "manmade meaningfulness" with the underlying implication that things (reality, nature, cosmos), having no inherent, intrinsic meaningfulness, must be clothed with meaningfulness, and if man is incapable of doing this, then some god must. It is possible to counter this ultimately mechanistic world view in two different ways. One is to do as many contemporary artists, composers, screen writers, poets, dramatists, and novelists (and some philosophers, too) have done, and that is to embrace this notion overenthusiastically after being repelled and depressed by it, and to talk about the ultimate absurdity and meaninglessness of life, to paint, write, or compose by chance, to break up meaningfulness as if it could be only cliché, to talk of "indeterminacy and the arbitrariness of any human decision”, etc. [9-1] For them meaningfulness is ultimately by fiat and is an arbitrary decision that emerges from no principle, from no requirements, and that is an unpredictable and occasionalistic act of will. Life becomes a series of "happenings”, meaningless in itself and without intrinsic values. Such a person can easily become the total skeptic, nihilistic, relativistic, impulsive, without any right or wrong or better or worse. In a word, he becomes a person without values. If the juices of life do not flow strongly within his veins, he will wind up talking about despair, anguish, and suicide. This is as if to say, "O. K.! I must accept it. Life has no meaning. I must rely entirely on my own arbitrary decisions. I mustn't believe anything or believe in anything other than these blind wishes, whims, and impulses for which there is no possible justification outside of their own felt pushiness”. Of course this is the most extreme version that I have seen of this attitude, but it is a logical consequence of it. But this development can be seen in another way altogether, as part of the Zeitgeist, as one aspect of the century-long revolt against the great abstract "systems" of religion, economics, philosophy, politics, and even science, which had become so distant from real human needs and experiences that they looked like — and often were — vast hypocrisies and rationalizations. It can be seen as an expression of Dostoevsky's and Nietzsche's dictum that "if God is dead, then anything is permissible”. It can be seen from another angle as one consequence of the collapse of all the traditional, extrahuman value systems, which left only one place to turn — into the self and back to experience. It is a kind of testimony to our need for meaning and our despair when we think there is none. In a positive sense we can call it the return to the sheer experience, which is the beginning of 48 48 all thought and to which we always return when the abstractions and systems fail us. We then realize more fully that the ultimate meaning of many facts is simply the sheer being of their own existence. Throughout human history many who were forced to doubt have tried to become naive again, to go back to the beginnings, to think everything through again on a solider and more certain foundation, to ask in a time of turmoil if there were anything that they could be really sure of. There are times in life when patching up and improving seems like a hopeless task and when it is easier to raze the structure altogether and to build again from the ground up. If we add to this the common human temptation to dichotomize, to choose one side or the other — and therefore to choose either experiential suchness (renouncing all abstraction as the intrinsic enemy) or abstractness, lawfulness, and integrations (renouncing suchness as the enemy of lawfulness) — then these extreme positions can be seen as the pathological consequences of dichotomizing. They can be seen as foolish and unnecessary, even as consequences of the childish inability to be integrative and inclusive (1,2) or to be synergic (49,51). As we have already seen, it is easily possible to accept and to enjoy the virtues both of suchness and of abstraction. As a matter of fact, it is even necessary for full sanity and humanness to be comfortable with both. I therefore propose to speak of two different kinds of meanings, which are complementary rather than mutually exclusive. I will call the one abstractness meaning and the other suchness meaning, and point out that the one is of the realm of classifications and abstractions and that the other is of the experiential realm. I prefer this usage rather than the equally possible one of saying that the smell of a rose is meaningless or absurd because, for most people, these latter words are still invidious and normative and can therefore lead to pathogenic misunderstandings. These two kinds of meaningfulness generate two kinds of communication and of expression as well, whether in language, in art, in the cinema, or in poetry. And they even show us again that science has two tasks. One is the full acknowledgment, acceptance, and savoring of concrete, raw experience. The other is the effort to bind these experiences together, to seek out their similarities and differences, to figure out their regularities and their interrelations with each other, to construct them into systems that can be expressed simply and that can thus condense many experiences into a formula (or "law") which comprehends them all and which we can grasp. But these two tasks or goals are interrelated and cannot be split apart without damage, nor can we choose one to the exclusion of the other, for then we generate a crippled "reduction to the concrete" and a crippled "reduction to the abstract”. TWO KINDS OF UNDERSTANDABILITY AND EXPLANATION These two approaches to meaning further clarify such words as "understanding”, "predicting”, and "explaining”. The purely "scientific" person uses these words — unwittingly — in a way different from the ideally intuitive type. For the former an increase in understanding usually comes from and is equal to a move toward the simple. It is more monistic, closer toward unity, an economical reduction of complexity and of chaos. "Understanding" and "explanation" lie behind the manifold and the multiplex and help to make it comprehensible. It joins, for example, cabbages and kings in some integrating organization, some unifying connection, instead of just leaving them there, ununified, for noninterfering contemplation. 49 49 For such a person "explaining" and "understanding" both have a reductive effect, in the sense of reducing the number of variables that must be grasped and also in the sense that the surface appearance of the manifold is less "real" than the simpler explanatory theory that lies behind the world of appearances. It is a kind of rejection of face value, and it is a way of reducing mystery. In the extreme instance, for him, that which cannot be explained cannot be real or true. But for the more experiential type of person, there is also another kind of understanding that parallels "suchness meanings”. Understanding something then is experiencing that something in its own right and in its own nature. This experiencing, for instance, of a person or of a painting, can grow deeper, richer, more complex and yet can remain within the object that one is trying to understand better. And so we can differentiate experiential understanding from the integrative or abstract understanding that is an active move toward simplification, economy and parsimony. Far from simplifying and condensing the experience and far from moving toward a diagram of it (or an X-ray or a schema or a mathematical description of it), experiential understanding is content to rest there within the experience, not going beyond it, savoring it and getting the taste and smell of it in that direct way. This is the kind of understanding that the sculptor has of clay or stone, that the carpenter has of wood, that a mother has of her baby, that a swimmer has of water, or that a husband and wife have of each other. And this is the kind of understanding that is ultimately impossible for the nonsculptor, the noncarpenter, the nonmother, the nonswimmer, or the nonmarried, no matter what other resources of knowledge may be available. The word "explanation" as used by scientists normally has only a simpleward meaning. It seems always to point beyond the experience, and to represent a theory about it. But some artists and critics use the word also in an experiential, self-referential way. This has some usefulness, and at the least we ought to be aware of it. This is the sense in which something experienced is its own explanation. What is the meaning of a leaf, a fugue, a sunset, a flower, a person? They "mean" themselves, explain themselves, and prove themselves. Many modern painters or musicians and even poets reject the now old-fashioned demand that works of art "mean" something beyond themselves, that they point outward and have nonself reference, or that they have a message, or that they be "explainable" in the ordinary scientific sense of simplification. They are rather self-contained worlds that are to be looked at rather than through. They are not a step to something else, nor are they stations on the road to some other terminus. They are not signs or symbols standing for something other than themselves. Neither can they be "defined" in the ordinary sense of being placed within a class or in a historical sequence or in some other relationship to the world outside themselves. Most musicians, many painters, and even some poets will refuse even to talk about their works or to "interpret" them beyond labeling them in some purely arbitrary way or merely pointing at them and saying, "Look!" or "Listen!" [9-2] And yet even in this realm of discourse people do talk of studying a Beethoven quartet (in the experiential sense of immersing oneself in it, of repeated exposure and contemplation, of minute examination of its inner structure under a higher power of the microscope, so to speak, rather than of studying about it). And then they say that they understand it more profoundly. There is a school of literary criticism with similar tenets, whose adherents rely on close examination of the work itself rather than upon its sociological, historical, political, or economic context. These people have not relapsed into the silence that ineffability would seem to call for. They have much to say, and they do use the words "meaning”, 50 50 "explanation”, "understanding”, "interpretation”, and "communication”, although of course still trying to stay strictly within the experience. In my opinion these positive usages from the world of art are helpful in a reconstructed philosophy of science that includes rather than excludes experiential data. I think they are preferable to the other style of usage that talks of "meaninglessness" and "absurdity" rather than of "suchness meaning", that reduces itself to pointing rather than to verbal communication, that repudiates any effort to explain or to define, and that can only wait for the illumination to happen without being able in any way to help it come, saying, in effect, "If you don't get it, you never will". The positive usage promises, I think, more sophisticated and insightful commerce with experiential data and more pragmatic and fruitful management of them. The words "absurd”, "meaningless”, "ineffable”, and "unexplainable" imply a failure of nerve because they talk of a nothing, a zero, an absence of something rather than a presence that can be dealt with scientifically. The positive usages are also justified by the fact that they imply the acceptance of the possibility that experiences can be end experiences, valid and valuable in themselves. These usages are appropriate to a Psychology of Being, i.e., a psychology that deals with ends and with final states of being. Negative usages imply acceptance of the classical scientific insistence on being value-free and on having nothing to do with ends but only with means to ends (which are somehow arbitrarily given). THE SUCHNESS MEANING OF LIFE Many basic experiences in life, perhaps ultimately all experiences, are "unsolvable”. That is to say, they are impossible to understand. You can't make any sense out of them beyond their own is-ness. You can't be rational about them; they just are. About all you can do with them is simply to recognize their existence, to accept them, and, whenever possible, to enjoy them in their richness and mystery, at the same time realizing that they constitute much of the answer to the question "What is the meaning of life?". Life is in part its own meaning. That is, the sheer experiencing of living, or walking, of seeing, of tastes and smells, of sensuous and emotional experiences, and all the rest help to make life worthwhile. When they are no longer positively enjoyed, life itself is called into question, and we have the possibility of boredom, ennui, depression and suicide. Then we say, "Life is meaningless”, or "What's the sense of living”, or "Life is no longer worthwhile”. It is for this reason also that I prefer to speak in terms of suchness meaning rather than to concede meaninglessness. LAWFUL EXPLANATION AND SUCHNESS UNDERSTANDING The differentiation of suchness meaning from abstractness meaning, of suchness understanding from abstraction understanding, and of suchness explanation from simpleward explanation has taught me something else as well. About fifteen years ago I began an investigation into the motivations of characterologically different types of scientists. I asked them simply to ramble on at length in answer to my two questions "Why did you pick your line of work, your field, your problem?" and "What are the main rewards (the gratifications, the pleasure, the kicks, the peak moments of highest happiness) that you get out of your work? What keeps you at it? Why do you love your work?" These two questions parallel the difference between "Why did you fall in love?" and "Why do you stay married?" For various reasons, I had to give up this research after interviewing perhaps a dozen scientists in various fields. But even with these few I became impressed with the variety of covert motives that impelled scientists to their work and kept them at it. As with 51 51 other human beings, their world view, their pleasures and satisfactions, their likes and dislikes, their vocational choices, and their styles of work were in part an expression of their "characters”. I was confronted again, as so many other investigators have been, with the temptation to differentiate the contrasting types that have been called by so many names, tough-minded and tender-minded, Apollonian and Dionysian, anal and oral, obsessional and hysterical, masculine and feminine, controlled and impulsive, dominating and receptive, suspicious and trusting, etc. For a time I used the designations x character and y character, defining these as the common elements in all these pairs of antonyms. At other times I used the words "cool" and "warm" because neither of these is invidious or insulting, and I thought also that the "physiognomic quality" of these words was better than more explicitly defined words in the present state of knowledge. For the same reasons I have also tried the "bluegreen" (end of the spectrum) and contrasted it with "red-orange-yellow" people. Finally I put the problem aside, even though the feeling of being on the edge of some vast illumination even yet lingers. The trouble is that it has remained in this same teasing position for fifteen years, without my getting any closer to illumination. One impression, tentative at the time, has become more convincing over the years, and I offer it here for more careful testing. Those individuals that I thought of as "cool" or "bluegreen" or "tough-minded" in character and outlook tended, it seemed to me, to have as the goals of their scientific work the establishment of law, of regularities, of certainty, of exactness. They spoke of "explanation”, and by this they clearly implied the tendency toward parsimony, and economy, the simple, the monistic. The moment of reductiveness, i.e., of a reduction in the number of variables, was a moment of triumph and of high achievement. By contrast I felt that the "warm" people, the red-orange-yellow, the intuitive ones (who come closer to the poet-artist-musician than to the engineer-technologist), the "tender-minded" and "soft-nosed" scientists tended to speak glowingly of the moment of "understanding" as the high spot and the reward of investigation, i.e., suchness understanding. In a word, it looks as if the distribution on the characterological continuum from tough-minded to tender-minded may be paralleled by a continuum with "lawful explanation" at one end and "suchness understanding" at the other. [9-3] This comes close to hypothesizing that "abstract knowledge" and "experiential knowledge" are the contrasting goals (for the pure or extreme types). 52 52 Chapter 10 Taoistic Science and Controlling Science Official experimental science tends by its nature to be interfering, intrusive, actively arranging, even meddling and disrupting. But it is supposed to be cool, neutral, noninterfering, not changing the nature of what it studies. We know, however, that this is often not so. For one thing, classical science with its unconscious bias toward atomism has most often assumed that it has to dissect in order to know. This is coming to be less true, but it is still a powerful bias. More subtly, the technique of controlled experimentation is just that — control; that is to say, it is active manipulating, designing, arranging, and prearranging. There is no implication here that this is necessarily bad or unnecessary. I attempt merely to show that interfering science is not synonymous with science itself; other strategies are also possible. The scientist has other methods available to him, and there are other approaches to knowledge. The one that I want to describe here is the Taoistic approach to learning about the nature of things, not, I must stress again, as an exclusive method or as a panacea or as a rival to active science. A good scientist with two methods available to him, either of which he can use as he sees fit, is more powerful that a good scientist with only one method at his disposal. It may be a little inexact to call Taoistic receptivity a technique, for it consists essentially in being able to keep your hands off and your mouth shut, to be patient, to suspend action and be receptive and passive. It stresses careful observation of a noninterfering sort. It is therefore an attitude to nature rather than a technique in the ordinary sense (42). Perhaps even it should be called an antitechnique. When I have described this attitude to my scientific friends, they have usually sniffed and said, "Oh yes, simple descriptive science”. But often I am not at all sure they have got my meaning. Real receptivity of the Taoistic sort is a difficult achievement. To be able to listen — really, wholly, passively, self-effacingly listen — without presupposing, classifying, improving, controverting, evaluating, approving or disapproving, without dueling with what is being said, without rehearsing the rebuttal in advance, without free-associating to portions of what is being said so that succeeding portions are not heard at all — such listening is rare. Children are abler than their parents to look and to listen in an absorbed and selfless way. Kurt Wolff has called it "surrender" in his articles (82), which are difficult and complex enough to knock out of anyone's head the notion that surrender is easy. To order a person to be receptive, or Taoistic, or to "surrender”, is like telling the tense person that he must relax. He's willing to, but he just doesn't know how. Serenity, composure, calmness, repose, peacefulness, relaxation — perhaps such words as these will better convey my meaning, although they are not quite right either. In any case they do carry the implication that fear, tension, anger, and impatience are the enemies of receptiveness and noninterference, that one must be able to respect what one is examining or learning about. One must be able to let it be itself, to defer to it, even to approve of its being itself, and to feel reward and even joy in watching it be itself, i.e., unfolding its own inner nature, undisturbed and unchanged by the nature of the observer, unintruded upon. Much of the world may be said to be shy in the sense implied here that an animal or a child is shy and in the sense that only the self - effacing observer will be permitted to see the secrets. Eastern writers have stressed more the concept of the observer's harmony with the nature that he studies. Here the stress is a little different, for it is implied that the observer is himself 53 53 part of the nature he observes. He fits in, he belongs, he is at home. He is part of the scene rather than a spectator of a diorama. In a sense he studies his mother while he is in his mother's arms. Destroying, changing, manipulating, and controlling are then clearly arrogant and out of place. Mastery of nature is not the only possible relation to it for a scientist. We in the West often accept a receptive, noninterfering attitude in certain areas of life, so at least we can understand what is meant here, what it feels like simply to observe and to absorb receptively. The examples I first think of are looking at art and listening to music. In these areas we do not intrude or interfere. We simply enjoy by being receptive, by surrendering to and fusing with the music, for example, to which we "give in" and which we let be itself. We are also able to absorb warmth from the sun or in a tub of warm water without doing anything about it. Some of us are good patients and are able to regress nicely with doctors and nurses. Women are supposed to be yielding and surrendering in sex, in childbirth, in mothering, in being led in dancing. Most of us can be happily passive before a good fire or a beautiful river or forest. And obviously a masterful attitude is not the way to endear yourself to a strange society or to a therapeutic patient. For some reason, however, the receptive strategy of knowing is not much talked about in the textbooks and is not highly esteemed as a scientific technique. This is peculiar because there are many areas of knowledge for which such an attitude is essential. I think particularly of the ethnologist, the clinical psychologist, the ethologist, the ecologist, but the receptive strategy is useful in principle in all areas. RECEPTIVITY TO STRUCTURE Of course, making the distinction between suchness and abstractness and then integrating them with each other confronts us again with the old problem of the reality of universals and laws. Are they entirely manmade, invented by him for his own convenience? Or are they discovered rather than created? Are they a perception, however dim, of something out there which existed before men did? Without attempting any definitive answer here, it is yet possible to contribute something to the clarification of the question. First of all, the dichotomous, either-or phrasing of the question should automatically arouse our suspicions. Can this not be a matter of degree? The distinction between suchness and abstraction suggests that it is. It is true that the perception of suchness is far more Taoistic, receptive, and passive than is the achievement of integration and abstractions. But this does not necessarily mean, as many have thought, that the perception of universals is only an active task, a creation by fiat. It can also be a receptive openness, a noninterfering willingness for things to be themselves, an ability to wait patiently for the inner structure of percepts to reveal themselves to us, a finding of order rather than an ordering. The best known operation of this kind is Freud's discovery of (and recommendation of) "free-floating attention”. In trying to understand a therapeutic patient — or, for that matter, any person — it turns out to be most efficient in the long run to give up active concentration and striving to understand quickly. The danger here is of a premature explanation or theory, which, furthermore, is likely to be too much one's own construction or creation. Striving, concentration, and focusing of attention are not the best ways to perceive at the preconscious or unconscious level, in terms of primary process. These are secondary processes and may actually conceal or push out primary-process data. The psychoanalyst's injunction is, "Let the unconscious speak to (and listen to) the unconscious." 54 54 Something similar is true for the ethnologist trying to understand a culture in all its intricacy. Here, too, the premature theory is dangerous, for it may make it impossible to perceive thereafter anything that contradicts the premature construct. Better to be patient, to be receptive, to "surrender" to the data, to let them fall into place in their own way. So also for ethology, for ecology, and for the field naturalist. So also in principle for anyone dealing with large masses of data of any kind. One learns to be not only active but also passive. One arranges and rearranges and fiddles with data, looking at the tables idly, playfully, in a daydreaming way, unhurriedly, again and again. One "sleeps on it”, referring the whole business to the unconscious. And the history of scientific discoveries shows that often enough this works well. In a word, the construction of theories and laws is often rather like a discovery of them. There seems to be an interplay and a joining of activity and receptivity, and it seems best for any knower, lay or professional, to be able to be both active and receptive as the situation demands. CONTEMPLATION In any case, what can you do with the "way things are”, with the sheer suchness of the world and of the things in it — granting, of course, that you are not frightened by it all (as many people are)? About the only thing you can do when you are passively receptive and accepting is to wonder at it all, contemplate it, savor it, marvel at it, be fascinated with it — hopefully, enjoy it. That is, the thing to do is to do nothing. This is about the way children experience the concrete world, intently, absorbed, spellbound, popeyed, enchanted. In peak experiences and in desolation experiences, too, some version of this gluing to the world can happen. So also as we contemplate death or are reprieved from it, or when love opens us up to the world and it to us, or when the psychedelic drugs have their best effects, or when a poet or a painter can manage to refreshen the world for us — these are all roads to the perception of the suchness and realness of things. And all of them join in teaching us that it need not be only frightening, as so many assume, but also can be profoundly beautiful and lovable. For the moment, at least, we don't have to do anything about multiplicity; we can just experience it receptively, Taoistically, contemplatively. It doesn't at once have to be explained, classified, theorized about, or even understood (except in its own terms). Some people claim, we should remember, that in such moments we are closest to reality. If we want to witness reality most nakedly, this is the way to do it, they tell us. They warn that as we begin to organize, to classify, to simplify, to abstract, and to conceptualize, so do we begin to move away from reality as it is, perceiving instead our own constructions and inventions, our own preconceptions. These are our own housekeeping arrangements by which we impose order on a chaotic and disorderly world for our own convenience. Such an attitude is the direct opposite of the customary scientific position in which, for instance, the table that Eddington saw and touched was less real to him than the table that the physicists conceptualized. Most physicists think of themselves as getting closer and closer to reality as they leave the world of sensory qualities further and further behind them. But there is no question about it: they certainly are involved with a reality different from the one in which their wives and children live. Going simpleward does dissolve this reality. We needn't arbitrate this disagreement, since we have already agreed that science has the two poles of experiencing and comprehending concreteness and also of organizing the welter of concreteness into graspable abstractions. There is however, the fact that the former goal 55 55 needs stressing today and the latter does not. Scientists usually do not think of themselves as receptive contemplators, but they should, or else they risk losing their footing in the experiential reality with which all knowledge and all science begins. The word and the concept "contemplation" can, then, be understood as a form of nonactive, noninterfering witnessing and savoring. That is, it can be assimilated to Taoistic, nonintruding, receptivity to the experience. In such a moment the experience happens instead of being made to happen. Since this permits it to be itself, minimally distorted by the observer, it is in certain instances a path to more reliable and more veridical cognition. 56 56 Chapter 11 Interpersonal (I-Thou) Knowledge as a Paradigm for Science Historically science first concerned itself with physical impersonal, inanimate things — planets, falling objects — and with equally impersonal mathematics. It went on to study living things in the same spirit, and finally about a century ago it deliberately brought the human being into the laboratory to study him in the same ways that had already proved so successful. He was to be studied as an object dispassionately, neutrally, quantitatively, in controlled experimental situations. The choice of "problem" tended to be whatever was susceptible to handling in this way. (Of course, at the same time an entirely different kind of psychology was evolving among psychiatrists in the clinic, out of an entirely different tradition and with different laws, rules, and methods). The "scientific" study of the human being was simply a more difficult, more exasperating application of the methodology of physics, astronomy, biology, etc., to an irritatingly unsuitable object. He was a special case, so to speak, a peripheral example on the edge of impersonal scientific method. I propose that instead of this impersonal centering point we take the human person as the starting or centering point. Let us try to take knowledge of the person as the model case from which to create paradigms or models of methodology, conceptualization, and Weltanschauung, of philosophy and epistemology. What are the consequences (for the moment) of taking as the ultimate bit of knowledge that which occurs in the I-Thou, interpersonal, Agapean-love relationships between two people? Let us think of this knowledge as "normal”, "basic”, routine, as our basic measuring stick to judge how "knowledgy" any bit of knowledge is. Examples, not always reciprocal, are a friend knowing a friend, two persons loving each other, a parent knowing a child, or a child knowing a parent, a brother knowing a brother, a therapist knowing a patient, etc. In such relationships it is characteristic that the knower is involved with what he knows. He is not distant; he is close. He is not cool about it; he is warm. He is not unemotional; he is emotional. He has empathy, intuition for the object of knowledge, i.e., he feels identified with it, the same as it, to some degree and in some manner identical with it. He cares. The good mother can often communicate better with her child than pediatricians or psychologists can. If these doctors have any sense, they use her as an interpreter or translator, and often enough they ask, "What is he trying to say?" Long time friends, especially married ones, understand each other, predict and communicate with each other in ways totally mysterious to spectators. The ultimate limit, the completion toward which this kind of interpersonal knowledge moves, is through intimacy to the mystical fusion in which the two people become one in a phenomenological way that has been best described by mystics, Zen Buddhists, peak experiencers, lovers, estheticians, etc. In this experience of fusion a knowing of the other comes about through becoming the other, i.e., it becomes experiential knowledge from within. I know it because I know myself, and It has now become part of myself. Fusion with the object of knowledge permits experiential knowledge. And since experiential knowledge is the best kind of knowledge for many human purposes, a good mode of cognizing an object is to move toward fusion with it. And certainly since a good move toward fusion with anyone is to care for him and even to love him, we wind up with a "law" of learning and cognizing: Do you want to know? Then care! 57 57 Less extreme than mystical fusion is the therapeutic growth relationship. I confine myself here to all the insight-uncovering, Taoistic, nondirective therapies, e.g., Freud, Rogers, existential therapy. Much has been written about transference, encounter, unconditional positive regard, and the like, but all have in common the explicit awareness of the necessity of a particular kind of relationship that dispels fear, that permits the one receiving therapy to see himself more truly and thus gives him control over self-approved and self-disapproved aspects of himself. Let us now consider this therapeutic and growth relationship primarily as a method for acquiring knowledge. And then let us contrast this cognitive tool with a microscope or a telescope: THE MICROSCOPE OR TELESCOPE: SPECTATOR-KNOWLEDGE (A.) THE THERAPEUTIC RELATIONSHIP: INTERPERSONALRELATIONSHIPKNOWLEDGE (B.) 1.A. Involves a split between subject and object, the so-called "Cartesian split”. This split and "distancing" are considered good, useful, necessary for the purpose. 1.B. Moves toward lessening this split and this "distancing" on the part of both therapist and patient, each in a different way but toward the same purpose of better understanding of the patient rather than of the therapist. 2.A. The ideal is perfect detachment of the spectator sort, perfect "othering" of each other. Not identified, disengaging, disentangling. 2.B. The ideal is fusion, melting, merging. 3.A. The observer is a stranger, an alien, a nonparticipant. 3.B. The observer is a participant-observer. 4.A. Less reafference and commerce-with. My view of a table, or of a sculpture. More alienation and less identification-with. 4.B. More reafference and commerce-with. A carpenter's view of the table that he has made. A sculptor's view of a sculpture. Less alienation and more identification-with. 5.A. Trying to be unrelated to avoid the relationship (in order to be able to be a neutral judge). 5.B. Trying to be related and more intimate. 6.A. Unawareness of and no use of split between experiencing ego and self-observing ego. No use of self-knowledge in the cognitive process. 6.B. Specific enhancement of the interplay between experiencing ego and self-observing ego and of their fruitful dependence and interdependence. Self-knowledge is an essential part of this cognitive process. 7.A. The nature and uniqueness of the observer is not a great problem. Any competent 58 58 observer is as good as any other and will see the same truths. 7.B. The nature of the knower is a sine qua non of the nature of the known. Knowers are not easily interchangeable. 8.A. The observer is not seen as creating the truths in any important way. He discovers, witnesses, or perceives them. 8.B. The observer in part creates the truth by being what he is and who he is and by doing what he is doing. 9.A. Laissez-faire (uncaring) cognition. 9.B. Ultimately (Taoistic) non-interfering that emerges from caring. 10.A. I-It (Buber). 10.B. I-Thou (Buber). 11.A. More mental activity, theorizing, hypothesizing, guessing, classifying. 11.B. More receptivity, more willingness to experience purely before permitting secondary processes to take over. 12.A. Active attention, willed concentration. Purposefulness. 12.B. Free-floating attention, patience, waiting. Primary process, preconscious, unconscious. 13.A. Entirely conscious, rational, verbal. 13.B. Primary process, preconscious, unconscious, preverbal. 14.A. Spectator detachment, neutrality, and objectivity of non-involvement, noncaring of laissez faire. It doesn't make any difference what the intrinsic nature of the percept may be. 14.B. Detachment and objectivity of noninterference, of caring, enjoying, willingness to let the person be himself. Cognition of the being of the other (B-Cognition). N o illusions about the person, realistic perceiving, nondenying, no need to improve the percept, no a priori demands upon it. Accepting its suchness. Keeping hands off because one loves the way it is, wants it to be itself, and doesn't want it to be other than it is. 15.A. The percept is perceived. The histological slide, the microscope, and the biologist all go their own way. They are divorced. Neither the microscope nor the slide falls in love with the biologist. 15.B. The perceived responds back. It is grateful for being understood. It demands to be properly perceived. It projects fantasies and hopes upon the perceiver. It gives a halo to the perceiver. The perceived loves the perceiver and may cling to him. Or the perceived may hate or be ambivalent about the perceiver. The person has something to say about the "cognitive tool”. This in him can change the "cognizer" (counter-transference, etc.). 59 59 Knowing persons is complicated by the fact that so much of their motivational lives are interpersonal. The basic needs are satisfied or frustrated generally by other people. If you are trying to understand another person, it is better if he feels unthreatened with you, if he feels you accept, understand, and like him, perhaps even love him, if he feels that you respect him, and if he feels that you do not threaten his freedom to be himself. If on the other hand you dislike him or disrespect him, if you feel contempt or disapproval, if you look down on him, or if you "rubricize" him, i.e., if you refuse to see him as an individual (43, ch. 9), then the person will close off much of himself and refuse to let himself be seen. (This is on about the same principle that makes me show you the pictures of my children if you love children. If you do not like children, I will not want to show them to you.) He may even with secret malice deliberately give you wrong information. This happens often enough to ethnologists, psychotherapists, sociologists, public opinion pollers, child psychologists, and many others. There is a large research literature to support such conclusions, e.g., on interviewing, on the techniques of psychotherapy, on ethnological practice, on public-opinion polling, on being understood, on interpersonal perception, on interrelations between the strong and the weak, etc. But offhand I don't remember that these research findings have been applied to the epistemological problem of "acquiring" reliable and veridical knowledge. I suspect that few people in these areas of research are aware of this particular application of their findings, or perhaps they are aware but are overawed by the implications. This is understandable. We have been taught and re-taught that the path to reliable knowledge is always the same whether you wish to study molecules or men. And now we are being told that maybe there are different paths for these two kinds of study. Occasionally there is even an implication that maybe the technique for studying humans may be generalized one day so as to include the study of molecules, so that we may even wind up again with a monistic epistemology but with a different centering point! Something of this sort, this acquiring of knowledge through an interpersonal relationship of intimacy between knower and known, also happens, perhaps in lesser degree, in other areas of science. Ethology comes to mind at once. But all forms of knowledge derived "clinically" by physicians share some of these characteristics also. So does social anthropology. So do many branches of sociology, political science, economics, history, and possibly all the social sciences. Perhaps also we could add all or many of the linguistic sciences. But I wish to make a more important point. It is not necessary to "choose up sides" or to vote a straight party ticket. It is true that we could make a hierarchy of sciences or of all areas of knowledge, ranging from greatest to least involvement in a relationship. But I wish to raise the more radical question: can all the sciences, all knowledge be conceptualized as a resultant of a loving or caring interrelationship between knower and known? What would be the advantages to us of setting this epistemology alongside the one that now reigns in "objective science"? Can we simultaneously use both? My own feeling is that we can and should use both epistemologies as the situation demands. I do not see them as contradictory but as enriching each other. There is no reason not to include both weapons in the armory of any knower who wants to know anything. We must entertain the possibility that even the astronomer or geologist or chemist might be able to perceive more wholly even that which is least personal. I mean the conscious, verbalized, formulated possibility, because I am already convinced that some astronomers and some chemists, etc. secretly relate to their "problems" in ways analogous to those of lovers to their loved ones. 60 60 "LOVE FOR" THE OBJECT OF STUDY The meaning of "love for" the object to be known, understood, and appreciated has to be seen more clearly in its complexities. At the least it must mean "interest in" the object of study. It is difficult to see or hear that which is totally uninteresting or boring. It is also difficult to think about it, to remember it, to keep oneself at the job, to stick to it. All the defensive and resistive powers of the person can be mobilized into action when one is forced by some external pressure to study something totally uninteresting. One forgets, one thinks of other things, the mind wanders, fatigue sets in, intelligence seems to diminish. In a word, one is likely to do a poor job unless one is minimally interested in the task and drawn to it. At least a little passion (or libidinizing) seems to be needed. True, it is possible to be dutiful, and even a child will do many jobs in school without interest or with only external interest in order to please the teacher. But such children bring up other problems, too profound to go into here, of training of the character, of the enriching of autonomy, of the dangers of mere docility. I mention them because I do not wish to fall into the black-white dichotomy that is so easy here. In any case there is little question about the simple statement that for the best learning, perceiving, understanding, and remembering of a person, it is desirable to be interested, involved, to have "a little bit of love”, to be at least a little fascinated and drawn. So far as the scientist is concerned, he knows that this is true for him if only because scientific study especially needs patience, stubbornness, stick-to-it-iveness, unswerving concentration on the task, the fortitude to overcome inevitable disappointments, etc. This is a minimal statement. What is really needed for long-time scientific success is passion, fascination, obsession. The fruitful scientist is the one who talks about his "problem" in about the same spirit as he does about the woman he loves, as an end rather than as a means to other ends. Rising above all distractions and becoming lost in his work means that he is not divided. All his intelligence is available for the one purpose that he is entirely given to. He gives it everything he's got. [11-1] This can be meaningfully called an act of love, and there are certain definite advantages in such a phrasing. Similarly it is meaningful to expect better work from the one who loves his work and his problem. This is why I think it will help us, even as scientists in the strictest sense, to study carefully the paradigm of "knowledge through love" that we can see most purely in lovers or in the parent-child relationship or, suitably translated into naturalistic terms, in theological and mystical literature. THE MAKING OF TRUTH IN THE INTERPERSONAL RELATION The picture of truth and of reality that we have inherited from the classical science of the impersonal is that it is "out there”, perfect, complete, hidden but uncoverable. In the earlier versions the observer simply observed. In later versions it was understood that the observer had spectacles that distorted but which could never be removed. Most recently physicists and psychologists have learned that the act of observation is itself a shaper, a changer, an intruder into the phenomenon being observed. In a word, the observer partly creates the reality, i.e., the truth. Reality seems to be a kind of alloy of the perceiver and the perceived, a sort of mutual product, a transaction. For instance, see the many researches with reafference and with the effects of observer-expectation, to mention only two well-known lines of experimentation. 61 61 I mean here more than the "personal equation" of the astronomer or even Heisenberg's principle of indeterminacy. I refer rather to the impossibility of finding out what, for example, a preliterate culture would "really" be like, undistorted by the observing ethnologist. Or to take an example I was recently involved in, how can you subtract the admittedly dampening effect of an outside observer from the "true" behavior of a store-front religious group? There was a story, probably apocryphal, that I heard during my college days, of a group of fraternity boys who agreed, for fun, to rush a homely, awkward wallflower of a girl. The story was that the rushing changed her into a confidently feminine and lovely girl, so that the boys fell in love with their own creation. EMOTION AND TRUTH I quote from David L. Watson's The Study of Human Nature: 'When two men are arguing, I do not find that the truth of the matter always rests with the more dispassionate participant. Passion may enhance the disputants' powers of expression and thus lead, in the long run, to deeper regions of truth" (p. 187-188). "It is beyond question that certain kinds of emotion entirely distort our judgment. But I would ask the rationalist extremists: would we have any science, if truth did not inspire passionate devotion in the searcher?" (p. 188). This is a characteristic expression of the rising discontent among psychologists with the old and widely held notion that emotions are only disrupting, that they are the enemy of true perception and good judgment, that they are the opposite of sagacity and are and must be mutually excluding of truth. A humanistic approach to science generates a different attitude, i.e., that emotion can be synergic with cognition, and a help in truth-finding. FUSION-KNOWLEDGE These love relationships that can go over into the mystic experience of fusion with the world give us our end point (beyond knowledge through love for the object) of knowledge by fusion with the object, by becoming one with it. This can then be considered for theoretical purposes to become experiential knowledge, knowledge from within, by being what we are knowing. At least this is the ideal limit to which such knowledge approaches or tries to approach. This is not so far-out as it may sound. A respectable way of studying schizophrenia is to try to be schizophrenic temporarily by the use of appropriate chemicals, or to have been schizophrenic and recovered. One can then more easily identify with the schizophrenic. One of the most loved and respected of the neobehavioristic rat psychologists, Edward Tolman, admitted once in defiance of his own official theorizing that when he wanted to predict what a rat would do, he tried to identify with the rat, to feel like one, and then to ask himself, "Now what would I do?" Much of what we know about Communists has been taught us by reformed Communists, who can remember how it felt to be one. The same would be true for John Birchers, and I await eagerly such a retrospective account of how it felt to be a John Bircher. Another kind of example, following the same paradigm in a different field, is that of the ethnologist. You can learn many facts about a tribe that you dislike or by whom you are disliked, but there are definite limits to what you can then get to know. In order to know your Indians rather than merely to know about them, you have to melt into the culture to some extent. If you "become" a Blackfoot Indian, then you can answer many questions simply by 62 62 introspection. Even at the impersonal extreme it is possible to differentiate the two feels of looking through a telescope. One can peep through the telescope at the moon, like a peeping Tom (spectator, outsider) peeping through a keyhole at the alien, the distant, the other, the far away (which we are not and never can be). Or you can sometimes forget yourself, get absorbed, fascinated, and be out there in the middle of what you are looking at, in that world rather than outside it peering in. This can be likened to the difference between being a member of a family and being an orphan out in the dark cold street, wistfully looking in through the window at the warm family inside. Colin Wilson's books are full of examples of outsiders and wistful peepers (80). Similarly one can be within the microscopic world, or one can be outside it, looking with your eye through the microscope at the slide that is an object out there. You can listen to organ music judiciously, calmly examining it to hear how good it is and whether it is worth the money you paid for the ticket. Or you can suddenly get caught up by it and become the music and feel it pulse through your insides, so that you are not in some other place. If you are dancing and the rhythm "gets you”, you can slip over to being inside the rhythm. You can identify with the rhythm. You can become its willing instrument. TWO KINDS OF OBJECTIVITY The term "scientific objectivity" has, in effect, been pre-empted by the physics-centered theorists of science and bent to the use of their mechanomorphic Weltanschauung. It was certainly necessary for astronomers and physicists to assert their freedom to see what was before their eyes rather than having truth determined a priori by the church or the state. This is the kernel of sense in the concept of "value-free science”. But it is this generalization, uncritically accepted today by many, that has crippled so many human and social scientists. Of course, these students are now willing to study other people's values, from which the investigator can presumably detach himself and which can be studied as unemotionally as the "values" of ants or trees. That is, they can be treated as "facts”, and thus they can become amenable at once to "normal" treatment by all the methods and concepts of classical, impersonal science. But this is not the real issue. The point of this kind of "scientific objectivity" is clear; it is to guard against the projection into the perceived of human or supernatural motives or emotions or preconceptions which are not "there" in fact and therefore should not be seen as being there. Observe that this necessary rule of science to "see only what is actually there" (which began as not seeing "God's design" or Aristotle's dicta or human purposes in inanimate objects or in animals) is today primarily an effort to guard against the projection of the scientists' own values or hopes or wishes. Though this can never be done perfectly, it can yet be approached in degree. Normal scientific training and normal scientific methods are efforts to get closer and closer to this impossible terminus. There is no doubt that this effort does in fact succeed to an extent. The person we call a good scientist is marked by his greater ability to perceive that which he dislikes and by his great skepticism when he perceives something that he approves of. The question is: how possible is this goal? What is the best way of perceiving something as it is, least contaminated by our own hopes, fears, wishes, goals? And most important: is there only 63 63 one path to this goal? Is there another path to "objectivity”, that is, to seeing things as they really are? Classically, "scientific objectivity" has been most successfully achieved when its objects were most distant from human aspirations, hopes, and wishes. It is easy to feel uninvolved, detached, clear-eyed, and neutral if one is studying the nature of rocks or heat or electrical currents. One doesn't identify with a moon. One doesn't "care" about it as one does about one's child. It is easy to take the laissez-faire attitude with oxygen or hydrogen and to have noninterfering curiosity, to be Taoistically receptive, to let things be themselves. To be blunt about it, it is easy to be neutrally objective, fair, and just when you don't care about the outcome, when you can't identify or sympathize, when you neither love or hate. But what happens with this framework of ideas and attitudes when we move over into the human and social realm, when we try to be objective about people we love or hate, about our loyalties or values, about our very selves? We are then no longer laissez-faire, impersonal, uninvolved, unidentified, without stakes. Accordingly it becomes far more difficult to be "laissez-faire objective" or "not-caring objective”. Now there are new hazards. In the effort to achieve "scientific”, i.e., uninvolved, laissez-faire, don't-care objectivity, the anthropologist, for instance, may buy the whole package that he mistakenly ties to this kind of objectivity. He may become scientistic rather than scientific, may feel it necessary to drown his human feelings for the people he studies, may quantify whether necessary or not, and may wind up with accurate details and a false whole. (The best approach to reading in ethnology is still a discreet mix of technical monographs, the better travel reports, and the impressionistic writings of the more poetic and humanistic anthropologists). Granted that not-caring objectivity can be enhanced to some extent by improved training; more important by far is the possibility of another kind of objectivity that comes from caring rather than from not caring. This is the kind which I have already described in various publications as a consequence of Being-Love, of peak experiences, of unitive perception, of self-actualization, of synergy, of Taoistic receptivity, of the "creative attitude”, of BeingCognition, and as one general aspect of a psychology of being, and that Nameche (56) has also analyzed fruitfully. Briefly stated, my thesis is: if you love something or someone enough at the level of Being, then you can enjoy its actualization of itself, which means that you will not want to interfere with it, since you love it as it is in itself. You will then be able to perceive it in a noninterfering way, which means leaving it alone. This in turn means that you will be able to see it as is, uncontaminated by your selfish wishes, hopes, demands, anxieties, or preconceptions. Since you love it as it is in itself, neither will you be prone to judge it, use it, improve it, or in any other way to project your own values into it. This also tends to mean more concrete experiencing and witnessing; less abstracting, simplifying, organizing, or intellectual manipulation. Leaving it alone to be itself also implies a more holistic, global attitude and less active dissecting. It adds up to this: you may be fond enough of someone to dare to see him just as he is; if you love something the way it is, you won't change it. Therefore you may then see it (or him) as it is in its own nature, untouched, unspoiled, i.e., objectively. The greater your Being-Love of the person, the less your need to be blind. Another aspect of this "caring objectivity" can be phrased in terms of transcendence. If objectivity includes among its meanings being able to see things as they are whether we like them or not, whether we approve of them or not, whether they are good or bad, then one becomes abler to achieve this standpoint the more one is able to transcend these distinctions. 64 64 This is difficult to do, but it is more or less possible in Being-Cognition, for instance, and in Being-Love, etc. It is also difficult to communicate, but since I have tried in other writings, I won't pursue it further here (see also 56). To take only a single illustration, these two kinds of objectivity and their complementary quality are well exemplified in the undoubted advantages and the equally undoubted disadvantages of being an outsider. The Jew or the Negro has far more spectator objectivity about our society than has the insider. If you belong to the country club or the establishment, you are likely to take all its values for granted and not even notice them. This includes all the rationalizations, the denials, the official hypocrisies, etc. Just these the outsider (80) can see clearly and easily. There are therefore some truths that the spectator can see more easily than the experiencer, who is part of the reality to be cognized. On the other hand, there is much evidence which I have already mentioned that in certain respects Negroes are better knowers of Negroes than whites are, etc. There is by now no need to repeat this. Another fascinating set of research questions and hypotheses is generated also by the concept of "knowledge through Being-love”. The ability to B-love is characteristic of a higher level of personal maturity. Therefore personal maturity is a precondition for this kind of perspicuity, and one way to improve this kind of knowing would be to improve the maturity of the knower. What could this imply for the education of scientists? 65 65 Chapter 12 Value-Free Science? In my Religions, Values and Peak-Experiences I pointed out that both orthodox science and orthodox religion have been institutionalized and frozen into a mutually excluding dichotomy. This separation into Aristotelian a and not-a has been almost perfect, as if a line had been drawn between them in the way that Spain and Portugal once divided the new world between themselves by drawing a geographical line. Every question, every answer, every method, every jurisdiction, every task has been assigned to either one or the other, with practically no overlaps. One consequence is that they are both pathologized, split into sickness, ripped apart into a crippled half-science and a crippled half-religion. This either-or split forces a kind of eitheror choice between them, as if one were confronted with a two-party system in which there is no alternative to voting a straight ticket and choosing one means giving up the other altogether. As a result of this forced either-or choice, the student who becomes a scientist automatically gives up a great deal of life, especially its richest portions. He is like a monk who is asked to enter a monastery and to make vows of renunciation (because orthodox science has defined out of its jurisdiction so many portions of the real human world). The most important parceling out of jurisdictions is that science has nothing to do with values. Orthodox science has been defined as value-free, as having nothing to say about the ends, the goals, the purposes, the rewards, or the justifications of life. A common phrasing is "science can tell us nothing about why, only about how”. Another is "science is not an ideology or an ethic or a value system; it cannot help us to choose between good and evil”. The unavoidable implication is, then, that science is only an instrument, only a technology, to be used equally by either good men or by villains. The Nazi concentration camps are an instance. Another implication is that being a good scientist is compatible with being a good Nazi; one role exerts no intrinsic strain on the other. When the existentialists ask why we should not commit suicide, the orthodox scientist can only shrug his shoulders and say, "Why not?" (Just so we don't get confused here, notice that I am not talking about a priori "should" or "ought": organisms make a choice between life or death; they prefer life and hang on to it; but it cannot be said of oxygen or electromagnetic waves or gravitation that they have preferences in this same sense). This situation is now even worse than it was during the Renaissance, because more recently all the value fields, all the humanities and all the arts, have been included in this world of nonscience, that is, of the unscientific. Science began originally as a determination to rely on one's own eyes instead of on the ancients or upon ecclesiastical authority or pure logic. That is, it was originally just a kind of looking for oneself rather than trusting anyone else's preconceived ideas. Nobody then said anything about science being value-free. This was a later accretion. Orthodox science today attempts to be free not only of values but also of emotions. As youngsters would say, it tries to be "cool”. The basic notions of detachment and objectivity, of precision, rigor, and quantification, of parsimony, and of lawfulness, all imply that emotion and emotional intensity are contaminants of cognition. The unquestioned assumption is that "cool" perceiving and neutral thinking are best for discovering any kind of scientific truth. As a matter of fact, many scientists are not even aware that there are other 66 66 modes of cognition. An important by-product of this dichotomizing is the desacralizing of science, the banishment of all the experiences of transcendence from the realm of the respectably known and the respectably knowable, and the denial of a systematic place in science for awe, wonder, mystery, ecstasy, beauty, and peak experiences. VALUES IN SCIENCE "For example a psychologist may describe a subject's thinking as paranoid but nevertheless . . . refrains from expressing judgments of value regarding such behavior. On the other hand, the philosopher, whose task it is to express value judgments, states whether or not paranoid thinking is good or bad, true or false, desirable or undesirable, etc. . . . This distinction delineates philosophy from all other sciences. Philosophers evaluate; they state whether a person, his behavior or character, is good or bad, right or wrong, beautiful or ugly; in fact, this is precisely the way Plato defined philosophy, namely, the study of the true, the good, the beautiful. Scientists refrain from evaluations since they consider the practice unscientific, and rightly so. . . . Only philosophers evaluate, while scientists describe facts as accurately as they possibly can”. [12-1] Obviously this statement needs many qualifications. The distinction is too simple. Far more subtle differentiations are necessary, even though we may accept the general tenor of the statement, i.e., that in general scientists do less evaluating than nonscientists and are perhaps also more concerned with description than nonscientists — although I doubt that you could convince an artist of this. For one thing the whole scientific process is itself shot through with selectiveness, choice, and preference. We could even call it gambling if we wanted to, as well as good taste, judgment, and connoisseurship. No scientist is a mere camera eye or tape recorder. He is not indiscriminate in his activities. He doesn't do just anything. He works at problems that he characterizes as "important" or as "interesting”, and he comes up with "elegant" or "beautiful" solutions. He does "pretty" experiments, and prefers "simpler" and "cleaner" results to confused or sloppy ones. All these are value words, evaluating, selecting, preferring, implying a more desirable and a less desirable, not only in the strategy and tactics of the scientist but also in his motivations and goals. Polanyi (60) has set forth most convincingly the thesis that a scientist is at all times a gambler, a connoisseur, a man of good taste or bad taste, a man who makes acts of faith and leaps of commitment, a man of will, a responsible person, an active agent, a chooser and therefore a rejector. All of these statements go double for the "good" scientist (as compared with the run-of-themill, average-to-poor scientist). That is, intelligence being held equal, the scientist we admire and value more highly and the one who is honored by his fellows and by the historians is even more characterizable as a man with good taste and good judgment, a man who has correct hunches, who trusts them and who can act courageously on them, a man who somehow can smell out the good problems, devise beautiful ways of putting them to the test, and can somehow come up with elegantly simple, true, and conclusive answers. The poor scientist doesn't know the difference between an important problem and an unimportant one, a good technique and a poor one, an elegant demonstration and a crude one. In a word, he doesn't know how to evaluate. He lacks good taste. And he does not have hunches that turn out to be correct. Or if he has them, they frighten him, and he turns away from them. 67 67 But beyond this insistence that choosing necessarily implies principles of choice, i.e., values, there is the even more obvious point that the whole enterprise of science is concerned with "Truth”. That's what science is all about. Truth is considered intrinsically desirable, valuable, beautiful. And of course truth has always been counted among the ultimate values. That is to say, science is in the service of a value, and so are all scientists (9,10,11). And if I wished I could involve other values in this discussion since it looks probable that the full, ultimate "Truth" is finally definable, only and altogether, by all the other ultimate values. That is, truth is ultimately beautiful, good, simple, comprehensive, perfect, unifying, alive, unique, necessary, final, just, orderly, effortless, self - sufficient, and amusing (44). If it is less than these, it is not yet the fullest degree and quality of truth. But there are still other meanings for the statements about science being value-free or not value-free. For the psychologists one such issue is no longer in question. It is possible to study in fruitful ways the values of human beings. This is true in the most obvious way: e.g., we have the Allport-Vernon-Lindzey test for values which enables us to say crudely that a person prefers religious values, for instance, to political or esthetic ones. It is equally true, though less obvious, that the many studies of the food preferences of monkeys, for example, can be considered to be descriptions of what is valuable to the animal. So also for the freechoice and self-choice experiments that have been done in many areas. Any studies of choice or preference or selection may be considered to be, in a particular and useful sense, the study of values, either instrumental or final. The crucial question to be asked is: can science discover the values by which men should live? I think it can, and I have advanced this thesis in various places, supporting it with whatever data I could muster (40, 43, 44, 46, 48, 50, 51). This support has been sufficient to convince me, but not yet more skeptical people. It had best be presented as a thesis, programmatic in nature, plausible enough to warrant attention but not solidly enough supported to be accepted as fact. The data I turn to first are the accumulated experiences of dynamic psychotherapy, starting with Freud and continuing up to the present day in most therapies that have to do with discovering the identity, or the Real Self. I would prefer to call them all the "uncovering therapies" or Taoistic therapies in order to stress that they purport to uncover (more than to construct) the deepest self which has been covered over by bad habits, misconceptions, neuroticizing, etc. All these therapies agree in finding that this most real self partly consists of needs, wishes, impulses, and instinctlike desires. These may be called needs because they must be fulfilled or psychopathology results. As a matter of fact, the historical order of discovery was the other way about. Freud, Adler, Jung, and the rest agreed in this, that in their efforts to understand the origins of adult neurosis, they all wound up with biologically demanding needs violated or neglected early in life. Neurosis seemed to be in its essence a deficiency disease of the same sort that the nutritionists were discovering. And just as the latter, in a kind of reconstructive biology, could finally say, "We have a need for vitamin B'2”, so also can psychotherapists say on the basis of the same kind of data that we have a need to be loved or a need for safety (50). It is these needs, "instinctoid" in nature, that we can also think of as built-in values — values not only in the sense that the organism wants and seeks them but also in the sense that they are both good and necessary for the organism. And it is these values that are found, uncovered — recovered, perhaps we should say — in the course of psychotherapy or selfdiscovery. We may then regard these techniques of therapy and self-discovery as being also cognitive tools or scientific methods (in the sense that they are the best methods we have 68 68 available today to uncover these particular kinds of data). It is in this sense at least that I would maintain that science in the broadest sense can and does discover what human values are, what the human being needs in order to live a good and a happy life, what he needs in order to avoid illness, what is good for him and what is bad for him. Apparent discoveries of this sort seem already to exist in great number in all the medical and biological sciences, for instance. But here we have to be careful to distinguish. On the one hand, what the healthy human being chooses, prefers, and values out of his own deepest inner nature, is also most often good for him. On the other hand, physicians may have learned that aspirin is good for headaches, but we have no inborn yearning for aspirin, as we do have for love or for respect. SCIENCE AS A SYSTEM OF VALUES In an interview Ralph Ellison said of his work: "I feel that with my decision to devote myself to the novel I took on one of the responsibilities inherited by those who practice the craft in the U. S.: that of describing for all, that fragment of the huge diverse American experience which I know best, and which offers me the possibility of contributing not only to the growth of the literature but to the shaping of the culture as I should like it to be. The American novel is in this sense a conquest of the frontier; as it describes our experience, it creates it”. [12-2] This passage well expresses the motivational situation confronting thoughtful scientists as well as novelists. Certainly a main task, even a sine qua non for the scientist, is describing a portion of the world for all and contributing to the growth of the scientific literature. Up to this point one just does not ask "why”. The scientist does it because he likes doing it, because it is "interesting”, because it is fun or exciting, or because he can make an easier and more pleasant living this way than by driving a truck. So far, in effect, he is enjoying himself because he is enjoying himself, and since he supports himself and his family, people raise no objection even if they do not understand what he is doing or why he is doing it. But observe that if we stop at this point, we cannot yet differentiate him from any other kind of worker who likes doing what he is doing because he likes doing it. For instance, a professional bridge player or a stamp collector or a television announcer or a model also may be doing what he wants to do and is earning a living. The scientist normally tries to justify his calling not only to the society that supports and protects him but to himself as well, to his friends, to his family. He himself is ordinarily not satisfied with an explanation simply in terms of self-indulgence. He feels and he tries to show, however inarticulately, that his work is valuable beyond his personal pleasures. It has value in itself, for others, for the society, for mankind. And a fair proportion of scientists will tell you that they, too, are "shaping the culture as they would like it to be”, i.e., they are Utopians. They have goals in mind that they consider intrinsically good, toward which their work moves. (Of course, this is true for some but not for all.) That is, they are enlisted in the service of a cause. They are not merely selfish. There is another sense in which science and scientists are not value-free. They do see a difference between being a scientist and doing television commercials. They do feel virtuous, valuable, and superior. They do regard themselves as living a better life than, let us say, models. Science is good for something, and also it is valuable in itself. It is good in itself because it creates more truth, beauty, order, lawfulness, goodness, perfection, unity, etc., and it is certainly an honor to help build so awe-inspiring a structure. It is (or can be) good for 69 69 something because it lengthens life and reduces disease and pain, makes life richer and fuller, reduces back-breaking labor, and could (in principle) make better human beings. The justification that is used depends on the particular audience that is being persuaded, and the "level" of the justification certainly must be equivalent to the height of development to which the listener has attained. But some justification there usually is and has to be. Science as a human enterprise and as a social institution has goals, ends, ethics, morals, purposes — in a word, values — as Bronowski (9, 10, 11) has so conclusively and brilliantly demonstrated. 70 70 Chapter 13 Stages, Levels, and Degrees of Knowledge [13-1] In Chapter 8 I talked about improved self-knowledge making better knowers. This has never been "proved" in the ordinary sense. How, then, dare I make such a statement? I base this statement — for instance — upon thousands of clinical experiences, single individual patients with single therapists as well as the personal reports of the therapists themselves. For most common-sense people this experience is a form of knowledge, even though it has relatively low reliability. There is no question at all that our confidence in this "truth" would be far greater if a carefully planned and designed experiment would report statistically significant superiority of scientists who were more healthy over those who were less healthy, or of scientists who had gone through psychoanalysis, etc. Such data are far more reliable than "clinical experience”. But in the absence of such experiments, are we not being realistic and "scientific" if we are quite aware of the degree of confidence that the data warrant, and if we specify this clearly to each other? Knowledge is a matter of degree. Any increment of knowledge or of reliability is better than nothing. One case is better than none, and two are better than one. Neither knowledge in general nor reliability in particular is an all-or-none matter. There is no sharp shoreline which marks off the land of knowledge from the ocean of not-knowledge. There are some who will insist that "scientific" knowledge is and must be clear, lucid, unequivocally defined, unmistakable, demonstrable, repeatable, communicable, logical, rational, verbalizable, conscious. If it is not these, then it is not "scientific"; it is something else. But what shall we say, then, about the first stages of knowledge, the precursors of these final forms, the beginnings that each of us can easily enough experience in himself. First comes the uneasiness, the restlessness, the unhappiness, the feeling that something is not quite right. This uneasiness can come before it finds its explanation. That is, we can feel something that, if put into words, would run, "I feel uneasy, but I don't know why. There's something not quite right here, but I don't know what it is”. To make it even more confusing, this feeling can be totally unconscious or only half conscious, and it may be recognized only sometime later, retrospectively. At this point all that we have to deal with are hunches, guesses, intuitions, dreams, fantasies, vague "prethoughts" not yet verbalized. Fortuitous associations can send us off in one direction or another. We may suddenly wake out of sleep with an answer that may then be put to the test and may turn out to be either right or wrong. Communication within ourselves or with others is often vague, inconsistent, self-contradictory, illogical, even irrational. It may be couched in figures of speech, metaphors, similes, etc. We may begin researching by sensing a gap and talking about it as a poet talks rather than as a scientist is supposed to talk. And we may then behave more like a physician or a gambler or a teacher than like the traditional scientist. Think, for instance, of the language of psychoanalysis, with its physical analogies and parallels, reifications, personifications, and half-mythological entities. It is easy to criticize all this from the point of view of finished and elegant science. But — and this is my main point here — these words are the fumbling efforts to communicate intuitive, clinical feelings that cannot yet be expressed in any other way. They are the best that can be done at the present stage of development of knowledge. The best logicians, mathematicians, physicists, 71 71 chemists, and biologists in the world could do no better if faced with the task of describing, for instance, the phenomena of transference or repression or anxiety. These phenomena exist and have been experienced and reported by thousands of patients in one form or another, and they have been witnessed by thousands of psychotherapists in one version or another. And yet it is impossible to describe them well or even to get agreement on which words to use in descriptions. It is easy for the laboratory scientist to criticize all this. But in the end these criticisms come down to an accusation that a final state of knowledge has not yet been achieved. This is why inchoate knowledge is apt to be sloppy and ambiguous. This is a stage through which knowledge must pass! There is no known alternative. There is no other way to do things. [13-2] If this fact is fully understood, we are apt to turn back upon the critics with some irritation and even with some readiness to make psychoanalytic interpretations of the critic rather than to answer him with logical arguments. For at this point we realize that the critics often need neatness, exactness, or precision and cannot tolerate its absence, that they select only those problems to work with that already satisfy this criterion, and that in effect their criticisms may amount to a rejection of the problems themselves. They may be criticizing not your methodology but you yourself for asking that particular question. Scientists who need neatness and simplicity generally have sense enough to stay away from the humanistic and personal problems of human nature. Such a choice may indicate a preference for neatness over new knowledge of human nature, and this can be a way of avoiding the tough problems. LEVELS OF RELIABILITY OF KNOWLEDGE There is some tendency to dichotomize knowledge into true or false, significant or nonsignificant, reliable or unreliable. It takes only a moment's thought to see that this is unwise. Reliability of knowledge is a matter of degree. So is truth and falsehood. And certainly so also is significance and pertinence. If we know only one fact, that a coin tossed once has turned up heads, then the probability of turning up heads in a second toss is greater than one half, and any wise man would bet accordingly. This is so because the slight possibility of the coin being lopsided has been raised by the one bit of knowledge. Knight Dunlap long ago showed that people who were asked to guess which of two slightly different weights was heavier, would guess correctly more often than chance, even though they had no conscious confidence at all in their judgments. Consciously they felt that they were making pure guesses. Other researches have extended this kind of finding to group guessing. The mean of ten people guessing blindly (i.e., without subjective confidence) is apt to be closer to the true mean than will be the mean of five people guessing blindly. The history of medicine — pharmacology in particular — demonstrates again and again that it pays to take seriously the beliefs of primitive tribesmen, for example, in the therapeutic powers of some herb or bark, even when their explanations are weird or can be proved false. A confused glimmer of the truth is possible from only vaguely understood learning experiences. And so in this realm as in others we give some credence, if only a little, to the expert opinion, to the hunch of the experienced clinician, to the educated guess. When we have no reliable facts to go on, we will turn for guidance to the best that's available. 72 72 All of us are used to this — when we deal with surgeons, psychiatrists, lawyers, etc. Especially is this so when we are forced to make decisions in the absence of satisfactory knowledge. But Polanyi (60,61,62), Northrop (59), Kuhn (30), and others have shown that something of the sort is also true in the strategy and tactics of the scientist himself. Creative persons have often reported their reliance on hunches, dreams, intuitions, blind guessing, and gambling in the early stages of the creative process. Indeed, we could almost define the creative scientist in that way — as the creative mathematician is already defined — i.e., as one who reaches the truth without knowing why or how. He just "feels" something to be correct and then proceeds post hoc to check his feeling by careful research. The choice of hypothesis to test, the choice of this rather than that problem to invest oneself in, is proved correct or incorrect only after the fact. We may judge him correct because of the facts that he has gathered, but he himself did not have these facts to base his confidence on. Indeed the facts are the consequence of his "unfounded" self-confidence, not the cause of it. We call a scientist "talented" for just this reason, that he is often right in spite of insufficient evidence. The lay picture of "the scientist" as one who keeps his mouth shut until he is sure of his facts is quite incorrect, at least for talented, "break-through" scientists. Polanyi rightly speaks of faith, connoisseurship, courage, self-confidence, and boldness in gambling as intrinsic to the nature of the trail-blazing theorist or researcher, as defining characteristics, not as accidental, fortuitous, or expendable. And this can also be stated in terms of probabilities. The bold and productive scientist must be able to be comfortable with low probabilities. He must take them seriously as the clues to what he ought to do and the directions in which he ought to go. He must be sensitive to them and be guided by them. At least he must regard them as scientifically "real" and therefore worthy of his attention as a scientist. It is both useful and correct to consider as falling within the definition of knowledge all "protoknowledge”, so long as its probability of being correct is greater than chance. This usage would imply then a hierarchy of stages or levels or degrees of knowledge, ranging downward in degree of reliability to expert guesses, hunches and intuitions, tentative conclusions based on insufficient cases or upon crude methods, etc. Knowledge is then seen as more reliable or less reliable but still knowledge so long as its probability is greater than chance. The word "empirical" then gets used as the physician uses it, i.e., to describe an inchoate, apperceptive mass made up of thousands of experiences of "trying out" remedies on himself as well as upon his patients, of accepting common sense remedies tentatively, of judging face plausibility, etc. This adds up to the tacit knowledge accumulated by the "experienced" physician. Hardly anything he knows has been adequately proved. THE SCIENTIST AS EXPLORER The originator is to some extent more attracted to the complex rather than to the simple or easy, to the mysterious and unknown rather than to the known. What challenges him is that which he does not know. What fun, he feels, is there in a puzzle whose solution he knows? A known puzzle is no puzzle. It is the not knowing that fascinates him and that sets him into motion. For him the mystery "calls for" solving. It has "demand character”. It beckons, attracts, and seduces. The feeling of the scientific originator is that of a first explorer of an unknown wilderness, an unknown river or a strange mountain pass. He doesn't really know where he is going. He has no maps, no predecessors, no guides, no experienced helpers, few hints or orientation points. Every step he takes is a hypothesis, as likely to be a mistake as not. 73 73 And yet the word "mistake" hardly applies to a scout. A blind alley explored is no longer an unexplored blind alley. No one else need ever explore it. Something has been learned. If presented with a choice between a left and a right fork in the river, and having tried the left fork and found it to be a dead end, he doesn't consider that his choice was a "mistake" or an error. Certainly he would feel no guilt or regret and would look with astonishment upon someone who upbraided him for having made a choice without evidence or for moving ahead without being sure. He might then point out that upon such principles and with such rules no wilderness could ever be explored and that such principles were useful in re-exploring but not in exploring for the first time. In a word, the rules, principles or laws of the explorer or the scout are different from the rules suitable for later settlers simply because the tasks are different. What is functionally suitable for one is not suitable for the other. The beginning stages of knowledge should not be judged by the criteria derived from "final" knowledge. THE EMPIRICAL ATTITUDE One trouble with defining science in terms of its highest reaches and ultimate skills is that it makes science and the scientific spirit inaccessible to most people. Stressing its technology and showing off its most esoteric abstractions make it look far more difficult than it really is. It comes to be seen as a matter for the expert, something done by a certain kind of highly trained professional and by nobody else. In effect this kind of science, after dividing the world into scientists and nonscientists, says to the nonscientists, "This is none of your business! Stay out! Leave it to us experts. Trust us!" It is certainly true that the sciences of the impersonal, which are also our oldest sciences, have reached a high level of abstraction and that their technology is in fact a matter for trained experts. (I won't say "most advanced" sciences because this implies that all sciences can be ranked in a single scale, which is not true.) But it is equally true that the psychological and social or even the life sciences are far from being as complex, as abstract, or as technologized. There is still plenty of room for the amateur — many simple questions yet to be asked, many nooks and corners to be probed for the first time. In its beginnings, science is easy. But my main point is more radical. If we define science in terms of its beginnings and its simplest levels rather than in terms of its highest and most complex levels, then science is simply looking at things for yourself rather than trusting to the a priori or to authority of any kind. It is this empirical attitude that I claim can and should be taught to all human beings, including young children. Look for yourself! Let's see how it works! Is that claim correct? How correct? Such as these, I believe, are the fundamental scientific questions and methods of science. And it follows that checking for yourself by going into the back yard and looking with your own eyes is more truly empirical and therefore more "scientific" than looking up the answer in Aristotle or, for that matter, in a textbook of science. It follows also that a child can be "scientific" watching an anthill and so can a housewife comparing the virtues of various soaps by trying them out in her basement. The empirical attitude is a matter of degree rather than an all-or-none skill acquired all at once in a single moment when you get a Ph.D. and that you can only then practice. This attitude can therefore be cultivated and improved bit by bit. And when phrased in this way — keeping in touch with reality, keeping your eyes open — it becomes almost a defining characteristic of humanness itself. Helping people to become more empirical is one way of 74 74 improving their knowing and their knowledge. It helps their "reality testing”, to use the psychoanalytic word. That is, it helps people to distinguish facts from wishes, from hopes, or from fears. And it also should help toward improvement of what I might call "psyche testing”, truer knowledge of one's subjective world. It is necessary to know when one is wishing or hoping or fearing and whose wishes they are. In a word, scientists are not a different species. They share with others the characteristic of curiosity, the desire and even the need to understand, to prefer seeing to being blind, and to prefer more reliable to less reliable knowledge. The specialized abilities of the professional scientist are intensifications of these general human qualities. Every normal person, even every child, is a simple, undeveloped, amateur scientist who can in principle be taught to be more sophisticated, more skilled, more advanced. A humanistic view of science and of scientists would certainly suggest such a domestication and democratization of the empirical attitude. Such a recommendation flows even more strongly from a transhuman or transcendental view of science and scientists. The process of acquiring knowledge (at all its levels) and the contemplation and enjoyment of it is turning out to be one of the richest sources of esthetic raptures, of semireligious ecstasies, of experiences of awe and mystery. Such emotional experiences are among the ultimate joys of living. Orthodox desacralizing science has for various reasons tried to purge itself of these transcendent experiences. Such purging, far from being necessary in order to safeguard the purity of science, is instead a deprivation and a removal from science of its human necessities. It is almost like saying that science need not or cannot be enjoyed. Such experiences of joy are necessary not only because they bring people into science and keep them there, but also because these esthetic joys may also be cognitive signs, like signal rockets that go off to tell us we have found something important (63). It is in the peak experiences that Being-cognition (43, 44, 46) is most likely to take place. In such moments we are perhaps most able to see into the heart of things. 75 75 Chapter 14 The Desacralization and the Resacralization of Science [14-1] The nonscientists, the poets, the religious, the artists, and ordinary people in general may have a point in their fear, and even hatred of what they see as science. They often feel it to be a threat to everything that they hold marvelous and sacred, to everything beautiful, sublime, valuable, and awe-inspiring. They sometimes see it as a contaminator, a spoiler, a reducer, that makes life bleak and mechanical, robs it of color and joy, and imposes on it a spurious certainty. Look into the mind of the average high school student and this is the picture you see (54). The girls will often shudder at the thought of marrying a scientist, as if he were some sort of respectable monster. Even when we resolve some of the misinterpretations in the layman's mind, such as his confounding the scientist with the technologist, his inability to differentiate between the "revolution scientist" and the "normal scientist" or between the physical and the social sciences, some justified complaint is left. This "need to desacralize as a defense" has, so far as I know, not been discussed by the scientists themselves. Briefly put, it appears to me that science and everything scientific can be and often is used as a tool in the service of a distorted, narrowed, humorless, de-eroticized, de-emotionalized, desacralized and desanctified Weltanschauung. This desacralization can be used as a defense against being flooded by emotion, especially the emotions of humility, reverence, mystery, wonder, and awe (18, 48). I think I can best make my meaning clear by an example from my experiences thirty years ago in medical school. I didn't consciously realize it then, but in retrospect it seems clear that our professors were almost deliberately trying to harden us, to teach us to confront death, pain, and disease in a "cool”, unemotional manner. The first operation I ever saw was almost a representative example of the effort to desacralize, i.e., to remove the sense of awe, privacy, fear, and shyness before the sacred and of humility before the tremendous. A woman's breast was to be amputated with an electrical scalpel that cut by burning through. As a delicious aroma of grilling steak filled the air, the surgeon made carelessly "cool" and casual remarks about the pattern of his cutting, paying no attention to the freshmen rushing out in distress, and finally tossing this object through the air onto the counter where it landed with a plop. It had changed from a sacred object to a discarded lump of fat. There were, of course, no tears, prayers, rituals, or ceremonies of any kind, as there would certainly have been in most preliterate societies (18). This was all handled in a purely technological fashion — emotionless, calm, even with a slight tinge of swagger. The atmosphere was about the same when I was introduced — or rather not introduced — to the dead man I was to dissect. I had to find out for myself what his name was and that he had been a lumberman and was killed in a fight. And I had to learn to treat him as everyone else did, not as a dead person but without ceremony, as a "cadaver”. So also for the several beautiful dogs I had to kill in my physiology classes when we had finished with our demonstrations and experiments. The new medics themselves tried to make their deep feelings manageable and controllable by suppressing their fears, their compassion, their tender feelings, their awe before stark life and death, their tears as they all identified with the frightened patients. Since they were young men, they did it in adolescent ways, e.g., getting photographed while seated on a cadaver and eating a sandwich, casually pulling a human hand out of a brief case at the restaurant table, making standard medic jokes about the private recesses of the body, etc. 76 76 This counterphobic toughness, casualness, unemotionality and profaning (covering over their opposites) was apparently thought to be necessary, since tender emotions might interfere with the objectivity and fearlessness of the physician. (I myself have often wondered if this desacralizing and desanctifying was really necessary. It is at least possible that a more priestly and less engineerlike attitude might improve medical training — or at least not drive out the "softer" candidates. [14-2] Also we must now take issue with the implied assumption that emotion must be an enemy of truth and objectivity. Sometimes it is, and sometimes it is not). There are many other situations in which desacralizing can be seen more clearly as a defense. We are all acquainted with people who can't stand intimacy, honesty, defenselessness, those who get uneasy with close friendship, who can't love or be loved. Running away from this disturbing intimacy or beauty is a usual solution, or it can be "distanced”, i.e., held at arm's length. Or finally it can be gutted, deprived of its disturbing quality, denatured. For instance, innocence can be redefined as stupidity, honesty can be called gullibility, candor becomes lack of common sense, and generosity is labeled soft-headedness. The former disturbs; the latter does not and can be dealt with. (Remember that there really is no way of "dealing with" great beauty or blinding truth or perfection — or with any of the ultimate Being-values; all we can do is contemplate, be delighted, be "amused”, adore, etc.) In an ongoing investigation of what I am calling "counter-values" (the fear or hatred of truth, goodness, beauty, perfection, order, aliveness, uniqueness, and the other Being-values), I am finding in general that these highest values tend to make the person more conscious of everything in himself that is the opposite of these values. Many young men feel more comfortable with a girl who isn't too pretty. The beautiful girl is apt to make him feel sloppy, gawky, stupid, unworthy, as if he were in the presence of some kind of royalty or deity. Desacralization can be a defense against this battering of self-esteem shaky enough to need defending. Just as obvious and just as well known to the clinician is the inability of some men to have sexual intercourse with a good or beautiful woman unless they degrade her first — or at least make her not a goddess. It is difficult for the man who identifies his role in the sexual act with a dirty act of intrusion or of domination to do this to a goddess or madonna or priestess — to a sacred, awesome mother. So he must drag her down from her pedestal above the world into the world of dirty human beings by making himself master, perhaps in a gratuitously sadistic way, or by reminding himself that she defecates and sweats and urinates or that she can be bought, etc. Then he need no longer respect her; he is freed from feeling awed, tender, worshipful, profane, or unworthy, from feeling clumsy and inadequate like a frightened little boy. Less studied by the dynamic psychologists but probably as frequent a phenomenon is the symbolic castration of the male by his female. Certainly this is known to occur widely in our society at least, but it is usually given either a straight sociological or else a straight Freudian explanation. Quite as probable, I think, is the possibility that "castration" may also be for the sake of desacralizing and desanctifying the male, that Xanthippe is also fighting against being flooded and overwhelmed by her great respect for and awe of her Socrates. Also what frequently passes for "explanation" is not so much an effort to understand or to communicate understanding or to enrich it as it is an effort to abort awe, marvel, and wonder. The child who is thrilled by a rainbow may be told in a slightly scornful and debunking way, "Oh, that's only the scattering of white light into colors by droplets acting like prisms”. This can be a devaluation of the experience in a sort of one-upmanship that laughs at the child and 77 77 his naïveté. And it can have the effect of aborting the experience so that it is less likely to come again or to be openly expressed or to be taken seriously. It can have the effect of taking the awe and wonder out of life. I have found this to be true for peak-experiences. They are easily and often "explained away" rather than really explained. One friend of mine, during post-surgical relief and contemplation, had a great illumination in the classical style, profound and shaking. When I got over being impressed with his revelation, I bethought myself of the wonderful research possibilities that this experience opened up. I asked the surgeon if other patients had such visions after surgery. He said casually, "Oh, yes! Demerol, you know." Of course such "explanations" explain nothing about the content of the experience itself any more than a trigger explains the effects of an explosion. And then these explanations that achieve nothing must themselves be understood and explained. So also for the reductive effort and the "nothing but" attitude, e.g.: "A human being is really nothing but $24 worth of chemicals"; "A kiss is the juxtaposing of the upper ends of two gastrointestinal tracts"; "A man is what he eats"; "Love is the overestimation of the differences between your girl and all other girls”. I've chosen these adolescent-boy examples deliberately because this is where I believe the use of desacralization as a defense is at its height. These boys trying to be tough or "cool" or "grown-up" typically have to fight their awe, humility, love, tenderness, and compassion, their sense of miracle and marvel. They do this by dragging the "high" down to the "low”, where they feel that they themselves are. These "idealistic" youngsters keep busily fighting against their impulses to do homage by trying to desacralize and profane everything, as "normal" adults do. The general-atomistic techniques of dissection, etc. may also be used for this same purpose. One can avoid feeling stunned, unworthy, or ignorant before, let us say, a beautiful flower or insect or poem simply by taking it apart and feeling masterful again. So also for classifying, taxonomizing, categorizing, rubricizing in general. These, too, are ways of making awesome things mundane, secular, manageable, everyday. Any form of abstracting that avoids a comprehensive wholeness may serve this same purpose. So the question must be asked: is it in the intrinsic nature of science or knowledge that it must desacralize? Or is it possible to include in the realm of reality the mysterious, the aweinspiring, the B-humorous (44), the emotionally shaking, the beautiful, the sacred? And if they be conceded to exist, how can we get to know them? Laymen are often wrong when they feel that the scientist is necessarily desacralizing life. They misunderstand the attitude with which the best scientists approach their work. The "unitive" aspect of this attitude (perceiving simultaneously the sacred and the profane) is too easily overlooked, especially since most scientists are shy about expressing it. The truth is that the really good scientist often does approach his work with love, devotion, and self-abnegation, as if he were entering into a holy of holies. His self-forgetfulness can certainly be called a transcendence of the ego. His absolute morality of honesty and total truth can certainly be called a "religious" attitude, and his occasional thrill or peakexperience, the occasional shudder of awe, of humility and smallness before the great mysteries he deals with — all these can be called sacred (18, 48). This does not happen often, but it does happen and sometimes under circumstances difficult for the layman to identify. It is easy to elicit such secret attitudes from some scientists, if only you assume that they 78 78 exist and take them seriously. If science could discard this unnecessary "taboo on tenderness”, it would be less misunderstood and within its own precincts would find less need for desacralizing and making merely profane. We can also learn much from self-actualizing, highly healthy people. They have higher ceilings. They can see further. And they can see in a more inclusive and integrating way. They teach us that there is no real opposition between caution and courage, between action and contemplation, between vigor and speculation, between tough-mindedness and tendermindedness, between seriousness and (Olympian) humor. These are all human qualities, and they are all useful in science. In these people there is no need to deny reality to experiences of transcendence or to regard such experiences as "unscientific" or anti-intellectual. That is, such people feel no need to deny their deeper feelings. Indeed, it is my impression that, if anything, they tend rather to enjoy such experiences. THE GOOD-HUMORED SCIENTIST Another kind of criticism of official science and scientists comes from their tendency to place too great faith in their abstractions and to be too certain of them. In this way they also are likely to lose their sense of humor, their skepticism, their humility, and that becoming consciousness of deeper ignorance that forbids hubris. This criticism is especially apt in the psychological and social sciences. It is certainly true that physical scientists can plume themselves on their remarkable achievements and their mastery of objects and inanimate nature. But what have psychologists to be proud of? How much do they really know that is helpful to human concerns? Orthodox science has been a failure in all the human and social realms [14-3]. (I pass by the question of the so-called "success" that results in atom bombs that are then given into the charge of psychologically and socially primitive individuals and societies. Is it not dangerous for the right arm of science to grow to giant proportions while the left arm lags so far behind in its growth?) If I am right, it would certainly be wise and gracious of scientists — it would even be "scientific" in the truest sense — if they denied themselves the pleasures of "methodolatry", i.e., if they refused to become arrogant, blustering, and smug. The graces that would save them are rather such traits as modesty, the ability to laugh at themselves, to live with ambiguity, the constant awareness of the possibility of multiple theories for any set of facts, the acute consciousness of the intrinsic limits of language and of abstraction and of science itself, acknowledgement of the primacy of experiences, of facts, of description over all theories, a fear of living too long in the thin upper air of theories before coming back to the earthy facts. Finally I would add that experiential knowledge of the unconscious and preconscious determinants of one's own scientific work is the greatest humility producer of all. A revealing comparison may be made with the tendency of most authoritarian characters to be unable to wait and hold judgment in abeyance. It is the widespread clinical impression — the experimental data are still ambiguous — that they just can't stand waiting. It makes them tense and anxious. And they tend to leap prematurely to a conclusion, any conclusion, rather than remain in this, for them, state of emotional purgatory. Not only this, but once they are committed to a conclusion, they also tend to hang on to it too long, even in the face of contradictory information. The more sagacious and Olympian, the more amused and ironic contemplator is aware that theories in science have been far more temporary than they expected to be, and they may 79 79 therefore feel that it is just as silly to be totally "loyal" to the laws of Newton as to the house of the Hohenzollerns. This more tentative attitude can be based firmly on empirical grounds. If one remains close to the world of concrete facts, it is impossible to deny their multiplicity, their contradictions, their ambiguity. One becomes aware of the relativity of our knowledge of this world of facts, relativity to the century, the culture, the class and caste, the personal character of the observer. It is so easy to feel certain and yet to be mistaken. [14-4] To sail into the teeth of such opposing forces, especially when one is aware of them, is itself a sign of courage and even nobility. It should make scientists feel fortunate, pleased with their lives, that they have sworn devotion to the eternal questions that are certainly worthy of the highest human efforts. One way in which it is possible to be empirical, to work at advancing knowledge, to value this knowledge greatly, and yet also to be realistic about the paucity and unreliability of human knowledge is to be detached about it, godlike, skeptically amused and affectionate, ironical, tolerant, and wondering. Laughing (in the right way) is one good way of handling an insoluble problem and of simultaneously retaining the strength to keep working at it. A sense of humor can be an excellent solution to the existential problem of being humble and yet also being proud, arrogant, and strong (enough to work at great tasks). In this way we can simultaneously be aware of what we know about rockets and antibiotics and what we don't know about war and peace, prejudice, or greed. These are all forms of contemplation of the confusion of what exists and are the mild enjoyments that permit us to go on trying persistently to unravel the confusion a little more without losing heart. One can love science even though it is not perfect, just as one can love one's wife even though she is not perfect. And, fortunately, for just a moment and as an unexpected and undeserved reward they sometimes do become perfect and take our breath away. Such an attitude helps to transcend certain other problems. One important one is the covert identification of a science with completed knowledge. It has been my experience to hear psychologists sneered at by physicists, for example, because they don't know much and because what they do know is not highly abstracted and mathematized. "Do you call that a science?" they ask, with the implication that science is knowing rather than questioning. Thus the rear-echelon soldier sneers at the front-light fighter for being dirty, and the inheritor of wealth sneers at the sweaty one who is earning it. The psychologist knows that there are two hierarchies of esteem in science (not just one). One is the hierarchy of well organized knowledge; the other is the hierarchy of importance of the questions one chooses to work with. It is the ones that choose to work with the crucial, unsolved, human questions who have taken on their shoulders the fate of mankind. NAIVE WONDER, SCIENCE, AND SOPHISTICATED WONDER Most of the definitions of science, especially those written by nonscientists, are ultimately inaccurate. Science is too often presented as a kind of functionally autonomous enterprise that cannot really make sense to the outsider. For instance, if you call it a "growing corpus of information" or a "system of concepts operationally defined”, laymen might wonder why people should dedicate their lives to such unexciting ends. Such descriptions of the end products of scientific work or of science as a social institution or, for that matter, any talk of 80 80 science rather than of scientists tends to leave out all the fun, the passion, the excitement, the triumph, the disappointment, the emotional and the conative, not to mention the "esthetic”, the "religious”, or the "philosophical" turmoil of the scientist's life. A fair parallel would be reading about the rules of chess, its history, studying individual games, etc. All this might give no answer at all to the question, "Why do people play chess?" If you know nothing about their emotions, their motivations and satisfactions, they will remain forever inscrutable, as gamblers are to nongamblers. I believe it is possible for nonscientists to get some feeling for the scientist's life via some understanding of his goals and satisfactions, since these psychologically real satisfactions are shared to an extent by everyone. In my investigations of peak-experiences I learned that these experiences are much more alike than the triggers that set them off. I felt much closer to women, for instance, after I discovered that they describe their moments of highest happiness in about the same way that men do, even though they are "turned on" by situations that leave men untouched. So far as the inner lives of individual scientists are concerned, these peak-experiences are much like those set off in the poets by poetry, etc. For my part, I think that I have got more "poetical" experiences from my own and others' researches than I have from poetry. I have got more "religious" experiences from reading scientific journals than I have from reading "sacred books”. The thrills of creating something beautiful come to me via my experiments, my explorations, my theoretical work rather than from painting or composing music or dancing. Science can be a way of marrying with that which you love, with that which fascinates you and with whose mystery you would love to spend your life. But to continue with the parallel, you may spend a lifetime getting to know more and more about your subject and wind up, after fifty years of learning, feeling even more overwhelmed with its mystery and solving the whole business by being amused with it. Of course, this is now an enriched and "higher" mystery and wonder, different from the blank mystification of the ignorant. The two processes seem to go on simultaneously and in parallel, i.e., knowing more and more and feeling the mystery more and more. At least this is what happens in our paragons and our sages, our best scientists, the ones who remain integrated human beings rather than becoming hemiplegic specialists. And these are the scientists who can be understood by poets and who in turn can see the poet as a kind of collaborator. Science can be the "poetry of the intellect”, as L. Durrell has put it. This exploration of the secret inner life of good scientists can be a foundation for a kind of ecumenical movement that will bring together scientists, artists, "religious" people, humanists, and all other serious people. Many people still think that scientific study or detailed knowing is the opposite and the contradiction of the sense of mystery [14-5]. But this need not be the case. Studying the mystery does not necessarily profane it. Indeed, this is the best way toward greater respect, richer understanding, and greater sacralization and sanctification at a much higher level of richness. Remember that it has always been our wisest men who were most simple, least arrogant, and most "amused." Knowing more about trees and how they work can make them more beautiful. The tree that I look at and admire is now more a miracle because I know a little botany. If I knew still more about the details of its functioning, this knowledge could make the tree still more miraculous and beautiful. For in stance, one of the most profound esthetic experiences of my life came to me long ago in a histology class. Here I had been studying the physiology, the chemistry, and the physics of the kidney. The more I learned, the more I marveled at its beautiful and unbelievable intricacy and simplicity and its functionally perfect form. Its form followed its 81 81 function far more sculpturally than anything Greenough (Form and Function: Remarks on Art [Univ. of California Press, 1947]) had ever dreamed of. The evolution of the kidney, as the comparative embryologists had learned it, was for me still another marvel so improbable that it could never have been anticipated a priori. It was at this point, after studying, learning, and knowing, that I looked at a perfectly stained slide under the microscope and had an experience of beauty so great that I remember it thirty-five years later. This is what nonscientists don't know, and this is what scientists are too bashful to talk about publicly, at least until they grow old enough to become shameless. Science at its highest level is ultimately the organization of, the systematic pursuit of, and the enjoyment of wonder, awe, and mystery. The greatest rewards that the scientist can have are such peakexperiences and B-cognitions as these. But these experiences can equally be called religious experiences, poetic experiences, or philosophical experiences. Science can be the religion of the nonreligious, the poetry of the nonpoet, the art of the man who cannot paint, the humor of the serious man, and the lovemaking of the inhibited and shy man. Not only does science begin in wonder; it also ends in wonder. 82 82 Endnotes n[1-1] Throughout the text of the book above, the first number inside the parentheses refers to the corresponding works listed in the Bibliography; where applicable, page numbers in Roman type follow the bibliographic reference. For example: (18, 41, 45), would mean pages 41 and 45 in the eighteenth book listed in the Bibliography. n[1-2] I do not mean to imply that "rehumanization" as a world view is necessarily the last word, Even before rehumanization has been well established, the shape of a world view beyond it is already beginning to be discernible. I shall speak below of selfless person-transcending values and realities, i.e., of a higher level of humanness, self-actualization, authenticity, and identity, in which the person becomes part of the world rather than its center. n[1-3] "In his law of the growth of the great kingdoms Newton was performing for political history a function similar, mutatis mutandis, to his discovery of the laws of motion (it was universal and it was simple), though he considered that prophets like Daniel had anticipated him by depicting the same history of the 'four kingdoms' in hieroglyphic language. Newton never wrote a history of men — they do not seem to count as individuals in his narrative — but of bodies politic as he had written a history of bodies physical. These agglomerations did not spring into being suddenly; like the physical planets they too had an 'original,' a history of creation, an extension in space which could be marked chronologically, and they too would have an end. Newton's chronological writings might be called the mathematical principles of the consolidation of empires because they dealt primarily with quantities of geographic space in a temporal sequence; the individuals mentioned in his histories, usually royal personages, were merely signposts marking the progressive expansion of territories; they have no distinctive human qualities. The subject matter of his history was the action of organized political land masses upon one another; crucial events were the fusion of previously isolated smaller units or the destruction of cohesive kingdoms by quantitatively superior forces. Moreover, Newton's principles of the consolidation of empires were equally true throughout the geographic world, in China as well as in Egypt. "When men did at times obtrude into his histories, Newton almost unconsciously imputed simple motives to their actions. His kings are automatonlike agents in the acquisition of power and the extension of dominion. When on rare occasions he examines them more closely they invariably operate in terms of the seventeenth-century balance of power principles, If an empire is in a state of distraction alliances are made by its enemies to take quick advantage of its weakness, Royal lust for acquisition is based on 'vanity' and other such staples of contemporary literary psychology. All dynasts, ancient and modern, look alike; they merely have different titles, and the theaters where they perform have different place names. They have no more character, either psychological or historical, than persons described in Apollodorus' Library. Newton found no proofs of the glory of God, as John Ray had, in the complexities and beauties of the organic world; he sought His impress almost exclusively in laws of the physical-astronomical universe. It was not the passions of men in history but the principles of the physical-astronomical universe. It was not the wondrous combination of parts in the eye but the principles of optics which stirred his imagination. It was not the passions of men in history but the principles of the physical growth of monarchies and the chronology of kingdoms that moved him. Everything human is alien to him — at least insofar as he expressed himself on mankind. His history hardly ever records a feeling, an emotion. Nations are for the most part puppets, neutral as astronomical bodies; 83 83 they invade and they are in their turn conquered; they grow larger and kingdoms coalesce — nothing more until Rome arises to rule the world." F. Manuel, Isaac Newton; Historian (Harvard Univ, Pr., 1963), pp. 137-138. n[2-1] When the person becomes an object of knowledge for himself, the situation becomes even more complicated. Generally it is better for him to have a skilled helper, which at once generates various subtle relationships between the person and his helper. How unusual this relationship may become was brought home to me dramatically in a psychotherapy class for psychiatric residents run by Dr. William Murphy, perhaps ten years ago. "I place upon my patients the fullest load of depression and anxiety that they are able to bear”, he said. Remember this is a psychotherapist trying to understand his patient and also helping this person to know himself better. I am not sure that this was meant as an epistemological statement, but it most surely was just that. Granted that this relationship between knower and known is different from the more "normal" epistemological relationship between a histologist and the slides that he is studying, and granted also that the latter relationship has been the model one, yet I believe it is clear that theories of knower-known relationships must be broadened to cover the former as well as the latter. n[3-1] "There are many ways of coping with such anxieties and some of these are cognitive. To such a person, the unfamiliar, the vaguely perceived, the mysterious, the hidden, the unexpected are all apt to be threatening. One way of rendering them familiar, predictable, manageable, controllable, i.e., unfrightening, and harmless, is to know them and to understand them. And so knowledge may have not only a growing-forward function, but also an anxiety-reducing function, a protective, homeostatic function. The overt behavior may be very similar, but the motivations may be extremely different. And the subjective consequences are then also different. On the one hand we have the sigh of relief, the feeling of lowered tension, let us say, of the worried householder exploring a mysterious and frightening noise downstairs in the middle of the night with a gun in his hand. This is quite different from the illumination and exhilaration, even the ecstasy, of a young student looking through a microscope who sees for the first time the minute structure of a cell, or who suddenly understands a symphony or the meaning of an intricate poem or political theory. In the latter instances, one feels bigger, smarter, stronger, fuller, more capable, successful, more perceptive. "This motivational dialectic can be seen on the largest human canvases, the great philosophies, the religious structures, the political and legal systems, the various sciences, even the culture as a whole. To put it very simply, too simply, they can represent simultaneously the outcome of the need to understand and the need for safety in varying proportions. Sometimes the safety needs can almost entirely bend the cognitive needs to their own anxiety-allaying purposes. The anxiety-free person can be more bold and more courageous and can explore and theorize for the sake of knowledge itself. It is certainly reasonable to assume that the latter is more likely to approach the truth, the real nature of things. A safety-philosophy or religion or science is more apt to be blind than a growth-philosophy, religion or science" (43, 61-62). n[3-2] See Horney's Neurotic Personality Of Our Time for excellent differentiations of the neurotic needs for love, safety, respect, etc. from healthy needs for love, safety, or respect. n[4-1] 84 84 A personal note may help to keep a balance between these dialectical tendencies and to guard against the either-or choice of mutual exclusiveness that is almost a reflex in our society. In the psychoanalysis of my own intellectual and scientific life, I have found it necessary to avoid temptations from both overcaution and overcourage, overcontrol and overimpulsiveness. I think this kind of perpetual conflict, this necessity for daily choices between retreat and advance, conservation and boldness, etc., is a necessary and intrinsic part of the life of the scientist. Polanyi (60) has made this even clearer with his demonstrations that scientific knowledge is "personal”, that it necessarily involves judgment, taste, faith, gambling, connoisseurship, commitment, responsibility. n[4-2] "Hysterical" and "schizoid tendencies" are both desirable standard equipment for the wellrounded, versatile, and flexible scientist (in whom they are not dichotomized from the rest of his personality and are therefore not pathologized). As I have already said, it is difficult to conceive of the extreme hysteric or the extreme schizophrenic as at all wanting to be a scientist or as able to be. The extreme obsessional can be a scientist of a certain kind, or at any rate, a technologist. n[6-1] This world of experience can be described with two languages, a subjective, phenomenological one and an objective, "naïvely realistic" one, as Niels Bohr pointed out long ago. Each one can be close to the language of everyday life, and yet neither describes life completely. Each has its uses and both are necessary. Psychotherapists have long since learned to differentiate these languages and to use them differently. For instance, in the analysis of interpersonal relationships, they try to teach their patients to say, in a nonblaming, nonprojecting way, "Somehow in your presence I feel small" (or "rejected”, or "angry”, etc.) rather than saying "You don't like me”, "You think you're better than I am”, "Stop trying to dominate me”, or "Why do you enjoy making me feel stupid?" That is, they teach them to experience their emotions as being inside themselves rather than automatically projecting them outward, as most people do. This obviously important differentiation is too huge to pursue any further here. n[6-2] A much fuller treatment of this topic is available in (45). n[6-3] A simple example of the way in which experiencing meshes with rationality is seen in the technique of "brainstorming”, in which criticism is postponed to a second stage after all the crazy and wild ideas have been permitted to emerge. Very similar is the Primary Rule of psychoanalysis. The patient is taught not to select from or edit his free associations, as they emerge into consciousness and into speech. After they have been said out loud, they can then be examined, discussed, criticized. This is an example of the way in which "experiencing" is a cognitive tool for finding portions of the truth which other methods fail to find. n[6-4] It was said of a certain book in an unintentionally amusing way that it was "a forthright, courageous and highly rigorous study on the difficult problem of woman's sexuality, about which so little is known”. Could it possibly be more clear that the word "known" is used here in a special sense, a sense that is chosen but that is not the only possible choice? In the experiential sense it is hard to think of anything better known than female sexuality. Has any phenomenon evoked more curiosity, speculation, theorizing, and careful and loving 85 85 investigation and personal attention? And will any verbal description be of much use until personal experiencing has occurred? And yet this same example will serve beautifully to show not only that experiential knowledge is prepotent to abstract knowledge but also how limited mere experiential knowledge can be. This statement is correct if it refers to shared, public, structured, organized knowledge. There is in truth little "developed scientific knowledge" of female sexuality, although there could easily be. n[6-5] "The scientific method, as far as it is a method, is nothing more than doing one's damndest with one's mind, no holds barred" (Percy Bridgman, 8). n[6-6] Is all therapy self-therapy? Do they want to keep on curing themselves? Do they need to? Is this a way of giving oneself love and forgiveness? of embracing one's past and assimilating it, transforming it into something good? Does this not suggest that other helping activities, e.g., psychotherapy, education, parenthood, may possibly be seen in a new light with the aid of this paradigm? And does not this possibility in turn suggest the great question, "To what extent is any personal and interpersonal knowing a knowing by identification, i.e., a self-knowing? How useful is such a point of view?" n[6-7] There are many such situations. Drug and alcohol addiction are two better-known examples. But it is also being discovered that Negroes had better deal with Negroes in many situations, Indians with Indians, Jews with Jews, and Catholics with Catholics. The generalization can be pushed far, although sometimes it gets more and more diluted in the process, e.g., women with women, orphans with orphans, spastics with spastics, homosexuals with homosexuals, etc. n[6-8] Is the diplomate, the Ph.D., the M.D., the professional, the only person permitted to be wise? knowledgeable? insightful? to discover? to cure? Must there be a laying on of hands by some bishop before one is permitted to enter the holy of holies? to forgive sins? Is it really wise and functional to demand a college degree as a prerequisite for so many jobs rather than seeking actual education, knowledge, skill, capacity, suitability for the job? Is a classroom really the only place or the best place to get educated? Is all knowledge conveyable in words? Can it all be put into books? into courses of lectures? Can it always be measured by written tests? Must any mother defer to any child psychologist? Are ministers in charge of all religious experiences? Must one take courses in "Introduction to Creative Writing”, "Intermediate Creative Writing”, and "Advanced Creative Writing" before writing a poem? Will a living room chosen by an expert, certified, and professional interior decorator make me happier than my own choice? These questions deliberately push to the extreme. Only so long as we remain watchful and suspicious of the dangers of bureaucratizing, of politically structured organizations, and of churches may we soberly acknowledge their necessity. And only if we remember how easily a technologist can become a means specialist, forgetting about ends, can we use him well and avoid the dangers of "rule by experts." Someone has defined technology as "the knack of so arranging the world that we don't have to experience it." n[8-1] "... Science should resolutely set its face against anything which would limit its scope, or which would arbitrarily narrow the methods or perspectives of its own pursuit of knowledge. 86 86 "Valuable as have been the contributions of behaviorism, I believe that time will indicate the unfortunate effects of the bounds it has tended to impose. To limit oneself to consideration of externally observable behaviors to rule out consideration of the whole universe of inner meanings, of purposes, of the inner flow of experiencing, seems to me to be closing our eyes to great areas which confront us when we look at the human world . . . "In contrast, the trend of which I am speaking will attempt to face up to all of the realities in the psychological realm. Instead of being restrictive and inhibiting, it will throw open the whole range of human experiencing to scientific study" (65,80). n[8-2] Collating from various of Northrop's writings, we have the two sets of phrases to describe the two kinds of knowledge or of reality. On the one hand, Concepts of Postulation: the theoretic component of things, the theoretic continuum, the theoretically known, the scientifically known, the inferred, the theoretically inferred, inferred facts. Contrasted with these are Concepts by Inspection or by Intuition: the esthetic component of things, the esthetic continuum, the ineffable, the purely factually given, transitory sense data, the empirically known, impressionistically known, immediately apprehended, empirically immediate, pure fact, purely empirical. immediately experienced, pure observation, the sensuous qualities. n[8-3] Toward maps, graphs, formulas, schemata, equations, diagrams, blueprints, abstract art, Xrays, outlines, condensations, précis, summaries, symbols, signs, cartoons, sketches, models, skeletons, plans, charts, recipes. n[9-1] When an interviewer confessed to Alain Robbe-Grillet, author of the screenplay "Last Year at Marienbad”, an incomplete understanding of the movie, the writer laughed and said. "Moi non plus”. This is certainly not an uncommon reaction any more Sometimes, I feel, it is an "in" thing to do, even a point of pride, to confess to lack of conscious meaningfulness in one's own artistic products and even to imply that the question itself is old-fashioned. This deliberate effort to renounce or to destroy meaningfulness sometimes appears to symbolize destruction of the establishment, of authority, and of traditions and conventions (whose falsehood seems to be taken for granted). Consciously or unconsciously it is intended as an attack upon hypocrisy, as a blow for freedom, for authenticity. It is as if a lie were being destroyed. This kind of obvious dichotomizing gives way easily before hierarchicalintegrative attitudes. n[9-2] T. S. Eliot, when asked, "Please, Sir, what do you mean by the line: 'Lady, three white leopards sat under a juniper tree'?" replied: I mean, 'Lady, three white leopards sat under a juniper tree' ... " (Stephen Spender, "Remembering Eliot”, Encounter, XXIV [April 1965], 4). Picasso has been similarly quoted' "Everyone wants to understand art. Why not try to understand the song of a bird? Why does one love the night, flowers, everything around one, without trying to understand it? But in the case of a painting people have to understand." n[9-3] In the very creative or great scientists I felt that, as is their custom, they integrated both qualities instead of giving up one in favor of the other. Even so I found it useful to make this typological differentiation, and so did some of the people I talked with and some whose personal accounts I have read. The question for them is when to be tough and when soft, 87 87 rather than which to be — hard or soft. Within psychology, my impression remains that some such polar differentiation may separate those "typical" experimental psychologists (who are poor clinicians) from the "typical" clinical psychologists (who are poor researchers), even though the one small research that I completed does not strongly support this guess (55). n[11-1] "If you want an absolute duffer in an investigation, you must, after all, take the man who has no interest whatever in its results; he is the warranted incapable, the positive fool”. (William James) n[12-1] Sahakian, W., and M. Sahakian, Realms of Philosophy (Schenkman Publishing Co., 1965), pp. 3,4. n[12-2] Writers At Work: Second Series (Viking, 1963), p. 344. n[13-1] See esp. Northrop (59), Watson (75,76), and Kuhn (30). n[13-2] "... Biology will run dry unless it becomes more receptive than it is presently to unsuspected phenomena, unpredictable on the basis of what is already known. Science does not progress only by inductive, analytical knowledge. The imaginative speculations of the mind come first, the verification and the analytical breakdown come only later. And imagination depends upon a state of emotional and intellectual freedom which makes the mind receptive to the impressions that it receives from the world in its confusing, overpowering, but enriching totality. We must try to experience again the receptivity of the young ages of science when it was socially acceptable to marvel. What Baudelaire said of art applies equally well to science: 'Genius is youth recaptured.' More prosaically, I believe that in most cases the creative scientific act comes before the operations which lead to the establishment of truth; together they make science. "Many great experimenters in all fields of science have described how their ideas were determined in large part by unanalytical, visionary perceptions. Likewise, history shows that most specific scientific theories have emerged and have been formulated gradually from crude intuitive sketches. In this light, the first steps in the recognition of patterns or in the development of new concepts are more akin to artistic awareness than to what is commonly regarded as the 'scientific method.' " (R. Dubos, The Dreams of Reason [Columbia University Press, 1961], pp. 122-123.) n[14-1] By this term I mean removal or destruction of either emotion or ceremony. Here I follow Eliade's usage (18) in spite of etymological difficulties which have been pointed out to me by S. Joseph Peake. "Desanctification" would be more correct in referring to feelings; "desacralization" refers more to ceremonies and rites. I shall use the latter word to cover both feelings and ceremonies. n[14-2] It is possible that this kind of "tough" training is necessary for a surgeon. That is debatable. But for a psychotherapist? for an "interpersonal knower" through caring and love? Clearly it is an antipsychological training! 88 88 n[14-3] We do have much useful knowledge of persons and societies, but I would maintain that much of it comes from heterodox sources, i.e., from humanistic science rather than from mechanistic science. n[14-4] "All science is only a make-shift, a means to an end which is never attained . . . all description is postponed till we know the whole, but then science itself will be cast aside. But unconsidered expressions of our delight which any natural object draws from us are something complete and final in themselves, since all nature is to be regarded as it concerns man; and who knows how near to absolute truth such unconscious affirmations may come? . . . We shall see but little if we require to understand what we see. How few things can a man measure with the tape of his understanding”. (Thoreau) n[14-5] When I heard the learn'd astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture room, How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars. — WALT WHITMAN 89 89 Bibliography 1. ALLPORT, G. W. "The General and the Unique in Psychological Science”, Journal of Personality, XXX (1962), 405-422. 2. 3. ALLPORT, G. W., Ed. Letters From Jenny. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1965. Anonymous. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, I (1961), 101-102. 4. ASCH, S. "Studies of Independence and Conformity, Part I”, Psychological Monographs, LXX (1956). (Whole No.416.) 5. BAKAN, D. 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"Surrender as a Response to Our Crisis”, Journal of Humanistic Psychology. II (1962), 16-30. 93 93 Index To The Original Hardcover Edition (The page numbers below refer to pages in the hardcover edition. To find these references in this ebook edition, use the "Find" or "Search" features of your software.) Abstraction: desacralizing tendency in, 143; experience and, 66-71, 74-75; limits of, 145; as meaning, 84-94; mechanistic, 135, 147 Acting out, 19, 37 Addiction, psychotherapy and. 58-61 Adler, Alfred, xiv. 8, 124 Adolescence, 36-37, 143 Alcoholics Anonymous, 46, 58 Alienation, 104. 105, 106-107; knowledge and. 49-52; values and, 140-141 Allport-Vernon-Lindzey test, 123 Altruism, x, 15 Ambiguity, 27.31 Animals, ix. 7,13,40 Anthropology, objectivity and, 115-1 16 Anti-intellectualism, xv-xvi, 63 Anxiety. See Fear Apollodorus. 5 n. Aristotle, 9; influence of, 19, 69, 114, 119, 136 Asch, S., cited, 28 Ashton-Warner, Sylvia, quoted, 52 Art. 37,149, 151; meaning and, 85, 87, 89-90; receptivity and, 97; style perception test, 62-64; see also Esthetics Astronomy: empathy and, 19. 113; mechanistic tradition and, 9, 18, 102, 114 Atomism, xiv, 95; desacralizing tendency in, 143; dichotomizing, 34-35; in education, 63; psychology and, 3-4. II; see also Reductiveness Attentiveness, 20-21; knowledge and. 10-11, 12, 98-99, 106; Taoist, 96; see also Receptivity Authority, 28, 36-37, 85 n., 146 Baudelaire, Charles, quoted, 130 n. Beauty, xiv, 15, 140, 141; see also Esthetics Beethoven, Ludwig van, 90 Behavior: ix-xii. 59; compulsive-obsessive, 25-26; predictability and, 42-44; scientific, 2022; see also specific kind of behavior, e.g., Contemplation Behaviorism, 47; mechanistic tradition of, ix-xii, 1-6, 13-16; objectivity of, 55-56, 75 n. Being, psychology of, 91, 116: see also Experience; Reality Being-Cognition, 116,117, 137 Being-Love, 116-1 18 Being- Values. 43, 141 Bertalanffy, Ludwig von. xv; quoted. 3 Biology, Xv', 3, 102; idiographic questions in. 9-10; receptivity and, 130 n. Bohr, Niels, cited, 45 n. Botany, 63 "Brainstorming”, 54 n. Bridgman, Percy, quoted, 57 n. Broken Image (Matson), 2 Bronowski, Jacob, xx, 127 Buber, Martin, 50, 106 Castration, 141-142 Catholics, 61 n. 6 Causality, xiv, 3 Caution. See Fear 94 94 Certainty, 58, 68, 73, 82; humor and, 144-148, 149; pleasure in, 93; probability and, 131134; see also Knowledge Character disorders, 29 Chemistry, 9, 19,76, 109, 150 Child psychology, 63 Classification: desacralizing tendency in, 143; empiricism and, 77; of experience, 54, 67; meaning and, 84, 87, 88; particularity and, 8-11; pathological, 29; theory and, 80-81; see also Rubricizing Clinical psychology, 21, 48; origins of, 102; particularity and, 10-11; receptivity and, 97-98; values of, xvi, 94 n. Cognition. See Knowledge Communication: experience and, 58-59, 65; knowledge and, 45-47, 129-130; love and, 103; meaning and, 85-86,87,88-89,90 Communists, 112-113 Compassion, 15, 36-37, 139-140 Comprehensiveness, 72-83. 84; see also Holism Conditioning, 7, 13 Confidence, 55 Conformity, 28 Consciousness, xiv, 19, 106; see also Knowledge Contemplation: desacralization of, 139-144; joy and, 137; order and. 147; scientific, 144; Taoist technique of, 96-97.99-101 Control, 81, 107; personality and. 40-44; receptivity versus, 95-101; see also Domination; Self-control Cooperativeness, 15 Copernicus, Nicholas, 17 Coping mechanisms, 22, 23 "Counter-values”, 141 Courage, scientific, 18, 20-32, 122-123,144, 146-147 Craig, Richard, on creativity, 38 Creativity. 15,38,40; fear of, 35-36; holistic perception and, 64; orthodoxy and, 31-32,33,34; scientific, 130 n., 132-133, 134-137 Crutchfield, R., cited, 28 Curiosity. 15, 20-32 Darwin, Charles, 16-17 Death, contemplation and, 100 Defense mechanisms, 22-23, 24-26; cognitive, 26-30; desacralization and, 138-139, 140-144; in learning, 26-30; introspection and, 47; psychic, 16, 17-18; scientific, 33-39 Deficiency: as motivation, 22-23, 24-26; neurosis and, 124-125 Desacralization, 121, 138-151 Determinism, xiv; see also Mechanistic tradition Development. See Growth Dewey, John, xi-xii Dialectic, 23 n., 29, 34 n. Dichotomization: of abstraction and experience, 86-87, 88; compulsive. 29; esthetic, 85 n.; integration versus, 34-35; of knowledge, 66, 67, 131; of religion and science, 119-121 Distance. See Alienation Doctrine. See Orthodoxy Domination: fear of, 36,37, 42; sex as, 141-142 Dreams, interpretation of, 12 Dreams of Reason, The (Dubos), 130 n. Dostoevsky. Fyodor, 86 Drug addicts, 58-61 Dubos, R., quoted, 130 n. Dunlap, Knight, cited, 131 Durrell, L., quoted, 149 95 95 Eastman, Max, on Socialism, 70 Ecology, receptivity and, 98-99 Economics, xiv, 108 Eddington, Arthur Stanley, 100 Education: esthetic, 62-64; experience and, 60-64; immature views of, 37; scientific, 48-49, 118, 139-140,142 Egotism, 28, 52, 53 Eliade, M., cited, 138 n. Eliot, T. S., quoted, 90 n. Ellison, Ralph, quoted, 126-127 Embryology, xv, 9,150 Emotion, 31, 38; anti-intellectualism and, 63; desacralization defense against, 139-144; experience of, 45 n.; fear of, 25, 26, 27, 28, 36-37; knowledge and, 120-121; objectivity and, 115, 116, 140; reality of, 73-74, 111-112; of scientists, 50,137, 138 n., 139-140, 148; see also specific emotions Empathy, 49-52, 96-97, 103, 112-114 Empiricism, 68-71; scientific, 135-137; values and, 146-147 Encounter (periodical), 90 n. Endocrinology, xv Esthetics, xiv. 31, 33; empathy in, 113; experience and, 75, 76; perception test, 62-64; rubricization and, 81-83; of science, 122, 123, 137, 148, 149, 150-151 Ethics, xiv Ethnocentricity, scientific, x, 1 Ethnology, 116; empathy and, 113; idiographic questions in, 9-10; mechanistic view of, 4-6; observation in, 111; receptivity and, 97-98,99 Ethology, 98, 99. 108 Euclid, 77, 80 Existentialism, xvi, 52, 120; abstraction and. 67-68 Experience, .xi; contemplation and. 100; desacralization of. 139-144: of drug addiction. 5861; education and, 60-64; esthetic. 81-83, 150-151: fusion. 103-104: 112-114; knowledge and, 45-65, 74-75, 128, 133-134, 145; of love, 116-118; nature of, 148-149; "proof' of, 65; properties and characteristics of, 52-54; subjectivity and, 72-83; suchness of, 80, 81, 84-94; system and, 79-83; theory and, 77-79,80 Experientialism, xvi Experimental psychology, 12, 48; values of, 94 n. Experiment, 13,47,95, 102; in value perception, 123-124 Explanation: desacralizing, 142; meaning and, 88, 89-90; and suchness-understanding, 92-94 Exploitation, 17 Family, 36, 37 Fascism, anti-intellectualism of, xvi Fear: of control, 36, 37, 42, 107; of inflicting pain, 59, 139-140; of knowledge, 16-18, 20-32; knowledge of, 130; of love, 104, 140; neurosis and, 124-125; receptiveness and, 96; study of, 56; subjectivity of, 73; of uncertainty, 146; understanding and, 23 n. Femininity, male attitudes toward, 27,36-37, 38 Form and Function: Remarks on Art (Greenough), 150 Free association, 12, 54 n. Freedom, 43; see also Spontaneity Freud, Sigmund, 28; quoted, II; on castration, 142; on defense mechanism, 22, 29; empiricism of. 77. 79; "free-floating attention”, 98; methods of. xiv, 8. 104. 124; on primary process, 54 Friendship, xxix, 140 Fromm, Erich, xxiv Fulfillment, 15 96 96 Fusion-knowledge, 52, 53. 103-104; experiential knowledge and, 112-114;l-Thou, 105 Gainsborough, Thomas. 82 Galileo Galilei, 9 Gamblers Anonymous, 46 Generalization: empirical, 68; motivation by fear, 27; particularity and, 8-11; theory and, 80 Geology, 9, 109 Gestalt psychology, 12 Goals. See Motivation Gödel, I Goldstein, Kurt, 23: cited, 42, 69 Goodness, 15 Greenough, 150 Growth, .xiv, 33-39, 71; knowledge and, 30-32; fear of, 28, 35-39; love and, 104; as motivation, 22. 23 Happiness: esthetic, 81-83; nature of, 148-149; of scientists, 92-94,126, 137, 144; study of, 56; subjectivity of, 73 Hate, receptivity and, 115 Health, 14-15, 20, 30-32; meaning and, 87; self-knowledge and, 40-44, 48-49; values in, 144 Heisenberg, cited, Ill History: idiographic questions in, 9-10; interpersonal relationships in. 108; Newton's view of, 5 n. Holism, xiii-xiv, xv; meaning and, 84; memory and, 66; methodology and, 8.11-12; perception and, 62-64; 81-83; scientific values of. 143-144 Homosexuality, fear of, 37 Horney, Karen, xiv. 30 n., 43 Humanistic tradition: emotion and. 112; empirical attitude and. 137; goals of, 40, 41; psychology and. 145 n; science and. 1-6,120 Humor. 139,144-148, 151 Hunger, cultural attitudes toward. 41 Huxley, Aldous, xx Hysteria, 26, 35 n.. 63 Identification, knowledge and, 50-52 Identity, 55; emotions and, 73, 74; love and, 105; needs and, 124-125; see also Selfactualization Idiographic knowledge, 8- 11; see also Particularity I-It knowledge: defined, 50; I-Thou knowledge contrasted, 105-107 Illusions, introspection and, 47 Imagination, 130 n. Impulse: anti-intellectualism and, 63; desacralization and, 143; expression of 41; identity and, 124-125 Impulsivity, xvi; fear and, 25, 26, 38-39; see also Spontaneity Indians, 61 n. 6, 113 Individuality, .xiv; see also Particularity; Personality Individuation, 55; see also Identity; Self-actualization Industry, 2 Insight, xii, 91, 104 Inspection concepts, 76 n. Integration: dichotomizing versus, 34-35; of experiential and conceptual knowledge, 46-47, 49, 66-71,86-94,98-99, 101; of intuition and experience, 64; of objectivity and interpersonal relationships, 108-109; of objective and subjective approaches to knowledge, 54-58, 72-83, of scientific and human values, 149-151 Integrity, x Intellectualization, 28-29 Interference. See Noninterference Interpersonal relationships: analyst-patient, 10-11, 12, 13, 15, 17-18: experience and, 58-61; knowledge of, 102-1 18; projection in, 45 n; reality and, 74; see also specific relationships, e.g. Friendship; Hate; Love Introspection, 47, 105 97 97 Intuition, 76 n.; education and, 62-64; love and, 103; of meaning, 88-89; probability and, 132-133: scientific, 93. 129. 130 Isaac Newton, Historian (Manuel), 5 n. I-Thou knowledge, 50-52.102-118 James, William, quoted, 110 n. Jews, 61 n. 6, 117 John Birch Society, 12, 113 John Dewey Society for the Study of Education and Culture, xii Joy. See Happiness Jung. Carl G., xiv, 124 Kierkegaard, Soren. 67 Knowledge: degree of 128-137; emotion and, 111-112, 120-121; empirical, 146-147; experience and, 66-71, 81-83, 90, 145; fear of, 16-18, 20-32; I-Thou, 102-118; joy and, 137; modes of, 7-19, 45-65, 104-107; of motivation, 18-19; subjective, 73-74,76; Taoist approach, 95-101; see also Philosophy; Science; Self-knowledge Kubie, Lawrence, xiv Kuhn, T. S., XX, 132; on "normal science”, 2, 35 Laboratory psychology, 12 Language, 45 n.; communication and, 90-91; experience and, 46, 56 n.; limits of, 145; of psycho-analysis, 129-130; self-actualization and. 67 "Last Year at Marienbad" (Robbe-Grillet), 85 n. Learning, 13, 68, 71, 110; defense mechanisms in, 26-30; holistic perception and, 62-64; see also Education; Knowledge Leisure, xiv Library (Apollodorus), 5 n. Linguistic science, 108; see also Language Linnaeus (Karl von Linne), 78 Listening, technique of, 96 Lobachevski, Nikolai I., 80 Logic, 4, 31; as defense mechanism, 24-26,28; experience and, 54,69, 91-92 Love, 15, 149. 151; contemplation and, 100, 147; cultural attitudes toward, 41; fear of 36-37, 140; of knowledge, 16. 17-18. 20-32; knowledge and, 51, 52, 103-104, 106-107; maturity and, 38; meaning, for the scientist, 109-110; neurosis and, 124-125; objectivity and, 116-118; orthodox methodology and, 47; in psychoanalysis, 17-18; receptivity and, 115; selfknowledge and, 41, 43; under-standing and, 58-59, 60 Man, 2-3, 7; active and passive images of 55; cognitive needs in, 20; "higher life" of 13,15,121; meaning and, 84-85, 86; Newton's view of, 5 n; reality and, 111; see also Personality Manas (periodical), xx Manuel, Frank, xx; quoted, 5 n. Masculinity, 26,36-37, 38 Maslow, Abraham H., 119; quoted 3-4 Maslow Art Test, 62 Mathematics, 4, 63, 76; mechanistic tradition and, 9, 147; non-Euclidean, 77, 80; science and, 74, 102 Matson, Floyd, 2 Mauldin, Bill, 14 Maturity: factors in, .x, xi; love and, 118; scientific, 35-39; sympathy and, 50; see also Growth Meaning, 84-94 Mechanistic tradition. 1-6: abstraction and, 135; desacralization of science and, 137, 138151; education and, 63-64; generalizing direction of. 9; limitations of knowledge in, 49-50; meaning and, 85-86,91; methodology of ix-xii, 7-11,114; psychology and, 4-6, 102, 108,14798 98 148; values and, 15-16,17, 44, 95 Medicine, 132, 133-134 Meeting of East and West. The (Northrop), x.x Memory. 66. 109, 110 Methodology: "analysis of the resistance”. 16; behaviorism and, 13-16: interpersonal relationship and, 12,13, 102-118; mechanistic, ix-xii, 3-4, 114; motivation of, 29; objectivity and, 54-58; particularity and, 8-12; phenomenology and, 47; pluralism in, 56-57; Taoist, 95101, 124; see also specific methods, e.g., Conditioning Motivation, 13, 18-19; deficiency, 22, 23, 24-26; growth, 22, 23; pathological, of cognitive needs, 26-30; of scientists, xix, 29-30, 92-94, 126-127,145-146,148-151 Motivation and Personality (Maslow), xiii Murphy, William, quoted, 17 n. Mysticism, 103-104 Nameche, G., cited, 116 National Society for College Teachers of Education, xii Nazism, xvi, 120 Negroes, 61 n. 6, 117 Neurosis, 25-26, 29, 124-125 Neurotic Personality of Our Time, (Horney), 30n. Newton, Isaac, xx. 44, 146; political history and, 5 n. Nietzsche, Friedrich, 67, 86 Nomothetic knowledge, 8-11; see also Generalization Noninterference. 13, 53, 95; contemplative, 99-101; knowledge and, 10-11, 27, 96-99, 106; love and, 116 Norms, definition, 14-15 Northrop, F. C. S., xx; on intuition, 132; on language, 46; on reality, 76 Objectivity, 49-51, 70, 73, 75 n.; emotions and, 120-121, 140; psychiatry and, 102, 105-106; subjectivity and, 54-58; varieties of, 114-118 Objects: empathy with, 113; knowledge of, 49-52,115, 145; memory span for, 66 Observation: knowledge and, 45-65; psychological, 54-58; reality and, 110-111; receptive, 96-97; self-knowledge and, 48-49 Order, 68-77, 100; contemplation and, 147; holistic perception and, 66-67; meaning and, 84, 87-88; pleasure in, 31; receptivity and, 98; security and, 24, 25-26, 30; simplification and, 74-75; theory and, 80-81 Orthodoxy, ix-xii, 1-6, 7,49-50; addiction psychotherapy and, 60-61; creativeness and, 31-32, 33, 34; as defense, 33; and desacralization of science, 137; education and, 61 n. 7; empiricism and, 69-71; meaning and, 86; objectivity and, 55-58; problem-definition and, 14, 15-16; security and, 24; values and, 119-121 "Ought-perception”, 59 Pain, helpful, 59 Paranoia, 26, 28, 121 Particularity: of experience, 84-94; generalization and, 8-11; modes of knowledge, 52 Passivity. See Receptivity Patience. See Attentiveness; Receptivity Peake, S. Joseph, cited, 138 n. Perception: contemplation and, 99-101; holistic, 62-64, 66-67; love and, 110, 116; modes of knowledge and, 69-70, 81-83, 98-99, 106-107; objectivity and, 114-115; of reality, 98-99; of values, 123-124 Personality: fear and, 16-18, 23-26; healthy, 14-15; immature, 36-37; mature, 37-39; prediction and control of, 40-44; research methods and. ix-xii, xiv. 7-19,52, 102-118; scientific, xv-xvi, 122-127, 128-137, 139-148, ethnocentricity, I, honesty in, 48-49, humility in, 68, 71, integration of, 30-32, 34-39, isolation, 119, motivation, xix, 29-30, 9294, 126-127, 145-146, 148-151, security needs, ix. xiii, 16-17, 22-23; self-knowledge and, 41; as subjectively active or passive, 54-58 99 99 Personal Knowledge (Polanyi), xvi-xxvii Pharmacology, 132 Phenomenology, 52; abstraction and, 67-68; experience and, 76; language and, 130 Philosophy, 1.21, 121, 148; defensive, 23 n.; meaning and, 85-86; psychology and, ix-xi, xix, 3-4, 5, 7-8, 10,55; self-actualization and, 67; self-control ideal of, 41 Physical sciences. See specific sciences Physics, 102, 150; experience and, 76; mechanistic tradition and, 3, 9, 147; objectivity in, 114; observation in, 111; reality concept in, 100-101 Physiology, 150 Picasso. Pablo. quoted, 90 n. Plato, 121 Polanyi, Michael, xvi-xvii, xx; on human motivation, 18; on scientific knowledge, 34 n.; on the scientific personality, 122, 132, 133 Politics, xiv, 2; interpersonal relationships in, 108 Portugal, 119 Positivism, objectivity of, 55-56 Postulation concepts, 76 n. Preconscious, 19, 46, 99; experience and. 145: I-Thou knowledge and, 106 Predictability, 40. 42-44, 81 Prejudice, 17 Probability, certainty and, 131 Problems: of cognition, 22: definition of, 13-16, 129-131; doctrine and. 56-57; experiment and, 102; fear and, 23-26; pleasure in, 134-135; phenomenology and, 47 Projection. 25, 45 n., 114-115 Protoknowledge, 133 Psychoanalysis, xiv-xv; empiricism and, 77, 79; friendship and, xix; holistic approach in, 12; language of, 129-130; primary rule of, 54 n.; resistance to, 16-18 Psychodynamics, xiv, xv, xix, 8 Psychologies of 1925 (Watson), 7 Psychology, 19, 108-110, 119-127; of Being, 91, 116; idiographic questions in, 9-10; mechanistic tradition and, 4-6, 102, 108, 147-148; observation in, 110-111; philosophy and, ix-xi, xix, 3-4, 5, 7-8, 10; professional status of, 145, 147-148; rehumanization of, 3-4, 7; research problems in, 135; of science (See Personality, scientific); values and, 121; see also specific fields, e.g., Social psychology Psychopathology, norms and, 14-15 Psychoses, 29 Psychosomatic medicine, xv Psychotherapy. x, xiv, xvi; cognitive needs in, 22; experience and, 58-61; holistic approach in, 11; identity and, 124-125; interpersonal relationships and, 17-18, 104, 106-107; I- Thou knowledge in, 104-! 07; projection and, 45 n.; values in, 34 Race. ethnocentricity and, xx, 1; objectivity and, 117; sympathy, 61 n. 6, 113 Rand, Harry, xi–x Rank, xiv Reality, xi-xii, 4. 123; acting out and, 19; classification and, 81-83; contemplation of, 99-101; defense mechanisms and, 47; emotion and, 111-112; empirical approach to, 68-69, 136; of experience, 79-80, 81, 86, 88-90; fear of, 23-26, 140-141; holistic perception and, 64; IThou knowledge and, 106-107; knowledge of, 146-147; meaning and, 85; mechanistic view of, 3; need to understand, 20-32; observation and, 110-11 I; limitations of perception, 66-67, 69-70, 72, 77-79, 80, 98-99; subjective, 73-74,76-77 Realms of Philosophy (Sahakian and Sahakian), 121 n. Real Self. See Identity. Reason. See Logic Receptivity, 10-11, 13, 27; biology and, 130 n.; control versus, 95-101; empirical, 68-71; esthetic, 62-64; experience and, 53, 54; I-Thou knowledge, 106; love and, 116; meaning and, 84; objectivity and, 115; understanding and, 72-73, 91-92 100 100 Reductiveness, xiv, xv, 4, 75; abstraction and, 69; desacralization and, 142-143; meaning and, 88; pleasure in, 93; psychology and, 11-12; theory and, 81; see also Abstraction Reich, xiv Religion, xiv, 2, 21, 23 n.; anti-intellectualism and, 63; immature views of, 37; orthodox, 33,70-71, 119; science and, xvi, 86,119, 137, 148, 151; self-control ideal of, 41; sympathy, 61 n. 6 Religions. Values and Peak-Experiences (Maslow), 119 "Remembering Eliot" (Spender), 90 n. Renaissance, 120 Renoir, Pierre Auguste, 82 Reports, subjective, 12, 47 Repressions. 26. 47, 130 Resacralization. See Desacralization Research. ix-x. xxii, 4,7-11; creativity and. 132-133. 134-137; empirical attitudes and. 135-137; in holistic perception. 62-64; on post-surgery visions. 142: problem definition in, 13-16; in value perception. 123-124 Resistance, in psychoanalysis, 16-18 Responsibility, 55, 122-123 Rilke, Rainer Maria, quoted, 14 Ritual, neurotic, 25, 26 Robbe-Grillet, Alain, 85 n. Roe, Anne, xx Rogers, C., 104 Rubricizing, 29. 62-63, 8 I -83; desacralizing tendency in. 143; in personal relations, 107 Russia, 70 Safety. See Security Safety mechanisms. See Defense mechanisms Sahakian, M., 121 n. Sahakian, W., 121 n. Saintliness. holistic perception and, 64 Sanctity. See Desacralization Schizophrenia, 35 n., 67,73,112 Science: anti-intellectualism and, 63; comprehensive and simpleward, 72-83; desacralization and resacralization of, 137, 138-151; empiricism and, 69- 70; human values and, 2-4, 5,7, 1819, 149; impersonal model of, xiii-xiv. xv-xvi, 2, 8-11, 49-50, 54-58; institutionalization of, 119-121, 148; obligations of, xi-xii, s 14, 33-34, 35, 72-76,77-79, 82,87-88, 101,125-127, 134-135, 146-151; psychology of, 102-103, 108-110, 119-127 (see also Personality, scientific); see also specific disciplines; and see specific aspects of science. e.g., Research Security, ix, 1, 33-39; cognitive needs and, 20-23, 26-30; neurosis and, 124-125; order and, 24, 25-26, 30 Self-actualization, 55, 144: abstractness and, 67, 69; love and, 116; see also Growth: Maturity Self-control. active. 54-55; obsession with. 38-39; self-knowledge and. 41, 43: self-respect and, 42 Self-knowledge: health and, 40-44: the scientist and. 48-49. 128 Self-respect, 41, 42, 55, 141 Semantics, 52; see also Communication Sex, 17,56 n. 149; culture and. 41,63; desacralization of, 141-142; identity, 27,36,37. 38 Simplicity, 93,101; meaning and. 84. 88; scientific, 72-83, 88, 89 Social anthropology, 108 Social psychology, xxiv, 17-18 Socialism, 70 Sociology, 108 Socrates, 142; on evil. 59 Solipsism, xxvi 101 101 Sorokin, P.. cited. 50 Spain, 119 Spectator knowledge, 49-52, 72; of drug addiction, 60-61; I-Thou knowledge contrasted with, 104-107 Spender, Stephen, cited, 90 n. Spinoza, Baruch, 43 Spontaneity. 41,55,63-64 Structure of Scientific Revolutions, The (Kuhn), xx Study of Human Nature, The (Watson), 111-112 Subjectivity, 54-58, 72-83, 136 Suchness, 80, 81; as meaning, 84-94 Surgery, 139, 140 n., 142 Symbol. 19. 67,77 Sympathy, 49-52. 96-97, 103, 112-114 Synanon, 46,58-61 Systematizing. 77. 79-83, 121; of meaning. 87-88, 89 Taoism, x, xvi. 63, 104; methods of. 13. 95-101, 124 Taste, of the scientist. 122-123 Techniques. See Methodology Technology, 61 n. 7,73,120; mechanistic tradition and. 3: science and. 135, 138. 139 Teratology, 9 Theory. 66-71,98-99; limits of, 145,146; obligations of, 77-79 Therapy. See Psychotherapy Thoreau. Henry David, quoted, 146 n. Tolman, Edward. 112 Torrance. E. P., on creativity. 38 Trainer. quoted. 61 Training, in research, ix-x, xii; see also Education Transcendence, xiv, 15, 43. 48, 63; desacralization of science and, 121; objectivity and, 117; scientific. 144 Transference, 104, 130 Trust: experience and. 53. 60; in psychoanalysis, 17 -18 Truth. See Reality Unconscious, 19, 46,99, 106, 145 Understanding, 43, 50-52, 76, 93; experience and, 58-61, 88-94; fear and, 23 n.; love and, 103, 107, 110: need for, 21, 26-30, 136; receptiveness and, 72- 73; simplification and, 88, 89 Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 70 Values: "antiscientific" xv-xvi; Being, 43. 141; desacralization of, 29,139-144; esthetic, 6264,81-83; experience and. 53, 67, 91-92; human, 7,15-16, 17, 44, 123, 124, 138, 139, 148151; interpersonal relationship and, 12, 109-110, 116-117; mature, 37-38: mechanistic. 8586,91,95,114,138. 139-140: need for. 21; nomothetic, 64; norm recognition, 14-15; objectivity and. 114-115; perception of, 59; psychology and. 10, 34; religious, 86; research and, xii, xiv. I; scientific, 35. 72-75. 92-94, 119-129. 131, 136-138: systematic. 79-83; theoretical, 77-79, 80; Western. 41 Watson, David Lindsay, xx; quoted, 111-112 Watson, John, xx, 7 West, The, x, 1-6, 41 Whitehead, Alfred North, quoted, 75 Whitman. Walt, quoted, 150 n. Will. 55: experience and. 53. 54; meaning and. 85-86; of the scientist. ! 22-123; spectatorknowledge and, 106 Wilson, Colin, cited, 113 Wolff, Kurt, quoted, 96 102 102 Women: castration complex in, 141-142; happiness of, 148-149; receptivity of, 97 Wonder, varieties of, 148-151 Writers At Work: Second Series (Viking Press), 126 n. Xanthippe, 142 Zen Buddhism, xxvi. 52, 103 103 103 Appendix: Personal Notes on Maslow by Colin Wilson [This chapter is the Introduction to New Pathways in Psychology: Maslow and the PostFreudian Revolution, by Colin Wilson. Available in ebook format from http://reinventingyourself.com.] SOME TIME IN 1959, I received a letter from an American professor of psychology, Abraham H. Maslow, enclosing some of his papers. He said he had read my book The Stature of Man, {11 and liked my idea that much of the gloom and defeat of 20th century literature is due to what I called the fallacy of insignificance'. Maslow said this resembled an idea of his own, which he called the Jonah complex'. One day, he had asked his students: 'Which of you expects to achieve greatness in your chosen field? The class looked at him blankly. After a long silence, Maslow said: If not you — who then?' And they began to see his point. This is the fallacy of insignificance, the certainty that you are unlucky and unimportant, the Jonah complex. The papers he enclosed looked highly technical; their titles contained words like 'metamotivation', 'synergy', 'eupsychian'. I glanced at them and pushed them aside. Some months later I came across them again: this time, my eye was caught by the term 'peak experience' in one of the titles, and I started to read. It was immediately clear that I'd stumbled upon something important. Maslow explained that, some time in the late thirties, he had been struck by the thought that modern psychology is based on the study of sick people. But since there are more healthy people around than sick people, how can this psychology give a fair idea of the workings of the human mind? It struck him that it might be worthwhile to devote some time to the study of healthy people. 'When I started to explore the psychology of health, I picked out the finest, healthiest people, the best specimens of mankind I could find, and studied them to see what they were like. They were very different, in some ways startlingly different from the average .. . I learned many lessons from these people. But one in particular is our concern now. I found that these individuals tended to report having had something like mystic experiences, moments of great awe, moments of the most intense happiness, or even rapture, ecstasy or bliss .. . These moments were of pure, positive happiness, when all doubts, all fears, all inhibitions, all tensions, all weaknesses, were left behind. Now self-consciousness was lost. All separateness and distance from the world disappeared as they felt one with the world, fused with it, really belonging to it, instead of being outside, looking in. (One subject said, for instance, "I felt like a member of a family, not like an orphan".) Perhaps most important of all, however, was the report in these experiences of the feeling that they had really seen the ultimate truth, the essence of things, the secret of life, as if veils had been pulled aside. Alan Watts has described this feeling as "This is it!", as if you had finally got there, as if ordinary life was a striving and a straining to get some place and this was the arrival, this was Being There! . . . Everyone knows how it feels to want something and not know what. These mystic experiences feel like the ultimate satisfaction of vague, unsatisfied yearnings .. . 104 104 But here I had already learned something new. The little that I had ever read about mystic experiences tied them in with religion, with visions of the supernatural. And, like most scientists, I had sniffed at them in disbelief and considered it all nonsense, maybe hallucinations, maybe hysteria — almost surely pathological. But the people telling me ... about these experiences were not such people — they were the healthiest people! . . . And I may add that it taught me something about the limitations of the small .. . orthodox scientist who won't recognize as knowledge, or as reality, any information that doesn't fit into the already existent science.' {2} These experiences are not 'religious' in the ordinary sense. They are natural, and can be studied naturally. They are not 'ineffable' in the sense of incommunicable by language. Maslow also came to believe that they are far commoner than one might expect, that many people tend to suppress them, to ignore them, and certain people seem actually afraid of them, as if they were somehow feminine, illogical, dangerous. One sees such attitudes more often in engineers, in mathematicians, in analytic philosophers, in book-keepers and accountants, and generally in obsessional people.' The peak experience tends to be a kind of bubbling-over of sheer delight, a moment of pure happiness. 'For instance, a young mother scurrying around her kitchen and getting breakfast for her husband and young children. The sun was streaming in, the children, clean and nicely dressed, were chattering as they ate. The husband was casually playing with the children: but as she looked at them she was suddenly so overwhelmed with their beauty and her great love for them, and her feeling of good fortune, that she went into a peak experience . . . 'A young man working his way through medical school by drumming in a jazz band reported many years later, that in all his drumming he had three peaks when he suddenly felt like a great drummer and his performance was perfect. 'A hostess after a dinner party where everything had gone perfectly and it had been a fine evening, said goodbye to her last guest, sat down in a chair, looked around at the mess, and went into a peak of great happiness and exhilaration.' Maslow described another typical peak experience to me later, when I met him at his home in Waltham, Mass. A marine had been stationed in the Pacific and had not seen a woman for a couple of years. When he came back to the base camp, he saw a nurse, and it suddenly struck him with a kind of shock that women are different to men. The marine had told Maslow: 'We take them for granted, as if they were another kind of man. But they're quite different, with their soft curves and gentle natures . . .' He was suddenly flooded with the peak experience. Observe that in most peak experiences (Maslow abbreviates it to P.E's, and I shall follow him), the person becomes suddenly aware of something that he had known about previously, but been inclined to take for granted, to discount. And this matter had always been one of my own central preoccupations. My Religion and the Rebel (1957) had been largely a study in the experiences of mystics, and in its autobiographical preface, I had written about a boring office job: 'As soon as I grew used to it, I began to work automatically. I fought hard against this process. I would spend the evening reading poetry, or writing, and would determine that, with sufficient mental effort, I could stop myself from growing bored and indifferent at work the next day. But the moment I stepped through the office door in the morning, the familiar smell and appearance would switch on the automatic pilot which controlled my actions ...' I was clearly aware that the problem was automatism. And in a paper I later wrote for a symposium of existential psychology, {3} I elaborated this theory of the automatic pilot, speaking of it as the robot. I wrote: 'I am writing this on an electric typewriter. When I 105 105 learned to type, I had to do it painfully and with much nervous wear and tear. But at a certain stage, a miracle occurred, and this complicated operation was 'learned' by a useful robot whom I conceal in my subconscious mind. Now I only have to think about what I want to say: my robot secretary does the typing. He is really very useful. He also drives the car for me, speaks French (not very well), and occasionally gives lectures in American universities. He has one enormous disadvantage. If I discover a new symphony that moves me deeply, or a poem or a painting, this bloody robot promptly insists on getting in on the act. And when I listen to the symphony for the third time, he begins to anticipate every note. He begins to listen to it automatically, and I lose all the pleasure. He is most annoying when I am tired, because then he tends to take over most of my functions without even asking me. I have even caught him making love to my wife. 'My dog doesn't have this trouble. Admittedly, he can't learn languages or how to type, but if I take him for a walk on the cliffs, he obviously experiences every time just as if it is the first. I can tell this by the ecstatic way he bounds about. Descartes was all wrong about animals. It isn't the animals who are robots; it's us.' Heaven lies about us in our infancy, as Wordsworth pointed out, because the robot hasn't yet taken over. So a child experiences delightful things as more delightful, and horrid things as more horrid. Time goes slower, and mechanical tasks drag, because there is no robot to take over. When I asked my daughter if she meant to be a writer when she grew up, she said with horror that she got fed up before she'd written half a page of school-work, and couldn't even imagine the tedium of writing a whole book. The robot is necessary. Without him, the wear and tear of everyday life would exhaust us within minutes. But he also acts as a filter that cuts out the freshness, the newness, of everyday life. If we are to remain psychologically healthy, we must have streams of 'newness' flowing into the mind — what J. B. Priestley calls 'delight or 'magic'. In developing the robot, we have solved one enormous problem — and created another. But there is, after all, no reason why we should not solve that too: modify the robot until he admits the necessary amount of 'newness', while still taking over the menial tasks. Now I was much struck by Maslow's comment on the possibility of creating peak experiences at will. Because his feeling was that it cannot be done. 'No! Or almost entirely no! In general, we are "Surprised by Joy", to use the title of C. S. Lewis's book on just this question. Peaks come unexpectedly . . . You can't count on them. And hunting them is like hunting happiness. Its best not done directly. It comes as a by-product, an epiphenomenon, for instance, of doing a fine job at a worthy task you can identify with.' It seemed to me that this is only partly true. I will try to explain this briefly. Novelists have to be psychologists. I think of myself as belonging to the school known as the phenomenological movement. The philosopher Edmund Husserl noted that all psychological acts are 'intentional'. Note what happens when you are about to tickle a child. The child begins to squirm and laugh before your hands have actually reached him. On the other hand, why doesn't it tickle when you tickle yourself? Obviously, because you know its you. The tickling is not something physical that happens when your hands encounter flesh and make tickling motions. It seems to be 99% psychological. When the child screams with laughter, he is tickling himself, just as he might frighten himself by imagining ghosts in the dark. The paradoxical truth is that when someone tickles you, you tickle yourself. And when you tickle yourself, you don't tickle yourself, which is why it doesn't tickle. 106 106 Being tickled is a 'mental act, an 'intention'. So are all perceptions. I look at something, as I might fire a gun at it. If I glance at my watch while I am in conversation, I see the time, yet I don't notice what time it is. As well as merely 'seeing' I have to make a mental act of grasping. Now the world is full of all kinds of things that I cannot afford to 'grasp' or notice. If I am absorbed in a book, I 'grasp' its content; my mind explores it as though my thoughts were fine, thin tentacles reaching every corner of the book. But when I put the book back on the shelf, it is standing among dozens of other books, which I have also explored at some time in the past. As I look at all these books, I cannot simultaneously grasp all of them. From being intimate friends, they have become mere nodding acquaintances. Perhaps one or two, of which I am very fond, mean more to me than the others. But of necessity, it has to be very few. Consider Maslow's young mother getting the breakfast. She loves her husband and children, but all the same, she is directing her 'beam of interest' at making the coffee, buttering the toast, watching the eggs in the frying pan. She is treating her husband and children as if they were a row of books on a shelf. Still, her energies are high; she is looking forward to an interesting day. Then something triggers a new level of response. Perhaps it is the beam of sunlight streaming through the window, which seems to shake her arm and say: 'Look — isn't it all wonderful?' She suddenly looks at her husband and children as she would look at the clock to find out the time. She becomes self-conscious of the situation, using her beam of interest to 'scan' it, instead of to watch the coffee. And having put twice as much energy into her 'scanning', she experiences 'newness'. The mental act of looking at her family, and thinking: 'I am lucky', is like an athlete gathering himself for a long jump, concentrating his energies. What happens if somebody returns a book that he borrowed from me a long time ago? I look at the book with a kind of delight, as though it were a returned prodigal: perhaps I open it and read a chapter. Yet if the book had stayed on my shelf for six months I might not even have bothered to glance at it. The return of the book has made me focus my beam of interest, like an athlete gathering for a leap. When something occupies my full attention, it is very real to me. When I have put the book back on the shelf, I have un-realised it, to some extent. I have pushed it back to a more abstract level of reality. But I have the power to realise it again. Consider the mental act I make when I feel glad to see the book again. I 'reach out my invisible mental tentacles to it, as I might reach out my hand to a friend I am delighted to see, and I focus my beam of interest on it with a kind of intensity — the kind of intentness with which a sapper de-fuses an unexploded bomb. We do this 'real-ising' and 'un-real-ising' all the time — so automatically that we fail to notice that we are doing it. It is not just 'happening'. Like the athlete gathering himself to leap, it is the deliberate compression of mental muscles. All this suggests that Maslow is mistaken to believe that peak experiences have to 'come' without being sought. A little phenomenological analysis, like the kind we have conducted above, reveals that the P .E. has a structure that can be duplicated. It is the culmination of a series of mental acts, each of which can be clearly defined. The first pre-condition is 'energy', because the P .E. is essentially an overflowing of energy. This does not mean ordinary physical energy; Maslow points out that sick people can have P.E.'s as easily as healthy ones, if the conditions are right. If you say to a child: 'I'll take you 107 107 to the pantomime tonight if you'll tidy your bedroom', he immediately seethes with a bustling energy. The normally boring act of tidying a room is performed with enthusiasm. And this is because he — figuratively — 'takes a deep breath'. He is so determined that the tidying shall be satisfactory that he is prepared to devote attention to every square inch of the floor. And the 'mental act' that lies behind this is a certain concentration and 'summoning of energy', like calling All hands on deck'. If I am asked to do a job that bores me, I summon only a small quantity of energy, and if the job is complicated, I skimp it. If I am determined to do it thoroughly, I place the whole of my interior army and navy 'on call'. It is this state — of vigilance, alertness, preparedness — that is the basis of the peak experience. Healthy people — like Maslow's housewife — are people with a high level of 'preparedness'? This can be expressed in a simple image. My 'surplus energy' is stored in my subconscious mind, in the realm of the robot: this is like money that has been invested in stocks and shares. Nearer the surface of everyday consciousness, there are surplus energy tanks', energy which is ready-for-use, like money in my personal account at the bank. When I anticipate some emergency, or some delightful event (like a holiday) which I shall need energy to enjoy to the full, I transfer large quantities of 'ready energy' to these surface tanks, just as I might draw a large sum out of the bank before I go on holiday. 'Peakers' are people with large quantities of energy in the ready-energy tanks. Bored or miserable people are people who keep only small amounts of energy for immediate use. But it must be borne in mind that both types of people have large amounts of energy available in their 'deep storage tanks' in the realm of the robot. It is merely a matter of transferring it to your current account. In a paper called The Need to Know and the Fear of Knowing', Maslow describes one of his crucial cases. 'Around 1938, a college girl patient presented herself complaining vaguely of insomnia, lack of appetite, disturbed menstruation, sexual frigidity, and a general malaise which soon turned into a complaint of boredom with life and an inability to enjoy anything. Life seemed meaningless to her. Her symptoms closely paralleled those described by Abraham Myerson in his book When Life Loses Its Zest ... As she went on talking, she seemed puzzled. She had graduated about a year ago and by a fantastic stroke of luck — this was the depression, remember — she had immediately got a job. And what a job! Fifty dollars a week! She was taking care of her whole unemployed family with the money and was the envy of all her friends. But what was the job? She worked as a sub-personnel manager in a chewing-gum factory. And after some hours of talking, it became more and more clear that she felt she was wasting her life. She had been a brilliant student of psychology and was very happy and successful in college, but her family's financial situation made it impossible for her to go on into graduate studies. She was greatly drawn to intellectual work, not altogether consciously at first because she felt she ought to feel fortunate with her job and the money it brought her. Half-consciously then she saw a whole lifetime of greyness stretching out ahead of her. I suggested that she might be feeling profoundly frustrated and angry simply because she was not being her own very intelligent self, that she was not using her intelligence and her talent for psychology and that this might well be a major reason for her boredom with life and her body's boredom with the normal pleasures of life. Any talent, any capacity, I thought, was also a motivation, a need, an impulse. With this she agreed, and I suggested that she could continue her graduate studies at night after her work. In brief, she was able to arrange this and it worked well. She became more alive, more happy and zestful, and most of her physical symptoms had disappeared at my last contact with her.' 108 108 It is significant that Maslow, although trained as a Freudian, did not try to get back into the subject's childhood and find out whether she experienced penis envy of her brothers or a desire to murder her mother and marry her father. He followed his instinct — his feeling that creativeness and the desire for a meaningful existence are as important as any subconscious sexual drives. Anyone who knows my own work will see why Maslow's approach appealed so much to me — and why mine, apparently, appealed to Maslow. My first book, The Outsider, written when I was 23, was about people like Maslow's girl patient-men driven by an obscure creative urge that made them dissatisfied with everyday life, and which in some cases — T. E. Lawrence, for example — caused them to behave in a manner that seemed masochistic. The book sprang from my own obsession with the problem of 'life failure'. Auden wrote: 'Put the car away; when life fails What's the good of going to Wales?’ Eliot asks in The Rock: 'Where is the life we have lost in living?' And Shaw says of the Ancients in Back to Methuselah: 'Even at the moment of death, their life does not fail them.' Maslow's patient was suicidal because she felt she was losing her life in the process of living it. Quite clearly, we were talking about the same thing. I had asked repeatedly in The Outsider: 'Why does life fail?' Maslow was replying, in effect: Because human beings have needs and cravings that go beyond the need for security, sex, territory. He states it clearly in the preface to the Japanese edition of Eupsychian Management, asserting that 'human nature has been sold short, that man has a higher nature which is just as "instinctoid" as his lower nature, and that this higher nature includes the need for meaningful work, for responsibility, for creativeness, for being fair and just, for doing what is worthwhile and for preferring to do it well.' I must outline my own approach to this problem, as I explained it in subsequent correspondence with Maslow. The Outsider had developed from my interest in the romantics of the 19th century — Goethe, Schiller, Novalis, Wagner, Nietzsche, Van Gogh. What fascinated me was their world rejection. It was summed up by Villiers de 1'Isle — Adam's hero Axel in the words 'Live? Our servants can do that for us.' Axel asserted that 'real life' is always a disappointment. The heroine, Sarah, has a long speech in which she speaks of all the marvelous places they might visit now they have found the treasure. Axel replies that the cold snows of Norway sound marvelous, but when you actually get there, its just cold and wet. L. H. Myers had made the same point with fine precision in The Near and the Far, where the young Prince Jali stares at a splendid sunset over the desert, and reflects that there are two deserts: one that is a glory to the eye, and one that is a weariness to the feet. If you tried rushing towards that sunset, you would only get your shoes full of sand. It seems impossible to grasp 'the promise of the horizon'. And it was this feeling of despair about the near and the far — the feeling that they can never be reconciled — that led to so many early deaths among the romantics: suicide, insanity, tuberculosis. Obermann, in Senancour's novel of that name, says that the rain depresses him, yet when the sun comes out it strikes him as 'useless'. This is life-failure. But man's achievement is to have created a world of the mind, of the intellect and imagination, which is as real in its way as any actual country on the map. Sir Karl Popper, in one of his most important papers, calls it 'the third world.' {4} The first world is the objective world of things. The second world is my inner subjective world. But, says Popper, there is a third world, the world of objective contents of thoughts. If some catastrophe destroyed all the 109 109 machines and tools on this earth, but not the libraries, a new generation would slowly rebuild civilisation. If the libraries are all destroyed too, there could be no re-emergence of civilisation, for all our carefully stored knowledge would have gone, and man would have to start regaining it from scratch. Teilhard de Chardin calls this 'third world' the noosphere — the world of mind. I t includes the works of Newton, Einstein, Beethoven, Tolstoy, Plato; it is the most important part of our human heritage. A cow inhabits the physical world. It has almost no mind, to speak of. Man also inhabits the physical world, and has to cope with its problems. But he has built civilisation because the physical world is not enough. Nothing is so boring as to be stuck in the present. Primitive man loved stories for the same reason that young children do. Because they afforded an escape from the present, because they freed his memory and imagination from mere 'reality'. Einstein made the same point: '... one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is to escape from everyday life, with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness. . . A finely tempered nature longs to escape from personal life into the world of objective perception and thought; this desire may be compared to the townsman's irresistible longing to escape from his noisy, cramped surroundings into the silence of high mountains...' {5} But my central point is this. Man is a very young creature: his remotest ancestors only date back two million years. (The shark has remained unchanged for 15,000,000 years.) And although he longs for this 'third world' as his natural home, he only catches brief glimpses of it. For it can only be 'focused' by a kind of mental eye. This morning, as I cleaned my teeth in the bathroom a fragment of Brahms drifted through my head and caused that sudden feeling of inner-warmth. The person labeled 'Colin Wilson' ceased to matter: it was almost as if I had floated out of my body and left him behind, as if the real 'I' had taken up a position somewhere midway between myself and Brahms. In the same way, when I am working well, I seem to lose my identity, 'identifying' instead with the ideas or people I am writing about. But very often, I cannot even begin to focus the 'third world' the real world distracts me, and keeps my attention fixed on its banal 'actualities' like some idiot on a train who prevents you from reading by talking in a loud voice. All the same, this 'third world' is a place; it is there all the time, like China or the moon; and it ought to be possible for me to go there at any time, leaving behind the boring person who is called by my name. It is fundamentally a world of pure meaning. It is true that my small personal world is also a world of meaning; but of trivial, personal meaning, distorted and one-sided, a worm's eye view of meaning. It is man's evolutionary destiny to become a citizen of the third world, to explore it as he might now explore Switzerland on a holiday. It is impossible to predict what will happen to human beings when that time comes: for this reason. Meaning stimulates the will, fills one with a desire to reach out to new horizons. When a man in love sees the girl approaching, his heart 'leaps'. When I hear a phrase of music that means something to me, my heart leaps. That 'leap' is vitality from my depths, leaping up to meet the 'meaning'. And the more 'meaning' I perceive, the more vitality rushes up to meet it. As his access to the world of meaning increases, man's vitality will increase towards the superman level; that much seems clear . Boredom cripples the will. Meaning stimulates it. The peak experience is a sudden surge of meaning. The question that arises now is: how can I choose meaning? If Maslow is correct, I can't. I must be 'surprised' by it. It is a by-product of effort. 110 110 At this point, I was able to point out to Maslow a possibility that he had overlooked, a concept I called 'the indifference threshold' or 'St Neot margin'. It is fundamentally a recognition that crises or difficulties can often produce a sense of meaning when more pleasant stimuli have failed. Sartre remarks that he had never felt so free as during the war when, as a member of the French Resistance, he was likely to be arrested and shot at any time. It seems a paradox: that danger can make you feel free when peace and serenity fail to arouse any response. It does this by forcing you to concentrate. I stumbled on this concept in the following manner. In 1954, I was hitchhiking to Peterborough on a hot Saturday afternoon. I felt listless, bored and resentful: I didn't want to go to Peterborough — it was a kind of business trip — and I didn't particularly long to be back in London either. There was hardly any traffic on the road, but eventually I got a lift. Within ten minutes, there was an odd noise in the engine of the lorry. The driver said: 'I'm afraid something's gone wrong — I'll have to drop you off at the next garage.' I was too listless to care. I walked on, and eventually a second lorry stopped for me. Then occurred the absurd coincidence. After ten minutes or so, there was a knocking noise from his gearbox. When he said: It sounds as if something's wrong', I thought: 'Oh no!' and then caught myself thinking it, and thought: 'That's the first definite reaction I've experienced today.' We drove on slowly — he was anxious to get to Peterborough, and by this time ... so was I. He found that if he dropped speed to just under twenty miles an hour, the knocking noise stopped; as soon as he exceeded it, it started again. We both listened intently for any resumption of the trouble. Finally, as we were passing through a town called St Neots, he said: 'Well, I think if we stay at this speed, we should make it.' And I felt a surge of delight. Then I thought: This is absurd. My situation hasn't improved since I got into the lorry — in fact, it has got worse, since he is now crawling along. All that has happened is that an inconvenience has been threatened, and then the threat withdrawn. And suddenly, my boredom and indifference have vanished.' I formulated then the notion that there is a borderland or threshold of the mind that can be stimulated by pain or inconvenience, but not pleasure. (After all, the lorry originally stopping for me failed to arouse a response of gratitude.) I labeled it 'the indifference threshold' or-after the place I was travelling through at the time-the St Neot margin. All that had happened, of course, was that the threat of a second breakdown had made me concentrate my attention. I spent a quarter of an hour listening intently to the engine. The threatened 'crisis' made me use my focusing-muscle, instead of allowing it to remain passive. Relaxing it — when he said we could probably make it — caused a rush of pleasure. The same applies to Sartre. The constant danger of arrest kept him at a high level of alertness, of tension. Maslow's girl patient became so bored with her job in the chewing gum factory that she allowing the focusing-muscle to go permanently flaccid. If you allow the will to remain passive for long periods, it has the same effect as leaving your car in the garage for the winter. The batteries go flat. When the batteries go flat, 'life fails'. These 'focusing muscles' must be used if we are to stay healthy, for they are the means by which the mind focuses on values, just as the eye muscles enable the eye to focus on distant objects. If we fail to use them for long periods, the result is a kind of mental shortsightedness, a gradual loss of the feeling of the reality of values, of meaning. This explains what happens if you watch television for too long, or read a very long book on a dull winter day until your eyes are aching. Your 'meaning focus' relaxes as your interest flags, and if you then go for a walk, everything seems oddly meaningless and dull. It just is, and it doesn't arouse any response. The Greek poet Demetrios Capetanakis wrote in the early forties: ' "Well”, I thought when 111 111 the war started, trying to hope for the best, "it will be horrible, but if it will be so horrible as to frighten and wake up the mind, it will be the salvation of many. Many are going to die, but those who are going to survive will have a real life, with the mind awake". . . But I was mistaken . . . The war is very frightening, but it is not frightening enough.' The same thought struck me when I read the article Camus wrote for the resistance paper Combat when the Germans were being driven out of Paris. {6} It is called 'The Night of Truth' and is full of noble phrases. The skyline of Paris is blazing, he says, but these are the flames of freedom. 'Those who never despaired of themselves or of their country find their reward under this sky .. . the great virile brotherhood of recent years will never forsake us .. . man's greatness . . . lies in his decision to be stronger than his condition', and so on. But Simone de Beauvoir's novel The Mandarins begins shortly after the liberation, and Camus is one of the characters. And they drift around the nightspots of St Germain and drink too much and smoke too much and waste time on pointless adulteries. What had happened to the Night of Truth? The answer is simple. Without the danger and injustice to keep the mind alert, they allowed a kind of inner-laziness to descend. But didn't Camus remember their feelings about a completely different kind of future? The answer is: in the real sense of the word, no. Real memory brings a sense of meanings and values with it. False memory recalls the 'facts', but without their inner content of meaning. It must be squarely recognised that man suffers from a very real form of amnesia. This is not a figure of speech but a reality. For the 'meaning' depends upon the mind's power of 'focusing'. Must we, then, draw the pessimistic conclusion that mankind needs war and injustice to prevent him from lapsing into a condition of boredom, or at least, of preoccupation with trivialities? The answer, fortunately, is no. 'Focusing' is a muscle, and it can be strengthened like any other muscle. Graham Greene, in an essay I have often quoted, describes how, in his teens, he sank into a condition of extreme boredom and depression, during which life became meaningless. He tried playing Russian roulette with his brother's revolver, inserting only one bullet, spinning the chambers, pointing it at his head and pulling the trigger. When there was just a click, he was overwhelmed by a feeling of delight, and a sense of the meaningfulness of life. The situation is fundamentally the same as in my 'St Neot margin' experience in the lorry, except that Greene's concentration was more intense, because the negative stimulus was greater. At a later stage, I discovered that a mild peak experience could easily be induced merely by concentrating hard on a pencil, then relaxing the attention, then concentrating again ...After doing this a dozen or so times, the attention becomes fatigued — if you are doing it with the right degree of concentration — and a few more efforts — deliberately ignoring the fatigue — trigger the peak experience. After all, concentration has the effect of summoning energy from your depths. It is the 'pumping' motion — of expanding and contracting the attention — that causes the peak experience. Another interesting point arose when I was lecturing to Maslow's class at Brandeis University in early 1967. I was speaking about the peculiar power of the human imagination. I can imagine trapping my thumb in the door, and wince as if I had actually done it. I can go to see a film, and come out of the cinema feeling as if I have been on a long journey. Even so, it must be admitted that imagination only provides a dim carbon copy of the original experience. I may try to recall a particularly happy day, and even re-experience some of its pleasures; but compared to the original experience, it is like paste jewellery compared to the real thing. The hero of Barbusse's novel Hell, trying to recall the experience of watching a 112 112 woman undress, admits: 'These words are all dead. They leave untouched, powerless to affect it, the intensity of what was. Proust, tasting a Madeleine dipped in tea, recalls with sudden intensity the reality of his childhood: but that is a fluke. He cannot do it by an ordinary act of imagination. Yet the matter of sex appears to be an exception to this rule. A man can conjure up some imaginary scene with a girl undressing, and he responds physically as if there were a girl undressing in the room: his imagination can even carry him to the point of a sexual climax. In this one respect, man has completely surpassed the animals: here is a case where the mental 'act' needs no object . . . At this point, Maslow interrupted me to point out that this is not quite true; monkeys often masturbate. I asked him if he had ever seen a monkey masturbating in total isolation, without the stimulus of a female monkey anywhere in the vicinity. He thought for a moment, then said he hadn't. Even if he had, it would not have basically affected my point. If monkeys can do problems for fun, perhaps they have more imagination than we give them credit for. But the interesting point is that in the matter of sex, man can achieve repeatedly what Proust achieved momentarily tasting the Madeleine: a physical response as if to reality. Absurd as it sounds, masturbation is one of the highest faculties mankind has yet achieved. But its importance is in what it presages: that one day, the imagination will be able to achieve this result in all fields. If all perception is 'intentional', due to a 'reaching out, a 'focusing', on the part of the perceiver, then it ought to be possible to reconstruct any reality by making the necessary effort of focusing. We have only been kept from this recognition by the old, false theory of 'passive perception' . Anyone who did chemistry at school will recall what happens if you mix sulphur and iron filings, and then heat them in a crucible. A small area of the sulphur melts and fuses with the iron. At that point, you can remove the flame of the Bunsen burner; the reaction will continue of its own accord; the glow slowly spreads throughout the mixture until the whole crucible is red hot, and the end result is a chunk of iron sulphide. The same process goes on in the mind when we become deeply interested in anything. The warm glow produced by favourite poetry or music is often the beginning of this fusing process. We are all familiar with the process of a wider glimpse of 'meaning' leading to the revitalising of the will. This, in fact, is why people need holidays. As life drags on repetitively, they get tired; they stop making effort; it is the will that gets run down. The holiday 'reminds' them of wider meanings, reminds them that the universe is a vast spider's web of meaning, stretching infinitely in all directions. And quite suddenly they are enjoying everything more: eating, reading, walking, listening to music, having a beer before dinner. The 'meaning' sharpens the appetite for life — that is, the will to live. It is our misfortune that we are not equally familiar with the reverse process: that a deliberate increase in willed concentration can also start the 'fusion' process working. This is, in fact, common sense. The deeper my sense of the 'meaningfulness' of the world, the fiercer and more persistent my will. And increased effort of will leads in turn to increased sense of meaning . It is a chain reaction. So is the reverse, when 'discouragement' leads me to stop willing, and the passivity leads to a narrowed sense of meaning, and the gradual loss of 'meaning' leads to further relaxation of the will. The result is a kind of 'down staircase' of apathy. On the other hand, any intense 113 113 glimpse of meaning can cause a transfer to the 'up staircase'. This is most strikingly illustrated in an experiment that Maslow's colleague, Dr. A Hoffer, carried out with alcoholics. {7} Hoffer reasoned that alcoholics may be people of more-than-average intelligence and sensitivity. Because of this, they find that life is too much for them, and they drink because at first it produces peak experiences. But as often as not it doesn't; then they drink more to increase the stimulus, and become involved in guilt and depression. Hoffer tried giving these alcoholics mescalin-producing a far more powerful 'lift' than alcohol — and then deliberately induced peak experiences by means of music, poetry, painting — whatever used to produce P.E's before the subject became alcoholic. The startling result was that more than 50 % were cured. The peak experience is an explosion of meaning, and meaning arouses the will, which in turn reaches out towards further horizons of meaning. The alcoholic drinks because he wants peak experiences, but he is, in fact, running away from them as fast as he can go. Once his sense of direction had been restored, he ceased to be alcoholic, recognising that peak experiences are in direct proportion to the intensity of the will. And what should be quite clear is that there is no theoretical limit to the 'chain reaction'. Why does a man get depressed? Because at a certain point, he feels that a certain difficulty is not worth the effort'. As he becomes more discouraged, molehills turn into mountains until, as William James says, life turns into one tissue of impossibilities, and the process called nervous breakdown begins. Having recognised that the cause of the trouble lies in the collapse of the will, there is no theoretical reason why the ex-alcoholic should come to a halt with the achievement of 'normality'. There is, of course, a practical reason. The will needs a purpose. Why do we feel so cheerful when we are planning a holiday — looking at maps, working out what to pack? Because we have long-distance purpose. One can understand how Balzac must have felt when he first conceived the idea of creating the Comédie Humaine. the excitement of working out a series of novels about military life, a series about provincial life, a series about the aristocracy. . . 'Building castles in the air', this activity is called; but with a little effort, they actually get built. Man seems to need long-range purpose to get the best out of himself. And once the alcoholic has achieved 'normality' again, he may well say: 'All right, where do I go from here?' If this were true, it would represent a kind of dead end. For undoubtedly, our civilisation tends to deprive us of the kind of long-range purpose that our pioneer ancestors must have enjoyed. But it provides us with something else: the ability to live on the plane of the mind, the imagination. And there is a still more important matter we have over-looked: the mind's capacity to reach out for meaning. This is perfectly illustrated by a story told in Romain Gary's novel The Roots of Heaven. In a German concentration camp during the war, the French prisoners are becoming increasingly demoralised: they are on a down-staircase. A man called Robert devises a way to arrest the decline. He suggests that they imagine an invisible girl in the billet. If one of them swears or farts, he must bow and apologise to the 'girl': when they undress, they must hang up a blanket so she can't see them. Oddly enough, this absurd game works: they enter into the spirit of the thing, and morale suddenly rises. The Germans become suspicious of the men, and by eavesdropping they find out about the invisible girl. The Commandant fancies himself as a psychologist. He goes along to the billet with two guards, and tells the men: 'I know you have a girl here. That is forbidden. Tomorrow, I shall come here with these guards, and you will hand her over to me. She will be taken to the local brothel for German officers.' When he has gone, the men are dismayed; they know that if 114 114 they 'hand her over', they won't be able to re-create her. The next day the Commandant appears with his two soldiers. Robert, as the spokesman, says: We have decided not to hand her over'. And the Commandant knows he is beaten: nothing he can do can force them to hand her over. Robert is arrested and placed in solitary confinement; they all think they have seen the last of him, but weeks later, he reappears, very thin and worn. He explains that he has found the way to resist solitary confinement — their game with the invisible girl has taught him that the imagination is the power to reach out to other realities. realities not physically present. He has kept himself from breakdown by imagining great herds of elephants trampling over endless plains . . . The irony, in the novel, is that it is Robert who later becomes a hunter of elephants. But that is beside the point. The point is that the will can make an act of reaching towards meaning, towards 'other realities'. In phenomenological terms, what actually happened when the prisoners began apologising to the imaginary girl? First of all, they threw off their apathy and entered into a communal game. It was like a coach-load of football fans whiling away a tedious journey with community singing. But having raised their spirits by entering into the game, they also reminded themselves of circumstances in which they would normally be 'at their best'. Gorky's story Twenty Six Men and a Girl may be regarded as a parable about the same thing: the twenty-six over-worked bakers keep up their spirits by idealising the girl, treating her as a goddess. . . . And thereby reminding themselves of the response appropriate to a goddess. And this leads naturally to a concept that has become the core of my own existential psychology: the Self-Image. A man could not climb a vertical cliff without cutting handholds in the rock. Similarly, I cannot achieve a state of 'intenser consciousness' merely by wanting to; at least, it is extremely difficult without training. We tend to climb towards higher states of self-awareness by means of a series of self-images. We create a certain imaginary image of the sort of person we would like to be, and then try to live up to the image. The great man is the play-actor of his ideals,' says Nietzsche. One of the clearest expositions of the self-image idea can be found in a story called The Looking Glass by the Brazilian novelist Machado de Assis. A young man who has lived all his life in a small village in Brazil is called up for military service. In due course he becomes a lieutenant. When he returns home in his uniform he is the envy of the village; his mother calls him 'My lieutenant'. One of his aunts is particularly delighted with him: she invites him to her remote farm, and insists on addressing him as 'Senhor Lieutenant'. Her brother-in-law and all the slaves follow suit. At first, the youth is embarrassed; he doesn't feel like a lieutenant. But gradually he gets used to the idea. The petting, the attention, the deference, produced a transformation in me. . .' He begins to feel like a lieutenant. But one day, the aunt goes away to the bedside of a sick daughter, and takes the brother-in-law with her. The lieutenant is left alone with the slaves. And the next morning, they have all deserted, leaving him alone. Suddenly, there is no one to feed his ego. He feels lost. In his room there is an enormous mirror, placed there by his aunt. One day he looks in the mirror — and his outline seems blurred and confused. The sense of unreality increases until he is afraid he is going insane. And then he has an inspiration. He takes his lieutenant's uniform from the wardrobe and puts it on. And immediately, his image in the mirror becomes solid and clear. His feeling of sanity and self-respect returns. Every day thereafter, he puts on the uniform, and sits in front of the mirror. And he is able to stay sane through the remaining week before his aunt returns ... {8} 115 115 Machado subtitles his story 'Rough draft of a new theory of the human soul'. And so it is, for a story written in 1882. His hero explains to his auditors that he believes man has two souls: one inside, looking out, the other outside, looking in. But this is crude psychology. He means that the subjective 'I' gains its sense of identity from actions and outward objects. But this implies that the 'inner me' remains unchanged. This in turn implies that the shy, nervous 'inner self' is the permanent substratum of one's more confident layers of personality, and this is obviously untrue. Shyness is simply a disinclination to express oneself out of fear that it will turn out badly; confidence — such as he gained through the petting and admiration — is the ability to act decisively. The key sentence is: The petting, the attention, the deference, produced a transformation in me.' For this type of transformation, I coined the word 'promotion'. It is, in effect, a promotion of the personality to a higher level. All poetic experience is a 'promotion' experience, since it raises the personality to a higher level. One has a sense of becoming a stronger, or more mature, or more competent, or more serious person. If he had been a lieutenant for several years, being alone in the house would not have eroded his sense of identity. The trouble is that he is young, and that he is only just trying-on a new personality, the 'Senhor Lieutenant'. The image of himself in the looking glass provides the reinforcement he needs. The resemblance between this story and Romain Gary's story of the prison camp need hardly be pointed out. In both cases, moral decline is arrested by reminding oneself of something that re-creates the self-image. The weakness of Machado's theory of two souls becomes clear when we consider that Robert keeps himself sane in solitary confinement by an effort of inner-strength, of imagination, not by evoking a more 'successful' level of his personality. The elephants are an image of freedom. The sensation of freedom is always accompanied by a feeling of contraction of one's inner-being. Such a contraction occurs when we concentrate intently upon anything. It also occurs in sexual excitement, and explains why the orgasm is perhaps the most fundamental — at least the most common — 'promotion' experience. Donald Aldous, the technical editor of a well-known record magazine, told me a story that makes the role of the self-image even clearer. Before the war, the B.B.C. hired a famous conductor to broadcast a series of concerts. They were to be relayed from the new soundproof studios. The orchestra had never played there before, and the rehearsals lacked vitality. They explained that the studio was too dead: they could not hear the echo of their own playing. Donald Aldous was given the interesting job of arranging a system of loudspeakers around the walls that relayed the sound back to the orchestra a split second after they had played it, like an echo. As soon as they could 'hear themselves', the playing of the orchestra improved enormously. What is at issue in all such cases is a certain inner-strength. Captain Shotover in Heartbreak House tells Ellie Dunne that as a young man, he 'sought danger, hardship, horror and death' — as captain of a whaler — 'that I might feel the life in me more intensely'. That is to say, he sought conditions that would keep him at a high level of tension and alertness, so as to develop the inner-muscle of concentration. And note that the function of this muscle is to produce a sense of inner-freedom. When it is feeble, I am easily bored, depressed, made to feel sorry for myself. I am a moral hypochondriac. When it has been strengthened by a long period of alertness and effort) I feel equal to most emergencies, and this is the same as to say that I feel inner-freedom. The self-image notion is of immediate relevance to Maslovian psychology. And here we 116 116 touch upon the very heart of the matter, the most important point of all. Let us consider the question: what is the mechanism by which a 'self-image' produces 'promotion'? The answer is: it provides me with a kind of artificial standard of objective values. It gives me a sense of external meaning. Why did the peak experience under mescalin cure the alcoholics? Because the peak experience is a flood of meaning, obviously pouring in from outside. As it pours in, you ask yourself the question: Why doesn't this happen all the time, if the meaning is always there? And the answer is obvious: because I allow the will to become passive, and the senses close up. If I want more meaning, then I must force my senses wide open by an increased effort of will. We might think of the senses as springloaded shutters that must be forced open, and which close again when you let them go. It must be clearly understood that we live in a kind of room of subjective emotions and values. If I am not very careful, the shutters close, and I lose my objective standards. At this point, I may wildly exaggerate the importance of my emotions, my private ups and downs, and there is no feeling of objective reality to contradict me. A child beset by misery is more bewildered than an adult because he has nothing to measure it by; he doesn't know how serious it is. As soon as his mother kisses him and says, 'There, it doesn't really matter ... ', he relaxes. If I get myself 'into a state' about some trivial worry, and then I hear that some old friend has died of cancer, I instantly 'snap out' of my black mood, for my emotions are cut down to their proper size by comparison with a more serious reality. Moods and emotions are a kind of fever produced by lack of contact with reality. The shutters are closed, and the temperature in the rooms rises. It can rise to a degree where it becomes a serious fever, where the emotions have got so out-of-control that reality cannot break in. These are states of psychotic delusion — or perhaps merely of nervous overstrain. The characteristic of these states is exaggeration: every minor worry turns into a monstrous bogey. Inevitably, I cease to make efforts of will — for the will is at its healthiest when I have a firm sense of reality and of purpose. And we have seen what happens when the will becomes passive: the vital forces sink, and, at a certain point, physical health is affected. The 'existential psychologist' Viktor Frankl — of whom I shall speak at length later — remarked on 'how close is the connection between a man's state of mind — his courage and hope, or lack of them — and the state of immunity of his body', and tells a story that makes the point forcefully. Frankl was a Jew who spent most of the war in a German concentration camp: 'I once had a dramatic demonstration of the close link between the loss of faith in the future and this dangerous giving up. F— , my senior block warden, a fairly well known composer and librettist, confided in me one day: "I would like to tell you something, Doctor. I have had a strange dream. A voice told me that I could wish for something, that I should only say what I wanted to know, and all my questions would be answered. What do you think I asked? That I would like to know when the war would be over for me. You know what I mean, Doctor — for me! I wanted to know when we, when our camp, would be liberated and our sufferings come to an end”. "'And when did you have this dream?" I asked. "'In February, 1945", he answered. It was then the beginning of March. "'What did your dream voice answer?" Furtively he whispered to me, "March thirtieth." When F— told me about his dream, he was still full of hope and convinced that the voice of his dream would be right. But as the promised day drew nearer, the war news which reached 117 117 our camp made it appear very unlikely that we would be free on the promised date. On March twenty-ninth, F— suddenly became very ill and ran a high temperature. On March thirtieth, the day his prophecy had told him that the war and suffering would be over for him, he became delirious and lost consciousness. On March thirty-first, he was dead. To all outward appearances he had died of typhus.' {9} Frankl's composer friend was physically near the end of his resources; this is why the collapse of his will made such a difference. (Frankl also mentions the unprecedentedly high death rate in the camp between Christmas 1944 and New Year 1945, because so many prisoners had pinned their hopes on being home for Christmas.) It took a year of work in the chewing-gum factory to deplete Maslow's girl patient to the point where she ceased to menstruate. Normally healthy people possess a 'cushion' of energy to absorb shocks and disappointments, and this cushion is identical to the 'surplus energy tanks' of which we have spoken. It is maintained by will power fired by the sense of meaning. We are only aware of this direct action of the will upon the body in physical extremes: for example, if I am feeling sick, I can disperse the sickness by 'snapping out' of my feeling of nausea and summoning subconscious forces of health. If we were more clearly aware of this connection between 'positive consciousness' and physical health, we would treat mental passivity as a form of illness. Another anecdote of Frankl's — from the same book — may be said to provide the foundation of an 'attitude psychology' closely related to Maslow's. The prisoners were transferred from Auschwitz to Dachau. The journey took two days and three nights, during which they were packed so tight that few could sit down, and half starved. At Dachau, they had to stand in line all night and throughout the next morning in freezing rain, as punishment because one man had fallen asleep and missed the roll call. Yet they were all immensely happy, laughing and making jokes: because Dachau had no incinerator chimney. To summarise: man evolves through a sense of external meaning. When his sense of meaning is strong, he maintains a high level of will-drive and of general health. Without this sense of external meaning, he becomes the victim of subjective emotions, a kind of dream that tends to degenerate into nightmare. His uncontrolled fantasies and worries turn into an octopus that strangles him. Man has evolved various ways of preventing this from happening. The most important is religion. This tells a man that certain objective standards are permanently true, and that his own nature is weak and sinful. The chief trouble with authoritarian religion is that it works best for intellectually-uncomplicated people, and fails to carry much conviction for the highly sophisticated and neurotic — who are the very ones who need it most. In certain respects, art succeeds where religion fails. A great symphony or poem is an active reminder of the reality of meaning: it provides a stimulus like an electric shock, re-animating the will and the appetite for life. Its disadvantage is that we all assume that art is 'subjective' by nature, that it tells us about the emotions of the artist, not about the objective world. And so when life fails', the effectiveness of art diminishes. Men of imagination have always tended to use the self-image method to prevent them from becoming victims of the octopus of subjectivity. It is essentially a method for pushing problems and disappointments to arm's length. Yeats has described how, when he was sure no one was looking, he used to walk about London with the peculiar strut of Henry Irving's Hamlet. In Heartbreak House, Hector whiles away an idle moment by pretending to fight a duel with an imaginary antagonist and then making love to an imaginary woman. But the self-image also plays a central role in all human creativity. The young artist, lacking 118 118 certainty of his own identity, projects a mental image of himself that blurs into an image of the artist he most admires. Brahms's self-image is half-Beethoven; Yeats's is half-Shelley. And the ultimate value of their work — its inner-consistency and strength — depends upon how deeply they commit themselves to acting out the self-image. According to Freud and Karl Marx, fantasy is an escape from reality and responsibility. According to Maslow, fantasy is the means by which a determined man masters reality. 'Reality' is the key word in existential psychology. It poses no philosophical problems. It means objective meaning, as opposed to subjective values. Eliot wrote: We each think of the key, each in his prison', implying that there is no escape from one's subjective prison. Blake knew better: he agreed that 'five windows light the caverned man', but added that through one of them, he can pass out whenever he wants to. That is to say that by an effort of reaching out to meaning, he can re-establish contact with reality. The situation could be compared to a child who becomes confused during a game of blind man's buff, but who has only to remove the bandage in order to re-orient himself to the room. And the most important point for psychotherapy is that he can do this by an act of will. Mental illness is a kind of amnesia, in which the patient has forgotten his own powers. The task of the therapist is to somehow renew the patient's contact with reality. The first thing that will be observed about this 'third force psychology' I have outlined is that it is a great deal more optimistic than that of Freud, or even Jung. It implies that all human beings are closer to more intense states of consciousness than they realise. Somewhere in his autobiography, Stephen Spender remarks that everyone nowadays is neurotic, because it is inevitable at this stage in civilisation. Maslow's feeling seems to be that neurosis is definitely abnormal, and that there is no reason why most people should not be capable of a high level of mental health and of peak experiences. Among intelligent people, our cultural premises are certainly largely responsible for the prevailing pessimism. The Victorians went in for moral uplift and the belief in man's higher nature. Darwin and Freud changed all that. Darwin showed that we do not need the postulate of a creator to explain why man is superior to the ape. Freud denounced religion as a delusion based upon the child's fear of the father, and asserted that neurosis is due to the frustration of man's animal nature — specifically, his sex drives. After the First World War, despair and frustration became the keynote of literature; the optimists of the previous decade Shaw, Wells, Chesterton — became almost unmentionable. In science, philosophy, psychology, there was an increasing tendency to 'reductionism' — which Arthur Koestler has defined as the belief that all human activities can be explained in terms of the elementary responses of the lower animals, such as the psychologist's laboratory rat. This reductionism should not be construed as a materialistic jibe at idealism — although it often looks like that — but as a desire to get things done) accompanied by the fear that nothing will get done if too much is attempted. Maslow told me once that a respectable psychologist had leapt to his feet at a meeting of the American Psychological Association, and shouted at him — Maslow — 'You are an evil man. You want to destroy psychology.' The irony of the story is that by the time Maslow told it to me, he was president of the American Psychological Association! The old reductionist climate began to change in the early sixties. In Europe, the school of existential psychology was already well established. Sir Karl Popper — one of the original founders of the school of Logical Positivism — was arguing that science is not a plodding, logical, investigation of the universe, but that it proceeds by flashes of intuition, like poetry. Popper's most distinguished follower, Michael Polanyi, published in 1958 his revolutionary book Personal Knowledge, a carefully reasoned attack on the 'timetable or telephone directory conception of science' — i.e. the view that all future books on science could be written by an electronic brain, if it was big enough. Polanyi stated that what drives the scientist is an increasing sense of contact 119 119 with reality — that is to say, precisely what drives the poet or the saint. In biology, the old rigid Darwinism began to relax; in 1965, Sir Alister Hardy, an orthodox Darwinian, and Professor of Zoology at Oxford, asserted in his Gifford Lectures that the genes might be influenced by telepathy, and that certain biological phenomena are only explainable on the assumption of some kind of 'group mind'. 'Reductionism' was breaking apart. It was in 1968 that an American publisher suggested to me that I should write a book about Maslow. I asked him how he felt about the idea, and he approved — pointing out, at the same time, that another friend, Frank Goble, was also writing one. I decided to go ahead all the same, and Maslow patiently answered the questions I threw at him through 1969, although a heart attack had slowed him up considerably. At my suggestion, he made a pile of tapes, full of biographical and personal details, some for publication, some not. Meanwhile, I was reading my way steadily through a hundred or so papers he had sent me, dating back to the early thirties, when he was working on monkeys with Harry Harlow. But when I started writing the book, in Majorca, in the autumn of 1969, I realised that it was going to be more difficult than I had expected. I had intended to make it a straight account of Maslow's life and work, a short book that would stick to my subject. But, after all, Viktor Frankl was also part of the subject, and so were Erwin Straus, Medard Boss, William Glasser, Ronald Laing, and many other existential psychologists. Worse still, it was hard to keep myself out of it, since Maslow's work had exerted so much influence on my own ideas, and since we had been engaged in a fragmentary dialogue for the past ten years. In June, 1969, I told Maslow in a letter that it looked as if my book about him was going to be part of a larger book about the revolution in psychology, and asked more questions, which he answered on tape. A few days before this last batch of tapes arrived, I received a letter from his secretary telling me that he had died of a heart attack on June 8, 1970. Listening to his voice, it was hard to get used to the idea that he was dead. I am still not certain whether this is the best way to write the book; but I can see no other. In this introduction I have tried to give a sketchy outline of the ideas that preoccupied Maslow — and myself — during the past ten years. In the first part of the book, I have tried to give a picture of the major trends in psychology from its beginnings in the 19th century, through the Freudian revolution, down to Maslow. Part Two deals exclusively with Maslow; it is the book I intended to write to begin with. Part Three discusses existential psychology in general, and attempts to state some general conclusions about the movement. Inevitably, this is the most personal part of the book, and may be regarded as a continuation of this introduction. The ultimate question is not one of psychology so much as of philosophy, or even religion. Viktor Frankl talks about 'the existential vacuum', writing: 'More and more patients are crowding our clinics and consulting rooms complaining of an inner emptiness, a sense of total and ultimate meaninglessness of their lives'. I coined the term 'nothingness neurosis' to describe this state. But in discussing it, I have tried to avoid generalisations, and to remain faithful to the phenomenological — the descriptive — method. That was always Maslow's own approach. Endnotes To Appendix: Personal Notes On Maslow by Colin Wilson 1. In England The Age of Defeat, 1958. 2. I have used an extract from a paper, 'Lessons from the Peak Experience', read in 1961 at the Western Behavioural Sciences Institute, La Jolla, California. It has not yet been printed in book form. 3. 'Existential Psychology: A Novelist's Approach', in Challenges of Humanistic Psychology 120 120 edited by J. F. T. Bugental, McGraw Hill, 1967. 4. Epistemology without a Knowing Subject, Amsterdam 1968. 5. Einstein, Ideas and Opinions, London, 1956, p. 227. 6. Reprinted in Resistance; Rebellion and Death. 7. See Maslow's paper 'Fusions of Facts and Values' (1963). See also: The Psychedelic Experience — A New Concept in Psychotherapy' by J. N. Sherwood, M. J. Stolaroff and W. W. Harman, Journal of Neuropsychiatry, Vol. 4, No.2, Dec. 1962, and 'Personality Change Associated with Psychedelic (LSD) Therapy: A Preliminary Report' by Robert E. Mogar and Charles Savage, Psychotherapy, Vol. I, No.4, Autumn 1964. 8. The Psychiatrist and Other Stories, translated by William L. Grossman and Helen Caldwell, University of California Press, 1963. 9. From Death Camp to Existentialism. Beacon Press, 1962. Later republished as Man's Search for Meaning revised and enlarged. All quotations are from this later edition. 121 121
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What is the vein running along the centre of a leaf called? | The Parts of a Leaf
The Parts of a Leaf
Most leaves have two main parts: (1) the blade and (2) the petiole, or leafstalk. The leaves of some kinds of plants also have a third part, called the stipules.
The Blade, or lamina, is the broad, flat part of the leaf. Photosynthesis occurs in the blade, which has many green food-making cells. Leaf blades differ from one another in several ways: (1) the types of edges, (2) the patterns of the veins, and (3) the number of blades per leaf.
The Types of Edges. Almost all narrow, grasslike leaves and needles leaves have a blade with a smooth edge, as do many broadleaf plants, particularly those that are native to warm climates. The rubber plant, a common house plant, is a good example of such a plant.
The leaves of many temperate broadleaf plants have small, jagged points called teeth along the blade edge. Birch and elm trees have such leaves. Some plants have hydathodes, tiny valvelike structures that can release excess water from the leaf. The teeth of young leaves on many plants, including cottonwood and pin cherry trees, bear tiny glads. These glands produce liquids that protect the young leaf from plant-eating insects.
Some temperate broadleaf plants -- including sassafras trees and certain mulberry and oak trees -- have lobed leaves. The edge of such a leaf looks as if large bites have been taken out of it. This lobing helps heat escape from the leaf.
The Patterns of the Veins. Veins carry food and water in a leaf. They also support the blade, much as the metal ribs support the fabric of an open umbrella.
In most broad leaves, the veins form a netlike pattern, with several large veins connected by smaller ones. The smallest veins supply every part of the blade with water. They also collect the food made by the green cells.
There are two main types of net-vein patterns -- pinnate (featherlike) and palmate (palmlike or handlike). Pinnately veined leaves have one large central vein, called the midrib, which extends from the base of the blade to its tip. Other large veins branch off on each side of the midrib. The leaves of beech, birch, and elm trees have such a vein pattern. A palmately veined leaf has several main veins of about equal size, all of which extend from a common point at the base of the blade. The vein patterns of maple, sweet gum, and sycamore leaves are palmate.
Narrow leaves and needle leaves are not net-veined. Narrow leaves have a parallel-vein pattern. Several large veins run alongside one another from the base of the blade to the tip. Small crossveins connect the large veins. Needle leaves are so small that they have only one or two veins running through the center of the blade.
The Number of Blades per Leaf. A leaf with only one blade is called a simple leaf. Apple and oak trees, grasses, and many other plants have simple leaves. A leaf with more than one blade is known as a compound leaf. The blades of a compound leaf are called leaflets.
The leaflets in a compound leaf may be arranged in a pinnate or palmate pattern. In pinnately compound leaves, the leaflets grow in two rows, one on each side of a central stalk, called the rachis. Plants with pinnately compound leaves include ash and walnut trees and garden peas. The leaflets in a palmately compound leaf all grow from the tip of the leafstalk. Clover, horse chestnut trees, and many other plants have palmately compound leaves.
A few plants -- including carrots, honey locust trees, and Kentucky coffeetrees -- have double compound leaves, with each leaflet being divided into a number of still smaller leaflets.One double compound leaf looks more like a group of twigs and leaves than like a single leaf.
The Petiole is the stemlike part of the leaf that joins the blade to the stem. Within a petiole are tiny tubes that connect with the veins in the blade. Some of the tubes carry water into the leaf. Others carry away food that the leaf has made. In many trees and shrubs, the petioles bend in such a way that the blades receive the most sunlight, thus assuring that few leaves are shaded by other leaves. The petiole also provides a flexible "handle" that enables the blade to twist in the wind and so avoid damage.
In some plants, the petioles are much larger than the stems to which they are attached. For example, the parts we eat of celery and rhubarb plants are petioles. In contrast, the leaves of some soft-stemmed plants, particularly grasses, have no petioles.
The Stipules are two small flaps that grow at the base of the petiole of some plants. In some plants, the stipules grow quickly, enclosing and protecting the young blade as it develops. Some stipules, such as those of willows and certain cherry trees, produce substances that prevent insects from attacking the developing leaf.
In many plants the stipules drop off after the blade has developed, but garden peas and a few other kinds of plants have large stipules that serve as an extra food-producing part of the leaf.
World Book Encyclopedia Chicago: World Book-Childcraft International, Inc., 1979
| Leaf |
The disease beriberi is caused by the deficiency of which vitamin? | Glossary
Acorn—hard-shelled nut with pointed tip; found on oak trees
Alternate—arranged singly along a twig, branch, or shoot
Angled—with distinct ridges; not smoothly rounded
Aroma/Aromatic—producing a scent; fragrant
Axis (plural: axes)—central stalk of compound leaf or flower cluster
B
Bark—outer covering of trunk and branches
Bipinnate(ly)—leaflets arranged on side branches off of the main axis
Blade—broad and expanded part of the leaf
Blighted—affected by a blight, a bacterium, fungus, or virus that impairs growth
Bract—modified leaf structure that usually appears at the base of a flower (or their clusters) or a fruit (or fruits)
Branchlet—youngest and smallest part of a branch
Bristle tip—stiff hair at leaf tip
Bud—young (not developed) leaf, flower, or shoot frequently covered with scales
Bundle scar—small dots or lines found within the leaf scar when leafstalk is broken
Bur—prickly covering of seeds or fruit
C
Calyx—sepals of a flower
Cap—hardened, scaly top covering of an acorn
Capsule—dry fruit with 2 or more seeds
Catkin—small, unisexual flower or fruit cluster that is typically drooping and caterpillar shaped
Chambered (pith)—divided crosswise by plates
Cluster—bundled similar elements
Coarse-toothed—leaf edge with large teeth
Compound—leaf made up of 3 or more smaller leaflets
Cone—fruit with overlapping scales around an axis
Continuous (pith)—twig center not chambered or hollow
Cross-hatched—with sets of intersecting, parallel lines
Crown—the combination of branches, twigs, and leaves at the top of a tree that refers to a tree’s overall shape
Cultivated—planted and preserved by humans
D
Deciduous—losing foliage at the end of the growing season
Distribution—geographic range
Double-toothed—each tooth having smaller teeth
Dutch Elm Disease—disease caused by fungus, Ophiostoma
ulm
Girdle(d)—to remove a band of bark from a tree in order to kill it
Gland—small knob on a leaf’s surface that secretes a substance
H
Hayfever—allergic condition; symptoms frequently include sneezing, watery and itching eyes, and runny nose
Husk—shell or outer covering of some fruits and seeds
Hybrid—offspring that results in the cross of two different species
L
Lateral vein—vein that runs parallel to the natural curve of the leaf
Leaflet—leaflike subdivision of a compound leaf
Leaf base (or base)—lower portion of the leaf towards the leafstalk
Leaf scar—mark remaining on the twig or branch when a leaf falls or is removed
Leafstalk—stem that supports the leaf and connects it to the branches; also called petiole
Lenticel—corky, circular or stripelike spot on bark; pore for breathing
Lobe—leaf edge divided into separate, often rounded sections
Lowlands
—areas that are low in elevation compared the surrounding areas
M
Maple sugar—sugar made from concentrated sap from Sugar Maple tree
Midvein—central vein of a leaf; also called midrib
N
Oblong—elongated in form with parallel sides
Obovate—oval shape with broad tip
Opposite—arranged in opposing pairs along a twig
Ornamentation—decoration
Ovate—oval shape with broad base
P
Palmate(ly)—major veins spreading out to the edges from one point at the base of the leaf
Petal—brightly colored flower part; one of a group, often found in a circle
Petiole—Stalk that supports a leaf; leafstalk
Pinnate(ly)—with leaflet arrangement in 2 rows along main axis
Pith—spongy center tissue of a twig or stem
Pod—fairly dry, flat fruit containing one to many seeds
Pulp—part of fruit that is moist and soft
R
Resin—frequently aromatic plant secretion
Resin-dot—small, circular, yellow spots
S
Samara—dry, 1-seeded fruit with a wing; key
Sap—fluid that circulates through a tree
Saw-toothed—leaf edges that are divided into short, sharp-pointed protrusions
Scale—thin covering of a bud or acorn
Scaleless—without scales
Seed—part of mature fruit that house the embryo
Seed bed—area for growth
Sepal—part of flower that surrounds the reproductive organs; often green
Shoot—young twig or stem that is growing
Shrub—typically small plant with several stems growing from base; without single trunk
Side bud—bud in lateral position (on side of twig, not terminal or end bud)
Simple—made up of only one blade
Sinus—space between two leaf lobes
Species—group of individuals with small variation who interbreed
Spine—small, short woody growth emerging from twig or stem; a thorn
Sprout/Shoot—young plant growth
Spur branch—short side branch with dense, crowded leaves
Stalkless—without a leafstalk
Stamen—a male flower structure
Stipule—leaflike scale found at leafstalk base; frequently paired
Striation—parallel line
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What is measured in Hertz? | Hertz Definition
Home : Technical Terms : Hertz Definition
Hertz
Hertz (abbreviated: Hz) is the standard unit of measurement used for measuring frequency . Since frequency is measured in cycles per second, one hertz equals one cycle per second.
Hertz is used commonly used to measure wave frequencies, such as sound waves, light waves, and radio waves. For example, the average human ear can detect sound waves between 20 and 20,000 Hz. Sound waves close to 20 Hz have a low pitch and are called "bass" frequencies. Sound waves above 5,000 Hz have a high pitch and are called "treble" frequencies.
While hertz can be used to measure wave frequencies, it is also used to measure the speed of computer processors . For example, each CPU is rated at a specific clock speed . This number indicates how many instruction cycles the processor can perform each second. Since modern processors can perform millions or even billions of instructions per second, clock speeds are typically measured in megahertz or gigahertz .
Abbeviation: Hz
| Frequency |
24 Sussex Drive is the official residence of the Prime Minister of which country? | Hertz - definition of hertz by The Free Dictionary
Hertz - definition of hertz by The Free Dictionary
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hertz
Related to hertz: enterprise , budget , Avis
hertz
n. pl. hertz Abbr. Hz
A unit of frequency equal to one cycle per second. See Table at measurement .
[After Heinrich Rudolf Hertz.]
(hɜːts)
n, pl hertz
(Units) the derived SI unit of frequency; the frequency of a periodic phenomenon that has a periodic time of 1 second; 1 cycle per second. Symbol: Hz
[C20: named after Heinrich Rudolph Hertz]
Hertz
(hɜːts; German hɛrts)
n
1. (Biography) Gustav (ˈɡʊstaf). 1887–1975, German atomic physicist. He provided evidence for the quantum theory by his research with Franck on the effects produced by bombarding atoms with electrons: they shared the Nobel prize for physics (1925)
2. (Biography) Heinrich Rudolph (ˈhainrɪç ˈruːdɔlf). 1857–94, German physicist. He was the first to produce electromagnetic waves artificially
ˈHertzian adj
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Hyperion and Rhea are two moons of which planet in our solar system? | Space Today Online - Moons of the Solar System
SPACE TODAY ONLINE ~~ COVERING SPACE FROM EARTH TO THE EDGE OF THE UNIVERSE
Moons of the Solar System
Massive planet Jupiter below the moon Io
click NASA image to enlarge
A moon is a natural satellite rotating around a planet. While moons vary in size, each moon is much smaller than its planet. Almost 140 moons are known in the Solar System.
Several moons are larger than the planet Pluto and two moons are larger than the planet Mercury. There also are many small moons that may be asteroids captured by their planets.
Only Mercury and Venus do not have any moons. By comparison, Earth has one moon and Mars has two. Jupiter has the most of any planet. Saturn is second.
Pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope suggest there may be even more moons around those outer planets.
earth's moon »
Largest. The largest moon is Ganymede with a diameter of 3,280 miles, even larger than either of the planets Mercury and Pluto.
Saturn's moon Titan is the second largest in the Solar System with a diameter of 3,200 miles, half again as large as Earth's Moon.
The Planets and Their Moons
PLANET
Jupiter
62
Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Amalthea, Himalia, Elara, Pasiphae, Sinope, Lysithea, Carme, Ananke, Leda, Metis, Adrastea, Thebe, Callirrhoe, Themisto, Kalyke, Iocaste, Erinome, Harpalyke, Isonoe, Praxidike, Megaclite, Taygete, Chaldene, Autonoe, Thyone, Hermippe, Eurydome, Sponde, Pasithee, Euanthe, Kale, Orthosie, Euporie, Aitne, plus others yet to receive names
Saturn
33
Titan, Rhea, Iapetus, Dione, Tethys, Enceladus, Mimas, Hyperion, Prometheus, Pandora, Phoebe, Janus, Epimetheus, Helene, Telesto, Calypso, Atlas, Pan, Ymir, Paaliaq, Siarnaq, Tarvos, Kiviuq, Ijiraq, Thrym, Skadi, Mundilfari, Erriapo, Albiorix, Suttung, plus others yet to receive names
Uranus
27
Cordelia, Ophelia, Bianca, Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Portia, Rosalind, Belinda, Puck, Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon, Caliban, Sycorax, Prospero, Setebos, Stephano, Trinculo, plus others yet to receive names
Neptune
Triton, Nereid, Naiad, Thalassa, Despina, Galatea, Larissa, Proteus, plus others yet to receive names
Pluto
139
Saturn. When the Cassini spacecraft from Earth arrived at Saturn in 2004, it promptly found two previously unseen moons. They turned out to be the smallest bodies seen until then around the ringed planet.
The tiny natural satellites are about 2 miles and 2.5 miles in diameter. That's smaller than the city of Boulder, Colorado. Previously, the smallest moons seen around Saturn were are about 12 miles across. The moons are 120,000 miles and 131,000 miles from the center of planet Saturn between the moons Mimas and Enceladus.
The newly discovered bodies were labeled S/2004 S1 and S/2004 S2. Later, they will be given names. The NASA JPL team wondered if S/2004 S1 might not be an object called S/1981 S14 that had turned up in a 1981 Voyager image.
Saturn moons »
Smallest. The smallest moon is Deimos, at Mars, only seven miles in diameter, although its size now is rivaled by the small shepherd moons discovered by Cassini at Saturn and by others yet to be counted and named in the rings around Jupiter, Saturn and other giant gas planets in the outer Solar System. There may be tiny moons as small as only around a mile across.
Pluto. Charon is the moon closest in size to its planet, Pluto. Earth's Moon is second in that comparison.
Neptune. The interplanetary probe Voyager 2 in 1989 found six previously-unknown moons orbiting Neptune. They ranged in diameter from 33 miles to 250 miles. In 1991, they were named Naiad, Thalassa, Despina, Galatea, Larissa, Proteus.
The names Galatea and Larissa were controversial since asteroids previously had been given those names. Names are assigned by the nomenclature committee of the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
Triton. Before Voyager 2, astronomers knew Neptune had two moons, Triton and Nereid. With a surface temperature of –391 degrees, Triton was found by Voyager 2 to have a thin veneer of methane and nitrogen on top of water ice on its surface.
Triton had been thought to have a diameter of 2,361 miles, close in size to Earth's Moon, but turned out to be smaller, around 1,690 miles. Nereid is 210 miles in diameter.
Pan. A new moon only 12 miles in diameter was discovered in 1990 circling the planet Saturn. It was Saturn's 18th and most distant moon. Photos of the planet, moons and rings, left over from the 1981 Saturn flyby by Voyager 2, had been filed away at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, for a decade. A planetary scientist was tipped off to Pan's presence by a disturbance in a 200-mi.-wide gap — Encke's Gap — in Saturn's outermost A ring. Pan's gravity moved particles in the large A ring, creating a gap with waves along the edges like the wake of a motorboat.
Checking the wavy edges, he calculated the probable position and mass of the moon and compared them with Voyager 2 positions and camera angles in 1980-81. When finally uncovered, the moon stood out as a small bright spot in 11 pictures among 30,000 photos scanned by a computer. In 1991, the moon officially was named Pan.
It was the second time since Neptune was discovered in 1894 that a gravity disturbance had been used to pinpoint a previously-unknown Solar System body.
Inner Solar System. The inner Solar System includes the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. Of all the known moons in our Solar System, only three are in the inner region. Mars has two. Earth has one. Mercury and Venus are the only planets without moons. The outer Solar System includes Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto and the rest of the moons.
More moons are discovered each year in the outer Solar System by astronomers using ever more powerful equipment.
Atmospheres. Most moons are airless, but Jupiter's Io, Saturn's Titan and Neptune's Triton seem to have atmospheres. Titan may be flooded with an ocean of liquid ethane. Triton may be covered by an ocean of liquid nitrogen. Io seems to have a thin sulphur dioxide atmosphere from volcanos.
Titan. Titan appears to have an organic chemistry in its atmosphere which may resemble the primitive Earth before the dawn of life. It is the only moon known to have a thick, organic-rich nitrogen atmosphere. Surface temperature is around –290 degrees Fahrenheit. Solar System's moons are listed below:
Exploring the Moons of the Outer Solar System
The moons of the outer planets are popular targets with planners of future spaceflights.
Jupiter has more moons than any other planet. Its best known moons are the four large planet-sized bodies Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.
jupiter »
Callisto is the outermost of the four and the most heavily cratered body in the Solar System. It may have a vast water ocean indside.
Io is innermost of the four. This sulfurous moon is the most volcanic world in our Solar System. It is peppered with hundreds of volcanoes, several of which might be active at any given moment.
Europa has an icy surface that may hide a layer of warm slush or even liquid water. That would make it one of the few places in the Solar System with that life-sustaining liquid.
Ganymede is the largest moon of Jupiter and the largest moon in the Solar System. In fact, Ganymede is larger in diameter than the planet Mercury and much larger than the planet Pluto. Ganymede has its own magnetic field.
Saturn has some unique moons. Here are some examples:
Titan is Saturn's largest moon.
Mimas has an enormous crater – probably a hole caused by a meteorite.
Enceladus has a very bright surface. It may have active water volcanoes.
Tethys has a canyon running three-quarters of the way around its surface. That means it may once have been split almost in half.
Dione and Rhea have wispy white markings on one side.
Hyperion is oddly shaped and the length of its day is constantly changing.
Iapetus is half bright and half dark.
Pan, by comparison, is a very tiny moon. Its diameter is only 20 km, which on the sale above would be only half the size of a BB.
Uranus' moons are eye-openers. They have statuesque mountains towering more than ten miles high. Incredibly deep valleys. Vast plains, some with a mysterious dark surface. Moon diameters range from a bit fatter than 25 miles up to about 1,100 miles.
| Saturn |
"""This is a sharp medicine, but it is a physician for all diseases and miseries..."" is attributed to which historical figure as he was about to be executed, in 1618?" | Astronomical/Astrological symbols for other planets' moons
Astronomical/Astrological symbols for other planets' moons
Calligraphic version | Fixed-width version
There are astronomical symbols for each of the 9 planets in our solar system, as well as for the Sun, the Moon, and some of the asteroids. However, I have not been able to find any symbols for the moons/satellites of other planets.
Astronomers, as far as I can tell, use the symbol of the planet plus a roman numeral indicating which orbit the moon is in. This is all well and good, but not very interesting or evocative. Astrologers, on the other hand, have no real reason to have separate symbols for the moons, since they are always in effectively the same part of the sky as their planet (when seen from Earth).
As someone who enjoys thinking about possible lifestyles of the future, I imagine a time when the outer planets will be inhabited, or at least have astrologically interesting events happening on them. (I'm not a believer in astrology myself, but find it interesting.) Future astronomers and astrologers may wish to have symbols for the moons of the planet they are inhabiting or orbiting.
I have invented symbols for many of the other moons. My general method is to take some aspect of the planetary symbol and apply it to symbols differentiating the moons, usually the initial of the moon's name in the appropriate writing system. I offer these symbols up to the public domain, for use by future astronomers, future astrologers, and anyone else who's interested.
Mars
Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos. The symbols for them are based on the lower-case versions of the Greek letters Phi and Delta, which begin those two names in the original Greek, with the arrow from Mars's symbol added on.
Phobos
Deimos
The Jovian planets
The Jovian gas giants each have a large number of moons (at least 13 for Neptune, at least 63 for Jupiter). It's not really feasible to include them all, but some are larger than others. I've chosen an admittedly arbitrary threshold of 10 Zg (1019 kg) and created symbols for any moon larger than that, which lets in Saturn's moon Hyperion but not Jupiter's largest non-Galilean moon Amalthea. This is also near the point at which moons become non-spherical - there are some non-spherical objects above this line, but no spherical ones below.
Jupiter
Jupiter has four "large" moons - the four Galilean moons. For their symbols, the Greek letter beginning their names is combined with the cross at the bottom of the symbol for Jupiter.
Io
Oberon
Neptune
Neptune has 3 "major" moons - Triton, which is the 7th largest moon in the Solar system, and the non-spherical Nereid (31 Zg) and Proteus (50 Zg). Their symbols combine the Greek letter beginning their names and Neptune's trident.
Proteus
Nereid
The dwarf planets and large TNOs
There are five currently-recognized dwarf planets, three of which are known to have moons. (This is not entirely a coincidence - the presence of moons helps determine mass, which is part of the classification process.) Pluto and Ceres have traditional symbols, and I suggest symbols for Eris, Makemake, and Haumea on my page of symbols for TNOs . There are also a number of large TNOs that are likely to be eventually classified as dwarves, two of which are known to have moons. I have proposed symbols for many of these as well, on that same page. I have designed symbols for all the dwarf planets' and TNOs' moons, based on the traditional symbol or my suggested one.
Pluto
Pluto has two symbols, one usually used by astronomers and one usually used by astrologers. The astronomical symbol is a combination of the letters P and L, both for the planet PLuto and in honor of Percival Lowell. The astrological symbol is a circle inside an arc above a cross.
Pluto has five moons: Charon, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos, and Styx. Charon was discovered by James Christy and named to honor his wife Charlene, so a symbol combining C and H is the obvious choice for an astronomical symbol. The astrological symbol uses the floating circle from Pluto and applies it to a sideways crescent, referencing both Charon being a moon and Charon's mythological meaning as a boatman across the river of the dead. (A version of this symbol is apparently already a less common symbol for Pluto.) Nix is either a misspelling of the Greek goddess Nyx, in which case it starts with Nu, or Latin for "snow", which starts with N. Luckily capital Nu and capital N look the same. Hydra begins with Upsilon in Greek. Kerberos and Styx have straightforward symbols involving Kappa and a lowercase Sigma.
Charon (astronomical)
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Which English poet is associated with Dove Cottage in Grasmere? | Dove Cottage & William Wordsworth Trust - Lake District - Wordsworth Trust
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The Jerwood Centre
The Jerwood Centre is where our collection is stored under controlled conditions and cared for. If you would like to be shown around please phone before you arrive to check that someone is available.
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Wordsworth's skates
Wordsworth enjoyed skating on the frozen lakes of the county in the depths of winter. Two very different pairs of his skates survive and can be seen during your visit.
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Wordsworth's tea caddy
Tea was so precious that it was kept in a locked box like this one and Dorothy Wordsworth wrote that it was used at least twice. See if you can find it on your visit.
| William Wordsworth |
What does the well known Latin phrase 'cogito, ergo sum', commonly attributed to René Descartes, translate as in English? | The life of a poet - Review of Dove Cottage, Grasmere, England - TripAdvisor
Review of Dove Cottage
Attraction details
Recommended length of visit: 2-3 hours
Owner description: William Wordsworth is Britain's best-loved poet. His life was a series of adventures and his early experiences made him into a rebel. Orphaned as a child, he went to University, travelled across Europe during the French Revolution, fell in love with an older French woman and then returned to turn English literature on its head with his radical ideas and poems in language that anyone could understand. He moved to Dove Cottage in 1799 and stayed for nine years, writing some of the most famous poetry in the English language, inspired by the landscape and the people he met. Visitors can take guided tours of Dove Cottage, wander in the gardens he designed and planted with his sister and discover his incredible life story in the museum next door (included in admission). Special exhibitions change regularly and family activities are integrated into the experience, with family friendly events during the school holidays.
Useful Information: Wheelchair access, Stairs / elevator, Bathroom facilities, Food available for purchase, Activities for older children, Activities for young children
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In which country was astronomer and scientist Nicolaus Copernicus born? | Copernicus born - Feb 19, 1473 - HISTORY.com
Copernicus born
Publisher
A+E Networks
On February 19, 1473, Nicolaus Copernicus is born in Torun, a city in north-central Poland on the Vistula River. The father of modern astronomy, he was the first modern European scientist to propose that Earth and other planets revolve around the sun.
Copernicus was born into a family of well-to-do merchants, and after his father’s death, his uncle–soon to be a bishop–took the boy under his wing. He was given the best education of the day and bred for a career in canon (church) law. At the University of Krakow, he studied liberal arts, including astronomy and astrology, and then, like many Poles of his social class, was sent to Italy to study medicine and law.
While studying at the University of Bologna, he lived for a time in the home of Domenico Maria de Novara, the principal astronomer at the university. Astronomy and astrology were at the time closely related and equally regarded, and Novara had the responsibility of issuing astrological prognostications for Bologna. Copernicus sometimes assisted him in his observations, and Novara exposed him to criticism of both astrology and aspects of the Ptolemaic system, which placed Earth at the center of the universe.
Copernicus later studied at the University of Padua and in 1503 received a doctorate in canon law from the University of Ferrara. He returned to Poland, where he became a church administrator and doctor. In his free time, he dedicated himself to scholarly pursuits, which sometimes included astronomical work. By 1514, his reputation as an astronomer was such that he was consulted by church leaders attempting to reform the Julian calendar.
The cosmology of early 16th-century Europe held that Earth sat stationary and motionless at the center of several rotating, concentric spheres that bore the celestial bodies: the sun, the moon, the known planets, and the stars. From ancient times, philosophers adhered to the belief that the heavens were arranged in circles (which by definition are perfectly round), causing confusion among astronomers who recorded the often eccentric motion of the planets, which sometimes appeared to halt in their orbit of Earth and move retrograde across the sky.
In the second century A.D., the Alexandrian geographer and astronomer Ptolemy sought to resolve this problem by arguing that the sun, planets, and moon move in small circles around much larger circles that revolve around Earth. These small circles he called epicycles, and by incorporating numerous epicycles rotating at varying speeds he made his celestial system correspond with most astronomical observations on record.
The Ptolemaic system remained Europe’s accepted cosmology for more than 1,000 years, but by Copernicus’ day accumulated astronomical evidence had thrown some of his theories into confusion. Astronomers disagreed on the order of the planets from Earth, and it was this problem that Copernicus addressed at the beginning of the 16th century.
Sometime between 1508 and 1514, he wrote a short astronomical treatise commonly called the Commentariolus, or “Little Commentary,” which laid the basis for his heliocentric (sun-centered) system. The work was not published in his lifetime. In the treatise, he correctly postulated the order of the known planets, including Earth, from the sun, and estimated their orbital periods relatively accurately.
For Copernicus, his heliocentric theory was by no means a watershed, for it created as many problems as it solved. For instance, heavy objects were always assumed to fall to the ground because Earth was the center of the universe. Why would they do so in a sun-centered system? He retained the ancient belief that circles governed the heavens, but his evidence showed that even in a sun-centered universe the planets and stars did not revolve around the sun in circular orbits. Because of these problems and others, Copernicus delayed publication of his major astronomical work, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri vi, or “Six Books Concerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs,” nearly all his life. Completed around 1530, it was not published until 1543–the year of his death.
In the work, Copernicus’ groundbreaking argument that Earth and the planets revolve around the sun led him to make a number of other major astronomical discoveries. While revolving around the sun, Earth, he argued, spins on its axis daily. Earth takes one year to orbit the sun and during this time wobbles gradually on its axis, which accounts for the precession of the equinoxes. Major flaws in the work include his concept of the sun as the center of the whole universe, not just the solar system, and his failure to grasp the reality of elliptical orbits, which forced him to incorporate numerous epicycles into his system, as did Ptolemy. With no concept of gravity, Earth and the planets still revolved around the sun on giant transparent spheres.
In his dedication to De revolutionibus–an extremely dense scientific work–Copernicus noted that “mathematics is written for mathematicians.” If the work were more accessible, many would have objected to its non-biblical and hence heretical concept of the universe. For decades, De revolutionibus remained unknown to all but the most sophisticated astronomers, and most of these men, while admiring some of Copernicus’ arguments, rejected his heliocentric basis. It was not until the early 17th century that Galileo and Johannes Kepler developed and popularized the Copernican theory, which for Galileo resulted in a trial and conviction for heresy. Following Isaac Newton’s work in celestial mechanics in the late 17th century, acceptance of the Copernican theory spread rapidly in non-Catholic countries, and by the late 18th century it was almost universally accepted.
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| Poland |
Which country is referred to as 'The Land of the Long White Cloud'? | Copernicus biography
Version for printing
Nicolaus Copernicus is the Latin version of the famous astronomer's name which he chose later in his life. The original form of his name was Mikolaj Kopernik or Nicolaus Koppernigk but we shall use Copernicus throughout this article. His father, also called Nicolaus Koppernigk, had lived in Kraków before moving to Torun where he set up a business trading in copper. He was also interested in local politics and became a civic leader in Torun and a magistrate. Nicolaus Koppernigk married Barbara Watzenrode, who came from a well off family from Torun, in about 1463. They moved into a house in St Anne's Street in Torun, but they also had a summer residence with vineyards out of town. Nicolaus and Barbara Koppernigk had four children, two sons and two daughters, of whom Nicolaus Copernicus was the youngest.
You can see a picture of the house in which Copernicus was born at THIS LINK .
When young Nicolaus was ten years old his father died. His uncle Lucas Watzenrode, who was a canon at Frauenburg Cathedral, became guardian to Nicolaus and Barbara Koppernigk's four children.
You can see a picture of Lucas Watzenrode at THIS LINK .
Nicolaus and his brother Andreas remained in Torun, continuing their elementary education there. In 1488 Nicolaus was sent by his uncle to the cathedral school of Wloclawek where he received a good standard humanist education. After three years of study at Wloclawek he entered the University of Kraków (situated in what was then the capital of Poland). By this time Lucas Watzenrode was Bishop of Ermland and he envisaged a church career for both of his nephews. Andreas, Nicolaus's brother, entered the University of Kraków at the same time, and both their names appear on the matriculation records of 1491-92.
University education at Kraków was, Copernicus later wrote, a vital factor in everything that he went on to achieve. There he studied Latin, mathematics, astronomy, geography and philosophy. He learnt his astronomy from Tractatus de Sphaera by Johannes de Sacrobosco written in 1220. One should not think, however, that the astronomy courses which Copernicus studied were scientific courses in the modern sense. Rather they were mathematics courses which introduced Aristotle and Ptolemy 's view of the universe so that students could understand the calendar, calculate the dates of holy days, and also have skills that would enable those who would follow a more practical profession to navigate at sea. Also taught as a major part of astronomy was what today we would call astrology, teaching students to calculate horoscopes of people from the exact time of their birth.
While a student in Kraków, Copernicus purchased a copy of the Latin translation of Euclid 's Elements published in Venice in 1482, a copy of the second edition of the Alfonsine Tables (which gives planetary theory and eclipses) printed in Venice in 1492, and Regiomontanus 's Tables of Directions (a work on spherical astronomy) published in Augsburg in 1490. Remarkably Copernicus's copies of these works, signed by him, are still preserved.
It was while he was a student at Kraków that Copernicus began to use this Latin version of his name rather than Kopernik or Koppernigk. He returned to Torun after four years of study at Kraków but, as was common at the time, did not formally graduate with a degree. His uncle Lucas Watzenrode was still determined that Copernicus should have a career in the Church and indeed this was a profession which would allow security for someone wanting to pursue leaning. So that he might have the necessary qualifications Copernicus decided to go to the University of Bologna to take a degree in canon law. In the autumn of 1496 he travelled to Italy, entering the University of Bologna on 19 October 1496, to start three years of study. As a native German speaker he joined the "German Nation of Bologna University". Each student contributed to the "German Nation" an amount they could afford and the small contribution that Copernicus made indicates his poor financial position at that time.
While he was there his uncle put his name forward for the position of canon at Frauenburg Cathedral. On 20 October 1497, while in Bologna, Copernicus received official notification of his appointment as a canon and of the comfortable income he would receive without having to return to carry out any duties. At Bologna University Copernicus studied Greek, mathematics and astronomy in addition to his official course of canon law. He rented rooms at the house of the astronomy professor Domenico Maria de Novara and began to undertake research with him, assisting him in making observations. On 9 March 1497 he observed the Moon eclipse the star Aldebaran.
In 1500 Copernicus visited Rome, as all Christians were strongly encouraged to do to celebrate the great jubilee, and he stayed there for a year lecturing to scholars on mathematics and astronomy. While in Rome he observed an eclipse of the Moon which took place on 6 November 1500. He returned to Frauenburg (also known as Frombork) in the spring of 1501 and was officially installed as a canon of the Ermland Chapter on 27 July. He had not completed his degree in canon law at Bologna so he requested his uncle that he be allowed to return to Italy both to take a law degree and to study medicine. Copernicus was granted leave on 27 July 1501 [ 13 ]:-
... principally because Nicolaus promised to study medicine, and as a helpful physician would some day advise our most reverend bishop and also the members of the Chapter.
As this quotation indicates, the Cathedral Chapter liked his proposal to study medicine and provided the necessary funds. He set off again for Italy, his time going to Padua. Copernicus had another reason to return to Italy, which he almost certainly did not disclose, and that was to continue his studies of astronomy.
Padua was famous for its medical school and while he was there Copernicus studied both medicine and astronomy. At that time astronomy was essentially astrology and, as such, considered relevant to medicine since physicians made use of astrology. In the spring of 1503 he decided formally to obtain his doctorate in Canon Law, but he did not return to Bologna but rather took the degree at the University of Ferrara. After receiving his doctorate, Copernicus stayed in Ferrara for a few months before returning to Padua to continue his studies of medicine. There is no record that he ever graduated from Padua.
When he returned to his native land, Copernicus was again granted leave from his official duties as a canon in the Ermland Chapter at Frauenburg. This was allow him to be physician to his maternal uncle Lucas Watzenrode, the Bishop of Ermland, but he carried out far more duties for his uncle than medical ones becoming essentially his private secretary and personal advisor. For about five years he undertook these duties and during this period he lived at Heilsberg Castle, a few miles from Frauenburg, the official residence of the Bishop of Ermland.
In 1509 Copernicus published a work, which was properly printed, giving Latin translations of Greek poetry by the obscure poet Theophylactus Simocattes. While accompanying his uncle on a visit to Kraków, he gave a manuscript of the poetry book to a publisher friend there. Lucas Watzenrode died in 1512 and following this Copernicus resumed his duties as canon in the Ermland Chapter at Frauenburg. He now had more time than before to devote to his study of astronomy, having an observatory in the rooms in which he lived in one of the towers in the town's fortifications.
You can see a picture of Copernicus's observatory in Frauenburg at THIS LINK .
Around 1514 he distributed a little book, not printed but hand written, to a few of his friends who knew that he was the author even though no author is named on the title page. This book, usually called the Little Commentary, set out Copernicus's theory of a universe with the sun at its centre. The Little Commentary is a fascinating document. It contains seven axioms which Copernicus gives, not in the sense that they are self evident, but in the sense that he will base his conclusions on these axioms and nothing else; see [ 79 ]. What are the axioms? Let us state them:
There is no one centre in the universe.
The Earth's centre is not the centre of the universe.
The centre of the universe is near the sun.
The distance from the Earth to the sun is imperceptible compared with the distance to the stars.
The rotation of the Earth accounts for the apparent daily rotation of the stars.
The apparent annual cycle of movements of the sun is caused by the Earth revolving round it.
The apparent retrograde motion of the planets is caused by the motion of the Earth from which one observes.
Some have noted that 2, 4, 5, and 7 can be deduced from 3 and 6 but it was never Copernicus's aim to give a minimal set of axioms. The most remarkable of the axioms is 7, for although earlier scholars had claimed that the Earth moved, some claiming that it revolved round the sun, nobody before Copernicus appears to have correctly explained the retrograde motion of the outer planets. Even when he wrote his Little Commentary Copernicus was planning to write a major work, for he wrote in it (see [ 77 ]):-
Here, for the sake of brevity, I have thought it desirable to omit the mathematical demonstrations intended for my larger work.
It is likely that he wrote the Little Commentary in 1514 and began writing his major work De revolutionibus in the following year.
Given Copernicus's nature it is clear that he would have liked to have lived a quiet life at Frauenburg, carrying out his (relatively few) duties conscientiously and devoting all his spare time to observing, developing his theories of the universe, and writing De revolutionibus. It is equally clear that his fame as an astronomer was well known for when the Fifth Lateran Council decided to improve the calendar, which was known to be out of phase with the seasons, the Pope appealed to experts for advice in 1514, one of these experts was Copernicus. Many experts went to Rome to advise the Council, but Copernicus chose to respond by letter. He did not wish to contribute more to the discussions on the calendar since he felt that the motions of the heavenly bodies was still not understood with sufficient precision.
The peace which Copernicus wished, however, was not easy to find in a period of frequent wars. The fortifications of Frauenburg that formed Copernicus's home had been built to protect the town which had been captured by various opposing groups over the years. In 1516 Copernicus was given the task of administering the districts of Allenstein (also known as Olsztyn) and Mehlsack. He lived for four years in Allenstein Castle while carrying out these administrative duties.
You can see a picture of Allenstein Castle where Copernicus lived at THIS LINK .
Always keen to make observations, Copernicus returned to his home/observatory in Frauenburg whenever there was a reason to attend a meeting or consult with the other canons, always taking the opportunity to further his researches. However when war broke out between Poland and the Teutonic Knights towards the end of 1519 Copernicus was back in Frauenburg. After a period of war, Copernicus was sent to participate in peace talks in Braunsberg as one of a two man delegation representing the Bishop of Ermland. The peace talks failed and the war continued. Frauenburg came under siege but Copernicus continued making his observations even at this desperate time. By the autumn of 1520 Copernicus was back living in Allenstein Castle and had to organise its defence against attacking forces. The castle resisted the attack and by 1521 an uneasy peace had returned.
As a reward for his defence of Allenstein, Copernicus was appointed Commissar of Ermland and given the task of rebuilding the district after the war. His close friend, Tiedemann Giese, another canon in the Chapter, was given the task of assisting him.
You can see a picture of Tiedemann Giese at THIS LINK .
As part of the recovery plan, Copernicus put forward a scheme for the reform of the currency which he presented to the Diet of Graudenz in 1522. However, despite attending the Diet and arguing strongly for his sensible proposals, they were not acted on.
Copernicus returned to Frauenburg where his life became less eventful and he had the peace and quiet that he longed for to allow him to make observations and to work on details of his heliocentric theory. Having said that he now had the peace he wanted, one should also realise that he was undertaking his mathematical and astronomical work in isolation with no colleagues with whom to discuss matters. Although Copernicus was a canon, he had never become a priest. In fact on 4 February 1531 his bishop threatened to take away his income if he did not enter the priesthood, yet Copernicus still refused.
A full account of Copernicus's theory was apparently slow to reach a state in which he wished to see it published, and this did not happen until the very end of Copernicus's life when he published his life's work under the title De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (Nuremberg, 1543). In fact had it not been for Georg Joachim Rheticus , a young professor of mathematics and astronomy at the University of Wittenberg, Copernicus's masterpiece might never have been published. In May 1539 Rheticus arrived at Frauenburg where he spent about two years with Copernicus. Rheticus wrote of his visit:-
I heard of the fame of Master Nicolaus Copernicus in the northern lands, and although the University of Wittenberg had made me a Public Professor in those arts, nonetheless, I did not think that I should be content until I had learned something more through the instruction of that man. And I also say that I regret neither the financial expenses nor the long journey nor the remaining hardships. Yet, it seems to me that there came a great reward for these troubles, namely that I, a rather daring young man, compelled this venerable man to share his ideas sooner in this discipline with the whole world.
We should note that Rheticus was a Protestant, so in those troubled times of the Reformation he took somewhat of a risk visiting a Catholic stronghold. In September 1539 Rheticus went to Danzig, visiting the mayor of Danzig, who gave him some financial assistance to help publish the Narratio Prima or, to give it its full title First report to Johann Schöner on the Books of the Revolutions of the learned gentleman and distinguished mathematician, the Reverend Doctor Nicolaus Copernicus of Torun, Canon of Warmia, by a certain youth devoted to mathematics. The publication of this work encouraged Copernicus to publish the full mathematical details of his theory which he had promised 27 years earlier. Swerdlow writes:-
Copernicus could not have asked for a more erudite, elegant, and enthusiastic introduction of his new astronomy to the world of good letters; indeed to this day the "Narratio Prima" remains the best introduction to Copernicus's work.
In his First Report Rheticus wrote about Copernicus's way of working (see [ 80 ]):-
... my teacher always had before his eyes the observations of all ages together with his own, assembled in order as in catalogues; then when some conclusion must be drawn or contribution made to the science and its principles, he proceeds from the earliest observations to his own, seeking the mutual relationship which harmonizes them all; the results thus obtained by correct inference under the guidance of Urania he then compares with the hypothesis of Ptolemy and the ancients; and having made a most careful examination of these hypotheses, he finds that astronomical proof requires their rejection; he assumes new hypotheses, not indeed without divine inspiration and the favour of the gods; by applying mathematics, he geometrically establishes the conclusions which can be drawn from them by correct inference; he then harmonizes the ancient observations and his own with the hypotheses which he has adopted; and after performing all these operations he finally writes down the laws of astronomy ...
While living with Copernicus, Rheticus wrote to several people reporting on the progress Copernicus was making. For example on 2 June 1541 Rheticus wrote that Copernicus [ 80 ]:-
... is enjoying quite good health and is writing a great deal ...
while he wrote that on 9 June Copernicus [ 80 ]:-
... had finally overcome his prolonged reluctance to release his volume for publication.
By 29 August De revolutionibus orbium coelestium was ready for the printer. Rheticus took the manuscript with him when he returned to his teaching duties at Wittenberg, and gave it the printer Johann Petreius in Nürnberg. This was a leading centre for printing and Petreius was the best printer in town. However, since he was unable to stay to supervise the printing he asked Andreas Osiander, a Lutheran theologian with considerable experience of printing mathematical texts, to undertake the task. What Osiander did was to write a letter to the reader, inserted in place of Copernicus's original Preface following the title page, in which he claimed that the results of the book were not intended as the truth, rather that they merely presented a simpler way to calculate the positions of the heavenly bodies. The letter was unsigned and the true author of the letter was not revealed publicly until Kepler did so 50 years later. Osiander also subtly changed the title to make it appear less like a claim of the real world. Some are appalled at this gigantic piece of deception by Osiander, as Rheticus was at the time, others feel that it was only because of Osiander's Preface that Copernicus's work was read and not immediately condemned.
In De revolutionibus Copernicus states several reasons why it is logical that the sun would be at the centre of the universe:-
At the middle of all things lies the sun. As the location of this luminary in the cosmos, that most beautiful temple, would there be any other place or any better place than the centre, from which it can light up everything at the same time? Hence the sun is not inappropriately called by some the lamp of the universe, by others its mind, and by others its ruler.
Copernicus's cosmology placed a motionless sun not at the centre of the universe, but close to the centre, and also involved giving several distinct motions to the Earth. The problem that Copernicus faced was that he assumed all motion was circular so, like Ptolemy , was forced into using epicycles (see for example [ 78 ]). It was consequently considered implausible by the most of his contemporaries, and by most astronomers and natural philosophers until the middle of the seventeenth century. In the intended Preface of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium Copernicus showed that he was fully aware of the criticisms that his work would attract:-
Perhaps there will be babblers who, although completely ignorant of mathematics, nevertheless take it upon themselves to pass judgement on mathematical questions and, badly distorting some passages of Scripture to their purpose, will dare find fault with my undertaking and censure it. I disregard them even to the extent as despising their criticism as unfounded.
Its notable defenders included Kepler and Galileo while theoretical evidence for the Copernican theory was provided by Newton 's theory of universal gravitation around 150 years later.
Copernicus is said to have received a copy of the printed book, consisting of about 200 pages written in Latin, for the first time on his deathbed. He died of a cerebral haemorrhage.
Brahe , who did not accept Copernicus's claim that the Earth moved round the sun, nevertheless wrote:-
Through observations made by himself [Copernicus] discovered certain gaps in Ptolemy , and he concluded that the hypotheses established by Ptolemy admit something unsuitable in violation of the axioms of mathematics. Moreover, he found the Alfonsine computations in disagreement with the motions of the heavens. Therefore, with wonderful intellectual acumen he established different hypotheses. He restored the science of the heavenly motions in such a way that nobody before him had a more accurate knowledge of the movements of the heavenly bodies.
Rudnicki [ 13 ] gives this appreciation of Copernicus:-
He was truly creative. His scientific method, though determined by the horizons of contemporary knowledge and belief, was yet ideally objective. Ethically, his actions throughout his life bear witness to the highest standards. He did good. He earned the general respect and honour of his contemporaries. For many years he served self-sacrificingly the cause of his native country. But he knew no private, domestic joys.
Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson
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Astigmatism affects which part of the human body? | Astigmatism: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatments - Medical News Today
Astigmatism: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatments
Written by Christian NordqvistReviewed by University of Illinois-Chicago, School of Medicine
4 23
In astigmatism, the front surface of the eye (cornea) is not curved in the normal way. The primary symptom of astigmatism is blurred vision.
Because of the abnormal curve of the cornea, when light rays enter the eye, they do not focus correctly on the retina, resulting in a blurred image.
Astigmatism may also be caused by an irregularly shaped lens, which is located behind the cornea.
Astigmatism can occur in children and adults; it is fairly common and not contagious. It is usually congenital - present at birth - but can develop after an eye operation or an injury to the eye.
This condition belongs to a group of eye conditions called refractive errors; these include myopia (short-sightedness), hyperopia (long-sightedness), and presbyopia (aging of the lens in the eye).
These conditions are common, around half of all adults in the United States aged 20 and older have refractive errors in their eyes.
Contents of this article:
Fast facts on astigmatism
Here are some key points about astigmatism. More detail and supporting information is in the main article.
Astigmatism is a type of refractive error
Astigmatism is a common condition in the population
It is caused by an abnormal curve of the cornea or lens
Laser surgery can often correct astigmatism
Causes of astigmatism
Astigmatism is very common. Regular eye tests are important for diagnosis.
Astigmatism can be due to an abnormal curvature of the cornea (corneal) or the lens (lenticular):
Corneal astigmatism
The cornea is a clear (transparent) layer of tissue that covers the front of the eye. As well as transmitting and focusing light into the eye, it protects the eye from infection and damage. The cornea needs to have a perfect curve in order to bend (refract) light properly as it enters the eye.
If the cornea does not curve perfectly, the light that hits it will not refract properly and the retina at the back of the eye will receive an imperfect image. The person will have blurred vision from that eye - astigmatism.
People with astigmatism commonly have an oblong-shaped (oval-shaped) cornea rather than a perfect sphere. A ping-pong ball is a perfect sphere, while an American football or a rugby ball has an oblong shape. If the cornea's curve is like an oblong, the light rays will focus on two points in the retina, rather than just one.
Experts are not sure why some people are born with a cornea that does not curve properly. Twin studies indicate that there may be a genetic component to astigmatism.
A higher percentage of babies born prematurely have astigmatism, compared with babies that are born closer to their due date.
Certain types of surgery or eye injuries that cause scarring of the cornea may cause astigmatism.
Keratoconus is a degenerative disorder of the eye where the cornea gradually thins and changes to a more conical shape; this can also cause astigmatism.
Lenticular astigmatism
This is similar to corneal astigmatism but exists in the lens rather than the cornea.
Instead of a perfect curve, the lens has variations that cause images to reach the back of the eye (retina) imperfectly. Most patients with lenticular astigmatism have a normally shaped cornea.
Symptoms of astigmatism
The following are common symptoms of astigmatism :
Blurred or distorted vision at all distances
Headaches
Excessive squinting
Eye strain - occurs more often when the eye has to focus for long periods, as in reading from paper or a computer monitor
Diagnosis of astigmatism
A visual acuity test is commonplace when having an eye exam.
An eye specialist may use the following tools to examine the eyes:
Visual acuity test - this involves reading letters on a chart. The letters become progressively smaller on each line.
Astigmatic dial - a chart showing a series of lines which make up a semi-circle. People with perfect vision will see the lines clearly, while those with astigmatism will see some more clearly than others.
Keratometer (ophthalmometer) - this device measures the reflected light from the surface of the cornea. It measures the radius of the curvature of the cornea and can assess the degree of abnormal curvature.
Corneal topography - this process gives more information about the shape and curve of the cornea.
The importance of regular eye tests
Astigmatism is very common. Many children who are born with astigmatism will not realize they have it until they have an eye test.
Reading and concentrating at school may be affected if a child has undiagnosed astigmatism. Therefore, regular eye tests are important.
The American Optometric Association recommend that children have an eye exam at age 6 months, age 3 years, before first grade, and every 2 years after that. For high-risk children, an eye exam is recommended every year. Adults should have an eye test every couple of years, and more often if they have chronic conditions, like diabetes .
Treatments for astigmatism
If the astigmatism is very mild, the doctor will commonly suggest no treatment at all.
Corrective lenses for astigmatism
Corrective lenses bend the incoming light rays in a way that compensates for the error caused by faulty refraction so that images are properly received onto the retina. Whether the corrective lenses are in the form of glasses or contact lenses is up to the patient - they are equally effective.
Experts say that children can wear contact lenses as long as they are careful about using them properly - this includes not wearing them for too long and cleaning them correctly, which might be difficult to achieve if the child is under the age of 12.
People of any age who use contact lenses need to be aware of good lens hygiene. Otherwise, there is a significant risk of eye infection.
People with astigmatism may be prescribed rigid gas permeable lenses, which are made from plastics, silicone and/or fluoropolymers. These lenses are hard and hold their shape, but allow oxygen to pass freely to the eye. Individuals with more severe astigmatism may prefer these. Soft contact lenses are commonly used for more minor astigmatism.
Laser eye surgery
Some people with astigmatism can be treated with laser eye surgery, the most common of which is LASIK.
Photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) - some of the outer protective layer of the cornea is removed. An excimer laser changes the shape of the cornea by removing tissue. When the cornea heals, it usually has a more even and spherical curve. This procedure can be moderately to very painful.
LASEK (Laser epithelial keratomileusis) - alcohol is used to loosen the surface of the cornea before it is operated on; a much thinner layer is affected, making the eye less vulnerable to damage or injury, compared with PRK. A laser is then used to change the shape of the cornea. LASEK may be a better option for a patient whose cornea is thin. This procedure is usually less painful than PRK, but slightly more painful than LASIK.
Laser in situ keratectomy (LASIK) - the doctor uses a device called a keratome to make a thin, round hinged cut into the cornea. The flap is then lifted, and an excimer laser sculpts the shape of the cornea under the flap. LASIK causes less pain than the other procedures, and the patient will recover their vision within a few days; because of this, LASIK is usually the preferred laser treatment option.
LASEK and PRK are better procedures than LASIK in cases where the cornea is thin.
Laser eye surgery may not suitable if:
The patient is under the age of 18.
Vision is still changing - the vision of some older people may still be changing. Experts say that a person's vision should be stable for at least 1 year before undergoing laser surgery.
Patients with diabetes - in some cases, laser surgery may worsen abnormalities in the eye caused by diabetes.
Pregnant or breast-feeding mothers - during pregnancy and breast-feeding, hormone fluctuations still exist within the eye, making it more difficult to carry out surgery accurately.
People with some immune conditions - people with rheumatoid arthritis , lupus, or HIV, for example, may find it harder to recover after surgery.
People with other existing eye conditions - they will need to have other conditions treated first before becoming eligible candidates for laser eye surgery. Examples include cataracts and glaucoma.
People taking certain medications - if the patient is taking medications, such as Accutane or oral prednisone, they should not undergo laser eye surgery.
Risks of laser eye surgery
Correction error - the surgeon may have taken out the wrong amount of tissue and the patient's vision worsens.
Regression - vision defects can recur after surgery
Visual loss - some people's vision might become slightly worse after surgery
Dry eyes - dry eye is very common after laser eye surgery
In most countries, the risk of complications from laser eye surgery is very small. It depends on how experienced the surgeon is, and how accurately the patient was assessed beforehand.
Written by Christian Nordqvist
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Astigmatism: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatments
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The Capuchin Catacombs are on which Mediterranean island? | Weightlessness and Its Effect on Astronauts
Weightlessness and Its Effect on Astronauts
By Elizabeth Howell, Space.com Contributor |
September 30, 2013 09:07pm ET
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"Avatar" Director/Producer James Cameron floats weightless in Zero-G along with X PRIZE Trustees in a flight to raise funds for the X PRIZE Foundation. Left to right: Rob McEwen (Chairman, US Gold), James Cameron, Peter H. Diamandis (Chairman/CEO, X PRIZE), Elon Musk (Chairman/CEO, SpaceX), Jim Gianopulos (Chairman/CEO, Fox Filmed Entertainment). Full story .
Credit: Bryan Rapoza
The sensation of weightlessness, or zero gravity, happens when the effects of gravity are not felt. Technically speaking, gravity does exist everywhere in the universe because it is defined as the force that attracts two bodies to each other. But astronauts in space usually do not feel its effects.
The International Space Station , for example, is in perpetual freefall above the Earth. Its forward motion, however, just about equals the speed of its "fall" toward the planet. This means that the astronauts inside are not pulled in any particular direction. So they float.
Not having to bear weight on your feet sounds relaxing, but in the long term there are many health problems associated with it. Bones and muscles weaken, and other changes also take place within the body. One of the functions of the ISS is to study how astronaut health is affected by long periods in weightlessness. This will also be a huge focus of the first one-year ISS mission in 2015.
Experiencing weightlessness
You don't have to leave Earth to (briefly) escape the bonds of gravity . Anyone who crested the top of the hill in a fast roller coaster, or who sat in a small plane pushed down suddenly by the wind, briefly experienced weightlessness.
More sustained periods are possible in planes that fly a parabola. NASA's reduced gravity flight program , for example, flies planes in a series of about 30 to 40 parabolas for researchers to conduct experiments on board. Each climb produces a force about twice the force of gravity for 30 seconds. Then, when the plane reaches the top of the parabola and descends, passengers feel microgravity for about 25 seconds.
The film crew and actors on the movie "Apollo 13" (1995) spent hours aboard a plane that flew parabolic flights over and over again. This allowed the actors to really "float" during their time in the movie spacecraft rather than relying on cumbersome wires.
Astronauts, however, experience weightlessness for much longer periods. The longest sustained time spent in space took place in 1994-95, when Valeri Polyakov spent almost 438 days in space.
Even a few days in space can present temporary health problems, as Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper discovered after spending two weeks in space during STS-115 in 2006. During a press conference after the landing, Piper collapsed as she was not quite readjusted to gravity.
Temporary health effects
Weightlessness causes several key systems of the body to relax, as it is no longer fighting the pull of gravity. Astronauts' sense of up and down gets confused, NASA said, because the vestibular system no longer can figure out where the ground and the ceiling are. Spacecraft designers take this into account; the ISS, for example, has all of its writing on the walls pointing in the same direction .
Crewmembers also experience a disruption in their proprioceptive system, which tells where arms, legs and other parts of the body are oriented relative to each other. "The first night in space when I was drifting off to sleep," one Apollo astronaut said in a NASA interview, "I suddenly realized that I had lost track of ... my arms and legs. For all my mind could tell, my limbs were not there."
This disorientation can cause astronauts to become queasy for a few days. One famous example took place during Apollo 9 in 1969. Rusty Schweickart had to change a planned spacewalk because he was feeling ill. The concern was that if he vomited while in his spacesuit, the fluid could spread through his helmet (making it hard to see) or interfere with the breathing apparatus and cause him to potentially choke to death.
Spacecraft also must be designed to take microgravity into account. During spacewalks, for example, astronauts require extra handholds and footholds on the exterior of their spacecraft so that they can anchor themselves and not float away. (Astronauts also attach to them in tethers in case they lose their grip.)
Long-term health effects
Astronauts in space for weeks to months can run into trouble. Calcium in bones secretes out through urine. As the bones weaken, astronauts are more susceptible to breaking them if they slip and fall, just like people with osteoporosis. Muscles also lose mass.
Astronauts typically exercise two hours a day in space to counteract these effects, but it still takes months of rehabilitation to adjust on Earth after a typical six-month space mission. More recently, doctors have discovered eye pressure changes in orbit. NASA has tracked vision changes in astronauts that were on the space station , but nothing so serious as to cause concern.
The first one-year mission to the ISS will take place in 2015. One of the astronauts, Scott Kelly, has a twin, Mark, who will remain on Earth. The brothers have volunteered to be guinea pigs to look at effects on Scott Kelly's body in weightlessness in comparison to Mark Kelly's body on Earth.
"They will provide insight into future genetic investigations that can build on this study, but with a larger study population of unrelated astronauts," NASA said in 2013.
Author Bio
Elizabeth Howell, Space.com Contributor
Elizabeth Howell is a contributing writer for Space.com who is one of the few Canadian journalists to report regularly on space exploration. She is pursuing a Ph.D. part-time in aerospace sciences (University of North Dakota) after completing an M.Sc. (space studies) at the same institution. She also holds a bachelor of journalism degree from Carleton University. Besides writing, Elizabeth teaches communications at the university and community college level. To see her latest projects, follow Elizabeth on Twitter at @HowellSpace .
Elizabeth Howell, Space.com Contributor on
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Which English king, who lived from about 988-993 to 1016, was nicknamed Ironside? | Edmund (988 - 1016) - Genealogy
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Edmund II 'Ironside', King of England
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Lithuanian: Edmundas Narsusis, Anglijos Karalius
Also Known As:
"Edmund II (died 30 November 1016)", "usually known as Edmund Ironside", "Edmund II 'Ironside'", "King of England"
Birthdate:
in London, Middlesex (now Greater London), England
Place of Burial:
King of England from 23 April to 30 November 1016, King of England
Managed by:
Between Jan 6 989 and Jan 5 990
Death:
Ethelred II " the Unready" England, Alfgifu Aelflaed Queen Of England
Wife:
Between Jan 6 988 and Jan 5 989
Death:
Between Jan 6 989 and Jan 5 990 - Of England
Death:
Alfgifu ( Aelflaed) Queen Of England
Wife:
Ealgyth King Of England (born Queen Of England)
Son:
Edward " The Atheling" Prince Of England
Siblings:
Between Jan 6 988 and Jan 5 989
Death:
Between Jan 6 989 and Jan 5 990 - Wessex, England
Death:
Dec 6 1016 - Murdered at Oxford, England
Parents:
AETHELRED II 'THE UNREADY' King of England, Elfleda Alfgifu England of Thorad (born Gunnarsson)
Wife:
EDWARD ATHELING 'The Outlaw ' of England
Siblings:
...hilda (born Ætheling), Ecgfrida deDurham, Edward, Ecbert Prince Of England, Aethelstan of Wessex Prince, Edgar, and names of 2 more sibl ...
Between Jan 6 989 and Jan 5 990
Death:
Between Jan 7 1016 and Jan 6 1017
Parents:
Ethelred II King of England, Elfreda England
Son:
Edward The Exile Prince of England
Brother:
Between Jan 6 988 and Jan 5 991 - Wessex, England
Death:
Between Jan 6 988 and Jan 5 989 - Wessex. England
Death:
Dec 6 1016 - London, England
Parents:
Alfgifu Aelflaed Queen of England, Ethelred II " The Unready" King of England
Wife:
Nov 30 1016 - Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom
Parents:
Æthelred II, Aelfgifu of York
Wife:
Edward Ætheling
Siblings:
...fred Aetheling, Ingelric of Saxony, Godifu D'Angleterre Countess de Vexin Princess of England, Edward, Princess Aelfgifu / Elfgifu / Elgi...
Between Jan 6 989 and Jan 5 990 - of,Normandy,Eng,FRA
Death:
Dec 6 1016 - Les Juifs,Chartres,FRA
Parents:
Aethelred II " the Unready" COUNT OF King of England Seigneur, Alfflaid ( Elgiva) Princess King of England Princess (born de Briquebec)
Spouses:
...id ( Elgiva) Princess King of England Princess (born de Briquebec), Ealgyth ( Edith) Duceline de Crepon Countess, Margaret) ( Lucy) de Toeni
Children:
Edward ( the Atheling) The Exile Prince- England Earl- Warwick, Herbrard Count du Ponteaudemer Count
Siblings:
...rchbishop de Vermandois Archbp.- Rheims, Ealgyth ( Edith) Duceline de Crepon Countess, Eadmund Ironside King England, Godgifu Princess Pr...
Between Jan 6 989 and Jan 5 990
Death:
Alfflaed, d. of of (born Thored), Aethelred_ II, _the Redeless, King of
Wife:
Between Jan 6 989 and Jan 5 990 - France
Death:
Between Jan 7 1016 and Jan 6 1017 - France
Parents:
Aetheired Of england, Aelgifu Of england (born Of Northumberland)
Siblings:
sister
About Edmund II 'Ironside', King of England
Edmund II "Ironside" Son of Æthelred Unræd and Ælfleth Married: Ealdgyth (NOT daughter of Morcar, she was Sigeferth's widow - Sigeferth being Morcar's brother)
Sons: 1. Edward 2. Edmund
EADMUND, son of ÆTHELRED II King of England & his first wife Ælflæd ([990]-30 Nov 1016, bur Glastonbury Abbey, Somerset[1871]). Florence of Worcester´s genealogies name "Ælfgiva, comitis Ægelberhti filia" as mother of King Æthelred´s three sons "Eadmundum, Eadwium et Æthelstanum" and his daughter "Eadgitham"[1872]. Roger of Wendover records the birth in 981 of "rex Ethelredus…filium…Eadmundum"[1873], but this date is probably inaccurate if it is correct (as shown above) that Eadmund was his father´s third son, given King Æthelred´s birth in [966]. "Eadmundus filius regis/clito/ætheling" subscribed charters of King Æthelred II dated between 993 and 1015, the last dated 1015 being signed "Eadmund regie indolis soboles"[1874]. His name was listed after his brother Ecgberht, before the latter's disappearance from the records in 1005, consistent with Edmund being the third son. He subscribed his father's charter dated 1002 which granted land at Codicote, Hertfordshire to Ælthelm, signing third among the brothers[1875], and "Eadmundus clito" subscribed his father's 1006 charter making grants to St Alban's, also signing third[1876]. Ætheling Æthelstan, under his will dated [1014], made bequests to "…my brother Eadmund, my brother Eadwig…"[1877]. After the murder of the brothers Sigeferth and Morcar, leading thegns in northern England, Edmund abducted and married Sigeferth's widow against his father's wishes. In Sep 1015, he proceeded north to retake the properties of his wife's first husband which had been confiscated by the king[1878]. In early 1016, Edmund devastated northwest Mercia in alliance with Uhtred Earl of Northumbria, but returned to London to rejoin his father shortly before he died. He was immediately proclaimed king on his father's death in 1016 by an assembly of northern notables and burghers of London[1879], succeeding as EDMUND "Ironside" King of England, crowned at Old St Paul's Cathedral in Apr 1016. The Witan had offered the throne to Knud of Denmark, to whom a group of nobles and church dignitaries from southern England swore allegiance at Southampton[1880]. King Edmund reconquered Wessex from Danish forces, and relieved London from the siege imposed by a Danish fleet. The Danes turned their attention to Mercia, Eadric "Streona/the Acquisitor" defecting back to King Edmund's forces at Aylesford only to betray him again at Ashingdon in Essex where Danish forces finally defeated King Edmund in Oct 1016[1881]. At Alney, near Deerhurst, Edmund agreed a compromise division of the country with Canute, Edmund taking Wessex and Canute the north, but King Edmund died before this could be implemented. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the death on St Andrew's day 1016 of King Edmund and his burial at Glastonbury[1882]. According to Henry of Huntingdon, King Edmund was murdered by the son of Eadric Streona[1883].
m (Malmesbury, Wiltshire [Jun/Aug] 1015) as her second husband, ÆLDGYTH, widow of SIGEFERTH, daughter of --- . The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that "prince Edmund…abducted [Siferth's widow] against the king's will and made her his wife" but does not name her[1884]. Simeon of Durham records that Edmund married "Algitha widow of Sigeferth" in 1015[1885]. According to Ronay, she was the daughter of Olof "Skotkonung" King of Sweden and his concubine Edla of Vindland, but the author cites no primary source to support this suggestion[1886]. If the assertion is correct, it is surprising that Ældgyth is not mentioned with the Swedish king's other children in the Saga of Olaf Haraldson[1887]. In addition, there would be no explanation for Ældgyth's first marriage to an obscure Northumbrian nobleman, especially as King Olof's two known daughters made high-profile marriages with the Grand Prince of Kiev and the king of Norway. Simeon of Durham records that, after Ældgyth's first husband was murdered on the orders of Eadric "Streona/the Acquisitor" Ealdorman of Mercia, Ældgyth was arrested and brought to Malmesbury on the orders of King Æthelred II who had confiscated her husband's properties in the north of England[1888]. She was abducted and married, against the king's wishes, by her second husband who proceeded to take possession of her first husband's properties. No mention has been found of Queen Ældgyth after the death of her second husband.
King Edmund "Ironside" & his wife had two sons:
1. EDMUND ([1016/17]-before 1054). Edmund was the older of King Edward's sons according to William of Malmesbury[1889]. However, the brothers may have been twins as there is barely sufficient time between the king's marriage in Summer 1015 and his death in Nov 1016 for two children to have been conceived, the second son inevitably having been born posthumously if the births were separate. After his father's death, Edmund and his brother were smuggled out of England and ultimately found their way to Hungary. The sources are contradictory about the exact route of their flight and the chronology of each step. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, King Canute "banished [them] into Hungary"[1890]. Orderic Vitalis names "Edward et Edmund" as the two sons of king Edmund II, specifying that King Canute sent them to Denmark to be killed but that his brother "Suenon [error for Harald] roi de Danemark" sent them "comme ses neveux en otage au roi des Huns" where Edmund died prematurely[1891]. Florence of Worcester specifies that the infants were first "sent to the king of the Swedes to be killed [but the latter] sent them to Solomon King of Hungary to spare their lives and have them brought up at his court"[1892]. Roger of Wendover, presumably copying Florence of Worcester, records that "filios…regis Eadmundi, Eadwinum [error for "Eadmundus"] et Eadwardum" were sent "ad regem Suanorum" and from there to "Salomonem, Hungariæ regem"[1893]. Adam of Bremen records that the sons of "Emund" (whom he mistakenly calls "frater Adelradi") were "in Ruzziam exilio dampnati"[1894]. Geoffrey Gaimar (in an altogether confusing account) names "Li uns…Edgar…li alters…Edelret" as the children of King Edmund, recounting that they were sent first to Denmark and later to "Russie [Susie], e vint en terre de Hungrie"[1895]. While the precise details may not at first sight appear important, as will be seen below the exact timing and location of each stage of their journey is highly significant in attempting to resolve the even more controversial issue of the identities of the wives of the two brothers. It is probably best to tackle the problem in reverse chronological order. We know that the younger brother Edward was recalled to England from Hungary with his young family in the mid-1050s (see below). Given the turbulent history of Hungary over the previous twenty years, with four changes of regime brought about by revolution and civil war between the competing religious and political factions[1896], it is unlikely that the two immigrant princes could have enjoyed continuity of favour with the country's different leaders throughout this period. The most likely case is that the English princes arrived in Hungary from Kiev in 1046 with King András I, when the latter was recalled to his native country after at least ten years' exile. It is not impossible that the princes had lived in Hungary in earlier years and accompanied András into exile, but this is unlikely. Prince András's father and brothers represented the traditional, tribal and heathen element in the Hungarian royal family, their banishment being due to clashes with the Catholic pro-western faction. If the English princes had been in Hungary in the 1030s, it seems improbable that, as Christians from western Europe, they would have been drawn to the heathen rather than the Catholic element. The more likely hypothesis is that they were already living in Kiev when András arrived there and that their ties with him were formed there. Iaroslav Grand Prince of Kiev married a Swedish princess in 1019. Assuming that the princes did journey through Sweden as reported by Florence of Worcester, the court at Kiev would have been a more obvious destination than Hungary for the young princes. The children may even have been part of the retinue of Ingigerd of Sweden when she travelled to Russia for her marriage. Whether the first leg of the brothers' journey from England was to Denmark or to Sweden is probably irrelevant for present purposes. According to William of Malmesbury, Edmund later died in Hungary[1897]. He must have died before his brother Edward was invited back to England, there being no mention of Edmund at that time. According to Weir[1898], he must have lived "at least into his teens", this assessment being based presumably on the fact of his supposed marriage (which is undated in Weir).
[m [HEDWIG] of Hungary, daughter of --- King of Hungary & his wife ---. Ailred Abbot of Rievaulx records that "Edmundo", son of "regem Edmundum" [King Edmund "Ironsides"], married "Hungariorum regem…filiam suam"[1899]. Geoffrey Gaimar recounts that "Edgar" (older of the two children of King Edmund whom he names incorrectly in an earlier passage) made "la fille al rei [de Hungrie]" pregnant, was married to her and appointed heir by her father, but adding confusingly that they were parents of "Margarete" who married "rei Malcolom"[1900]. The basis for this story, and whether there is any element of truth hidden somewhere in it, is unknown. Edmund's wife is named Hedwig in Burke's Guide to the Royal Family[1901], although the primary source on which this is based has not been identified. In the absence of further information, the accuracy of these reports must be considered dubious as none of the Hungarian kings during the first half of the 11th century provides an obvious match. In the case of King István, it is likely that all his daughters predeceased their father in view of the accession of his nephew, King Péter, when he died. In any case, his daughters would have been beyond child-bearing age when the ætheling Edmund arrived in Hungary, assuming that this arrival took place in [1046] as explained above. As the ætheling brothers were closely linked to King András I, it is unlikely that Edmund would have married a daughter of either of his disgraced predecessors King Péter or King Samuel Aba, and any daughters of the former at least would have been too young for such a marriage. Finally, any daughters of King András himself would certainly have been too young for the marriage. There is therefore considerable doubt about the historical authenticity of this Hungarian princess or her marriage to Edmund.]
2. EDWARD ([1016/17]-London 19 Apr 1057, bur London St Paul's). Maybe twin with his brother Edmund or, as noted above, born posthumously. He is the first prince in the Wessex royal family to have been named after his father, which suggests that he may have been born posthumously which could have justified this departure from the normal naming practice. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, King Canute "banished [him] into Hungary … [where] he grew up to be a good man"[1902]. Orderic Vitalis names "Edward et Edmund" as the two sons of king Edmund II, specifying that King Canute sent them to Denmark to be killed but that his brother "Suenon [error for Harald] roi de Danemark" sent them "comme ses neveux en otage au roi des Huns" where Edward "épousa la fille du roi et regna sur les Huns"[1903]. Florence of Worcester specifies that the infants were first "sent to the king of the Swedes to be killed [but the latter] sent them to Solomon King of Hungary to spare their lives and have them brought up at his court"[1904]. According to Adam of Bremen, the two brothers were "condemned to exile in Russia"[1905]. Geoffrey Gaimar (in an altogether confusing account) names "Li uns…Edgar…li alters…Edelret" as the children of King Edmund, recounting that they were sent first to Denmark and later to "Russie [Susie], e vint en terre de Hungrie"[1906]. Edward´s life in exile is discussed in detail by Ronay[1907]. Humphreys infers from the chronicles of Gaimar, Adam of Bremen and Roger of Hoveden that Edward spent some time at the court of Iaroslav I Grand Prince of Kiev[1908]. Assuming he was in exile in Hungary from childhood, he may have left for Kiev in 1037 with András Prince of Hungary who fled Hungary after the 1037 disgrace of his father, although this is unlikely for the reasons explained above in relation to his brother Edmund. If this is correct, he would have returned with András in [1046/47] when the latter succeeded as András I King of Hungary after King Péter Orseolo was deposed. Aldred Bishop of Worcester, ambassador of King Edward "the Confessor", "proposed to the emperor to send envoys to Hungary to bring back Edward and have him conducted to England"[1909], according to Florence of Worcester to be groomed to succeed to the English throne[1910]. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that Edward died "at London soon after his arrival"[1911] before meeting his uncle the king and also states his burial place[1912]. m (Kiev[1913] [1040/45]) AGATHA, daughter of --- ([1025/35]-). Agatha is named as the wife of Edward in many sources[1914], but her origin has been the subject of lively debate for years. The early 12th century chronicles are contradictory. The assertion by Orderic Vitalis that she was "daughter of Solomon King of the Magyars"[1915] can be dismissed as impossible chronologically. One group of chroniclers suggest a German origin, saying that she was "the daughter of the brother of the Emperor Henry". This includes John of Worcester ("filia germani imperatoris henrici"[1916], in a passage which Humphreys speculates was written some time between 1120 and 1131 although possibly based on the earlier work of Marianus Scotus), Florence of Worcester ("daughter of the brother of Emperor Henry"[1917]), the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ("the emperor's kinswoman"[1918] and, in relation to her daughter Margaret, "descended from the emperor Henry who had dominion over Rome"[1919]). Ailred Abbot of Rievaulx records that "Edwardo", son of "regem Edmundum" [King Edmund "Ironsides"], married "filiam germani sui Henrici imperatoris…Agatha"[1920]. Matthew of Paris calls Agatha "soror Henrici imperatoris Romani" when recounting the ancestry of Henry II King of England[1921]. A second group of chroniclers propose a Russian origin, suggesting that Agatha belonged to the family of Iaroslav Grand Prince of Kiev. For William of Malmesbury, she was "sister of the [Hungarian] queen", which from a chronological point of view could only refer to Anastasia Iaroslavna, wife of King András I. In a 13th century interpolation in one copy of the Leges Anglo-Saxonicæ (written in [1130]) she was "ex genere et sanguine regum Rugorum"[1922]. The Chronicle of Alberic de Trois-Fontaines names "Agatham regine Hunorem sororem"[1923], the Hungarian Magyars frequently, though incorrectly, being referred to as "Huns" in many other sources. Lastly, Roger of Wendover records that "Eadwardus" married "reginæ Hungariæ sororem…Agatham"[1924]. In considering the German origin theory, the uterine half-brothers ("germani") of Emperor Heinrich III provide a likely candidate. These half-brothers were Liudolf von Braunschweig, Markgraf in Friesland (son of Gisela of Swabia, mother of Emperor Heinrich III, by her first marriage with Bruno Graf [von Braunschweig]), and Ernst von Babenberg Duke of Swabia and his younger brother Hermann IV Duke of Swabia (sons of Gisela by her second marriage). The latter, the Babenberg brothers, born in [1014/16], were both too young to have been Agatha's father so can be dismissed. Liudolf von Braunschweig was first proposed as Agatha's father in 1933[1925], and has been the preferred candidate for many historians since then[1926]. His birth date is estimated at [1003/05] (see BRUNSWICK) which is consistent with his having been Agatha's father. The marriage taking place in Kiev would not exclude a German origin, as contacts were reported between Kiev and the imperial court in 1040[1927], when Russia was aiming to create a tripartite alliance with England and Germany to weaken Denmark, and also in 1043[1928], when the situation required review following the accession of King Edward "the Confessor" in England. The major drawback to the German origin theory is the total absence of onomastic connections between the Braunschweig family and the descendants of Edward and Agatha, although this is not of course conclusive to prove or disprove the hypothesis. The Russian origin theory has also found considerable academic support[1929]. Edmund must have had contact with the Russian royal family during his period in Kiev, assuming it is correct, as suggested above, that he spent time there during his exile. There are numerous onomastic connections between the the extended family of Grand Prince Iaroslav and the descendants of Edward and Agatha. For example, the names of Edward and Agatha's own daughters, Margaret and Christina, were both used in the Swedish royal family, to which Grand Prince Iaroslav's wife belonged. In the next generation, among Queen Margaret's own children, the name David is one which seems only to have been used in the Kiev ruling family among all contemporary European royal dynasties. The major problem with the Russian origin theory is the complete failure to explain the source references to Agatha's family relationship with the emperor, which it is unwise to dismiss as completely meaningless. It is of course possible that neither of these theories is correct, and that Agatha belonged to a minor German, Russian or Hungarian noble family the importance of whose family connections were exaggerated in the sources. Edward's relationship to the kings of England may, at the time of his marriage, have seemed remote and unimportant in eastern Europe, especially as England was ruled by Danish kings whose position must then have seemed secure. He may not have provided a sufficiently attractive marriage prospect for a prominent European princess. In conclusion, therefore, there is no satisfactory way of deciding between each of the competing theories concerning Agatha's origin and it appears best to classify it as "unknown". It is unlikely that the mystery of Agatha's origin will ever be solved to the satisfaction of all. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that, after the Norman conquest, Agatha left England with her children in Summer 1067 and found refuge at the court of Malcolm King of Scotland[1930]. Florence of Worcester records that "clitone Eadgaro et matre sua Agatha duabusque sororibus suis Margareta et Christina" left England for Scotland, in a passage which deals with events in mid-1068[1931]. According to Weir, in old age, possibly after the death of her daughter Queen Margaret, she became a nun at Newcastle-upon-Tyne[1932], but the primary source on which this is based has not yet been identified. Edward & his wife had three children:
a) MARGARET ([in Hungary] [1046/53]-Edinburgh Castle 16 Nov 1093, bur Dunfermline Abbey, Fife, transferred to Escorial, Madrid, her head bur Jesuit College, Douai). Although Margaret's birth is often placed in [1045/46][1933], a later birth would be more consistent with the "German" theory of her mother's origin, as discussed above. Margaret's birth as late as 1053 would still be consistent with her having given birth to four children before her daughter Edith/Matilda (later wife of Henry I King of England), whose birth is estimated to have taken place in [1079/80]. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that Margaret left England with her mother in Summer 1067 and found refuge at the court of Malcolm King of Scotland[1934]. Florence of Worcester records that "clitone Eadgaro et matre sua Agatha duabusque sororibus suis Margareta et Christina" left England for Scotland, in a passage which deals with events in mid-1068[1935]. Florence of Worcester records that "regina Scottorum Margareta" died from grief after learning of the death of her husband and oldest son[1936]. The Annals of Ulster record that "his queen Margaret…died of sorrow for him within nine days" after her husband was killed in battle[1937]. She was canonised in 1250, her feast day in Scotland is 16 Nov[1938]. m (Dunfermline Abbey 1070) as his second wife, MALCOLM III "Caennmor/Bighead" King of Scotland, son of DUNCAN I King of Scotland & his wife Sibylla of Northumbria (1031-killed in battle near Alnwick, Northumberland 13 Nov 1093, bur Tynemouth, later transferred to Dunfermline Abbey, Fife, and later still to Escorial, Madrid).
b) CHRISTINA ([in Hungary] [1050/53]-after 1090). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that she left England with her mother in Summer 1067 and found refuge at the court of Malcolm King of Scotland[1939]. Florence of Worcester records that "clitone Eadgaro et matre sua Agatha duabusque sororibus suis Margareta et Christina" left England for Scotland, in a passage which deals with events in mid-1068[1940]. Florence of Worcester records that "clito Eadgarus…germana Christina" entered Romsey abbey as a nun in [1086][1941]. Eadmer of Canterbury (writing [1093]-[1122]) comments about the religious life of Christina and her strict control in the 1090s over her niece Edith, who later married to Henry I King of England[1942].
c) EDGAR ætheling ([1053/55]-after 1126). After King Harold II's defeat at Hastings 14 Oct 1066, Ealdred Archbishop of York, Earls Edwin and Morcar, and the citizens of London supported Edgar as successor to King Harold II[1943]. However, his support quickly collapsed and he swore allegiance to King William "the Conqueror" at Berkhamsted, before the latter made his way to London. Florence of Worcester records that "clitonem Edgarum" went with King William to Normandy 21 Feb [1067][1944]. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that Edgar left England with his mother and sisters in Summer 1067 and found refuge at the court of Malcolm King of Scotland[1945]. Florence of Worcester records that "clitone Eadgaro et matre sua Agatha duabusque sororibus suis Margareta et Christina" left England for Scotland, in a passage which deals with events in mid-1068[1946]. He marched on York in 1069. He left for Flanders in exile, but returned to Scotland 8 Jul 1074. Florence of Worcester records that "clito Eadgarus" left Scotland for England in [1073], and went to Normandy where he made peace with King William[1947]. Florence of Worcester records that "clito Eadgarus" went to Apulia with 200 knights in [1086][1948]. Florence of Worcester records that Edgar lived in Scotland after being expelled from Normandy by King William I, but was invited back to England by Robert Comte de Mortain in 1091 in order to negotiate peace between Malcolm King of Scotland and King William II after King Malcolm invaded Northumberland[1949]. He led the army sent by King William II to Scotland in 1097 to expel King Duncan II and install his nephew Edgar as king[1950]. "…Edgari aederling…" subscribed the charter dated 30 Aug 1095 under which "Edgarus filius Malcolmi Regis Scottorum" made grants for the souls of "fratrum meorum Doncani et Edwardi"[1951]. Florence of Worcester records that "clitorem Eadgarum" led an army to Scotland in [1097] to place "consobrinum suum Eadgarum Malcolmi regis filium" on the Scottish throne after expelling "patruo suo Dufenaldo"[1952]. Forces under his command captured Latakia in Mar 1098 before handing it to Robert III Duke of Normandy, according to Orderic Vitalis who calls Edgar "indolent"[1953]. He supported Robert Duke of Normandy in his fight with his brother Henry I King of England in 1106, and was taken prisoner by the king at the battle of Tinchebrai but released soon after. The primary source which records that he was still alive in 1126 has not yet been identified. [Mistress (1): ---. No record has been found that Edgar ætheling ever married. However, the 1157 Pipe Roll entry quoted below suggests that he may have had descendants. If this is correct, it is probable that it was an illegitimate line as there is no record of their having claimed the throne. [Edgar had one [illegitimate] child by Mistress (1)]:
i) [---. This descent is completely speculative. However, the most obvious explanation for the 1157 Pipe Roll entry quoted below is that Edgar ætheling left descendants, presumably through an illegitimate child as there is no record of their having claimed the throne. m ---.] One child:
(a) [EDGAR "Ætheling" . The 1157 Pipe Roll records "Edgar Ætheling" in Northumberland[1954]. If his descent from Edgar ætheling is correct, it would be consistent from a chronological point of view if Edgar was the senior Edgar´s grandson.]
Edmund was the: Second husband of Ealdgyth, widow of Sigefreth:
ARNGRIM. m ---. The name of Arngrim's wife is not known. Arngrim & his wife had two children:
a) SIGEFERTH (-murdered Oxford summer 1015). Simeon of Durham records that "Sigeferth and Morkar the sons of Earngrim" were killed in 1015 on the orders of "duke Edric Streona" and that the king took possession of their estates[715]. Ætheling Æthelstan, under his will dated [1014], made a bequest to "Sigeferth, an estate at Hockliffe"[716]. With his brother, he was one of the leading thegns of the northern Danelaw. He was murdered on the orders of Eadric "Streona/the Acquisitor" Ealdorman of Mercia[717].
m as her first husband, ÆLDGYTH, daughter of ---. After her husband was killed, she was arrested, but abducted against the wishes of King Æthelred II by his son Edmund, later Edmund "Ironsides" King of England, whom she married as her second husband. Simeon of Durham records that Edmund married "Algitha widow of Sigeferth" in 1015[718].
b) MORCAR (-murdered Oxford summer 1015). King Æthelred II granted land in Derbyshire to "Morcar minister" under a charter dated 1009[719]. With his brother, a leading thegn of the northern Danelaw. Simeon of Durham records that "Sigeferth and Morkar the sons of Earngrim" were killed in 1015 on the orders of "duke Edric Streona" and that the king took possession of their estates[720]. m EALDGYTH, daughter of ÆLFTHRYTH & his wife ---. The primary source which confirms her marriage has not yet been identified. Morcar & his wife had one child:
i) ÆLFGIFU. The primary source which confirms her parentage and marriage has not yet been identified. m as his first wife, ÆLFGAR Earl of Mercia, son of LEOFRIC Earl of Mercia & his wife Godgifu --- (-1062).
Edmund Ironside or Eadmund (c. 988/993 – 30 November 1016), surnamed "Ironside" for his efforts to fend off the Danish invasion led by King Canute, was King of England from 23 April to 30 November 1016.
Family Edmund was the second son of King Æthelred II (also known as Ethelred the Unready) and his first wife, Ælfgifu of Northumbria. He had three brothers, the elder being Æthelstan, and the younger two being Eadred and Ecgbert. His mother was dead by 996, after which his father remarried, this time to Emma of Normandy.
Æthelstan died in 1014, leaving Edmund as heir. A power-struggle began between Edmund and his father, and in 1015 King Æthelred had two of Edmund's allies, Sigeferth and Morcar, executed. Edmund then took Sigeferth's widow, Ældgyth, from the nunnery where she had been imprisoned and married her in defiance of his father. During this time, Canute the Great attacked England with his forces. In 1016 Edmund staged a rebellion in conjunction with Earl Uhtred of Northumbria, but after Uhtred deserted him and submitted to Canute, Edmund was reconciled with his father.
Royal and military history Æthelred II, who had earlier been stricken ill, died on 23 April 1016. Edmund succeeded to the throne and mounted a last-ditch effort to revive the defence of England. While the Danes laid siege to London, Edmund headed for Wessex, where he gathered an army. When the Danes pursued him he fought them to a standstill. He then raised a renewed Danish siege of London and won repeated victories over Canute. However, on 18 October Canute decisively defeated him at the Battle of Ashingdon in Essex. After the battle the two kings negotiated a peace in which Edmund kept Wessex while Canute held the lands north of the River Thames. In addition, they agreed that if one of them should perish, territories belonging to the deceased would be ceded to the living.
Death On 30 November 1016, King Edmund II died in Oxford or London and his territories were ceded to Canute who then became king of England. The cause of Edmund's death has never been clear, with many accounts listing natural causes, while others suggest that he was assassinated Edmund was buried at Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset. His burial site is now lost. During the Dissolution of the Monasteries any remains of a monument or crypt were destroyed and the location of his body is unknown.
Heirs Edmund had two children by Ældgyth: Edward the Exile and Edmund, who both were sent by Canute the Great to Sweden, in order to be murdered but were sent from there to Kiev, ending up in Hungary.
Edmund Ironside or Edmund II (c. 988/993 – 30 November 1016) was king of the English from 23 April to 30 November 1016. The cognomen "Ironside" refers to his efforts to fend off a Danish invasion led by King Canute, His actual authority was limited to Wessex, or the area south of Thames. The north was controlled by Canute, who became "king of all England" upon Edmund's death. His name is also spelled Eadmund.
for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_II_of_England
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_II_of_England
Edmund Ironside or Edmund II (c. 988/993 – 30 November 1016) was king of the English from 23 April to 30 November 1016. The cognomen "Ironside" refers to his efforts to fend off a Danish invasion led by King Cnut. His actual authority was limited to Wessex, or the area south of Thames. The north was controlled by Cnut, who became "king of all England" upon Edmund's death. His name is also spelled Eadmund.
Family
Edmund was the second son of King Æthelred the Unready (also known as Æthelred II) and his first wife, Ælfgifu of York. He had three brothers, the elder being Æthelstan, and the younger two being Eadred and Ecgbert. His mother was dead by 996, after which his father remarried, this time to Emma of Normandy. Æthelstan died in 1014, leaving Edmund as heir. A power-struggle began between Edmund and his father, and in 1015 King Æthelred had two of Edmund's allies, Sigeferth and Morcar, executed. Edmund then took Sigeferth's widow, Ealdgyth, from Malmesbury Abbey where she had been imprisoned and married her in defiance of his father. During this time, Cnut the Great attacked England with his forces. In 1016 Edmund staged a rebellion in conjunction with Earl Uhtred of Northumbria, but after Uhtred deserted him and submitted to Cnut, Edmund was reconciled with his father.
Royal and military history
Æthelred, who had earlier taken ill, died on 23 April 1016. Edmund succeeded to the throne and mounted a last-ditch effort to revive the defence of England. While the Danes laid siege to London, Edmund headed for Wessex, where he gathered an army. When the Danes pursued him he fought them to a standstill. He then raised a renewed Danish siege of London and won repeated victories over Cnut. However, on 18 October, Cnut decisively defeated him at the Battle of Ashingdon in Essex. After the battle the two kings negotiated a peace in which Edmund kept Wessex while Cnut held the lands north of the River Thames. In addition, they agreed that if one of them should die, territories belonging to the deceased would be ceded to the living.[1]
Death
On 30 November 1016, King Edmund died in Oxford or London and his territories were ceded to Cnut who then became king of England. The cause of Edmund's death has never been clear, with many accounts listing natural causes [2], while others suggest that he was assassinated.[3] Edmund was buried at Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset. His burial site is now lost. During the Dissolution of the Monasteries, any remains of a monument or crypt were destroyed and the location of his body is unknown.
Heirs
Edmund had two children by Ealdgyth: Edward the Exile and Edmund, who both were sent by Cnut the Great to Sweden, in order to be murdered but were sent from there to Kiev, ending up in Hungary.
Edmund Ironside or Edmund II (c. 988/993 – 30 November 1016) was king of the English from 23 April to 30 November 1016. The cognomen "Ironside" refers to his efforts to fend off a Danish invasion led by King Cnut. His actual authority was limited to Wessex, or the area south of Thames. The north was controlled by Cnut, who became "king of all England" upon Edmund's death. His name is also spelled Eadmund.
Family
Edmund was the second son of King Æthelred the Unready (also known as Æthelred II) and his first wife, Ælfgifu of York. He had three brothers, the elder being Æthelstan, and the younger two being Eadred and Ecgbert. His mother was dead by 996, after which his father remarried, this time to Emma of Normandy.
Æthelstan died in 1014, leaving Edmund as heir. A power-struggle began between Edmund and his father, and in 1015 King Æthelred had two of Edmund's allies, Sigeferth and Morcar, executed. Edmund then took Sigeferth's widow, Ealdgyth, from Malmesbury Abbey where she had been imprisoned and married her in defiance of his father. During this time, Cnut the Great attacked England with his forces. In 1016 Edmund staged a rebellion in conjunction with Earl Uhtred of Northumbria, but after Uhtred deserted him and submitted to Cnut, Edmund was reconciled with his father.
Royal and military history
Æthelred, who had earlier taken ill, died on 23 April 1016. Edmund succeeded to the throne and mounted a last-ditch effort to revive the defence of England. While the Danes laid siege to London, Edmund headed for Wessex, where he gathered an army. When the Danes pursued him he fought them to a standstill. He then raised a renewed Danish siege of London and won repeated victories over Cnut. However, on 18 October, Cnut decisively defeated him at the Battle of Ashingdon in Essex. After the battle the two kings negotiated a peace in which Edmund kept Wessex while Cnut held the lands north of the River Thames. In addition, they agreed that if one of them should die, territories belonging to the deceased would be ceded to the living.[1]
Death
On 30 November 1016, King Edmund died in Oxford or London and his territories were ceded to Cnut who then became king of England. The cause of Edmund's death has never been clear, with many accounts listing natural causes [2], while others suggest that he was assassinated.[3] Edmund was buried at Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset. His burial site is now lost. During the Dissolution of the Monasteries, any remains of a monument or crypt were destroyed and the location of his body is unknown.
Heirs
Edmund had two children by Ealdgyth: Edward the Exile and Edmund, who both were sent by Cnut the Great to Sweden, in order to be murdered but were sent from there to Kiev, ending up in Hungary.
Shakespearean play?
Edmund Ironside is also the name of an anonymous play in the Shakespeare Apocrypha, which has been attributed to Shakespeare on stylistic grounds.[4] Plays in the Shakespeare Apocrypha are not generally accepted as Shakespearean.[5]
References
1. ^ Outline of the reign of Edmund II 'Ironside' 2. ^ Encyclopedia Britannica entry on Edmund II 3. ^ The History of the Anglo-Saxons from the Earliest Period to the Norman Conquest By Sharon Turner 4. ^ Eric Sams. (1986). Shakespeare's "Edmund Ironside": The Lost Play. Wildwood Ho. ISBN 0-7045-0547-9 5. ^ Two Tough Nuts to Crack: Did Shakespeare Write the Shakespeare Portions of Sir Thomas More and Edward III? By Ward E. Y. Elliott and Robert J. Valenza, Claremont McKenna College.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_II_of_England
Edmund II 'Ironside', King of England (1) M, #102185, b. between 988 and 993, d. 30 November 1016 Last Edited=5 Apr 2007 Edmund II 'Ironside', King of England was born between 988 and 993. (1) He was the son of Æthelred II 'the Unready', King of England and Ælgifu (?). (3) He married Ealdgyth (?) circa August 1015 at Malmesbury, Wiltshire, England. (1) He died on 30 November 1016 at Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, murdered. (4) He was buried at Glastonbury Abbey, Glastonbury, Somerset, England. (4)
Edmund II 'Ironside', King of England succeeded to the title of King Edmund II of England on 23 April 1016.1 He was crowned King of England in April 1016 at St. Paul's Cathedral, The City, London, England. (1) He fought in the Battle of Assandun on 18 October 1016, where he was defeated by Cnut. (5) Due to King Ethelred having been so inept, Cnut was accepted as King by a large section of the country after Ethelred's death. Cnut ruled most of the country North of the Thames whilst Edmund was accepted in the South. Cnut laid siege to London and wished to control it with his fleet but his ships could not pass London Bridge, so he had a cutting made on the South side of the bridge and passed his ships around it. Edmund marched on London through the woods at Tottenham and a fierce battle ensued. Cnut withdrew and fought Edmund at Ashington (Assandun) in Essex but this time Edmund was beaten. Cnut was wise and knew that Edmund was popular so he met him on an island in the Severn near Deerhurst and it was agreed that Edmund should rule Wessex and Canute would rule the land North of the Thames, including London. (6)
Children of Edmund II 'Ironside', King of England and Ealdgyth (?) -1. Edward 'Atheling' (?)+ b. c 1016, d. 1057 (3) -2. Edmund (?) b. bt 1016 - 1017 (3)
27th great-grandfather of Queen Elizabeth II
Edmund II Ironside, King of England 1016
Regjeringstid: 23. april 1016–30. november 1016 Født: Ca. 989, Wessex Død: 30. november 1016, - Foreldre: Ethelred II og Aelgifu Ektefelle(r): Ealdgyth Barn: Edward Aetheling, Edmund
Edmund II «Ironside» (født ca. 989, død 30. november 1016) var konge av England fra 23. april 1016 fram til sin død et drøyt halvår senere. Han var sønn av Ethelred den rådville og Aelgifu av Northampton. Edvard Bekjenneren var hans halvbror. Han fikk tilnavnet «Ironside» («jernside») på grunn av sine militære bragder.
I 1015 giftet Edmund seg med Ealdgyth. Etter farens død ble Edmund valgt til konge av befolkningen i London. Hans rival, Knut den store, hadde større støtte enn ham i resten av landet.
Han hadde to barn som er kjent for ettertiden:
Edvard Aetheling (1016–1057) Edmund (født ca. 1017) Edmund ble slått av danene, men fikk lov av Knut den store til å beholde Wessex, mot at det var klart at den av dem som overlevde den andre skulle regjere over hele England. Kort tid etter at denne avtalen ble inngått døde Edmund, og det antas at han ble myrdet. Ifølge tradisjonen ble han drept ved at en rødglødende ildraker ble stukket opp i tarmene mens han satt på toalettet.
Han ble gravlagt i Glastonbury Abbey.
King Edmund II "Ironside" of England - was born about 0988, lived in Wessex, England and died in 1016 in Ross-on-Wye . He was the son of King Ethelred II "The Unready" of England and Queen Alfgifu of England. King Edmund married Queen Ealdgyth of England about Aug 1015 while living in London, Middlesex, England. Queen Ealdgyth was born about 0986, lived in Wessex, England. She is the daughter of Morcar of England and Edgitha of England.
King Edmund - Edmund was King of England for only a few months. After the death of his father, Æthelred II, in April 1016, Edmund led the defense of the city of London against the invading Knut Sveinsson (Canute), and was proclaimed king by the Londoners. Meanwhile, the Witan (Council), meeting at Southampton, chose Canute as King. After a series of inconclusive military engagements, in which Edmund performed brilliantly and earned the nickname "Ironside", he defeated the Danish forces at Oxford, Kent, but was routed by Canute's forces at Ashingdon, Essex. A subsequent peace agreement was made, with Edmund controlling Wessex and Canute controlling Mercia and Northumbria. It was also agreed that whoever survived the other would take control of the whole realm. Unfortunately for Edmund, he died in November, 1016, transferring the Kingship of All England completely to Canute.
Legend tells that Ross-on-Wye, England is the place where the Saxon king Edmund Ii died from traitors' wounds in 1016. Edmund is better known as Edmund 'Ironside', for his fierce defence of England against the huge invading army of the Danish king Canute. England was divided between the warring kings - Edmund held the west and Wessex while Canute ruled in the north and east. The story goes that one of Edmund's servants plotted to murder him for the reward that Canute might give. The servant secretly positioned a sharpened stake in the king's latrine at Minsterworth in Gloucestershire; as Edmund lowered himself to use his toilet, the servant withdrew the candle and Edmund was impaled. The king was rushed from Minsterworth but died at Ross, probably on his way to a monastery near by in search of a cure. The servant soon presented himself at canute's court and claimed the murder as his; Canute had him hanged, so legend tells, from the highest oak that he could find. Children: (Quick Family Chart) i. Prince Edward "Atheling" of England was born in 1016 in Wessex, England and died in 1057 in London, Middlesex, England . See #6. below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_II_of_England
Edmund Ironside or Edmund II (c. 988/993 – 30 November 1016) was king of the English from 23 April to 30 November 1016. The cognomen "Ironside" refers to his efforts to fend off a Danish invasion led by King Canute, His actual authority was limited to Wessex, or the area south of Thames. The north was controlled by Canute, who became "king of all England" upon Edmunds death. His name is also spelled Eadmund.
Family
Edmund was the second son of King Ethelred the Unready (also known as Æthelred II) and his first wife, Ælfgifu of York. He had three brothers, the elder being Æthelstan, and the younger two being Eadred and Ecgbert. His mother was dead by 996, after which his father remarried, this time to Emma of Normandy. Æthelstan died in 1014, leaving Edmund as heir. A power-struggle began between Edmund and his father, and in 1015 King Æthelred had two of Edmundqzqs allies, Sigeferth and Morcar, executed. Edmund then took Sigeferthqzqs widow, Ealdgyth, from Malmesbury Abbey where she had been imprisoned and married her in defiance of his father. During this time, Canute the Great attacked England with his forces. In 1016 Edmund staged a rebellion in conjunction with Earl Uhtred of Northumbria, but after Uhtred deserted him and submitted to Canute, Edmund was reconciled with his father. [edit]Royal and military history
Æthelred, who had earlier taken ill, died on 23 April 1016. Edmund succeeded to the throne and mounted a last-ditch effort to revive the defence of England. While the Danes laid siege to London, Edmund headed for Wessex, where he gathered an army. When the Danes pursued him he fought them to a standstill. He then raised a renewed Danish siege of London and won repeated victories over Canute. However, on 18 October Canute decisively defeated him at the Battle of Ashingdon in Essex. After the battle the two kings negotiated a peace in which Edmund kept Wessex while Canute held the lands north of the River Thames. In addition, they agreed that if one of them should die, territories belonging to the deceased would be ceded to the living.[1] [edit]Death On 30 November 1016, King Edmund died in Oxford or London and his territories were ceded to Canute who then became king of England. The cause of Edmundqzqs death has never been clear, with many accounts listing natural causes [2], while others suggest that he was assassinated.[3] Edmund was buried at Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset. His burial site is now lost. During the Dissolution of the Monasteries any remains of a monument or crypt were destroyed and the location of his body is unknown. [edit]Heirs
Edmund had two children by Ældgyth: Edward the Exile and Edmund, who both were sent by Canute the Great to Sweden, in order to be murdered but were sent from there to Kiev, ending up in Hungary. [edit]Shakespearean play?
Edmund Ironside is also the name of an anonymous play in the Shakespeare Apocrypha, which has been attributed to Shakespeare on stylistic grounds.[4] Plays in the Shakespeare Apocrypha are not generally accepted as Shakespearean.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_II_of_England
Edmund Ironside or Edmund II (Old English: Eadmund) (c. 988/993 – 30 November 1016) was king of the English from 23 April to 30 November 1016. The cognomen "Ironside" refers to his efforts to fend off a Viking invasion led by Cnut the Great. His authority was limited to Wessex, or the area south of Thames. The north was controlled by Cnut, who became "king of all England" upon Edmund's death.
Contents [hide] 1 Family 2 Royal and military history 2.1 Death 3 Heirs 4 Shakespearean play? 5 See also 6 Sources 7 References
[edit] Family Edmund was the second son of King Æthelred the Unready (also known as Æthelred II) and his first wife, Ælfgifu of York. He had three brothers, the elder Æthelstan, and the younger two Eadred and Ecgbert. His mother was dead by 996, after which his father remarried, this time to Emma of Normandy.
Æthelstan died in 1014, leaving Edmund as heir. A power struggle began between Edmund and his father, and in 1015 King Æthelred had two of Edmund's allies, Sigeferth and Morcar, executed. Edmund then took Sigeferth's widow Ealdgyth from Malmesbury Abbey, where she had been imprisoned, and married her in defiance of his father. During this time, Cnut the Great attacked England with his forces. In 1016 Edmund staged a rebellion in conjunction with Earl Uhtred of Northumbria, but after Uhtred deserted him and submitted to Cnut, Edmund was reconciled with his father.
[edit] Royal and military history
Arms of Edmund Ironside, as imagined by Matthew Paris in the first half of the 13th centuryÆthelred, who had earlier taken ill, died on 23 April 1016. Edmund succeeded to the throne and mounted a last-ditch effort to revive the defence of England. While the Danes laid siege to London, Edmund headed for Wessex, where he gathered an army. When the Danes pursued him, he fought them to a standstill. He raised a renewed Danish siege of London and won repeated victories over Cnut. But, on 18 October, Cnut decisively defeated him at the Battle of Ashingdon in Essex. After the battle, the two kings negotiated a peace in which Edmund kept Wessex while Cnut held the lands north of the River Thames. In addition, they agreed that if one of them should die, territories belonging to the deceased would be ceded to the living.[1]
[edit] Death On 30 November 1016, King Edmund died in Oxford or London. His territories were ceded to Cnut, who then became king of England. The cause of Edmund's death has never been clear, with many accounts listing natural causes [2], while others suggest that he was assassinated by being stabbed 'up the bottom' with a dagger by a viking.[3] Edmund was buried at Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset. His burial site is now lost. During the Dissolution of the Monasteries, any remains of a monument or crypt were destroyed. The location of his body is unknown.
[edit] Heirs Edmund had two children by Ealdgyth: Edward the Exile and Edmund. Cnut the Great ordered them both sent to Sweden, to be murdered, but they were sent on to Kiev and ended up in Hungary.
[edit] Shakespearean play?
18th-century portrait of EdmundEdmund Ironside is the name of an anonymous play in the Shakespeare Apocrypha, which has been attributed to Shakespeare on stylistic grounds.[4] Plays in the Shakespeare Apocrypha are not generally accepted as Shakespearean.[5]
[edit] See also House of Wessex family tree [edit] Sources Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Clemoes, Peter. The Anglo-Saxons: Studies Presented to Bruce Dickins, 1959 The History Channel - England history to 1485 [edit] References 1.^ Outline of the reign of Edmund II 'Ironside' 2.^ Encyclopedia Britannica entry on Edmund II 3.^ Sharon Turner, The History of the Anglo-Saxons from the Earliest Period to the Norman Conquest 4.^ Eric Sams. (1986). Shakespeare's "Edmund Ironside": The Lost Play. Wildwood Ho. ISBN 0-7045-0547-9 5.^ Two Tough Nuts to Crack: Did Shakespeare Write the Shakespeare Portions of Sir Thomas More and Edward III? By Ward E. Y. Elliott and Robert J. Valenza, Claremont McKenna College. Preceded by Æthelred the Unready King of the English 1016 Succeeded by Cnut the Great [hide]v • d • eEnglish monarchs
Kingdom of the English 886–1066 Alfred the Great · Edward the Elder · Ælfweard · Athelstan the Glorious1 · Edmund the Magnificent1 · Eadred1 · Eadwig the Fair1 · Edgar the Peaceable1 · Edward the Martyr · Æthelred the Unready · Sweyn Forkbeard · Edmund Ironside · Cnut1 · Harold Harefoot · Harthacnut · Edward the Confessor · Harold Godwinson · Edgar the Ætheling
Kingdom of England 1066–1649 William I · William II · Henry I · Stephen · Matilda · Henry II2 · Henry the Young King · Richard I · John2 · Henry III2 · Edward I2 · Edward II2 · Edward III2 · Richard II2 · Henry IV2 · Henry V2 · Henry VI2 · Edward IV2 · Edward V2 · Richard III2 · Henry VII2 · Henry VIII2 · Edward VI2 · Jane2 · Mary I2 with Philip2 · Elizabeth I2 · James I3 · Charles I3
Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland 1653–1659 Oliver Cromwell4 · Richard Cromwell4
Kingdom of England 1660–1707 Charles II3 · James II3 · William III and Mary II3 · Anne3
1Overlord of Britain. 2Also ruler of Ireland. 3Also ruler of Scotland. 4Lord Protector. Debatable or disputed rulers are in italics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_II_of_England
Edmund Ironside or Edmund II (c. 988/993 – 30 November 1016) was king of the English from 23 April to 30 November 1016. The cognomen "Ironside" refers to his efforts to fend off a Danish invasion led by King Canute, His actual authority was limited to Wessex, or the area south of Thames. The north was controlled by Canute, who became "king of all England" upon Edmund's death. His name is also spelled Eadmund.
REF: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Ironside#Shakespearean_play.3F
Acceded APR 1016 St Paul's Cathedral, London Note: Edmund Ironside 1016
Born: c 989. Titles: King of the English, Crowned: Old St Paul's Cathedral, April 1016. Ruled: April - November 1016 for 6 months. Married: August 1015, Edith, widow of Sigeferth, of East Anglia: 2 children. Died: (Murdered): London, 30 November 1016, aged 27. Buried: Glastonbury Abbey.
Edmund was the second son of Athelred (II) and became the heir to the throne after the eldest son, Athelstan, fell in battle some time in 1014. Edmund had already done his share of fighting, and had proved himself valiant, but once the heir he became even more determined. Angered at the weakness of his father, who had already been expelled from England by Swein in 1013, only to return a few months later promising to rule strongly and wisely, Edmund carved out his own plan to recover England. There was some respite during 1014 when Canute left England to gain the throne of Denmark, though Athelred used that time to exact retribution from those he believed had betrayed him. One of these was Sigeferth, a thane of East Anglia, who had been amongst the first to submit to Swein when he landed at Gainsborough in August 1013. Sigeferth was executed and his widow, Edith, imprisoned at Malmesbury. Edmund rescued Edith and married her. This action gained the support of the Danelaw of Mercia and the north, but divided Britain, with Athelred retaining support in the south. When Canute returned to England in September 1015 only Edmund's army was prepared. Athelred's men would not fight unless led by the king but he was seldom available (he was increasingly ill) and his own ealdormen were always on the verge of desertion. Athelred died in April 1016 and Edmund was promptly declared king . There was no time for celebrations. Edmund and Canute's armies clashed at five major battles during the year. The outcome was rarely decisive, both sides claiming victory. Edmund succeeded in holding London against Canute's siege and he probably would have defeated the Danes at Sherstone had not one of his ealdormen (the ever-traitorous Eadric of Shropshire) tricked the Saxons into believing Edmund was dead. Canute defeated Edmund at Ashingdon, in Essex, on 18 October, but by this time both sides were battle-weary. One further engagement was fought near Deerhurst in Gloucester, at which point both parties agreed to negotiate. At the Treaty of Olney, signed at the end of October, Canute was granted Mercia and Northumbria, and Edmund remained in Wessex. Edmund returned to London. He had been seriously wounded at Ashingdon, and his continued fighting had not improved his health. Nevertheless his death, just one month later, still shocked the Saxon nation. There was talk of murder and the weight of evidence supports this. Later rumours of a particularly nasty disembowelling whilst on the privy have never been disproved. With his death Canute soon convinced the English to accept him as king. Edmund's sons were despatched from England, and other young Saxon princes were transferred to places of safety. Only one of them, Edmund's son Edward (the father of Edgar Atheling), would return.
Edmund Ironside or Edmund II (Old English: Eadmund) (c. 988/993 – 30 November 1016) was king of the English from 23 April to 30 November 1016. The cognomen "Ironside" refers to his efforts to fend off a Viking invasion led by Cnut the Great. His authority was limited to Wessex, or the area south of Thames. The north was controlled by Cnut, who became "king of all England" upon Edmund's death.
Edmund was the second son of King Æthelred the Unready (also known as Æthelred II) and his first wife, Ælfgifu of York. He had three brothers, the elder Æthelstan, and the younger two Eadred and Ecgbert. His mother was dead by 996, after which his father remarried, this time to Emma of Normandy.
Æthelstan died in 1014, leaving Edmund as heir. A power struggle began between Edmund and his father, and in 1015 King Æthelred had two of Edmund's allies, Sigeferth and Morcar, executed. Edmund then took Sigeferth's widow Ealdgyth from Malmesbury Abbey, where she had been imprisoned, and married her in defiance of his father. During this time, Cnut the Great attacked England with his forces. In 1016 Edmund staged a rebellion in conjunction with Earl Uhtred of Northumbria, but after Uhtred deserted him and submitted to Cnut, Edmund was reconciled with his father.
Æthelred, who had earlier taken ill, died on 23 April 1016. Edmund succeeded to the throne and mounted a last-ditch effort to revive the defence of England. While the Danes laid siege to London, Edmund headed for Wessex, where he gathered an army. When the Danes pursued him, he fought them to a standstill. He raised a renewed Danish siege of London and won repeated victories over Cnut. But, on 18 October, Cnut decisively defeated him at the Battle of Ashingdon in Essex. After the battle, the two kings negotiated a peace in which Edmund kept Wessex while Cnut held the lands north of the River Thames. In addition, they agreed that if one of them should die, territories belonging to the deceased would be ceded to the living.
On 30 November 1016, King Edmund died in Oxford or London. His territories were ceded to Cnut, who then became king of England. The cause of Edmund's death has never been clear, with many accounts listing natural causes [2], while others suggest that he was assassinated by being stabbed 'up the bottom' with a dagger by a viking.[3] Edmund was buried at Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset. His burial site is now lost. During the Dissolution of the Monasteries, any remains of a monument or crypt were destroyed. The location of his body is unknown.
Edmund had two children by Ealdgyth: Edward the Exile and Edmund. Cnut the Great ordered them both sent to Sweden, to be murdered, but they were sent on to Kiev and ended up in Hungary.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_II_of_England
Name: King Edmund II lronside Born: c.990 Parents: Ethelred II and Elfleda Relation to Elizabeth II: 27th great-grandfather House of: Wessex Ascended to the throne: April 23, 1016 Crowned: 25 April, 1016 at Old St Paul's Cathedral, aged c.26 Married: Ealdgyth Children: 2 sons Died: November 30, 1016 at London Buried at: Glastonbury Reigned for: 7 months, and 7 days Succeeded by: by Canute son of Sweyn who claimed the throne by conquest
King of England in 1016, the son of Ethelred II 'the Unready' . He led the resistance to Canute's invasion in 1015, and on Ethelred's death in 1016 was chosen king by the citizens of London. Meanwhile, the Witan (the king's council) elected Canute. In the struggle for the throne, Canute defeated Edmund at Ashingdon (or Assandun), and they divided the kingdom between them with Canute ruling the North and Edmund ruling the South. When Edmund died (probably assassinated) the same year, Canute ruled the whole kingdom.
Timeline for King Edmund II lronside Historical Timeline 800 - Present
1016 Edmund Ironside, son of Aethelred II the Unready of England, becomes King. At the battle of Abingdon, in Essex, King Canute II of Denmark defeats Edmund. They meet on the Isle of Alney in the Severn and agree to divide the kingdom into two. Canute takes the land North of the Thames and Edmund the South. 1016 Edmund is assassinated a few months later and Canute takes the throne as King Canute of England.
Reigned as King of England 23 Apr to 30 Nov 1016.
1 - surnamed Ironside, on account of his strength, or perhaps from the armour he wore, was the son of Ethelred II., whom he succeeded in 1016; but being opposed by Canute , he agreed to share the crown with him. London was twice besieged by the Danes in his reign, and many battles were fought, Edmund being finally defeated at Assandune. After a reign of nine months only, he is said to have been treacherously murdered in 1017.
2 - Edrnund grew up during a period when England's fortunes were at a low ebb because of repeated Viking incursions. Perceptive even in his youth, Edmund recognised the flaws in his father's policy of buying off the Vikings, and as a prince encouraged the country to stand up against them. His valour earned him the epithet Ironside'. Even before the death of his father, Edmund had made himself ruler in Danelaw. However, his efforts to oppose the invasion ofWessex by his rival, Canute, in late 1015 were undermined by the treachery of Earldorman Edric of Mercia, and in the following year Edmund was unable to hold Northumbria against Canute. When Ethelred died in 1016, London and the Witan members there chose Edmund as king, but the Witan in Southampton opted for Canute. At Olney, Edmund and Canute agreed to partition England, though the longer lived would succeed to the whole. However, a few weeks later Edmund died after a reign of only seven months and his infant sons fled Canute's rule to settle in Hungary.
3 - He fought in the Battle of Assandun on 18 October 1016, where he was defeated by Cnut. Due to King Ethelred having been so inept, Cnut was accepted as King by a large section of the country after Ethelred's death. Cnut ruled most of the country North of the Thames whilst Edmund was accepted in the South. Cnut laid siege to London and wished to control it with his fleet but his ships could not pass London Bridge, so he had a cutting made on the South side of the bridge and passed his ships around it. Edmund marched on London through the woods at Tottenham and a fierce battle ensued. Cnut withdrew and fought Edmund at Ashington (Assandun) in Essex but this time Edmund was beaten. Cnut was wise and knew that Edmund was popular so he met him on an island in the Severn near Deerhurst and it was agreed that Edmund should rule Wessex and Canute would rule the land North of the Thames, including London. [ http://www.thepeerage.com/p10219.htm#i102185 ] (Medical):See attached sources. [1]
Sources [S819] The Royal Line of Succession (1952), Montague-Smith, Patrick W., (London: Pitkins, [1952]), FHL book 942 A1 no. 779; FHL microfiche 6026074., p. 7.
[S95] The Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: A Dynastic History, 1099-1125 (2000), Murray, Alan V., (Oxford, England: Unit for prosopographical research, Linacre College, 2000), FHL book 956.944/J1 H2m., Gen table 3.
[S283] #2 Der Europäischen käyser- und königlichen Häuser historische und genealogische Erläuterung (1730-1731), Lohmeier, Georg von, und Johann Ludwig Levin Gebhardi, (3 volumes in 1. Luneburg: Sternischen Buchdruckerei, 1730-1731), FHL microfilm 1,051,694, items 4-6., pt 1 p. 96, 97, 100-101, 128-129.
[S285] Edward the Confessor (1970), Barlow, Frank, (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1970), JWML book DA154.8 B297., Gen Tables.
[S1850] Medieval Lands: A Prosopography of Medieval European Noble and Royal Families, Charles Cawley, ( http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/ ), England, Anglo-Saxon & Danish Kings [accessed 28 Jun 2006].
[S820] From Domesday Book to Magna Carta 1087-1216 (1955), Poole, Austin Lane, (Oxford History of England, volume 3. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1955), JWML book DA175 P6 1955; FHL microfilm 874,262 ite., p. 115.
[S37] #93 [Book version] The Dictionary of National Biography: from the Earliest Times to 1900 (1885-1900, reprint 1993), Stephen, Leslie, (22 volumes. 1885-1900. Reprint, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1993), FHL book 920.042 D561n., vol. 1 6 p. 403-405.
[S68] #673 The New England Historical and Genealogical Register (1846-), (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1846-), FHL book 974 B2ne; CD-ROM No 33 Parts 1-9; See FHL., vol. 150 p. 418, 427.
[S635] #23 Genealogies of European Families from Charlemagne to the Present Date, August 1957, Paget, Gerald, (Manuscript, filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1957), FHL microfilms 170,050-170,062., Normandy.
[S25] #798 The Wallop Family and Their Ancestry, Watney, Vernon James, (4 volumes. Oxford: John Johnson, 1928), FHL book Q 929.242 W159w; FHL microfilm 1696491 it., vol. 3 p. 691.
[S821] #361 Ahnentafel Rübel-Blass (1939), Rübel, Eduard, (4 volumes. Zürich: Schulthess, 1939.), FHL book 929.2494 R822r; FHL microfilm 491,158., table 257.
[S23] #849 Burke's Guide to the Royal Family (1973), (London: Burke's Peerage, c1973), FHl book 942 D22bgr., p. 190.
[S817] #391 Anglo-Saxon Bishops, Kings and Nobles, the Succession of the Bishops and the Pedigrees of the Kings and Nobles (1899), Searle, William George, (Cambridge: University Press, 1899), FHL microfilm 547,168 item 2., p. 350.
[S5] #552 Europaische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der europaischen Staaten. Neue Folge (1978), Schwennicke, Detlev, (Marburg: Verlag von J. A. Stargardt, c1978-1995 (v. 1-16) -- Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, c1998- Medieval Families bibliography #552.), FHL book Q 940 D5es new series., vol. 2 table 79.
[S851] #10351 Historiæ Normannorvm Scriptores Antiqvi: Res Ab Illis per Galliam, Angliam, Apvliam, Capvæ Principatvm, Siciliam, & Orientem Gestas Explicantes, Ab Anno Christi DCCCXXXVIII. ad Annvm MCCXX / Insertæ Svnt Monasteriorvm Fvndationes Variæ.., Duchesne, André, (Colophon: Lvtetiæ Parisiorvm, 1619), JWML book DC611.N842 D9., p. 163-164, 178, 206, 213, 252-253, 271, 492, 660, 1087.
[S818] #12229 The History of the Anglo-Saxons: from the Earliest Period to the Norman Conquest (1852), Turner, Sharon, (3 volumes. 7th edition. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1852), FHL book 942 H2t., vol. 2 p. 279-286.
[S852] #11004 Normandy: Landscape with Figures (1975), Gunn, Peter., (London: Gollancz, 1975.), JWML book DC611.N847 G86., p. 67'.
[S13] #379 [7th edition, 1992] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists, Who Came to America Before 1700: the Lineage of Alfred the Great, Charlemagne, Malcolm of Scotland, Robert the Strong, and Some of Their Descendants (7th edition, 1992), Weis, Frederick Lewis, (7th edition. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, c1992), FHL book 974 D2w 1992., p. 2.
[S39] Medieval, royalty, nobility family group sheets (filmed 1996), Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Family History Department. Medieval Family History Unit, (Manuscript. Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1996), FHL film 1553977-1553985..
[S40] Handbook of British Chronology (1986), Fryde, E. B., editor, (Royal Historical Society guides and handbooks, no. 2. London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1986), FHL book 942 C4rg no. 2., p. 28.
[S68] #673 The New England Historical and Genealogical Register (1846-), (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1846-), FHL book 974 B2ne; CD-ROM No 33 Parts 1-9; See FHL., vol. 150 p. 418.
Edmund Ironside or Edmund II, was King of England from 23 April to 18 October 1016 and of Wessex from 23 April to 30 November 1016.
His cognomen "Ironside" is not recorded until 1057, but may have been contemporary. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, it was given to him "because of his valour" in resisting the Danish invasion led by Cnut the Great. He fought five battles against the Danes, ending in defeat against Cnut on 18 October at the Battle of Assandun, after which they agreed to divide the kingdom, Edmund taking Wessex and Cnut the rest of the country. Edmund died shortly afterwards on 30 November, and Cnut became the king of all England.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Ironside
Edmund II "Ironside"
Son of Æthelred Unræd and Ælfleth Married: Ealdgyth (NOT daughter of Morcar, she was Sigeferth's widow - Sigeferth being Morcar's brother)
Sons: 1. Edward 2. Edmund
| Edmund Ironside |
Glyptogography, or glyptics, is the art of carving or engraving on what? | Ælfgifu (963 - 1002) - Genealogy
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Ælfgifu
Also Known As:
"Ælflæd", "Ælfgiva", "Aelfgifu", "Algifu", "Elfleda of Deira", "Elgiva (Elfleda) Thorold of Nothumbria", "Aelfgifu Gunnarsson", "Algifu (Aelflaed) of England", "Ælfgifu of York", "Queen Of England"
Birthdate:
Wessex Kingdom, Anglo Saxon England
Death:
Æthelred's first wife, background unclear. Possible father is Thored Gunnarsson, ealdorman of York.
Six children:
6. Eadgyth (daughter), married Eadric Streona and Thorkell
Another five children by her or another, unknown wife or mistresses - see below.
7. Eadgar
10. Daughter (married Æthelstan "Ringmere")
11. Daughter, Abbess of Wherwell
http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/ENGLAND,%20AngloSaxon%20&%20Danish%20Kings.htm#AethelredIIdied1016A
[m] firstly ([980/85]) [ÆLFGIVA], daughter of ---. The information about the parentage of the first "wife" of King Æthelred is contradictory. According to Florence of Worcester´s genealogies, she was Ælfgiva, daughter of Ealdorman "Ægelberht", as he names "Ælfgiva, comitis Ægelberhti filia" as mother of King Æthelred´s three sons "Eadmundum, Eadwium et Æthelstanum" and his daughter "Eadgitham"[1786]. (It should be noted in passing that this is the only example of the root "Ægel-" being found in an Anglo-Saxon name; it is therefore possible that "Ægelberhti" represents a transcription error, maybe for "Æthelberhti".) On the other hand, Ailred Abbot of Rievaulx records that she was ---, daughter of Thored Ealdorman of York, naming "filia Torethi…comitis" as the mother of "Edmundum" [King Edmund "Ironsides"][1787]. The Estoire de Seint Aedward le Rei, written in [1245], must have used Ailred as its source as it states that the first wife of King Æthelred II was the daughter of "Count Torin"[1788]. Roger of Wendover is unspecific, noting that "rex Ethelredus" married "cujusdam ducis filiam" by whom he fathered "filium…Eadmundum", although in a later passage he says that King Eadmund had "matrem quondam ignobilem fœminam"[1789]. No trace of King Æthelred´s first wife has been found in any other contemporary document. In charters dated 996, King Æthelred's mother countersigns "Ælfthryth regina", but there is no mention of the king's wife. This suggests that Ælfgiva (if indeed that was her name) was an "unofficial" wife, having a similar status to Æthelflæd, first "wife" of King Eadgar, King Æthelred´s father. The will of her son ætheling Æthelstan, dated [1014], refers to "the soul of Ælfthryth my grandmother who brought me up" but makes no mention of his mother[1790], which suggests that she played little part in his early life. This seems suprising if she was in fact the mother of all King Æthelred's children who were not born to his known wife Emma, as is generally reported in most secondary sources. There must therefore be some doubt whether [Ælfgiva] was the king's only wife or concubine before his marriage to Emma de Normandie.
King Æthelred II & his first [wife] had [six] children:
1. ÆTHELSTAN ([986]-killed in battle after 25 Jun 1014[1805]). Florence of Worcester´s genealogies name "Ælfgiva, comitis Ægelberhti filia" as mother of King Æthelred´s three sons "Eadmundum, Eadwium et Æthelstanum" and his daughter "Eadgitham"[1806]. "Æthelstanus filius regis/clito/ætheling" subscribed charters of King Æthelred II dated between 993 and 1013, his name being recorded consistently first among his brothers and specified as "primogenitus" in 1004[1807]. He was killed fighting the Danes[1808]. Ætheling Æthelstan, under his will dated [1014], made bequests (in order) to "my father King Æthelred, my brother Eadmund, my brother Eadwig, Ælfmær…Godwine, Wulfnoth's son…my foster mother Ælfswith, my mass priest Ælfwine, my seneschal Ælfmær, Sigeferth…Æthelweard the Stammerer and Lifing…Leofstan the brother of Leofwine Cwatt…Leofmær of Bygrave, Godwine the Driveller, Eadric son of Wynflæd…", names "Ælfmær, Ælfric's son" and refers to "the soul of Ælfthryth my grandmother who brought me up"[1809].
2. ECGBERHT (-1005). "Ecgbyrht/Ecbyrhtus filius regis/clito" subscribed charters of King Æthelred II dated between 993 and 1005, in all cases named directly after his brother Æthelstan, consistent with Ecgberht being the second son[1810]. If this is correct, it is assumed that Ecgberht was the son of King Æthelred´s "wife" Ælflæd, although he is not specifically named by Florence of Worcester as one of her children.
3. EADMUND ([990]-30 Nov 1016, bur Glastonbury Abbey). Florence of Worcester´s genealogies name "Ælfgiva, comitis Ægelberhti filia" as mother of King Æthelred´s three sons "Eadmundum, Eadwium et Æthelstanum" and his daughter "Eadgitham"[1811]. "Eadmundus filius regis/clito/ætheling" subscribed charters of King Æthelred II dated between 993 and 1015, the last dated 1015 being signed "Eadmund regie indolis soboles"[1812]. He succeeded his father in 1016 as EDMUND "Ironside" King of England.
- see below.
4. EADRED (-[1012]). "Eadred regis filius/clito" subscribed charters of King Æthelred II dated between 993 and [1012/13][1813], a charter dated 1011 specifying "Eadred tercia proles regia"[1814]. Eadred was named after "Eadmund" in all lists in which the two appear, consistent with his being his father's fourth son. If this is correct, it is assumed that Eadred was the son of King Æthelred´s "wife" Ælflæd, although he is not specifically named by Florence of Worcester as one of her children. "Eadric clito" subscribed a charter of King Æthelred II dated 1005[1815]. As this charter is not one subscribed by "Eadred", it is reasonable to assume that this is a copyist's error rather than that King Æthelred had another son of this name. "Eadred clito" countersigned his father's 1006 charter making grants to St Alban's, signing fifth among the brothers[1816].
5. EADWIG (-murdered 1017, bur Tavistock Abbey, Devon[1817]). Florence of Worcester´s genealogies name "Ælfgiva, comitis Ægelberhti filia" as mother of King Æthelred´s three sons "Eadmundum, Eadwium et Æthelstanum" and his daughter "Eadgitham"[1818]. "Eadwius/Eadwig filius regis/clito" subscribed charters of King Æthelred II dated between 1000 and 1014[1819]. He is named after his brother Eadred in the lists of subscribers, indicating that Eadwig was the fifth son. Eadwig countersigned his father's charter dated 1002 which grants land at Codicote, Hertfordshire to Ælthelm, signing fifth among his brothers[1820], and "Eadwig clito" his father's 1006 charter which made grants to St Alban's, signing sixth[1821]. Ætheling Æthelstan, under his will dated [1014], made bequests to "…my brother Eadmund, my brother Eadwig…"[1822]. He was banished "by the counsel of the perfidious ealdorman Eadric" and murdered on the orders of King Canute[1823]. Simeon of Durham records that King Canute outlawed "the Atheling Edwy the brother of king Eadmund who was called King of the Churls" in 1017[1824].
6. EADGYTH (-after 11 Nov 1021). Florence of Worcester´s genealogies name "Ælfgiva, comitis Ægelberhti filia" as mother of King Æthelred´s three sons "Eadmundum, Eadwium et Æthelstanum" and his daughter "Eadgitham"[1825]. Roger of Hoveden names her as the daughter of King Æthelred when recording her first marriage[1826]. Florence of Worcester records that she was banished from England with her second husband 11 Nov 1021[1827].
m firstly (1009) EADRIC "Streona/the Acquisitor", son of --- (-murdered 25 Dec 1017). One of the main advisers of King Æthelred II from [1006], he acquired a position of considerable power but gained a reputation for treachery. He was made Ealdorman of Mercia in 1007[1828]. He changed sides several times during 1014/1016, wavering between Edmund "Ironside" or Canute depending on who had the upper hand at the time, but finally abandoned Edmund's cause at the battle of Ashingdon. Canute appointed Eadric as Ealdorman of Mercia in 1017, but had him murdered in 1017.
m secondly (1017 or after) THORKELL "Havi/the Tall", son of [STRUTHARALD King in Skane] (-killed in battle 1039). One of the leaders of the Danish invasion of England in 1009. He changed sides and supported Æthelred II King of England at the end of 1012, but defected back to join the invasion fleet of Knud of Denmark in Aug 1015. King Canute appointed him Ealdorman of the East Angles 1017 after the murder of Eadric "Streona/the Acquisitor", whose widow he married. It is probable that the King appointed him Regent of England 1019, during his absence in Denmark. King Canute outlawed him 11 Nov 1021[1829], but they entered a pact of reconciliation in 1023 under which Thorkell would govern Denmark and each would keep the other's son as hostage[1830]. He remained regent in Denmark for about three years, being replaced by Ulf, King Knud's brother-in-law. He was killed by the Welsh[1831].
---------------------------
King Æthelred II & his [first/second] [wife] had [five] children:
7. EADGAR (-[1012/15]). "Eadgarus filius regis/clito" subscribed charters of King Æthelred II dated between 1001 and 1008[1832]. He is named after his brother Eadwig in the lists of subscribers, consistent with Eadgar being the sixth son. Eadgar countersigned his father's charter dated 1002 which grants land at Codicote, Hertfordshire to Ælthelm, signing sixth among his brothers[1833], and "Eadgar clito" his father's 1006 charter which made grants to St Alban's, signing seventh[1834].
8. ÆLFGIFU ([990/95]-). She is named as daughter of King Æthelred by Roger of Hoveden, when he records her marriage[1835]. Her birth date range is estimated from her having given birth to her daughter before 1016. m ([1009/16][1836]) as his third wife, UHTRED Earl of Northumbria, son of WALTHEOF Earl of Northumbria & his wife --- (-murdered 1016).
9. WULFHILD . The primary source which confirms her parentage and marriage has not yet been identified. m ULFCYTEL "Snillingr/the Valliant", son of --- (-killed in battle Ashingdon Oct 1016[1837]). Ealdorman of East Anglia. After being surprised by the forces of Svend King of Denmark which landed at Norwich, he made peace with the invader. After the Danes broke the treaty, Ulfcytel forced them to retreat to their ships[1838]. He was defeated by the Danes outside Thetford in 1004[1839], and again in East Anglia 18 May 1009[1840]. He was defeated by the Danes 5 May 1010 at Ringmere after their landing near Ipswich[1841]. He was killed in King Edmund II's final battle against Canute.
10. daughter.
m ÆTHELSTAN, son of --- (-killed in battle Ringmere 5 May 1010).
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle names Athelstan as "the king's son-in-law", killed by the Danes after they landed near Ipswich[1842]. Simeon of Durham names "Ethelstan the son-in-law of king Ethelred" among those killed in battle by the Danes "in East Anglia…Ringmere"[1843].
11. daughter (-after 1051). Abbess of Wherwell. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that the abbess of Wherwell was the king's sister but does not name her when recording that she received Queen Eadgyth in 1051 after the disgrace of her family[1844].
Ælfgifu (wife of Ethelred)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ælfgifu (c. 963-1002),she was also know as Elgyva, and also know as Elffleda, was the first wife of King Æthelred II 'the Unready', King of England.
Early life
Ælfgifu was the daughter of Thored and Hilda.
References
Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86lfgifu_(wife_of_Ethelred )"
Aelfflaed, Ælfgifu
Ælfgifu (fl. c. 985-1002) was presumably a daughter of Thored, earl of southern Northumbria, and the first wife of King Æthelred (r. 978-1016), by whom she bore many offspring, including Edmund Ironside.
for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86lfgifu_of_York
Ælfgifu (fl. c. 985-1002) was presumably a daughter of Thored, earl of southern Northumbria, and the first wife of King Æthelred (r. 978-1016), by whom she bore many offspring, including Edmund Ironside.
sons
* Æthelstan (born before 993, d. 1014)
* Ecgberht (born before 993, d. 1005)
* Edmund (II) Ironside (born before 993, d. 1016)
* Eadred (d. 1012 x 1015)
* Eadwig (born before 997, exiled and killed 1017)
* Edgar (born before 1001, d. 1012 x 1015)
[edit] daughters
* Eadgyth (born before 993), married Eadric Streona, ealdorman of Mercia.[15]
* Ælfgifu, married ealdorman Uhtred of Northumbria.[16]
* (possibly) Wulfhild, who married Ulfcytel (Snillingr) (d. 1016), apparently ealdorman of East Anglia.[17]
* possibly an unnamed daughter who married the Æthelstan who was killed fighting the Danes at the Battle of Ringmere in 1010. He is called Æthelred's aðum, meaning either son-in-law or brother-in-law.[18] Ann Williams, however, argues that the latter meaning is the appropriate one and refers to Æthelstan as being Ælfgifu's brother.[19]
* possibly unnamed daughter, who became abbess of Wherwell
she appears to have died by 1002, when Æthelred took to wife Emma, daughter of Count Richard of Rouen, who received or adopted her predecessor's Anglo-Saxon name, Ælfgifu.
Sources
* John of Worcester, Chronicon ex Chronicis, ed. Benjamin Thorpe, Florentii Wigorniensis monachi chronicon ex chronicis. 2 vols. London, 1848-9; tr. J. Stevenson, Church Historians of England. 8 vols.: vol. 2.1. London, 1855. 171-372.
* Ailred of Rievaulx, De genealogia regum Anglorum ("On the Genealogy of the English Kings"), ed. R. Twysden, De genealogia regum Anglorum. Rerum Anglicarum scriptores 10. London, 1652. 1.347–70. Patrologia Latina 195 (711–38) edition available from Documenta Catholica; tr. M. L. Dutton and J. P. Freeland, Aelred of Rievaulx, The Historical Works. Kalamazoo, 2005.
* William of Malmesbury, Gesta regum Anglorum, ed. and tr. R.A.B. Mynors, R. M. Thomson and M. Winterbottom, William of Malmesbury. Gesta Regum Anglorum. The History of the English Kings. OMT. 2 vols: vol 1. Oxford, 1998.
* Sulcard of Westminster, Prologus de construccione Westmonasterii, ed. B.W. Scholz, “Sulcard of Westminster. Prologus de construccione Westmonasterii.” Traditio 20 (1964): 59–91.
* Anglo-Saxon charters
o S 1511 (possibly AD 980 x 987)
o S 1497 (c. AD 990 x 1001)
* Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ed. D. Dumville and S. Keynes, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. A Collaborative Edition. 8 vols. Cambridge, 1983; tr. Michael J. Swanton, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. 2nd ed. London, 2000.
[edit] Secondary sources
* Fryde, E. et al. Handbook of British Chronology. 3d ed. Cambridge, 1996.
* Keynes, Simon. “Æthelred II (c.966x8–1016).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 200.4 Accessed 1 Sept 2007.
* Stafford, Pauline. "The Reign of Æthelred II. A Study in the Limitations on Royal Policy and Action." In Ethelred the Unready. Papers from the Millenary Conference, ed. D. Hill. BAR British series 59. Oxford, 1978. 15-46.
* Stafford, Pauline. Queen Emma and Queen Edith: Queenship and Women’s Power in Eleventh-Century England. Oxford, 1997.
* Trow, M.J. Cnut: Emperor of the North. Sutton, 2005.
* Williams, Ann. Æthelred the Unready: The Ill-Counselled King. London, 2003.
Ælfgifu of York
Ælfgifu (fl. c. 985-1002) was presumably a daughter of Thored, earl of southern Northumbria, and the first wife of King Æthelred (r. 978-1016), by whom she bore many offspring, including Edmund Ironside.
Identity and background
Her name and paternity do not surface in the sources until sometime after the Conquest. The first to offer any information at all, Sulcard of Westminster (fl. 1080s), merely describes her as being “of very noble English stock” (ex nobilioribus Anglis), without naming her,[1] while in in the early 12th century, William of Malmesbury has nothing to report. All primary evidence comes from two Anglo-Norman historians. John of Worcester, in a chronicle which is thought to rely on earlier material compiled c. 1100, tells that Æthelred's first wife was Ælfgifu, daughter of the nobleman Æthelberht (comes Agelberhtus) and the mother of Edmund, Æthelstan, Eadwig and Eadgyth.[2] Writing in the 1150s, Ailred of Rievaulx had reason to identify Æthelred's first wife as a daughter of earl (comes) Thored and the mother of Edmund, though he supplies no name.[3] Ailred had been seneschal at the court of King David I of Scotland (r. 1124–53), whose mother Margaret descended from King Æthelred and his first wife. Although his testimony is late, his proximity to the royal family may have given him access to genuine information.[4]
These two accounts are irreconcilable at the point of ascribing two different fathers to Æthelred's first wife (in both cases, Edmund's mother). One way out of it would be to assume the existence of two different wives before the arrival of Queen Emma, Æthelred's Norman wife, although this interpretation presents difficulties of its own, especially as the sources envisage a single woman.[5] Historians generally favour the view that John of Worcester was in error about the father's name, as Æthelberht's very existence is under suspicion:[6] if Latin comes is to be interpreted as a gloss on the office of ealdorman, only two doubtful references to one or two duces (ealdormen) of this name can be put forward that would fit the description.[7] All in all, the combined evidence suggests that Æthelred's first wife was Ælfgifu, the daughter of Earl Thored. This magnate is likely to have been the Thored who was a son of Gunnar and earl of (southern) Northumbria.[8]
Marriage and offspring
Based largely on the careers of her sons, Ælfgifu's marriage has been dated approximately to the (mid-)980s.[9] Considering Thored's authority as earl of York and apparently, the tenure of that office without royal appointment, the union would have signified an important step for the West-Saxon royal family by which it secured a foothold in the north.[10] Such a politically weighty union would help explain the close connections maintained by Ælfgifu's eldest sons Edmund and Æthelstan with noble families based in the northern Danelaw.[11]
The marriage produced six sons, all of whom were named after Æthelred's predecessors, and an indefinite number of daughters. The eldest sons Æthelstan, Ecgberht, Eadred and Edmund first attest charters in 993, while the younger sons Eadwig and Edgar first make an appearance in them in 997 and 1001 respectively.[12] Some of these sons seem to have spent part of their childhood in fosterage elsewhere, possibly with Æthelred's mother Ælfthryth.[13]
The only ætheling to become king was Edmund Ironside, whose brief reign came to an end when Cnut won a series of victories and so conquered England (1016). Æthelred gave three of his daughters in marriage to ealdormen, presumably in order to secure the loyalties of his nobles and so to consolidate a defence system against Viking attacks.[14]
sons
Æthelstan (born before 993, d. 1014)
Ecgberht (born before 993, d. 1005)
Edmund (II) Ironside (born before 993, d. 1016)
Eadred (d. 1012 x 1015)
Eadwig (born before 997, exiled and killed 1017)
Edgar (born before 1001, d. 1012 x 1015)
[edit]daughters
Eadgyth (born before 993), married Eadric Streona, ealdorman of Mercia.[15]
Ælfgifu, married ealdorman Uhtred of Northumbria.[16]
(possibly) Wulfhild, who married Ulfcytel (Snillingr) (d. 1016), apparently ealdorman of East Anglia.[17]
possibly an unnamed daughter who married the Æthelstan who was killed fighting the Danes at the Battle of Ringmere in 1010. He is called Æthelred's aðum, meaning either son-in-law or brother-in-law.[18] Ann Williams, however, argues that the latter meaning is the appropriate one and refers to Æthelstan as being Ælfgifu's brother.[19]
possibly unnamed daughter, who became abbess of Wherwell.[20]
Life and death
Ælfgifu seems to have kept a low profile in her husband's political life, to judge by her total absence from royal diplomas. She did, however, make at least some impression on the contemporary record. In a will issued between 975/980 and 987, the thegn Beorhtric and his wife bequeathed to their “lady” (hlæfdige) an armlet worth 30 gold mancuses and a stallion, calling upon her authority to oversee that the arrangements set out by will were implemented.[21] In a will of later date (AD 990 x 1001), in which she is addressed as “my lady” (mire hlæfdian), the noblewoman Æthelgifu promised a bequest of 30 mancuses of gold.[22] Just as little is known of Ælfgifu's life, so the precise date and circumstances of her death cannot be recovered.[23] In any event, she appears to have died by 1002, when Æthelred took to wife Emma, daughter of Count Richard of Rouen, who received or adopted her predecessor's Anglo-Saxon name, Ælfgifu.
Ælfgifu of York (fl. c. 985-1002) was the first wife of King Æthelred (r. 978-1016), by whom she bore many offspring, including Edmund Ironside. It is most probable that she was a daughter of Thored, earl of southern Northumbria.
Identity and background
Her name and paternity do not surface in the sources until sometime after the Conquest. The first to offer any information at all, Sulcard of Westminster (fl. 1080s), merely describes her as being “of very noble English stock” (ex nobilioribus Anglis), without naming her,[1] while in in the early 12th century, William of Malmesbury has nothing to report. All primary evidence comes from two Anglo-Norman historians. John of Worcester, in a chronicle which is thought to rely on earlier material compiled c. 1100, tells that Æthelred's first wife was Ælfgifu, daughter of the nobleman Æthelberht (comes Agelberhtus) and the mother of Edmund, Æthelstan, Eadwig and Eadgyth.[2] Writing in the 1150s, Ailred of Rievaulx had reason to identify Æthelred's first wife as a daughter of earl (comes) Thored and the mother of Edmund, though he supplies no name.[3] Ailred had been seneschal at the court of King David I of Scotland (r. 1124–53), whose mother Margaret descended from King Æthelred and his first wife. Although his testimony is late, his proximity to the royal family may have given him access to genuine information.[4]
Problem of fatherhood
These two accounts are irreconcilable at the point of ascribing two different fathers to Æthelred's first wife (in both cases, Edmund's mother). One way out of it would be to assume the existence of two different wives before the arrival of Queen Emma, Æthelred's Norman wife, although this interpretation presents difficulties of its own, especially as the sources envisage a single woman.[5] Historians generally favour the view that John of Worcester was in error about the father's name, as Æthelberht's very existence is under suspicion:[6] if Latin comes is to be interpreted as a gloss on the office of ealdorman, only two doubtful references to one or two duces (ealdormen) of this name can be put forward that would fit the description.[7] All in all, the combined evidence suggests that Æthelred's first wife was Ælfgifu, the daughter of Earl Thored. This magnate is likely to have been the Thored who was a son of Gunnar and earl of (southern) Northumbria.[8]
Marriage and offspring
Based largely on the careers of her sons, Ælfgifu's marriage has been dated approximately to the (mid-)980s.[9] Considering Thored's authority as earl of York and apparently, the tenure of that office without royal appointment, the union would have signified an important step for the West-Saxon royal family by which it secured a foothold in the north.[10] Such a politically weighty union would help explain the close connections maintained by Ælfgifu's eldest sons Edmund and Æthelstan with noble families based in the northern Danelaw.[11]
The marriage produced six sons, all of whom were named after Æthelred's predecessors, and an unknown number of daughters. The eldest sons Æthelstan, Ecgberht, Eadred and Edmund first attest charters in 993, while the younger sons Eadwig and Edgar first make an appearance in them in 997 and 1001 respectively.[12] Some of these sons seem to have spent part of their childhood in fosterage elsewhere, possibly with Æthelred's mother Ælfthryth.[13]
The only ætheling to become king was Edmund Ironside, whose brief reign came to an end when Cnut won a series of victories and so conquered England (1016). Æthelred gave three of his daughters in marriage to ealdormen, presumably in order to secure the loyalties of his nobles and so to consolidate a defence system against Viking attacks.[14]
Sons
* Æthelstan (born before 993, d. 1014)
* Ecgberht (born before 993, d. 1005)
* Edmund (II) Ironside (born before 993, d. 1016)
* Eadred (d. 1012 x 1015)
* Eadwig (born before 997, exiled and killed 1017)
* Edgar (born before 1001, d. 1012 x 1015)
Daughters
* Eadgyth (born before 993), married Eadric Streona, ealdorman of Mercia.[15]
* Ælfgifu, married ealdorman Uhtred of Northumbria.[16]
* (possibly) Wulfhild, who married Ulfcytel (Snillingr) (d. 1016), apparently ealdorman of East Anglia.[17]
* possibly an unnamed daughter who married the Æthelstan who was killed fighting the Danes at the Battle of Ringmere in 1010. He is called Æthelred's aðum, meaning either son-in-law or brother-in-law.[18] Ann Williams, however, argues that the latter meaning is the appropriate one and refers to Æthelstan as being Ælfgifu's brother.[19]
* possibly unnamed daughter, who became abbess of Wherwell.[20]
Life and death
Ælfgifu seems to have kept a low profile in her husband's political life, to judge by her total absence from royal diplomas. She did, however, make at least some impression on the contemporary record. In a will issued between 975/980 and 987, the thegn Beorhtric and his wife bequeathed to their “lady” (hlæfdige) an armlet worth 30 gold mancuses and a stallion, calling upon her authority to oversee the implementation of the arrangements set out by will.[21] In a will of later date (AD 990 x 1001), in which she is addressed as “my lady” (mire hlæfdian), the noblewoman Æthelgifu promised a bequest of 30 mancuses of gold.[22] Just as little is known of Ælfgifu's life, so the precise date and circumstances of her death cannot be recovered.[23] In any event, she appears to have died by 1002, when Æthelred took to wife Emma, daughter of Count Richard of Rouen, who received or adopted her predecessor's Anglo-Saxon name, Ælfgifu.
Notes
1. ^ Sulcard of Winchester, Prologus de construccione Westmonasterii, ed. Scholz, pp. 74, 89; Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 169, note 30.
2. ^ John of Worcester, Chronicon ex Chronicis (West-Saxon regnal list at the end of Chronicle).
3. ^ '[…] cum jam de filia Torethi nobilissimi comitis filium suscepisset Edmundum.'--Ailred of Rievaulx, Genealogia regum Anglorum.
4. ^ Keynes, “Æthelred.”
5. ^ This possibility is raised, for instance, by Stafford, Queen Emma, p. 66 and 66 note 3. It is also considered, but subsequently rejected by Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 25.
6. ^ Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 25; Keynes, “Æthelred”; Handbook of British Chronology, p. 27.
7. ^ His name is only attested for an ealdorman (dux) on the witness lists for two spurious royal charters relating to grants in Tavistock and Exeter. S 838 (AD 981) and S 954 (AD 1019). The latter subscription may be an error for Æthelweard; see Williams, Æthelred the Unready. p. 169 note 29.
8. ^ Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 24.
9. ^ Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 24.
10. ^ Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 24-5.
11. ^ Keynes, “Æthelred”; Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 25.
12. ^ S 876 (AD 993), S 891 (AD 997), S 899 (AD 1001).
13. ^ Keynes, “Æthelred”
14. ^ Stafford, The Reign of Æthelred II.34-5.
15. ^ John of Worcester, Chronicon, AD 1009.
16. ^ De Obsessione Dunelmi § 2; Handbook of British Chronology, p. 27.
17. ^ Handbook of British Chronology, p. 27.
18. ^ Handbook of British Chronology, p. 27.
19. ^ Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 24.
20. ^ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (MS E) 1048; Handbook of British Chronology, p. 27.
21. ^ S 1511 (975 or 980 x 987).
22. ^ S 1497 (c. AD 990x 1001).
23. ^ It has been suggested that she died in giving birth. Trow, Cnut: Emperor of the North, p. 54.
Sources
Primary sources
* Ailred of Rievaulx, De genealogia regum Anglorum ("On the Genealogy of the English Kings"), ed. R. Twysden, De genealogia regum Anglorum. Rerum Anglicarum scriptores 10. London, 1652. 1.347–70. Patrologia Latina 195 (711–38) edition available from Documenta Catholica; tr. M. L. Dutton and J. P. Freeland, Aelred of Rievaulx, The Historical Works. Kalamazoo, 2005.
* Anglo-Saxon charters
o S 1511 (possibly AD 980 x 987)
o S 1497 (c. AD 990 x 1001)
* Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ed. D. Dumville and S. Keynes, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: a collaborative edition. 8 vols. Cambridge, 1983
o Tr. Michael J. Swanton, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. 2nd ed. London, 2000.
* John of Worcester, Chronicon ex Chronicis, ed. Benjamin Thorpe, Florentii Wigorniensis monachi chronicon ex chronicis. 2 vols. London, 1848-49
o Tr. J. Stevenson, Church Historians of England. 8 vols.: vol. 2.1. London, 1855; pp. 171-372.
* Sulcard of Westminster, Prologus de construccione Westmonasterii, ed. B. W. Scholz, “Sulcard of Westminster. Prologus de construccione Westmonasterii.” Traditio; 20 (1964); pp. 59–91.
* William of Malmesbury, Gesta regum Anglorum, ed. and tr. R. A. B. Mynors, R. M. Thomson and M. Winterbottom, William of Malmesbury. Gesta Regum Anglorum: The History of the English Kings. (Oxford Medieval Texts.) 2 vols.; vol 1. Oxford, 1998.
Secondary sources
* Fryde, E. et al. Handbook of British Chronology. 3d ed. Cambridge, 1996.
* Keynes, Simon. “Æthelred II (c.966x8–1016).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 200.4 Accessed 1 Sept 2007.
* Stafford, Pauline. "The Reign of Æthelred II. A Study in the Limitations on Royal Policy and Action." In Ethelred the Unready. Papers from the Millenary Conference, ed. D. Hill. BAR British series 59. Oxford, 1978. 15-46.
* Stafford, Pauline. Queen Emma and Queen Edith: Queenship and Women’s Power in Eleventh-Century England. Oxford, 1997.
* Trow, M.J. Cnut: Emperor of the North. Sutton, 2005.
* Williams, Ann. Æthelred the Unready: The Ill-Counselled King. London, 2003.
F, #102184, b. circa 963, d. February 1002
Last Edited=11 Dec 2005
Ælgifu (?) was born circa 963.2 She was the daughter of Thored of Northumbria, Ealdorman of York and Hilda (?). (2) She married Æthelred II 'the Unready', King of England, son of Eadgar 'the Peaceful', King of England and Ælfthryth (?), between 980 and 985. (2)
She died in February 1002. (2)
Ælgifu (?) was also known as Elgiva (?). (3) She was also known as Elffleda (?). (2)
Children of Ælgifu (?) and Æthelred II 'the Unready', King of England
-1. Æthelstan (?) b. c 986, d. bt 1012 - 1015 (3)
-2. Eadred (?) b. bt 987 - 1002, d. bt 1012 - 1015 (6)
-3. Edgar (?) b. bt 987 - 1002, d. bt 1012 - 1015 (7)
-4. Edmund II 'Ironside', King of England+ b. bt 988 - 993, d. 30 Nov 1016 (6)
-5. Edward (?) b. bt 988 - 1002, d. b 1004
-6. Eadwig (?) b. bt 989 - 1002, d. 1017 (6)
-7. Ecgberht (?) b. bt 990 - 1002, d. c 1005 (6)
-8. Eadgyth (?)+ b. bt 991 - 1002 (7)
-9. Ælfgifu (?)+ b. bt 991 - 1002 (8)
-10. Wulfhild (?) b. bt 992 - 1002 (7)
-11. unknown daughter (?) b. bt 993 - 1002 (7)
-12. unknown daughter2 (?) b. bt 994 - 1002, d. a 1051 (4)
Forrás / Source:
10. Daughter (married Æthelstan "Ringmere")
11. Daughter, Abbess of Wherwell
http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/ENGLAND,%20AngloSaxon%20&%20Danish%20Kings.htm#AethelredIIdied1016A
[m] firstly ([980/85]) [ÆLFGIVA], daughter of ---. The information about the parentage of the first "wife" of King Æthelred is contradictory. According to Florence of Worcester´s genealogies, she was Ælfgiva, daughter of Ealdorman "Ægelberht", as he names "Ælfgiva, comitis Ægelberhti filia" as mother of King Æthelred´s three sons "Eadmundum, Eadwium et Æthelstanum" and his daughter "Eadgitham"[1786]. (It should be noted in passing that this is the only example of the root "Ægel-" being found in an Anglo-Saxon name; it is therefore possible that "Ægelberhti" represents a transcription error, maybe for "Æthelberhti".) On the other hand, Ailred Abbot of Rievaulx records that she was ---, daughter of Thored Ealdorman of York, naming "filia Torethi…comitis" as the mother of "Edmundum" [King Edmund "Ironsides"][1787]. The Estoire de Seint Aedward le Rei, written in [1245], must have used Ailred as its source as it states that the first wife of King Æthelred II was the daughter of "Count Torin"[1788]. Roger of Wendover is unspecific, noting that "rex Ethelredus" married "cujusdam ducis filiam" by whom he fathered "filium…Eadmundum", although in a later passage he says that King Eadmund had "matrem quondam ignobilem fœminam"[1789]. No trace of King Æthelred´s first wife has been found in any other contemporary document. In charters dated 996, King Æthelred's mother countersigns "Ælfthryth regina", but there is no mention of the king's wife. This suggests that Ælfgiva (if indeed that was her name) was an "unofficial" wife, having a similar status to Æthelflæd, first "wife" of King Eadgar, King Æthelred´s father. The will of her son ætheling Æthelstan, dated [1014], refers to "the soul of Ælfthryth my grandmother who brought me up" but makes no mention of his mother[1790], which suggests that she played little part in his early life. This seems suprising if she was in fact the mother of all King Æthelred's children who were not born to his known wife Emma, as is generally reported in most secondary sources. There must therefore be some doubt whether [Ælfgiva] was the king's only wife or concubine before his marriage to Emma de Normandie.
King Æthelred II & his first [wife] had [six] children:
1. ÆTHELSTAN ([986]-killed in battle after 25 Jun 1014[1805]). Florence of Worcester´s genealogies name "Ælfgiva, comitis Ægelberhti filia" as mother of King Æthelred´s three sons "Eadmundum, Eadwium et Æthelstanum" and his daughter "Eadgitham"[1806]. "Æthelstanus filius regis/clito/ætheling" subscribed charters of King Æthelred II dated between 993 and 1013, his name being recorded consistently first among his brothers and specified as "primogenitus" in 1004[1807]. He was killed fighting the Danes[1808]. Ætheling Æthelstan, under his will dated [1014], made bequests (in order) to "my father King Æthelred, my brother Eadmund, my brother Eadwig, Ælfmær…Godwine, Wulfnoth's son…my foster mother Ælfswith, my mass priest Ælfwine, my seneschal Ælfmær, Sigeferth…Æthelweard the Stammerer and Lifing…Leofstan the brother of Leofwine Cwatt…Leofmær of Bygrave, Godwine the Driveller, Eadric son of Wynflæd…", names "Ælfmær, Ælfric's son" and refers to "the soul of Ælfthryth my grandmother who brought me up"[1809].
2. ECGBERHT (-1005). "Ecgbyrht/Ecbyrhtus filius regis/clito" subscribed charters of King Æthelred II dated between 993 and 1005, in all cases named directly after his brother Æthelstan, consistent with Ecgberht being the second son[1810]. If this is correct, it is assumed that Ecgberht was the son of King Æthelred´s "wife" Ælflæd, although he is not specifically named by Florence of Worcester as one of her children.
3. EADMUND ([990]-30 Nov 1016, bur Glastonbury Abbey). Florence of Worcester´s genealogies name "Ælfgiva, comitis Ægelberhti filia" as mother of King Æthelred´s three sons "Eadmundum, Eadwium et Æthelstanum" and his daughter "Eadgitham"[1811]. "Eadmundus filius regis/clito/ætheling" subscribed charters of King Æthelred II dated between 993 and 1015, the last dated 1015 being signed "Eadmund regie indolis soboles"[1812]. He succeeded his father in 1016 as EDMUND "Ironside" King of England.
- see below.
4. EADRED (-[1012]). "Eadred regis filius/clito" subscribed charters of King Æthelred II dated between 993 and [1012/13][1813], a charter dated 1011 specifying "Eadred tercia proles regia"[1814]. Eadred was named after "Eadmund" in all lists in which the two appear, consistent with his being his father's fourth son. If this is correct, it is assumed that Eadred was the son of King Æthelred´s "wife" Ælflæd, although he is not specifically named by Florence of Worcester as one of her children. "Eadric clito" subscribed a charter of King Æthelred II dated 1005[1815]. As this charter is not one subscribed by "Eadred", it is reasonable to assume that this is a copyist's error rather than that King Æthelred had another son of this name. "Eadred clito" countersigned his father's 1006 charter making grants to St Alban's, signing fifth among the brothers[1816].
5. EADWIG (-murdered 1017, bur Tavistock Abbey, Devon[1817]). Florence of Worcester´s genealogies name "Ælfgiva, comitis Ægelberhti filia" as mother of King Æthelred´s three sons "Eadmundum, Eadwium et Æthelstanum" and his daughter "Eadgitham"[1818]. "Eadwius/Eadwig filius regis/clito" subscribed charters of King Æthelred II dated between 1000 and 1014[1819]. He is named after his brother Eadred in the lists of subscribers, indicating that Eadwig was the fifth son. Eadwig countersigned his father's charter dated 1002 which grants land at Codicote, Hertfordshire to Ælthelm, signing fifth among his brothers[1820], and "Eadwig clito" his father's 1006 charter which made grants to St Alban's, signing sixth[1821]. Ætheling Æthelstan, under his will dated [1014], made bequests to "…my brother Eadmund, my brother Eadwig…"[1822]. He was banished "by the counsel of the perfidious ealdorman Eadric" and murdered on the orders of King Canute[1823]. Simeon of Durham records that King Canute outlawed "the Atheling Edwy the brother of king Eadmund who was called King of the Churls" in 1017[1824].
6. EADGYTH (-after 11 Nov 1021). Florence of Worcester´s genealogies name "Ælfgiva, comitis Ægelberhti filia" as mother of King Æthelred´s three sons "Eadmundum, Eadwium et Æthelstanum" and his daughter "Eadgitham"[1825]. Roger of Hoveden names her as the daughter of King Æthelred when recording her first marriage[1826]. Florence of Worcester records that she was banished from England with her second husband 11 Nov 1021[1827].
m firstly (1009) EADRIC "Streona/the Acquisitor", son of --- (-murdered 25 Dec 1017). One of the main advisers of King Æthelred II from [1006], he acquired a position of considerable power but gained a reputation for treachery. He was made Ealdorman of Mercia in 1007[1828]. He changed sides several times during 1014/1016, wavering between Edmund "Ironside" or Canute depending on who had the upper hand at the time, but finally abandoned Edmund's cause at the battle of Ashingdon. Canute appointed Eadric as Ealdorman of Mercia in 1017, but had him murdered in 1017.
m secondly (1017 or after) THORKELL "Havi/the Tall", son of [STRUTHARALD King in Skane] (-killed in battle 1039). One of the leaders of the Danish invasion of England in 1009. He changed sides and supported Æthelred II King of England at the end of 1012, but defected back to join the invasion fleet of Knud of Denmark in Aug 1015. King Canute appointed him Ealdorman of the East Angles 1017 after the murder of Eadric "Streona/the Acquisitor", whose widow he married. It is probable that the King appointed him Regent of England 1019, during his absence in Denmark. King Canute outlawed him 11 Nov 1021[1829], but they entered a pact of reconciliation in 1023 under which Thorkell would govern Denmark and each would keep the other's son as hostage[1830]. He remained regent in Denmark for about three years, being replaced by Ulf, King Knud's brother-in-law. He was killed by the Welsh[1831].
---------------------------
King Æthelred II & his [first/second] [wife] had [five] children:
7. EADGAR (-[1012/15]). "Eadgarus filius regis/clito" subscribed charters of King Æthelred II dated between 1001 and 1008[1832]. He is named after his brother Eadwig in the lists of subscribers, consistent with Eadgar being the sixth son. Eadgar countersigned his father's charter dated 1002 which grants land at Codicote, Hertfordshire to Ælthelm, signing sixth among his brothers[1833], and "Eadgar clito" his father's 1006 charter which made grants to St Alban's, signing seventh[1834].
8. ÆLFGIFU ([990/95]-). She is named as daughter of King Æthelred by Roger of Hoveden, when he records her marriage[1835]. Her birth date range is estimated from her having given birth to her daughter before 1016. m ([1009/16][1836]) as his third wife, UHTRED Earl of Northumbria, son of WALTHEOF Earl of Northumbria & his wife --- (-murdered 1016).
9. WULFHILD . The primary source which confirms her parentage and marriage has not yet been identified. m ULFCYTEL "Snillingr/the Valliant", son of --- (-killed in battle Ashingdon Oct 1016[1837]). Ealdorman of East Anglia. After being surprised by the forces of Svend King of Denmark which landed at Norwich, he made peace with the invader. After the Danes broke the treaty, Ulfcytel forced them to retreat to their ships[1838]. He was defeated by the Danes outside Thetford in 1004[1839], and again in East Anglia 18 May 1009[1840]. He was defeated by the Danes 5 May 1010 at Ringmere after their landing near Ipswich[1841]. He was killed in King Edmund II's final battle against Canute.
10. daughter.
m ÆTHELSTAN, son of --- (-killed in battle Ringmere 5 May 1010).
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle names Athelstan as "the king's son-in-law", killed by the Danes after they landed near Ipswich[1842]. Simeon of Durham names "Ethelstan the son-in-law of king Ethelred" among those killed in battle by the Danes "in East Anglia…Ringmere"[1843].
11. daughter (-after 1051). Abbess of Wherwell. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that the abbess of Wherwell was the king's sister but does not name her when recording that she received Queen Eadgyth in 1051 after the disgrace of her family[1844].
Ælfgifu (wife of Ethelred)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ælfgifu (c. 963-1002),she was also know as Elgyva, and also know as Elffleda, was the first wife of King Æthelred II 'the Unready', King of England.
Early life
Ælfgifu was the daughter of Thored and Hilda.
References
Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86lfgifu_(wife_of_Ethelred )"
Aelfflaed, Ælfgifu
Ælfgifu (fl. c. 985-1002) was presumably a daughter of Thored, earl of southern Northumbria, and the first wife of King Æthelred (r. 978-1016), by whom she bore many offspring, including Edmund Ironside.
for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86lfgifu_of_York
Ælfgifu (fl. c. 985-1002) was presumably a daughter of Thored, earl of southern Northumbria, and the first wife of King Æthelred (r. 978-1016), by whom she bore many offspring, including Edmund Ironside.
sons
Æthelstan (born before 993, d. 1014)
Ecgberht (born before 993, d. 1005)
Edmund (II) Ironside (born before 993, d. 1016)
Eadred (d. 1012 x 1015)
Eadwig (born before 997, exiled and killed 1017)
Edgar (born before 1001, d. 1012 x 1015)
[edit] daughters
Eadgyth (born before 993), married Eadric Streona, ealdorman of Mercia.[15]
Ælfgifu, married ealdorman Uhtred of Northumbria.[16]
(possibly) Wulfhild, who married Ulfcytel (Snillingr) (d. 1016), apparently ealdorman of East Anglia.[17]
possibly an unnamed daughter who married the Æthelstan who was killed fighting the Danes at the Battle of Ringmere in 1010. He is called Æthelred's aðum, meaning either son-in-law or brother-in-law.[18] Ann Williams, however, argues that the latter meaning is the appropriate one and refers to Æthelstan as being Ælfgifu's brother.[19]
possibly unnamed daughter, who became abbess of Wherwell
she appears to have died by 1002, when Æthelred took to wife Emma, daughter of Count Richard of Rouen, who received or adopted her predecessor's Anglo-Saxon name, Ælfgifu.
Sources
John of Worcester, Chronicon ex Chronicis, ed. Benjamin Thorpe, Florentii Wigorniensis monachi chronicon ex chronicis. 2 vols. London, 1848-9; tr. J. Stevenson, Church Historians of England. 8 vols.: vol. 2.1. London, 1855. 171-372.
Ailred of Rievaulx, De genealogia regum Anglorum ("On the Genealogy of the English Kings"), ed. R. Twysden, De genealogia regum Anglorum. Rerum Anglicarum scriptores 10. London, 1652. 1.347–70. Patrologia Latina 195 (711–38) edition available from Documenta Catholica; tr. M. L. Dutton and J. P. Freeland, Aelred of Rievaulx, The Historical Works. Kalamazoo, 2005.
William of Malmesbury, Gesta regum Anglorum, ed. and tr. R.A.B. Mynors, R. M. Thomson and M. Winterbottom, William of Malmesbury. Gesta Regum Anglorum. The History of the English Kings. OMT. 2 vols: vol 1. Oxford, 1998.
Sulcard of Westminster, Prologus de construccione Westmonasterii, ed. B.W. Scholz, “Sulcard of Westminster. Prologus de construccione Westmonasterii.” Traditio 20 (1964): 59–91.
Anglo-Saxon charters
o S 1511 (possibly AD 980 x 987) o S 1497 (c. AD 990 x 1001)
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ed. D. Dumville and S. Keynes, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. A Collaborative Edition. 8 vols. Cambridge, 1983; tr. Michael J. Swanton, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. 2nd ed. London, 2000.
[edit] Secondary sources
Fryde, E. et al. Handbook of British Chronology. 3d ed. Cambridge, 1996.
Keynes, Simon. “Æthelred II (c.966x8–1016).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 200.4 Accessed 1 Sept 2007.
Stafford, Pauline. "The Reign of Æthelred II. A Study in the Limitations on Royal Policy and Action." In Ethelred the Unready. Papers from the Millenary Conference, ed. D. Hill. BAR British series 59. Oxford, 1978. 15-46.
Stafford, Pauline. Queen Emma and Queen Edith: Queenship and Women’s Power in Eleventh-Century England. Oxford, 1997.
Trow, M.J. Cnut: Emperor of the North. Sutton, 2005.
Williams, Ann. Æthelred the Unready: The Ill-Counselled King. London, 2003.
Ælfgifu of York
Ælfgifu (fl. c. 985-1002) was presumably a daughter of Thored, earl of southern Northumbria, and the first wife of King Æthelred (r. 978-1016), by whom she bore many offspring, including Edmund Ironside.
Identity and background
Her name and paternity do not surface in the sources until sometime after the Conquest. The first to offer any information at all, Sulcard of Westminster (fl. 1080s), merely describes her as being “of very noble English stock” (ex nobilioribus Anglis), without naming her,[1] while in in the early 12th century, William of Malmesbury has nothing to report. All primary evidence comes from two Anglo-Norman historians. John of Worcester, in a chronicle which is thought to rely on earlier material compiled c. 1100, tells that Æthelred's first wife was Ælfgifu, daughter of the nobleman Æthelberht (comes Agelberhtus) and the mother of Edmund, Æthelstan, Eadwig and Eadgyth.[2] Writing in the 1150s, Ailred of Rievaulx had reason to identify Æthelred's first wife as a daughter of earl (comes) Thored and the mother of Edmund, though he supplies no name.[3] Ailred had been seneschal at the court of King David I of Scotland (r. 1124–53), whose mother Margaret descended from King Æthelred and his first wife. Although his testimony is late, his proximity to the royal family may have given him access to genuine information.[4]
These two accounts are irreconcilable at the point of ascribing two different fathers to Æthelred's first wife (in both cases, Edmund's mother). One way out of it would be to assume the existence of two different wives before the arrival of Queen Emma, Æthelred's Norman wife, although this interpretation presents difficulties of its own, especially as the sources envisage a single woman.[5] Historians generally favour the view that John of Worcester was in error about the father's name, as Æthelberht's very existence is under suspicion:[6] if Latin comes is to be interpreted as a gloss on the office of ealdorman, only two doubtful references to one or two duces (ealdormen) of this name can be put forward that would fit the description.[7] All in all, the combined evidence suggests that Æthelred's first wife was Ælfgifu, the daughter of Earl Thored. This magnate is likely to have been the Thored who was a son of Gunnar and earl of (southern) Northumbria.[8]
Marriage and offspring
Based largely on the careers of her sons, Ælfgifu's marriage has been dated approximately to the (mid-)980s.[9] Considering Thored's authority as earl of York and apparently, the tenure of that office without royal appointment, the union would have signified an important step for the West-Saxon royal family by which it secured a foothold in the north.[10] Such a politically weighty union would help explain the close connections maintained by Ælfgifu's eldest sons Edmund and Æthelstan with noble families based in the northern Danelaw.[11]
The marriage produced six sons, all of whom were named after Æthelred's predecessors, and an indefinite number of daughters. The eldest sons Æthelstan, Ecgberht, Eadred and Edmund first attest charters in 993, while the younger sons Eadwig and Edgar first make an appearance in them in 997 and 1001 respectively.[12] Some of these sons seem to have spent part of their childhood in fosterage elsewhere, possibly with Æthelred's mother Ælfthryth.[13]
The only ætheling to become king was Edmund Ironside, whose brief reign came to an end when Cnut won a series of victories and so conquered England (1016). Æthelred gave three of his daughters in marriage to ealdormen, presumably in order to secure the loyalties of his nobles and so to consolidate a defence system against Viking attacks.[14]
sons
Æthelstan (born before 993, d. 1014)
Ecgberht (born before 993, d. 1005)
Edmund (II) Ironside (born before 993, d. 1016)
Eadred (d. 1012 x 1015)
Eadwig (born before 997, exiled and killed 1017)
Edgar (born before 1001, d. 1012 x 1015)
[edit]daughters
Eadgyth (born before 993), married Eadric Streona, ealdorman of Mercia.[15]
Ælfgifu, married ealdorman Uhtred of Northumbria.[16]
(possibly) Wulfhild, who married Ulfcytel (Snillingr) (d. 1016), apparently ealdorman of East Anglia.[17]
possibly an unnamed daughter who married the Æthelstan who was killed fighting the Danes at the Battle of Ringmere in 1010. He is called Æthelred's aðum, meaning either son-in-law or brother-in-law.[18] Ann Williams, however, argues that the latter meaning is the appropriate one and refers to Æthelstan as being Ælfgifu's brother.[19]
possibly unnamed daughter, who became abbess of Wherwell.[20]
Life and death
Ælfgifu seems to have kept a low profile in her husband's political life, to judge by her total absence from royal diplomas. She did, however, make at least some impression on the contemporary record. In a will issued between 975/980 and 987, the thegn Beorhtric and his wife bequeathed to their “lady” (hlæfdige) an armlet worth 30 gold mancuses and a stallion, calling upon her authority to oversee that the arrangements set out by will were implemented.[21] In a will of later date (AD 990 x 1001), in which she is addressed as “my lady” (mire hlæfdian), the noblewoman Æthelgifu promised a bequest of 30 mancuses of gold.[22] Just as little is known of Ælfgifu's life, so the precise date and circumstances of her death cannot be recovered.[23] In any event, she appears to have died by 1002, when Æthelred took to wife Emma, daughter of Count Richard of Rouen, who received or adopted her predecessor's Anglo-Saxon name, Ælfgifu.
Ælfgifu of York (fl. c. 985-1002) was the first wife of King Æthelred (r. 978-1016), by whom she bore many offspring, including Edmund Ironside. It is most probable that she was a daughter of Thored, earl of southern Northumbria.
Identity and background
Her name and paternity do not surface in the sources until sometime after the Conquest. The first to offer any information at all, Sulcard of Westminster (fl. 1080s), merely describes her as being “of very noble English stock” (ex nobilioribus Anglis), without naming her,[1] while in in the early 12th century, William of Malmesbury has nothing to report. All primary evidence comes from two Anglo-Norman historians. John of Worcester, in a chronicle which is thought to rely on earlier material compiled c. 1100, tells that Æthelred's first wife was Ælfgifu, daughter of the nobleman Æthelberht (comes Agelberhtus) and the mother of Edmund, Æthelstan, Eadwig and Eadgyth.[2] Writing in the 1150s, Ailred of Rievaulx had reason to identify Æthelred's first wife as a daughter of earl (comes) Thored and the mother of Edmund, though he supplies no name.[3] Ailred had been seneschal at the court of King David I of Scotland (r. 1124–53), whose mother Margaret descended from King Æthelred and his first wife. Although his testimony is late, his proximity to the royal family may have given him access to genuine information.[4]
Problem of fatherhood
These two accounts are irreconcilable at the point of ascribing two different fathers to Æthelred's first wife (in both cases, Edmund's mother). One way out of it would be to assume the existence of two different wives before the arrival of Queen Emma, Æthelred's Norman wife, although this interpretation presents difficulties of its own, especially as the sources envisage a single woman.[5] Historians generally favour the view that John of Worcester was in error about the father's name, as Æthelberht's very existence is under suspicion:[6] if Latin comes is to be interpreted as a gloss on the office of ealdorman, only two doubtful references to one or two duces (ealdormen) of this name can be put forward that would fit the description.[7] All in all, the combined evidence suggests that Æthelred's first wife was Ælfgifu, the daughter of Earl Thored. This magnate is likely to have been the Thored who was a son of Gunnar and earl of (southern) Northumbria.[8]
Marriage and offspring
Based largely on the careers of her sons, Ælfgifu's marriage has been dated approximately to the (mid-)980s.[9] Considering Thored's authority as earl of York and apparently, the tenure of that office without royal appointment, the union would have signified an important step for the West-Saxon royal family by which it secured a foothold in the north.[10] Such a politically weighty union would help explain the close connections maintained by Ælfgifu's eldest sons Edmund and Æthelstan with noble families based in the northern Danelaw.[11]
The marriage produced six sons, all of whom were named after Æthelred's predecessors, and an unknown number of daughters. The eldest sons Æthelstan, Ecgberht, Eadred and Edmund first attest charters in 993, while the younger sons Eadwig and Edgar first make an appearance in them in 997 and 1001 respectively.[12] Some of these sons seem to have spent part of their childhood in fosterage elsewhere, possibly with Æthelred's mother Ælfthryth.[13]
The only ætheling to become king was Edmund Ironside, whose brief reign came to an end when Cnut won a series of victories and so conquered England (1016). Æthelred gave three of his daughters in marriage to ealdormen, presumably in order to secure the loyalties of his nobles and so to consolidate a defence system against Viking attacks.[14]
Sons
Æthelstan (born before 993, d. 1014)
Ecgberht (born before 993, d. 1005)
Edmund (II) Ironside (born before 993, d. 1016)
Eadred (d. 1012 x 1015)
Eadwig (born before 997, exiled and killed 1017)
Edgar (born before 1001, d. 1012 x 1015)
Daughters
Eadgyth (born before 993), married Eadric Streona, ealdorman of Mercia.[15]
Ælfgifu, married ealdorman Uhtred of Northumbria.[16]
(possibly) Wulfhild, who married Ulfcytel (Snillingr) (d. 1016), apparently ealdorman of East Anglia.[17]
possibly an unnamed daughter who married the Æthelstan who was killed fighting the Danes at the Battle of Ringmere in 1010. He is called Æthelred's aðum, meaning either son-in-law or brother-in-law.[18] Ann Williams, however, argues that the latter meaning is the appropriate one and refers to Æthelstan as being Ælfgifu's brother.[19]
possibly unnamed daughter, who became abbess of Wherwell.[20]
Life and death
Ælfgifu seems to have kept a low profile in her husband's political life, to judge by her total absence from royal diplomas. She did, however, make at least some impression on the contemporary record. In a will issued between 975/980 and 987, the thegn Beorhtric and his wife bequeathed to their “lady” (hlæfdige) an armlet worth 30 gold mancuses and a stallion, calling upon her authority to oversee the implementation of the arrangements set out by will.[21] In a will of later date (AD 990 x 1001), in which she is addressed as “my lady” (mire hlæfdian), the noblewoman Æthelgifu promised a bequest of 30 mancuses of gold.[22] Just as little is known of Ælfgifu's life, so the precise date and circumstances of her death cannot be recovered.[23] In any event, she appears to have died by 1002, when Æthelred took to wife Emma, daughter of Count Richard of Rouen, who received or adopted her predecessor's Anglo-Saxon name, Ælfgifu.
Notes
1. ^ Sulcard of Winchester, Prologus de construccione Westmonasterii, ed. Scholz, pp. 74, 89; Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 169, note 30. 2. ^ John of Worcester, Chronicon ex Chronicis (West-Saxon regnal list at the end of Chronicle). 3. ^ '[…] cum jam de filia Torethi nobilissimi comitis filium suscepisset Edmundum.'--Ailred of Rievaulx, Genealogia regum Anglorum. 4. ^ Keynes, “Æthelred.” 5. ^ This possibility is raised, for instance, by Stafford, Queen Emma, p. 66 and 66 note 3. It is also considered, but subsequently rejected by Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 25. 6. ^ Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 25; Keynes, “Æthelred”; Handbook of British Chronology, p. 27. 7. ^ His name is only attested for an ealdorman (dux) on the witness lists for two spurious royal charters relating to grants in Tavistock and Exeter. S 838 (AD 981) and S 954 (AD 1019). The latter subscription may be an error for Æthelweard; see Williams, Æthelred the Unready. p. 169 note 29. 8. ^ Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 24. 9. ^ Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 24. 10. ^ Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 24-5. 11. ^ Keynes, “Æthelred”; Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 25. 12. ^ S 876 (AD 993), S 891 (AD 997), S 899 (AD 1001). 13. ^ Keynes, “Æthelred” 14. ^ Stafford, The Reign of Æthelred II.34-5. 15. ^ John of Worcester, Chronicon, AD 1009. 16. ^ De Obsessione Dunelmi § 2; Handbook of British Chronology, p. 27. 17. ^ Handbook of British Chronology, p. 27. 18. ^ Handbook of British Chronology, p. 27. 19. ^ Williams, Æthelred the Unready, p. 24. 20. ^ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (MS E) 1048; Handbook of British Chronology, p. 27. 21. ^ S 1511 (975 or 980 x 987). 22. ^ S 1497 (c. AD 990x 1001). 23. ^ It has been suggested that she died in giving birth. Trow, Cnut: Emperor of the North, p. 54. Sources
Primary sources
Ailred of Rievaulx, De genealogia regum Anglorum ("On the Genealogy of the English Kings"), ed. R. Twysden, De genealogia regum Anglorum. Rerum Anglicarum scriptores 10. London, 1652. 1.347–70. Patrologia Latina 195 (711–38) edition available from Documenta Catholica; tr. M. L. Dutton and J. P. Freeland, Aelred of Rievaulx, The Historical Works. Kalamazoo, 2005.
Anglo-Saxon charters
o S 1511 (possibly AD 980 x 987) o S 1497 (c. AD 990 x 1001)
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ed. D. Dumville and S. Keynes, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: a collaborative edition. 8 vols. Cambridge, 1983
o Tr. Michael J. Swanton, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. 2nd ed. London, 2000.
John of Worcester, Chronicon ex Chronicis, ed. Benjamin Thorpe, Florentii Wigorniensis monachi chronicon ex chronicis. 2 vols. London, 1848-49
o Tr. J. Stevenson, Church Historians of England. 8 vols.: vol. 2.1. London, 1855; pp. 171-372.
Sulcard of Westminster, Prologus de construccione Westmonasterii, ed. B. W. Scholz, “Sulcard of Westminster. Prologus de construccione Westmonasterii.” Traditio; 20 (1964); pp. 59–91.
William of Malmesbury, Gesta regum Anglorum, ed. and tr. R. A. B. Mynors, R. M. Thomson and M. Winterbottom, William of Malmesbury. Gesta Regum Anglorum: The History of the English Kings. (Oxford Medieval Texts.) 2 vols.; vol 1. Oxford, 1998.
Secondary sources
Fryde, E. et al. Handbook of British Chronology. 3d ed. Cambridge, 1996.
Keynes, Simon. “Æthelred II (c.966x8–1016).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 200.4 Accessed 1 Sept 2007.
Stafford, Pauline. "The Reign of Æthelred II. A Study in the Limitations on Royal Policy and Action." In Ethelred the Unready. Papers from the Millenary Conference, ed. D. Hill. BAR British series 59. Oxford, 1978. 15-46.
Stafford, Pauline. Queen Emma and Queen Edith: Queenship and Women’s Power in Eleventh-Century England. Oxford, 1997.
Trow, M.J. Cnut: Emperor of the North. Sutton, 2005.
Williams, Ann. Æthelred the Unready: The Ill-Counselled King. London, 2003.
F, #102184, b. circa 963, d. February 1002
Last Edited=11 Dec 2005
Ælgifu (?) was born circa 963.2 She was the daughter of Thored of Northumbria, Ealdorman of York and Hilda (?). (2) She married Æthelred II 'the Unready', King of England, son of Eadgar 'the Peaceful', King of England and Ælfthryth (?), between 980 and 985. (2) She died in February 1002. (2)
Ælgifu (?) was also known as Elgiva (?). (3) She was also known as Elffleda (?). (2) Children of Ælgifu (?) and Æthelred II 'the Unready', King of England
-1. Æthelstan (?) b. c 986, d. bt 1012 - 1015 (3)
-2. Eadred (?) b. bt 987 - 1002, d. bt 1012 - 1015 (6)
-3. Edgar (?) b. bt 987 - 1002, d. bt 1012 - 1015 (7)
-4. Edmund II 'Ironside', King of England+ b. bt 988 - 993, d. 30 Nov 1016 (6)
-5. Edward (?) b. bt 988 - 1002, d. b 1004
-6. Eadwig (?) b. bt 989 - 1002, d. 1017 (6)
-7. Ecgberht (?) b. bt 990 - 1002, d. c 1005 (6)
-8. Eadgyth (?)+ b. bt 991 - 1002 (7)
-9. Ælfgifu (?)+ b. bt 991 - 1002 (8)
-10. Wulfhild (?) b. bt 992 - 1002 (7)
-11. unknown daughter (?) b. bt 993 - 1002 (7)
-12. unknown daughter2 (?) b. bt 994 - 1002, d. a 1051 (4)
Forrás / Source:
Edith, who married Eadric Streona, ealdorman of Mercia
Ælfgifu, who married Uchtred the Bold, ealdorman of Bamburgh
(possibly) a daughter Wulfhild, who married Ulfcytel Snillingr
(possibly) a daughter Aethelreda, who married Gospatric.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86lfgifu_of_York -------------------- Queen Aelfthryth Written by Jone Johnson Lewis Queen Aelfthryth was married to King Edgar "the Peaceable," stepmother of Edward "the Martyr" and mother of King Ethelred (Aethelred) II "the Unready". Her father was Earl of Devon, Ordgar. She married Edgar who died in 975, and was his second wife. Aelfthryth is sometimes credited with organizing, or being part of, a 978 assassination of her stepson Edward "the Martyr" so that her 10-year-old son Ethelred II "the Unready" could succeed. Her daughter, Aethelfleda or Ethelfleda, was abbess at Romsey. Another woman by the name of Aelfthryth was the daughter of King Alfred "the Great" and wife of Baldwin II, Count of Flanders and Artois. This Aelfthryth lived from about 877-929.
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Which artist painted the 'Man in a Red Turban'? | Portrait of a Man in a Red Turban, Jan Van Eyck: Analysis, Interpretation
How to Appreciate Paintings .
Analysis of Portrait of a Man by Jan van Eyck
This famous Flemish painting , known officially as Portrait of a Man, but commonly referred to as Man in a Red Turban, or Portrait of a Man in a Red Turban, is one of several famous panel paintings by the Flemish painter Jan Van Eyck (1390-1441), one of the foremost pioneers of the early Netherlandish Renaissance . Supposedly a self-portrait , it is believed to have been purchased by Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, during his period of exile in Antwerp around 1644, before being acquired by the National Gallery in London, in 1851. Along with Van Eyck's other masterpieces - such as The Ghent Altarpiece (1432, Cathedral of St Bavo, Ghent), The Arnolfini Portrait (1434, National Gallery, London), and The Madonna/Virgin of Chancellor Rolin (1435, Louvre, Paris) - Portrait of a Man in Red Turban is one of the most famous examples of Northern Renaissance art of the 15th century.
Self-Portrait
Jan Van Eyck's Man in Red Turban was first described as a self-portrait in 1655, although this view was not unanimous and the identification remains tentative. The inscription at the top of the frame has been cited as strong evidence in favour. It reads "Als Ich Can" (as I/Eyck can) - which is a pun on the painter's name. Van Eyck apparently depicted himself in two other works; he seems to be reflected in the mirror in the Arnolfini Marriage (1434, National Gallery, London) and in the shield of St George in The Madonna Of Cannon Van Der Paele (1436, Musee Communal Des Beaux-Arts, Bruges).
Whether it is a self-portrait or not, the man - whoever he is - is not actually wearing a turban, but a chaperon - with its ends tied across the top. Similar headgear can be seen in the background of Van Eyck's Madonna of Chancellor Rolin - another alleged self-portrait.
Oil Painting Technique
Van Eyck's technical contribution to the art of oil painting - notably his meticulous use of thin layers of transparent colour pigments for maximum luminosity - made possible the precise optical effects and mirror-like polish that make this portrait so lifelike. Note, for example, the effects of the two-toned stubble or the capillaries on the white surface of the left eye. His use and application of colour has been commented on by numerous artists and critics: here, for instance, the white colour of the eye is mixed with tiny amounts of red and blue. A very thin layer of red is dragged over this underlayer, but in such a way as to leave the underlayer exposed in several places. The iris of the eye is painted ultramarine - with additions of white and black towards the pupil, which is painted in black over the blue of the iris. The main highlights are four touches of lead white - one on the iris and three on the white.
The variation of focus between the two eyes suggests that Van Eyck, may have used a mirror to create this image: his right eye is slightly blurred around the edges, appearing to be only passivly engaged in sight, while the outline of the left eye is clearly delineated and focused on a specific object. This effect probably resulted from the artist observing himself in the mirror; when viewing oneself from an angle both eyes cannot be seen simultaneously.
Through his control of the medium, Van Eyck becomes ineffably present in the image, if not through his physical likeness, then through the way in which he alone has the skill to render invisible the mark of each brushstroke.
As in all his paintings, Van Eyck designs his composition with great care. Here, for instance, he relies heavily on colour and shade for effect. The rich red folds of the turban or chaperon frame and contrast with the lighted face which emerges from the darkness. And the viewer is irresistibly drawn into the image by the firm gaze of the sitter, from which nothing else is allowed to detract. His use of chiaroscuro is masterly, as is his dramatic tenebrism . Van Eyck's combination of tonal control and use of shading, anticipates the High Renaissance technique of sfumato , exemplified in the portraiture of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519).
The inscription "Jan Van Eyck made me on 21 October 1433" along the lower edge of the frame in abbreviated Latin emphasises the creation of the work and points to the pictorial field as not just a portrait of a man, but also a man-made painting. Furthermore, the inscription is not actually carved on the frame, but painted in trompe l'oeil , so that the words look as though they have been carved.
Jan Van Eyck
The realism of Van Eyck's portrait art gives the artist a distinctly modern look, when compared with other Renaissance paintings . His selective naturalism superceded the stylized forms of Gothic art - including the latest International Gothic style - and compared most favourably with the new Renaissance art appearing in Italy. In fact, in the use of oil paint, he - along with his contemporary Roger van der Weyden (1399-1464) - was clearly ahead of anyone in Italy, and his colours seemed to shine like no one else's.
| Jan van Eyck |
'The Landlord's Game', patented in the US by Elizabeth Magie in 1904, was a form of which now popular board game? | 1000+ images about Artist -Van Eyck on Pinterest | Jan van Eyck, London and Wedding
Jan Van Eyck and the Arnolfini Wedding Portrait ~ One of Van Eyck’s greatest masterpieces is the Arnolfini Wedding Portrait, (1434, Oil on Panel, 32 ¼” x 23 ½’, National Gallery, London). My very favorite painting.
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Which musical note has the same value as half a semibreve or two crochets? | Music Theory / Time / Sound and silence
Total time is calculated by adding the notes and rests.
Two quavers equal a crotchet.
Four crotchets equal a semibreve.
Eight quavers equal a semibreve.
This music plays for 16 crotchets.
How long is 16 crotchets in seconds? See Tempo later in this book of Time.
Picture notes
If you are learning to read music for the first time, it might help to see the notes in pictures.
Every note begins with a note-head. The notehead is oval shaped.
A semibreve is an empty notehead
Notes shorter than a semibreve have a stem. A stem is a vertical line jutting up from the right or down from the left of the notehead
A minim is a semibreve with a stem.
A crotchet is a minim with a coloured notehead
A quaver is a crotchet with a tail.
A semiquaver is a crotchet with two tails.
A demisemiquaver is a crotchet with three tails.
A hemidemisemiquaver is a crotchet with four tails.
Clap your hands to the beat. Tails are beamed to the beat.
Here are some examples.
2 quavers beamed to a crotchet beat.
4 semiquavers beamed to a crotchet beat.
8 demisemiquavers beamed to a crotchet beat.
In a crotchet beat two factors are important. Notes are beamed in multiples of 4. You can slice the beam (beat) in half.
16 hemidemisemiquavers beamed to a crotchet beat.
Here are some more complex patterns.
In these patterns the beat is equal to a crotchet, so you can count up to the value of a crotchet under every beam. Remember, we beam the beat.
Beam (beat) 1. Quaver - Semiquaver - Semiquaver
Beam (beat) 2. Semiquaver - Semiquaver - Quaver
Beam (beat) 3. Semiquaver - Quaver - Semiquaver
Music Theory
| Minim |
Which sportswear company was founded as 'Blue Ribbon Sports' by Bill Bowerman and Philip Knight in 1964? | Core Knowledge
Year 3 Music
Follow the Notes
When composers write music down, they use special marks called notes. Here are some musical notes called the crotchet, minim and semibreve notes. The notes tell us the rhythm. They tell us how the music moves. That's because each note has a different length. Another way of saying that is, each note stands for a sound that lasts for a different amount of time. On the crotchet, you count to one. On the minim, you count to two. On the semibreve, you count to four. (You might also hear people say that a crotchet gets one beat, a minim gets two beats and a semibreve gets four beats.) It can be easy to confuse musical notes, and their names, but maybe this activity will help you.
Can you crochet a crotchet note? A crotchet note is not normally crocheted but our friend Helen was kind enough to crochet us a crotchet note! (That is all a bit of a tongue twister : can you say 'crochet a crotchet note' five times fast?) A crotchet is also the name of an ancient, hooked instrument, which looks similar to the hook used for crochet. If you use your imagination, do you think a crochet hook looks like a crotchet note?
A minim note does not last for the minimum number of beats. It has the length of two beats, and it takes two beats to say 'mi-nim'. A minim is a also a short, vertical stroke in handwriting, which does come from the word 'minimum', meaning 'smallest'. A minim is the basic stroke for the letters 'm', 'i' and 'n', which means that 'minim' is made entirely of letters that are minims! Other minims in handwriting are 'r' and 'u'. Some other letters that are based on minims are 'd' and 'b', as well as 'p' and 'q'. The saying 'minim confusion' is used when a reader work out which letter is which. Can you think of some other words made of minims? Can you write them clearly enough for someone else to tell the difference?
A semibreve is not brief at all: it lasts for four beats. It also takes four beats to say 'se-mi-brev-e'. A semibreve is half the length of a breve, because 'semi' means half. If a semibreve is four beats, how long is a breve note? Incredibly, 'breve' does mean 'short note' although it is 8 crotchets long. A longa, or 'long note', was two or three times as long, but is no longer used because it was too long to fit when used in written music! If we still used those, how many crotchets would last the same time as a longa if it were twice as long as a breve? If it were three times as long? How many minims would last the same amount of beats?
Try this: find a clock with a second hand, the kind that goes 'tick-tick-tick'. Now, say 'ahh' for four ticks. You've just made a sound that lasts as long as a semibreve. (Really, in different songs, notes can last for different times, but we can use the seconds of a clock as an example. A second for each beat is quite slow music.) If a semibreve lasts for four ticks of the clock, then how long would a minim last? Say 'ahh' for two ticks: that's how long a minim lasts. Now, say 'ah' four times, in time with the ticking of the clock like this: 'ah-ah-ah-ah'. You've just made the sound of four crotchets. Perhaps if you crochet quickly, you can crochet four times to make four crotchet notes in time with the ticking of the clock!
This activity is adapted from pages 213 - 215 of What Your Year 3 Child Needs to Know , which can be purchased here . This activity has cross-curricular connections: click below to see related activities .
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What type of insect is a devil's coach horse? | Devil's coach horse | Buglife
Home > About Bugs > Devil's coach horse
Devil’s coach horse (Ocypus olens) © Ben Hamers
Devil's coach horse
Fast facts
Latin name: Ocypus olens
Notable feature: Long-bodied, uniformly black beetle with an extended exposed powerful abdomen with shortened wing cases
Rarity in UK: Rare / Common
Devil’s coach horse (Ocypus olens) © Ben Hamers
These aggressive, carniverous predators are commonly found across the UK and Europe in a variety of habitats. The Devil’s Coach Horse can sometimes be mistaken for an earwig but when threatened its scorpion-like posture will give the game away! The Devil’s Coach Horse belongs to the Rove Beetle family, called the Staphylinidae which are sometimes referred to as the ‘Staphs’ for short. There are approximately 1000 species of rove beetle (given this name as they are constantly on the move) found in the UK which amounts to roughly a quarter of all British beetles.
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The Devil’s Coach Horse is the largest of the rove beetles and can reach a length of around 28mm. Typical to this family, the Devil’s Coach Horse is a long-bodied, uniformly black beetle with an extended exposed powerful abdomen with shortened wing cases (elytra). Although able to fly its wings are rarely used.
The beetle is common in the UK and is found throughout Europe. It also inhabits parts of Australasia and the Americas but it is not native to these areas having been introduced.
The Devil’s Coach Horse occupies a wide range of habitats requiring damp conditions and is common in woods, hedgerows, meadows, parks and gardens, being seen between April and October. It is also known to make its way indoors now and then, particularly in older properties.
3,2,1....Fight!
If you have crossed paths with the Devil’s Coach Horse you may have seen it adopt its typical defensive pose where it raises the rear end of its body and opens its fierce jaws, similar to that of a scorpion. A tad on the aggressive side perhaps but it is only because its feeling threatened! If it continues to feel threatened though it can emit a foul smell from its abdomen area (‘olens’ meaning smell) via a pair of white glands; can excrete an unpleasant fluid from its mouth and rear; and it’s fair to say that its bite may hurt a little!
Jaws of the invertebrate world
During the day the Devil’s Coach Horse usually rests amongst and under stones and logs but it is at night that this carnivorous, nocturnal predator comes out to feed on slugs, worms, spiders, woodlice, a range of other invertebrates and carrion (dead items).
For its size the Devil’s Coach Horse has very large jaws (mandibles) which it uses to catch and cut its prey. With the help of its front legs the food is then turned into a ball like shape (bolus) which is chewed, passing through the beetles’ digestive system a number of times until it becomes liquefied and finally digested.
Little Devils - carnivorous young that live underground..
Devil’s Coach Horse mate in autumn and a female will lay a single egg two to three weeks later in a damp, dark habitat such as leaf litter or moss. After around 30 days the larva will emerge, living mainly underground. As with their parents, Devil’s Coach Horse larvae are carnivorous feeding on a variety of other invertebrates; possess powerful jaws to catch and consume their prey; and can even adopt the threatened display of a raised tail and open jaws. The larva goes through three successive growth stages (instars). The third and final larval stage is reached after approximately 150 days when it is between 20 – 26mm in length. It is at this stage that pupation begins and an adult beetle emerges about 35 days later. It emerges fully formed but needs to stay inactive for a few hours to allow its wings to dry out before they can be folded beneath the wing case (elytra).
If the weather conditions are mild adults can remain active and survive a second winter. Alternatively they will burrow underground and hibernate until the following March.
What’s in a name?
As far back as the Middle Ages this species has been associated with the Devil and was known in Ireland as Dar Daol which translates as ‘the Devil’s beetle’. Many myths and superstitions have surrounded the Devil’s Coach Horse such as its ability to curse a person by pointing its upraised body in their direction! Some also believed that the beetle had magic powers and it is believed by some that in Ireland reapers used to improve their skills by putting a Devil’s Coach Horse in the handle of their scythes.
The beetle has even achieved celluloid fame by starring in a film based on the aptly named 1979 book ‘The Devil’s Coach Horse’ by Richard Lewis, where the creatures get a taste for human flesh and go on the rampage.
Is the Devil's Coach Horse good?
The Devil’s Coach Horse is a beneficial insect playing an important role in the food chain as a dominant predator, ensuring that nutrients are recycled and returned to the soil.
Devil’s coach horse (Ocypus olens) © Alan Stubbs
See more bugs
worth of pollination is provided by pollinating insects.
8 out of 10
| Beetle |
In which controversial novel and film does the Korova Milk Bar appear? | Devil's Coach-horse Beetle - Australian Museum
Australian Museum
Devil's Coach-horse Beetle Creophilus erythrocephalus.
Photographer:
Notes
Rove beetles - Family Staphylinidae
Staphylinids are usually elongate beetles with small elytra (wing covers) and large jaws. Like other beetles inhabiting carrion, they have fast larval development with only three larval stages.
Devil's Coach-horse Beetle, Creophilus erythrocephalus, is a common predator of carrion, and with its bright red head, is a very visible component of the fauna of corpses in Australia.
Adults are early visitors to a corpse and they feed on larvae of all species of fly, including predatory fly larvae. They lay their eggs in the corpse, and the emerging larvae are also predators. Creophilus erythrocephalus has a long development time in the egg, so it is common during the later stages of decomposition. As well as consuming maggots, they can also tear open the pupal cases of flies, so there is sufficient food to sustain them at a corpse for long periods.
Another rove beetle, Aleochara haemorrhoidalis feeds on eggs as well as young blowfly larvae.
Last Updated:
| i don't know |
What is the term for a word formed from the initial letters of other words, such as NATO? | Initialism | Define Initialism at Dictionary.com
initialism
[ih-nish-uh-liz-uh m] /ɪˈnɪʃ əˌlɪz əm/
Spell
noun
1.
a set of initials representing a name, organization, or the like, with each letter pronounced separately, as FBI for Federal Bureau of Investigation.
2.
a name or term formed from the initial letters of a group of words and pronounced as a separate word, as NATO for North Atlantic Treaty Organization; an acronym .
3.
the practice of using initials or forming words from initials.
Origin of initialism
| Acronym |
What is the ancient axe-like hand tool used for shaping wood, especially in boat-building, with a curved blade at right angles to the line of the handle (unlike a conventional axe whose blade is in line with the handle)? | Acronym | Definition of Acronym by Merriam-Webster
Examples of acronym in a sentence
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is known by the acronym “NATO.”
What's the difference between an abbreviation and an acronym?
Some people are unsure of whether to call ASAP or appt abbreviations or acronyms. Both abbreviation and acronym are used to refer to a shortened form, but an acronym is a shortened form of a phrase and is usually made up of the initial letters of that phrase. For example, NATO comes from “North Atlantic Treaty Organization,” and ASAP comes from “as soon as possible.” Abbreviations, on the other hand, can be shortened forms of words or phrases, and need not necessarily be made up of the initial letters of either. ASAP and appt (for appointment) are both considered abbreviations, but only ASAP is an acronym. Acronyms are a type of abbreviation.
What is the difference between the words acronym and initialism?
Acronym is a fairly recent word, dating from the 1940s, although acronyms existed long before we gave them that name. The term was preceded in English by the word initialism , meaning an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of a phrase, and which has been in use since the late 19th century.
Some people feel strongly that acronym should only be used for terms like NATO, which is pronounced as a single word, and that initialism should be used if the individual letters are all pronounced distinctly, as with FBI. Our research shows that acronym is commonly used to refer to both types of abbreviations.
Did You Know?
Acronym was created by combining acr- ("beginning") with -onym, ("name" or "word"). You may recognize -onym in other familiar English words such as pseudonym and synonym. English speakers borrowed -onym directly from the Greek (it derives from onyma, the Greek word for "name"). Acr- is also from Greek, but it made a side trip through Middle French on its way to English.
Origin and Etymology of acronym
acr- + -onym name, word
| i don't know |
The England footballer Nat Lofthouse, who died age 85 in 2011, earned what nickname (an animal of a city) after his courageous match-winning performance against Austria in 1952? | Macclesfield Pub Quiz League: February 2011
Macclesfield Pub Quiz League
22nd Feb–Cup/Plate Semi Finals
Questions set by Plough Horntails and the Dolphin
1. How many hoops are used in the standard game of Croquet?
A, 6.
2. Which African kingdom was known as Basutoland before it gained independence in 1966?
A. Lesotho.
3. The work "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" is the textbook of which religious movement founded in 1879?
A. Christian Science.
4. What is the fruit of the Blackthorn called?
A. The Sloe.
5. How many countries sit on the full United Nations Security Council?
A. 15.
6. According to the book of Genesis, which land lay to the "east of Eden"?
A. The Land of Nod.
7. What is the name of the southernmost point of Africa?
A. Cape Agulhas
(note: The Cape of Good Hope is just south of Cape Town and is NOT correct).
8. Responding to a pressing issue in year 1095, what appeal did Pope Urban II make to Kings, Nobles and Knights in a sermon at the Council of Clermont?
A. Please help to regain the Holy Lands… the First Crusade. (Accept any answer relating to freeing Jerusalem from Moslems/ Mohammadens / Turks/ Saracens)
9. Who holds the post of High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union?
A. Baroness Ashton (Accept Catherine Ashton).
10. Which city was awarded the 1944 Summer Olympic Games?
A. London.
11. In which country did the Maoist organization the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) operate?
A. Peru.
12. Which major city’s name translates into English as Fragrant Harbour?
A. Hong Kong.
13. In which country was the Granny Smith apple first grown?
A. Australia (in 1868)
15. Who was the architect of Coventry Cathedral?
A. Basil Spence.
16. Who opened an historic address to his people with the following, “In this grave hour, perhaps the most fateful in our history, I send to every household of my peoples, both at home and overseas, this message, spoken with the same depth of feeling for each one of you as if I were able to cross your threshold and speak to you myself.”
A. King George VI (as taken from the King’s Speech)
17. Which car company makes the Alhambra model?
A. Seat.
18. Which car company makes a model called the Sirion?
A. Diahatsu
19. What is the Nationality of Stefaan Engels who set a World record on Saturday 5th February in Barcelona by completing a marathon every day for a year, a total of 9,569 miles?
A. Belgian.
20. Who wrote Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man and Memoirs of an Infantry Officer, as well as collections of poetry?
A. Siegfried Sassoon.
21. Approximately what percentage of the planet’s surface is covered by Tropical rainforests?
A. 2% (but they are home to more than 50% species on Earth). Accept any figure less than 5%.
22. What is the name of the point on the Celestial sphere directly below an observer or a given position?
A. Nadir. (Note this is the opposite of zenith).
23. What is the term, of French origin, loosely translated 'into mouth', for using facial muscles and shaping the lips for the mouthpiece to play a woodwind or brass musical instrument?
A. Embouchure (origin, em = into, bouche = mouth) also accept embrasure.
24. In his 2011 memoir, ‘Known and Unknown’, which US ex-politician tries to deflect blame onto others including Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice, for Iraq War mistakes?
A. Donald Rumsfeld.
(The book title alludes to Rumsfeld's famous statement: "There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know..." The statement was made by Rumsfeld on February 12, 2002 at a press briefing addressing the absence of evidence linking the Iraq government with the supply of weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups.)
25. How many vertices (corners) has a regular dodecahedron (a dodecahedron is a 3D form with 12 faces)?
A. 20.
26. The Salmon River in Idaho, USA is known by what nickname, It is also the name of a 1954 film, whose title soundtrack was recorded by each of its stars, Marilyn Monroe and Robert Mitchum?
A. The River of No Return (the Salmon River is only navigable downstream).
27. The reproduction method serigraphy, said to be based on the Japanese art of katazome, is better known by what name?
A. Silk-screen printing (or screen-printing).
28. British photographer Carl Warner's collection of landscapes went on display in London in October 2010. What did he use to create the landscapes?
A. Food.
29. Discovered by Ben Corson and Roger Stoughton in 1928, 2-chloro benzal malono nitrile is more commonly called what sort of gas?
A. C S Gas (from the names of its discoverers) Accept Tear Gas.
30. Which World War II leader was captured in April 1945 trying to flee to Switzerland with gold and looted Ethiopian sovereigns which became known as The Treasure of Dongo?
A. Mussolini (Benito Mussolini).
31. What were either of the first names of retailer F W Woolworth ?
A. Frank Winfield (the second was used as a brand name for this store).
32. Whisky, honey, oatmeal, cream and egg are the ingredients for which Scottish drink?
A. Atholl Brose.
33. Which British high street retailer started selling DNA / paternity tests over the counter in January 2011?
A. Boots.
34. The Bolton and England footballer Nat Lofthouse, who died age 85 in 2011, earned what nickname after his courageous match-winning performance in 1952?
A. The Lion of Vienna (the game was against Austria).
35. What was the name of the cyclone that struck Queensland Australia in early February 2011?
A. Yasi.
36. Which sea area is the most northerly of those used in the BBC radio shipping forecast?
A. South East Iceland.
37. In the TV series ‘Father Ted’, Mrs Doyle was the housekeeper and her role was described as ‘violently hospitable’. Her catchphrase was ‘Ah Go on, Go on, Go on, Go on, Go on…..’ etc’. Which actress played the part?
A. Pauline McLynn.
38. In the TV series ‘The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin’ which actor played the role of CJ whose catchphrase was ‘I didn’t get where I am today without ….. ?
A. John Barron.
39. Who was the Vice President of the USA for the whole of the period when Ronald Reagan was President?
A. George Bush (senior).
40. As of February 7th 2011, who is the UK Secretary of State for Defence?
A. Liam Fox
41. In the 1959 film ‘Some like it Hot’, what was the name of the character played by Marilyn Monroe?
A. Sugar Kane.
42. Also In the 1959 film ‘Some like it Hot’, which actor plays the part of the gangster ‘Spats’ Columbo?
A. George Raft.
43. Which county won the Clydesdale Bank 40 trophy, for UK 40-over cricket that was first held in the 2010 season?
A. Warwickshire Bears.
44. In which city of the USA is the sports ground called Wrigley Field?
A. Chicago (it is the home ground of the Chicago Cubs).
45. Which famous engineer’s factory is mentioned in ‘The Blaydon Races’
A. (William George) Armstrong.
46. A legacy of money from which engineer started Owen’s Park educational establishment in Manchester which ultimately became Manchester University?
A. Joseph Whitworth.
47. What’s the current name of the sea area that was called Heligoland up till 1956?
A. German Bight.
48. On March 17th 2003, what was the cause of the first ever standing ovation given by MPs in the House of Commons?
A. Robin Cook’s resignation speech (he opposed the invasion of Iraq).
49. In 2005, what caused Cherie Blair to say … ‘Honestly, what a load of fuss about trivia. It would be nice to be judged for who you are’?
A. The alleged £7,700 cost of her hairdos for the general election.
50. What is the name of the woman presenter who won her employment tribunal case against the BBC in January 2011 for wrongful dismissal based on ‘ageist’ reasons?
A. Miriam O’Reilly.
51. Which radio broadcaster has recently employed Andy Gray and Richard Keys after their removals from Sky Sports after their sexist comments about Sian Massey?
A. TalkSport.
52. The game in which Sian Massey was officiating on January 22nd 2011 was between Liverpool and which other football team?
A. Wolverhampton Wanderers.
53. In particular, what happened on Wall Street on at 2.45 p.m. on 6 May 2010?
A. The “Flash Crash” or the “2010 Flash Crash”. (Around 2:45pm the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged about 900 points only to recover those losses within minutes. It was the second largest point swing, 1,010.14 points and the biggest one-day point decline, 998.5 points, on an intraday basis in Dow Jones Industrial Average history. There are several possible reasons for the crash, one of which is the “fat-finger theory”).
54. What is considered the prime target of the Stuxnet Worm?
A. Centrifuges used in Iran for uranium enrichment. (Also accept: uranium enrichment, centrifuges, industrial control systems).
55. Howard Devoto and John McGeoch were members of which seminal Manchester band?
A. Magazine.
56. Which actress and singer starred in Derek Jarman’s film of “The Tempest”?
A. Toyah Wilcox (also accept Elisabeth Welch).
57. Which poet died and was buried at Skyros en route to battle in Gallipoli in 1915?
A. Rupert Brooke.
58. Where did Lord Elgin loot and destroy the Summer Palace?
A. Beijing (Peking).
(Lord Elgin was the son of the 7th Earl of Elgin who had obtained the Parthenon (Elgin) Marbles from the Ottoman authorities.)
59. Who is the current (as of 7th February 2011), Shadow Home Secretary?
A. Yvette Cooper.
60. Who wrote the Regeneration Trilogy of novels. (“Regeneration”, “The Eye in the Door” and “The Ghost Road”)?
A. Pat Barker.
61. By what name is Beethoven’s 5th Piano concerto popularly known in this country? (Though the name was not Beethoven’s).
A. The Emperor.
62. Complete this quotation, attributed (dubiously) to Oscar Wilde: “We have everything in common with America nowadays except, of course,.......”
A. The language.
63. In the past Penguin Books used to publish whole ranges of similar books under the name of a different bird. What bird gave its name to Penguin’s academic books, always published in blue cover?
A. Pelican.
64. What type of art form is made up of tesserae?
A. A mosaic.
65. In Greek mythology, what form did the god Zeus adopt in order to seduce Europa?
A. A bull.
66. During the war, “Operation Crucible” was the German code name for the bombing of which British city?
A. Sheffield. (Crucible – steel industry).
67. In which geological period did trilobites first appear?
A. Cambrian. (Also accept Atdabanian).
68. Which anti-art movement, which emerged during the First World War, took its name from a French childish word for hobbyhorse?
A. Dada, or Dadaism.
69. What do the following Shakespeare characters, who all appear in different plays, have in common? Feste, Touchstone, Trinculo, Costard, and Launcelot Gobbo.
A. They are all clowns, fools or jesters.
70. When a person or event has a brief moment of fame it may be described as “a flash in the pan”. To what activity does this metaphor refer?
A. Firing a musket. (Or, more precisely, mis-firing!).
71. The width of a ship at its widest point is known as what?
A. Beam.
72. Which was the last Scottish football club other than Rangers or Celtic to win the Scottish Premier League?
A. Aberdeen. (1984-85).
73. Who is the star of the Legally Blonde series of films?
A. Reece Witherspoon.
74. In terms of residence, what do Peru, Nutwood and the 100 Acre Wood have in common?
A. They are all home to fictional bears, respectively Paddington, Rupert and Winnie the Pooh.
75. What nickname was shared by the creator of Jeeves and Wooster, and the man who gave his name to the Warner stand at Lords Cricket Ground?
A. Plum. (For Pelham).
76. Why was Mark Kennedy in the national news lately?
A. The undercover policeman who infiltrated climate change protesters and then appeared to change sides.
77. In cooking what would beurre manié be used for?
A. Thickening stews or casseroles. (A mixture of butter and flour).
78. Who, in 1932, received the Nobel Prize for Physics for “the indeterminancy principle of quantum mechanics”.
A. Werner Heisenberg. (Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle).
79. Which actor appeared in all 295 episodes of the BBC sitcom The Last of the Summer Wine, from the first in 1973 to the last in 2010?
A. Peter Sallis. (Norman Clegg).
80. In which geological period did dinosaurs first appear?
A. Triassic.
81. Which former West Indian fast bowler had the nickname “the Whispering Death”?
A. Michael Holding. (Immortalised in the commentary “the bowler’s Holding the Batsman’s Willey”).
82. At which battle did Horatio Nelson put the telescope to his blind eye?
A. Copenhagen.
83. In a famous play, what are the characters Vladimir and Estragon doing?
A. Waiting for Godot.
84. In the acronym SIM, as in SIM card, what does the S stand for?
A. Subscriber.
85. What did the philosopher Sartre consider Hell to be?
A. Other people.
86. A character in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice shares a name with a character in Julius Caesar. What name?
A. Portia.
87. Who fell to an untimely death from the roof of his stately home in Ambridge on 6th January this year?
A. Nigel Pargeter.
88. The music hall entertainers Wilson, Keppel and Betty were famous for what act?
A. The Sand Dance.
89. Alyson Krauss, who recently released a joint album with Robert Plant, is better known for performing with her own band. What is it called?
A. Union Station.
90. Sue Ryder is a prominent name in the field of palliative health care, but who was her husband, also famous in the charity field and for other reasons?
A. Leonard Cheshire.
91. Which Commonwealth country is divided administratively into three counties, Cornwall, Surrey and Middlesex?
A. Jamaica.
92. Who plays Rooster Cogburn in the Coen Brothers 2011 remake of the film True Grit?
A. Jeff Bridges.
93. Which actress, who played Superman’s mother in film, died recently?
A. Susannah York.
94. Tschaikovsky’s 6th Symphony has the same name as Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No 8, Opus 13. What is it?
A. Pathétique.
95. The first volume of which writer’s autobiography was published in November, 9010, 100 years after his death, in accordance with his wishes?
A. Mark Twain.
96. How many cards are required to play the game of Canasta?
A. 108. (2 full decks, plus 4 Jokers).
97. In ancient Greece a small piece of broken pottery was called an ostrakon. In politics, what were they used for?
A. Citizens wrote on them the name of anyone they wanted to be exiled. Hence the word “ostracism”.
98. Every Christmas The Guardian newspaper publishes the pretentiously obscure quiz set for the pupils of which Isle of Man school?
A. King William’ School.
99. What is the name of the political party founded in Israel in 1973 by Menachem Begin, and currently led by Binyamin Netenyahu?
A. Likud.
100. Which US city is served by Louis Armstrong Airport?
A. New Orleans.
101. Someone who puts in the maximum effort to achieve something may be said to be “pulling out all the stops”. To what activity does this metaphor refer?
A. Organ playing.
102. After spending only a few weeks at Saracens, which French Rugby club has Gavin Henson recently joined?
A. Toulon.
103. What name is given to the tube connection the pharynx to the middle ear?
A. The Eustachian Tube. (Also accept Pharyngotympanic Tube).
104. The King Cobra has an alternative name, which it shares with the tree Nymphs of Greek mythology. What is it?
A. Hamadryad.
105. The father of which TV comedienne commanded the ill-fated HMS Coventry during the Falklands War, being last to leave when it sank?
A. Miranda Hart.
106. In which of G. B. Shaw’s plays is a Salvation Army officer the central character?
A. Major Barbara.
107. The prize for winning the American Football Super Bowl is named after the coach of the Green Bay Packers, who won the first two. Who was he?
A. Vince Lombardi.
108. In which town do Wallace and Gromit reside?
A. Wigan.
109. Who, in 1935, received the Nobel Prize for Physics for discovering the Neutron?
A. Sir James Chadwick.
110. Which popular garden shrub has a name derived from the Greek for water vessel?
A. Hydrangea.
111. What distinctive method of painting is particularly associated with the French artist Georges Seurat?
A. Pointillism. (Applying colours in lots of tiny dots on the canvas, rather than mixing them beforehand).
112. American actress Linda Gray made her name in the role of Sue Ellen Ewing in Dallas. But what contribution did she make to the 1967 film The Graduate?
A. It was her seductively stocking-clad legs which appeared on the film posters. (Not those of female lead, Anne Bancroft).
113. In the wartime acronym ATS, what did the T stand for?
A. Territorial. (Auxiliary Territorial Service).
114. Which European capital city stands on the River Vltava?
A. Prague.
115. Who is the fictional proprietor of the satirical magazine Private Eye?
A. Lord Gnome.
116. The American writers and cousins Frederick Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee wrote crime novels under which pseudonym, which was also the name of their fictional detective?
A. Ellery Queen.
117. Where did James IV of Scotland die in 1513?
A. The battle of Flodden.
118. Who was the UK’s first female Foreign Secretary?
A. Margaret Beckett. (2006).
119. In which Dickens novel would you hear the message “Barkis is willing”?
A. David Copperfield.
120. Which former Thin Lizzie guitarist died earlier this month aged 58?
A. Gary Moore.
1. Who directed the film Black Swan released in late 2010?
A. Darren Aronofsky.
2. Who directed the film The King’s Speech?
A. Tom Hooper.
3. In the Booker Prize winner Wolf Hall, what is Wolf Hall?
A. The family home or seat of the Seymour family. (Accept the home of Jane Seymour).
4. Name one of the two authors who has won the Booker Prize twice. (Note to QMs: this is the straight Booker Prize, not the special awards like “Booker of Bookers” or “Best of Booker”).
A. J. M. Coetzee or Peter Carey.
5. What was the name of the US sitcom based on Steptoe and Son?
A. Sanford and Son.
6. What was the name of the UK sitcom based on the US sitcom Who’s the Boss??
A. The Upper Hand.
7. Who is the President of South Africa (as of 20th Feb.)?
A. Jacob Zuma.
8. Bertha Mason was the mad wife of which of Charlotte Bronte’s characters?
A. Mr. Rochester (in Jane Eyre).
9. Sagamore Hill in New York state was the home of which US President, who lived there from 1885 until his death in 1919?
A. Theodore Roosevelt.
10. Which was England’s first Garden City?
A. Letchworth.
Tie Breaker Question:
In view of the recent thread about ‘ageism at the BBC’, carry out the following calculation:
Multiply the age (as at February 7th 2011) of Miriam O’Reilly by age of Joan Bakewell by age of Arlene Phillips
and then divide the result by the age of Jennie Bond multiplied by the age of Gloria Hunniford .
Suggestion for question masters: Allow 2 minutes for responses and allow calculators to be used if both sides have them available.
Answer: (53 x 77 x 67) ÷ (60 X 70) = 273,427 ÷ 4,200
= 65.10
The team with the closest answer to this is the winner.
All ages used for this question are from the Guardian article on this topic on February 5th 2011 titled ‘Who are you calling Past it? Female Presenters fight back’.
Round 7 : Arts and Entertainment
Round 8 : This Green And Pleasant Land
Love is in the Air (A round inspired by St Valentine’s Day)
1. What nationality was legendary heartthrob Rudolf Valentino?
A. Italian
2 The Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan in memory of his wife. It took 21 years to complete. Give one of the years in this period of construction.
A 1632 to 1653
3 In which city was Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet set?
A Verona
4 Who created the statue The Kiss?
A Auguste Rodin
5 The St Valentine’s Day Massacre, with a distinct lack of love in the air, was an attack by Al Capone on which of his rival gang leaders?
A Bugs Moran
6 Valentino Rossi, winner of 9 Motorcycle World Championships, has announced that he will ride which make of bike in 2011?
A Ducati
7 In which year was Captain James Cook killed on Hawaii on February 14th?
A 1779 (accept anything between 1774 and 1784)
8 Who played the female lead opposite Ryan O’Neal in the 1970 film Love Story?
A Ali McGraw
1. Who was the first woman in space?
A. Valentina Tereshkova
2 Which singer married Renate Blauel in Sydney on February 14th, 1984?
A Elton John
1. What did Leonard Rossiter pour over Joan Collins?
CINZANO
2. Who manufactures the “Ultimate driving machine”?
BMW
3. The painting, called “Bubbles”, as used in the Pears soap advert, was painted by whom ?
Sir John MILLAIS
4. In relation to which product did Ian Botham cause a stir by ordering three?
SHREDDED WHEAT
5. Which product is described as “Liquid engineering”?
CASTROL GTX
6. Which brand of soup was depicted in a famous painting by Andy Warhol?
CAMPBELL’S
7. Which was the first product to be advertised on ITV ?
GIBBS SR TOOTHPASTE (accept toothpaste)
8. In which year was the first advertisement on British TV?
1955 (allow 1 year either side)
Supplementaries
1. Which European football team this season has no shirt sponsorship and instead makes a donation to advertise UNICEF on its shirts ?
BARCELONA
2. Which company currently sponsors both Rangers and Celtic football teams ?
TENNENT’S LAGER
SPORT All these events have taken place this year
Which golfer was recently named as the European captain for the 2012 Ryder Cup ?
Jose Maria OLAZABAL
2. To whom did Andy Murray lose in the final of the Australian Open tennis tournament ?
Novak DJOKOVIC
3. In the January transfer window, which footballer was transferred from Sunderland to Aston Villa for £18 million ?
Darren BENT
4. England won the 5th and final test match against Australia by an innings and 83 runs, having made their highest ever innings score on Australian soil. How many runs did England score ? There is some leeway.
644 RUNS (allow 624 to 664)
5. The winner of the 2011 Snooker Masters tournament at Wembley and the runner-up in the Australian Open women’s singles final share which nationality ?
CHINESE (Ding Junhui won the snooker, Na Li was the defeated tennis player)
6. Why was Sian Massey in the news recently ?
SHE IS THE FEMALE LINESMAN/ASSISTANT REFEREE ABOUT WHOM ANDY GRAY MADE SEXIST COMMENTS, THUS GETTING HIM THE SACK FROM HIS JOB AS A FOOTBALL PUNDIT ON SKY SPORTS
7. The clear favourite to win a 5th consecutive King George VI Chase only finished 3rd in January to the winner Long Run. What was the name of that horse ?
KAUTO STAR
8. On January 19th at a Romford greyhound racing meeting something happened for probably the 1st time ever in a race. What ?
A THREE WAY DEAD HEAT
Supplementaries
S1. Which golfer was recently named as the American captain for the 2012 Ryder Cup ?
DAVIES LOVE III
S2. Why was footballer Jermaine Pennant’s Porsche featured in the news recently ?
IT HAD BEEN ABANDONED IN A STATION CAR PARK FOR 5 MONTHS AND HE’D FORGOTTEN HE’D BOUGHT THE CAR. HE EVEN LEFT THE KEYS ON THE DASHBOARD !!!
GEOGRAPHY
1. Which is the largest of the National Parks in England and Wales ?
LAKE DISTRICT
2. Which lake in the Lake District lies immediately south of Keswick ?
DERWENT WATER
3. Where in Cheshire is the National Waterways Museum ?
ELLESMERE PORT
4. Which city has the largest port in Europe ?
ROTTERDAM
5. Rotterdam is the 2nd largest city in The Netherlands. Amsterdam is the largest. Which city was formerly known as New Amsterdam ?
NEW YORK
6. York stands at the confluence of two rivers. Name either.
OUSE or FOSS
7. The Fosse Way links 2 cities in England. Name either.
EXETER or LINCOLN
8. Until 1974, Lincolnshire was split into 3 parts, each with their own administration. Lindsey and Holland were two. What was the third ?
KESTEVEN
1. Podgorica is the capital city of which European country ?
MONTENEGRO
2. Which country has the longest land border with Russia ?
KAZAKHSTAN
HISTORY
1. Which English king was buried next to his wife and son at Faversham Abbey, which he had founded with his wife Matilda in 1148?
STEPHEN
2. Which tax was introduced in England in 1662 to support the Royal Household of Charles II? It was abolished in 1689.
HEARTH TAX
3. What was the name of the first qualified female doctor in Britain?
ELIZABETH GARRETT ANDERSON
4. After declaring war on Russia on 1st August 1914, which country did Germany invade the next day?
LUXEMBOURG
5. Opened in 1863, what is the name of Britain’s oldest museum, which houses the "Alfred Jewel", a Saxon relic, possibly made for Alfred the Great?
ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM
6. Who in 1768, became the first president of the Royal Academy of Arts?
JOSHUA REYNOLDS
7. Buried in Rome in 1821, on whose gravestone are the words, “Here lies one whose name is writ in water”?
JOHN KEATS
8.What is the name of the British political regime of 1649-60 established by Oliver Cromwell?
THE COMMONWEALTH (accept The Protectorate although this was 1653 to 1659)
Supplementaries
9. Following the 'Mutiny’, which island did Fletcher Christian and his cohorts colonise?
PITCAIRN
10.Whose report led to savage railway cuts in Britain in the 1960s?
DR. BEECHING
1. Which product do you associate with the Gay-Lussac process?
SULPHURIC ACID
2. Who first demonstrated electro-magnetic inductance to the Royal Society in 1831?
Michael FARADAY
3. What drug occurs naturally in the bark of a willow tree?
ASPIRIN
4. Which city is the centre of the French aeroplane industry ?
TOULOUSE
5. The Spitfire aircraft was produced with 2 engines. Name either
(Rolls Royce) MERLIN or (Rolls Royce) GRIFFON
6. What name is given to the process of treating rubber with sulphur at great heat to improve elasticity and strength?
VULCANISATION
7. Which geological period comes between the Devonian and Permian periods?
CARBONIFEROUS
8. Rocks can be one of three types: metamorphic and sedimentary are two. What is the other?
IGNEOUS
1. Bora, Brickfielder and Levanter are types of what?
WINDS
2. Who was the last man to walk on the moon ?
EUGENE CERNAN
1 Which classic 1994 movie had leading characters called Vincent Vega, Mia Wallace & Zed?
A Pulp Fiction
2 Who were the British band whose albums in the late 1960’s included On the Threshold of a Dream and Days of Future Passed?
A The Moody Blues
3 La Pieta by Michelangelo, which was damaged by a lunatic with a hammer in 1972, can be found where?
A St Peter’s Basilica (in Rome)
4 In 2006 record producer and film maker David Geffen sold the painting “No 5, 1948” for $140 million, still the world’s most expensive piece of art. Who painted it?
A Jackson Pollock
5 In January 2011 who, at the British Comedy Awards, won Best Female Comedy Actress and Best New TV Comedy for her eponymous sitcom?
A Miranda Hart
6 Which classic 1979 movie had leading characters called Biggus Dickus, Mandy Cohen & Pontius Pilate ?
A The Life of Brian
7 Who were the British band whose 1970’s albums included Sheer Heart Attack and News of the World?
A Queen
8 Who was the host of the 2011 Golden Globes who was heavily criticised for being overly offensive to many of the stars present?
A Ricky Gervais
Supplementaries
1 Who has been nominated for the Best Supporting Actor for his role as Lionel Logue the voice coach in The King’s Speech?
A Geoffrey Rush
2 In which field of the arts is Ansel Adams a famous exponent?
A Photography
This green and pleasant land (Picture Round)
All of the pictures in this round are of tourist attractions in England, which feature on brown signs.
If anyone is visually impaired, use the extra supplementaries.
1. Anderton boat lift
3. Epstein’s St Michael and the Devil, Coventry cathedral (accept either)
4. Angel of the North, Gateshead
5. Eden Project, Cornwall
7. Mow Cop castle or folly
8. Tatton Hall
1. Cleopatra’s Needle Thames Embankment
2. Spinnaker Tower, Portsmouth
1. The Monument in London is a memorial to what ?
THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON
2. In which Lakeland town would you find the Laurel and Hardy museum ?
ULVERSTON
Worth Having a Look At
ARTS and ENTERTAINMENT
1/ Who wrote the children’s stories entitled PUCK OF POOK HILL?
ANS RUDYARD KIPLING.
2/ Which fictional doctor lived in the village of PUDDLEBY-ON-THE-MARSH?
ANS Dr DOOLITTLE.
3/ Which town, in Britain, has a brick monument called TRAIN, by David Mach, unveiled in 1997 and showing a life size brick steam train exiting a tunnel?
ANS DARLINGTON.
4/ What is the name of the hotel in The Archers radio series run by Caroline Sterling?
ANS GREY GABLES. (Oliver Sterling now deceased)
5/ Which Scottish novelist is commemorated by a 61 metre high monument in Princess street, Edinburgh.
ANS SIR WALTER SCOTT.
6/ What artists colour is made from the pigment gamboges?
ANS YELLOW (mustard yellow)
7/ The title of which classic American cop show refers to an event that took place in America in 1959?
ANS HAWAII FIVE-O (in that year Hawaii became the 50th state).
8/ Who painted the cartoon-style picture Whaam! Now in the Tate Gallery London?
ANS ROY LICHTENSTEIN.
SUP1 Rambo, played by Sylvester Stallone, has appeared in 4 films, what is his Christian name?
ANS JOHN.
SUP2 Which film distribution company was formed by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D W Griffith?
ANS UNITED ARTISTS
1/ Which American sport is played under the CARTWRIGHT rules.
ANS BASEBALL.
2/ Which sport generates the highest recorded ball speed of 204mph?
ANS GOLF (Jason Zuback’s drive, 2nd Pelota Jai Alai 188mph)
3/ Who was the first person to captain and manage a world cup winning team?
ANS FRANZ BECKENBAUER
4/ How many laps have to be completed in the Indianapolis 500?
ANS 200.
5/ Whose autobiography was entitled “Scoring at Half Time”?
ANS GEORGE BEST.
7/ Name the cricket coach found dead in his hotel room during the 2007 world cup?
ANS BOB WOOLMER
6/ Which famous American sports star was nicknamed “The Juice”?
ANS O J SIMPSON.
8/ “Stand up Pinocchio” is an autobiography by which Liverpool footballer?
ANS PHIL THOMPSON.
SUP1 In darts, what is the lowest number that cannot be scored with a single dart?
ANS 23.
SUP2 What colour hat does a water polo goalkeeper wear?
ANS RED.
Space, The Final Frontier
These are the questions of the Bowling Club “Pack Horse”
1. What links the Chuck Berry song Johnny B Goode with the Voyager space probe launched in 1971?
A It is included on a record of Earth sounds carried by the probe (in the event of being intercepted by Aliens)
2. Which book of the Old Testament did the Apollo 8 crew read from, on a broadcast to
Earth, whilst orbiting the Moon on Christmas Eve 1968?
A Genesis
3. Who was the first Briton in space?
A Helen Sharman.
4. What space first was achieved by Alexei Leonov on March 18th 1965?
A A space walk or E.V.A.
5. What was the name of the unsuccessful British space probe sent to Mars in 2003?
A Beagle 2 (Accept Beagle)
6. In which successful film did astronaut Jim Lovell have a bit part?
A Apollo 13 (he played the captain of the ship sent to pick the astronauts up. Tom Hanks played Jim Lovell, if you follow me)
7. The space centre at Kourou, French Guiana is owned by which organisation?
A The European Space Agency.
8. What was the name of the spaceship Yuri Gagarin was in when he made the first space
flight?
A Vostok 1 (accept Vostok).
Supplementaries
S1 In which year was the first Space Shuttle launched?
A 1981 (accept 80-82)
S2 Which Apollo 11 astronaut did not walk on the Moon?
A Michael Collins
1/ Which Chancellor of the Exchequer introduced Premium Bonds in 1956?
ANS HAROLD MACMILLAN.
2/ In which prison did John Bunyan write The Pilgrims Progress?
ANS BEDFORD GAOL.
3/ At 64, who, up until now, was the oldest heir apparent to accede to the British throne, (Prince Charles now being in his 63rd year)
ANS WILLIAM IV.
4/ What emblem was adopted by the Free French forces during WWII?
ANS THE CROSS OF LORRAINE.
5/ Which King of Ireland defeated The Danes at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014.
ANS BRIAN BORU
6/ Dick Whittington was Mayor of London 4 times and under 3 monarchs, name one?
ANS RICHARD II, HENRY IV, and HENRY V. Mayor 1397/8 1398/9 1406/7 and 1419/20.
7/ Which king was threatened by the Rye House plot?
ANS CHARLES II
8/ “He is not a great man” said Herbert Asquith “he is a great poster”. Who?
ANS LORD KITCHENER.
SUP1 Which battle of the Spanish Civil War marked the final defeat and demise of the International Brigades?
ANS The BATTLE of the EBRO.
SUP2 Which British monarch was only crowned 11 years after becoming king?
ANS CHARLES II
1/ Where would you find an ABYSSAL PLAIN?
ANS. On the SEAFLOOR. (Adjacent to a continent 10 to 20,000ft deep.)
2/ Infamously known as STALINGRAD during the war, what is it’s
current name?
3/ In which body of water would you find The LEVANTINE basin?
ANS. The MEDITERRANEAN Sea. (Just off Cyprus.)
4/ If you travelled from Berkeley to Fort Bragg to Eureka, in which American state would you be in?
ANS. CALIFORNIA.
5/ If you travelled from St Petersburg to Clearwater to Tallahassee, in which American state would you be in?
ANS. FLORIDA
6/ On which parallel is a significant part of the American, Canadian border?
ANS. 49th.
7/ Which island is divided into six administrive regions called SHEADINGS
ANS THE ISLE OF MAN
8/ On the shores of which sea is the Pakistani port of Karachi?
ANS The ARABIAN SEA
SUP1 The Union Jack flag appears in the top left corner of the flag of which US state?
ANS HAWAII (the flag is one of the oldest in the world in continuous use)
SUP2 Which Arab country had a capital city known as Philadelphia up to the Byzantine period.
ANS JORDON (Amman)
COMICAL CHARACTERS
In this round you will be given the years of publication and 3 characters / story lines from a comic. All I need is the name of the comic concerned.
1/ 1937 – present. Korky the cat, Harry Hill, Tin Lizzie.
Ans. THE DANDY.
2/ 53 – 90 Beryl the Peril, Mickey the Monkey, Tricky Dicky.
Ans. THE TOPPER
3/ 19 – 29 and 50 – 65 The Silent 3, Bessie Bunter, The Storyteller.
Ans. SCHOOL FRIEND
4/ 38 – Present. Biffo the Bear, Ivy the Terrible, Roger the Dodger.
Ans. THE BEANO
5/ 56 – 90 Baby Crockett, Little Mo, The Banana Bunch.
Ans. THE BEEZER
6/ 58 – 2001 The 4 Mary’s, Little Miss Lonely, Ernie’s Girl.
Ans. BUNTY.
7/ 61 – 92 Alf Tupper, I Flew with Braddock, Gorgeous Gus.
Ans. THE VICTOR.
8/ 22 – 63 Wilson – Wonder Athlete, Wolf of Kabul, Limp along Leslie.
Ans. THE WIZARD.
Sup1/ 52 – 74 Paddy Payne, Robot Archie, Danger Man.
Ans. THE LION.
Sup 2/ 54 – 85 Roy of the Rovers, Bulldog Bryant, Dodger Caine.
Ans. THE TIGER.
Sup 3/ 50 – 69 PC49, Storm Nelson, Dan Dare !
Ans. THE EAGLE.
1/ What process is used to harden fats and oils in the manufacture of margarine?
ANS HYDROGENATION.
2/ Which cluster of blue stars is also known as the SEVEN SISTERS?
ANS THE PLEIADES.
3/ What metallic element is obtained from the ore Cassiterite?
ANS TIN.
4/ The use of which dangerous gas, known to kill white blood cells, was instrumental in pioneering chemotherapy in the 1940’s?
ANS MUSTARD GAS.
5/ What is Neptune’s largest moon?
ANS TRITON.
6/ What name did the Romans give to the hottest days of the year – July 3rd to August 15th – when the star Sirius is rising?
ANS DOG DAYS. (DIES CANIS)
7/ What name is given to the sugary substance exuded by aphids feeding on sap?
ANS HONEYDEW.
8/ What is the more common name for 2H2O or D2O.
ANS HEAVY WATER
SUP 1/ What does a Limnologist study?
ANS LAKES
SUP2/ What did the word Astronaut originally mean?
ANS STAR SAILOR
SUP3 What is the densest element?
ANS OSMIUM (followed by Iridium 0.1% lower)
Worth Having a Look At
You will be given the name of a well known artefact which has artistic or historical importance and you have to name the Museum, Gallery or Institution where you would have to go in the UK or beyond to see it (but don’t touch anything).
Q1. The Venus de Milo.
A The Louvre
Q3. The “Spirit of St Louis” aeroplane
A The Smithsonian (Institute or Museum)
Q4. Stephenson’s Original Rocket
A The Science Museum London
Q5. The Book of Kells.
A Trinity College Library Dublin (accept Trinity College)
Q6. The Mary Rose
Q7. A painting entitled “Going to Work”.
A The Lowry (Manchester)
Q8. The earliest surviving version of “Alice’s Adventures Underground”
A The British Library
S1. An item of clothing simply labelled “Mary Quant Mini Dress 1967”
A The Victoria and Albert Museum, or V &A.
S2. The original Prime Meridian.
A Greenwich Royal Observatory (accept Greenwich)
set by The Cock Inn Henbury
1. Which nation first gave women the vote?
NEW ZEALAND
2. Who played Mrs Peel in The Avengers?
DIANA RIGG
3. Who played Steed in The Avengers?
PATRICK McNEE
4. Which singer is known as The Queen of Soul?
ARETHA FRANKLIN
5. What was Lady Chatterley's first name?
CONSTANCE
6. What is the Star of India?
THE WORLD'S SECOND LARGEST BLUE STAR SAPPHIRE
7. Which is the most common non-contagious disease in the world?
TOOTH DECAY
8. What, in feet, is the stopping distance of a car travelling at 50mph?
175
9. What is the currency of Chile?
THE PESO
10. What is the chemical symbol for potassium?
K
11. Groucho, Harpo And Zeppo were three of the Marx Brothers, who
was the fourth?
12. Which year did the pound note cease to be legal tender?
1983
13. What year did the first public library open in Britain?
1847 (allow 1845-1850)
14. What did the F stand for in JFK?
FITZGERALD
15. Which musical term means quickly?
ALLEGRO
16. Who was Luke Skywalker's father in Star Wars?
DARTHVADER
17. Which is the earth's smallest ocean?
THE ARCTIC
18. How many lines are there in a Limerick?
5
19. Which tube-train line would you use to get to Heathrow?
PICCADILLY
20. In which year were the Olympics held in Mexico?
1968
21. Which of the Lake Poets had a sister named Dorothy?
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
22. Which plant is used to make linen?
FLAX
23. What is the maximum score possible in Ten Pin Bowling?
300 (12 strikes)
24. In which city is the Taj Mahal?
AGRA
25. What was the name of the dummy of Ray Allen ventriloquist?
LORD CHARLES
26. Who was Nelson's mistress?
LADY HAMILTON
27. How many cards are there in a Tarot pack?
78
28. What was a pedologist study?
SOIL
29. How long is a Dog Watch when at sea?
2 hours
30. What is a Culverin?
A TYPE OF GUN/CANNON
31. In which year was the formal abolition of the death penalty in
Britain?
32. What was the surname of Bonnie in Bonnie and Clyde?
PARKER
33. Who was the first Tory Prime minister?
Earl of Bute
39. What is the name of the prisoner in The Birdman of Alcatraz?
Robert Stroud
40. In which of Charles Dickens's novels does Jarndyce appear?
Bleak House
41. Which is the largest National Park in Britain?
Cairngorms
42. In the TV comedy Rising Damp what was Rigsby's first name?
Rupert
43. Ruth Ellis was the last woman to be banged in England, whom did she kill?
David Blakeley
44. Who is the artistic director of the National Theatre?
Nicholas Hytner
45. By what name is Brian Robson Rankin better known?
Hank Marvin
46. . In Verdi's opera "Otello" how does Otello die?
Stabs himself
47. Where is Hellenikon airport?
Athens
48. . Cronus, the father of Zeus, was which Greek God?
Agriculture
49. In which 1996 film does Eddie Murphy play seven parts?
The Nutty Professor
50. . Who was Eric Arthur Blair?
George Orwell
51. What was the name of the first Carry on film?
Carry On Sergeant
52. Which creature nests in a fortress?
Mole
53. Which British city had the Roman name of Noviomagus Reginorum?
Chichester
54. What is the main constituent of the Earth atmosphere?
Nitrogen
55. What is the last (and unfinished) Charles Dickens novel?
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Earl of Bute
56. For which monarch was Hampton Court Maze built?
William III
57.. The adjective "taurine" relates to which animal?
Bull
58. Who said "Wine is sunlight held together by water"?
Galileo Galilei
59. Who did Alex Higgins beat to win the 1982 World Snooker Championship?
Ray Reardon
60. What is the state capital of Alaska?
Juno
61. What does a soldier keep in a frog?
Bayonet
62. What name is given to the negative electrode of an electrolytic cell?
Cathode
63. Which military dictator died on August 16th 2003 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia at the age of 78?
Idi Amin
64. In the motoring acronym OHC, what does the "C'stand for?
Camshaft
65. How many teeth does an elephant have?
4
66. How many valves does a trumpet have?
3
67. How many players are there in an Australian Rules football team?
18
68. What is the opposite of oriental?
Occidental
69. For what was Operation Z the codename in World War II?
The attack on Pearl Harbour
70. What is the process known by which plants make food using light?
Photosynthesis
71. Sardines and pilchards belong to which family of fish?
Herring
72. With which heavy metal band did Ozzy Osbourne come to fame?
Black Sabbath
73. . What is a cross between a Blackberry and a Raspberry?
Loganberry
74. What is a cross between an Orange, Tangerine and Grapefruit?
Ugli fruit
75. How is David Robert Jones better known?
David Bowie
76. How is Marie Mcdonald McLaughlin Lawrie better known?
Lulu
77. Who married Constanze Weber in 1782?
Mozart
78. Who married his cousin Maria in 1707?
Bach
79. Who plays the Archbishop of Canterbury in "The King's Speech"?
Derek Jacobi
80. Who was the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time?
Cosmo Lang
91. What shape is the pasta called Farfalle?
Butterfly or bow-tie shape
82. What shape is the pasta called Conchigilette?
Shell shaped
83. How is the mountain called Mont Cervin in French better known?
The Mattgerhorn
84. In which country is Mount Aconcagua?
Argentina
,85. In the Just William books, what is the name of William's sister?
Ethel
86. In Peter Pan, Wendy Darling has two brothers, Peter is one, what is the name of the other?
Michael
87. Which river flows through Carlisle?
Eden
88. Which river flows through Winchester?
Itchen
89. What is the name of the largest diamond ever mined?
Cullinen/Star of Africa
90. What does the name of the diamond Koh I Moor mean?
Mountain of Light
91. In a TV or film studio, what is a dolly?
Mounting for a camera
92. In the acronym BAFT A, what does the "A" stand for?
Arts
93. On which island is Mount Etna?
Sicily
94. What colour is the central line on the London Underground?
Red
95. Who was the Queen of the Greek gods?
Hera
96. Who was the Greek Messenger of the gods?
Hermes
EAST, WEST, HOME’S BEST
DUPLICATES
HISTORY – MURDER MOST FOUL
This bloodthirsty round seeks the names of victims of some notable assassinations
1) Which Israeli Prime Minister was assassinated in Tel Aviv on the 4th November 1995 as he left a meeting in support of the Oslo Peace accords?
YITZHAK RABIN
2) Which Tory politician was assassinated by a car bomb as he drove out of the Palace of Westminster on 30th March 1979?
AIREY NEAVE
3) Which Irish soldier and politician was assassinated on the 22nd August 1922 in an ambush as he drove back to Cork City during the Irish Civil War?
MICHAEL COLLINS
4) Which Swedish Prime Minister was assassinated as he walked home from a cinema in Stockholm on February 28th 1986?
OLAF PALME
5) Which Egyptian President was assassinated in Cairo on 6th October 1981 as he took the salute during a military parade?
ANWAR SADAT
6) Which SS General was assassinated in Prague on the 27th May 1942?
REINHARD HEYDRICH
7) Which Indian Prime Minister was assassinated by two of her bodyguards on 31st October 1984 as she was about to be interviewed by Peter Ustinov?
INDIRA GANDHI
8) Which Soviet politician, soldier and revolutionary was assassinated in Mexico City in August 1940?
LEON TROTSKY
SUPPLEMENTARIES
9) Which crusading journalist was assassinated as she sat in her car at traffic lights near Dublin on 26th June 1996?
VERONICA GUERIN
10) Which South African Prime Minister was assassinated in Parliament in Cape Town on 6th September 1966?
HENDRIK VERWOERD
Sport
1 In football in which decade was the first substitute called on in a Football League match
= 1960s (1965)
2 Which jockey shot himself in 1886 at the age of only 29 having already won 13 successive jockey championships?
= Fred Archer
3 On which course will the 2011 Open Golf championship be held?
= Royal St Georges at Sandwich (accept either)
4 The rugby union World Cup will be held in New Zealand in 2011. How many nations will compete?
= 20
5 Which player won the Golden Ball award as the best player at the football World Cup tournament held in South Africa in 2010?
= Diego Forlan (of Uruguay)
6 In athletics who has held the men’s 400 metres world record for over 10 years?
= Michael Johnson
7 Roger Federer holds the record for the most consecutive weeks ranked men’s number one in the official tennis rankings. For how many weeks was he at number 1?
= 237 (allow 217 to 257)
8 On which track did Sebastian Vettel win the 2010 world drivers championship?
= Yas Marina track in Abu Dhabi (accept either)
Supplementaries
1 Which team won the rugby league grand final in October 2010?
= Wigan Warriors (beat St Helens)
2 Which version of the world heavyweight championship does David Haye hold?
= WBA (World Boxing Association)
1 Which African country has the capital Maseru?
= Lesotho
2 The Nubian Desert lies within which modern country?
= Sudan
3 Which motorway connects the M60 with Manchester and Salford city centres from the west?
= M602
4 In which country is the town and holiday resort of Bodrum?
= Turkey
5 Catania is a main town and airport on which island?
= Sicily
6 Part of the Yorkshire Dales National Park also lies within which other county?
= Cumbria
7 Which French city is the capital of the Acquitaine region?
= Bordeaux
8 What is the county town of Wiltshire?
= Trowbridge
1 What is a moraine?
= Mound or ridge formed by a glacier
2 How long in miles is the Great Wall of China?
Latest estimate (from Wikipedia) is 5,500 miles. Accept 5,200 to 5,800
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
1 Which American composer wrote the music to the 1938 ballet “Billy the Kid”?
= Aaron Copland
2 John Hamm is the star, and Matthew Weiner the creator of which recent TV series set in 1960’s America?
= Mad Men
3 Which Verdi opera is based on Dumas’ novel “La Dame Aux Camellias”?
= La Traviata
4 Which music did Tchaikovsky write to commemorate the battle of Borodino?
= The 1812 Overture
5 Who wrote the novel “Birdsong”, set in World War I, and the recent best seller “A Week in December”?
= Sebastian Faulks
6 Which artist painted “The Light of the World”?
= Holman Hunt
7 Highclere Castle featured as what, in a TV series shown in 2010?
= Downton Abbey
8 Who wrote the poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade?”
= Alfred Lord Tennyson
9 What is the name of the title music/theme tune to “The Archers”?
= Barwick Green
10 Give the next line in this song:
“Let the wind blow high, let the wind blow low,
Down the street in ma’ kilt I’ll go!
All the lassies shout, “Hello!” ………………..
= “Donald! Where’s your troosers?”
SCIENCE & NATURE
1 What is a gecko?
= A Lizard
2 What is a young beaver called?
= Kit
3 What ancient scent comes from the bark of the commiphora tree?
= Myrrh
4 Which astronomer coined the term “Big Bang”?
= Fred Hoyle (1915-2001)
5 What is the chemical symbol for silver?
= Ag
6 Which of the senses is missing if you suffer from anosmia?
= Smell
7 What is the average resting heart rate per minute in men?
= 68 (Accept 65 to 70)
8 In which year did the Chernobyl nuclear power station incident occur?
= 1986 (Accept 1985 to 1987)
SUPPLEMENTARIES
9 What is the PV system of converting solar energy into electrical energy?
= Photo-voltaic
10 The kittiwake is a species of which family of birds?
= The Gulls
GOING TO THE MOVIES
From the details given, name the famous film.
1 Comedy directed by Robert Hamer in 1949 starring Dennis Price as a homicidal social outcast, and Alec Guiness as the aristocratic relatives who stand between Price and his seat in the House of Lords.
= Kind Hearts and Coronets
2 World War II story directed by Robert Aldrich in 1967 about a bunch of psychos and misfits, assembled to kill senior German officers on the eve of D-Day. Donald Sutherland, Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson star.
= The Dirty Dozen
3 Thriller directed by Joel Coen in 1996 in which a car dealer hires a pair of inept criminals to kidnap his own wife. When things go wrong, Francis McDormand (as the Sherriff) investigates.
= Fargo
4 Horror/sci-fi directed by Ridley Scott in 1979. Sigourney Weaver plays Ripley, who is the only survivor of the crew of the “Nostromo” after it picks up an unwelcome passenger on its return to Earth.
= Alien
5 Directed by Barry Sonnenfield in 1997, this comedy thriller stars Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as members of a top secret US Government agency which polices extra-terrestrials in USA
= Men in Black
6 Directed by Mike Hodges in 1971, in which Michael Caine plays a London gangster who travels to Newcastle to investigate his brother’s death, and confront a Tyneside racketeer played by John Osborne. There is also a memorable cameo appearance by Britt Ekland.
= Get Carter
7 A musical version of the Collette play about the making of a Parisienne courtesan played by Leslie Caron. Directed by Vincente Minnelli in 1958, with script and score by Lerner and Lowe.
= Gigi
8 Musical directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly in 1952. Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor dance and sing in a story about the coming of sound to Hollywood
= Singing in the Rain
SUPPLEMENTARIES
9 Directed by Robert Neame and Irwin Allen in 1972, Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine and Shelley winters fight for survival in a luxury liner submerged upside down in the Mediterranean.
= The Poseidon Adventure
10 Russell Crowe stars in an historical epic directed by Ridley Scott in 2000, as a Roman general betrayed by the vicious emperor Joachin Phoenix. Sold into slavery, he returns in triumph before his inevitable death.
= Gladiator
EAST, WEST HOME’S BEST;
A “POT POURRI” of LOCAL INTEREST
1 How many miles is it necessary to sail to complete the Cheshire Ring (of canals)?
= 97 (Accept 95 to 99. Do not accept 100.)
2 According to the 2010 handbook, how many National Trust locations are in Cheshire (East and West)? (NB. Where places have multiple attractions such as Quarry Bank Mill, count these as a total of ONE for this question.)
= 13 (Accept 12-14) (Alderley Edge, Bickerton Hill, Bulkeley, Hare Hill, Helsby, Little Moreton Hall, Lyme Park, Maiden Castle, Nether Alderley Mill, Oakmere Hill Fort, Peckforton Hills, Quarry Bank Mill, Tatton)
3 There is a town called Macclesfield in Australia. In which state does it lie?
= South Australia (Pop. 350!)
4 There are 2 National Nature Reserves in Cheshire. Wybunbury Moss is one. What is the other?
= Rostherne Mere
5 Which number junction of the M56 is the most common to use for Manchester Airport?
= Junction 5
6 In which year did The RHS have its first show at Tatton Park?
= 1999 (Accept 1998-2000)
7 Near which local town would you find Prince’s Incline and Lady’s Incline?
= Poynton
8 What is the number of the Macclesfield to Buxton (Cat & Fiddle) road?
= A537
9 Which is the highest peak in Cheshire?
= Shining Tor
10 Which metal was mined at Alderley Edge?
= Copper
DUPLICATES
This round involves words that have two meanings, e.g.: NOGGIN: a small tot of spirits and a slang word for your head
1) This word can describe both a the nickname of a swashbuckling movie character and a US state
= INDIANA
2) This word can describe both a type of cabbage and a famous London hotel
= SAVOY
3) This word can describe both a high Chinese official and a type of fruit
= MANDARIN
4) This word can describe both a type of loaf and a mistake
= BLOOMER
5) This word can describe both a Turkish dynasty and a type of upholstered bench or stool
= OTTOMAN
6) This word can describe both a wise man and a variety of herb
= SAGE
7) This word can describe both a kitchen utensil and an exclusive news story
= SCOOP
8) This word can describe both part of a human foot and a fish
= SOLE
9) This word can describe both a suit of cards and a type of weapon
= CLUB
10) This word can describe both a military vehicle and a receptacle for holding fish
= TANK
SET BY THE KNOT KNOW-ALLS
1
| lion of vienna |
Brabantio is whose father in Shakespeare's play Othello? | Macclesfield Pub Quiz League: February 2011
Macclesfield Pub Quiz League
22nd Feb–Cup/Plate Semi Finals
Questions set by Plough Horntails and the Dolphin
1. How many hoops are used in the standard game of Croquet?
A, 6.
2. Which African kingdom was known as Basutoland before it gained independence in 1966?
A. Lesotho.
3. The work "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" is the textbook of which religious movement founded in 1879?
A. Christian Science.
4. What is the fruit of the Blackthorn called?
A. The Sloe.
5. How many countries sit on the full United Nations Security Council?
A. 15.
6. According to the book of Genesis, which land lay to the "east of Eden"?
A. The Land of Nod.
7. What is the name of the southernmost point of Africa?
A. Cape Agulhas
(note: The Cape of Good Hope is just south of Cape Town and is NOT correct).
8. Responding to a pressing issue in year 1095, what appeal did Pope Urban II make to Kings, Nobles and Knights in a sermon at the Council of Clermont?
A. Please help to regain the Holy Lands… the First Crusade. (Accept any answer relating to freeing Jerusalem from Moslems/ Mohammadens / Turks/ Saracens)
9. Who holds the post of High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union?
A. Baroness Ashton (Accept Catherine Ashton).
10. Which city was awarded the 1944 Summer Olympic Games?
A. London.
11. In which country did the Maoist organization the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) operate?
A. Peru.
12. Which major city’s name translates into English as Fragrant Harbour?
A. Hong Kong.
13. In which country was the Granny Smith apple first grown?
A. Australia (in 1868)
15. Who was the architect of Coventry Cathedral?
A. Basil Spence.
16. Who opened an historic address to his people with the following, “In this grave hour, perhaps the most fateful in our history, I send to every household of my peoples, both at home and overseas, this message, spoken with the same depth of feeling for each one of you as if I were able to cross your threshold and speak to you myself.”
A. King George VI (as taken from the King’s Speech)
17. Which car company makes the Alhambra model?
A. Seat.
18. Which car company makes a model called the Sirion?
A. Diahatsu
19. What is the Nationality of Stefaan Engels who set a World record on Saturday 5th February in Barcelona by completing a marathon every day for a year, a total of 9,569 miles?
A. Belgian.
20. Who wrote Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man and Memoirs of an Infantry Officer, as well as collections of poetry?
A. Siegfried Sassoon.
21. Approximately what percentage of the planet’s surface is covered by Tropical rainforests?
A. 2% (but they are home to more than 50% species on Earth). Accept any figure less than 5%.
22. What is the name of the point on the Celestial sphere directly below an observer or a given position?
A. Nadir. (Note this is the opposite of zenith).
23. What is the term, of French origin, loosely translated 'into mouth', for using facial muscles and shaping the lips for the mouthpiece to play a woodwind or brass musical instrument?
A. Embouchure (origin, em = into, bouche = mouth) also accept embrasure.
24. In his 2011 memoir, ‘Known and Unknown’, which US ex-politician tries to deflect blame onto others including Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice, for Iraq War mistakes?
A. Donald Rumsfeld.
(The book title alludes to Rumsfeld's famous statement: "There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know..." The statement was made by Rumsfeld on February 12, 2002 at a press briefing addressing the absence of evidence linking the Iraq government with the supply of weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups.)
25. How many vertices (corners) has a regular dodecahedron (a dodecahedron is a 3D form with 12 faces)?
A. 20.
26. The Salmon River in Idaho, USA is known by what nickname, It is also the name of a 1954 film, whose title soundtrack was recorded by each of its stars, Marilyn Monroe and Robert Mitchum?
A. The River of No Return (the Salmon River is only navigable downstream).
27. The reproduction method serigraphy, said to be based on the Japanese art of katazome, is better known by what name?
A. Silk-screen printing (or screen-printing).
28. British photographer Carl Warner's collection of landscapes went on display in London in October 2010. What did he use to create the landscapes?
A. Food.
29. Discovered by Ben Corson and Roger Stoughton in 1928, 2-chloro benzal malono nitrile is more commonly called what sort of gas?
A. C S Gas (from the names of its discoverers) Accept Tear Gas.
30. Which World War II leader was captured in April 1945 trying to flee to Switzerland with gold and looted Ethiopian sovereigns which became known as The Treasure of Dongo?
A. Mussolini (Benito Mussolini).
31. What were either of the first names of retailer F W Woolworth ?
A. Frank Winfield (the second was used as a brand name for this store).
32. Whisky, honey, oatmeal, cream and egg are the ingredients for which Scottish drink?
A. Atholl Brose.
33. Which British high street retailer started selling DNA / paternity tests over the counter in January 2011?
A. Boots.
34. The Bolton and England footballer Nat Lofthouse, who died age 85 in 2011, earned what nickname after his courageous match-winning performance in 1952?
A. The Lion of Vienna (the game was against Austria).
35. What was the name of the cyclone that struck Queensland Australia in early February 2011?
A. Yasi.
36. Which sea area is the most northerly of those used in the BBC radio shipping forecast?
A. South East Iceland.
37. In the TV series ‘Father Ted’, Mrs Doyle was the housekeeper and her role was described as ‘violently hospitable’. Her catchphrase was ‘Ah Go on, Go on, Go on, Go on, Go on…..’ etc’. Which actress played the part?
A. Pauline McLynn.
38. In the TV series ‘The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin’ which actor played the role of CJ whose catchphrase was ‘I didn’t get where I am today without ….. ?
A. John Barron.
39. Who was the Vice President of the USA for the whole of the period when Ronald Reagan was President?
A. George Bush (senior).
40. As of February 7th 2011, who is the UK Secretary of State for Defence?
A. Liam Fox
41. In the 1959 film ‘Some like it Hot’, what was the name of the character played by Marilyn Monroe?
A. Sugar Kane.
42. Also In the 1959 film ‘Some like it Hot’, which actor plays the part of the gangster ‘Spats’ Columbo?
A. George Raft.
43. Which county won the Clydesdale Bank 40 trophy, for UK 40-over cricket that was first held in the 2010 season?
A. Warwickshire Bears.
44. In which city of the USA is the sports ground called Wrigley Field?
A. Chicago (it is the home ground of the Chicago Cubs).
45. Which famous engineer’s factory is mentioned in ‘The Blaydon Races’
A. (William George) Armstrong.
46. A legacy of money from which engineer started Owen’s Park educational establishment in Manchester which ultimately became Manchester University?
A. Joseph Whitworth.
47. What’s the current name of the sea area that was called Heligoland up till 1956?
A. German Bight.
48. On March 17th 2003, what was the cause of the first ever standing ovation given by MPs in the House of Commons?
A. Robin Cook’s resignation speech (he opposed the invasion of Iraq).
49. In 2005, what caused Cherie Blair to say … ‘Honestly, what a load of fuss about trivia. It would be nice to be judged for who you are’?
A. The alleged £7,700 cost of her hairdos for the general election.
50. What is the name of the woman presenter who won her employment tribunal case against the BBC in January 2011 for wrongful dismissal based on ‘ageist’ reasons?
A. Miriam O’Reilly.
51. Which radio broadcaster has recently employed Andy Gray and Richard Keys after their removals from Sky Sports after their sexist comments about Sian Massey?
A. TalkSport.
52. The game in which Sian Massey was officiating on January 22nd 2011 was between Liverpool and which other football team?
A. Wolverhampton Wanderers.
53. In particular, what happened on Wall Street on at 2.45 p.m. on 6 May 2010?
A. The “Flash Crash” or the “2010 Flash Crash”. (Around 2:45pm the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged about 900 points only to recover those losses within minutes. It was the second largest point swing, 1,010.14 points and the biggest one-day point decline, 998.5 points, on an intraday basis in Dow Jones Industrial Average history. There are several possible reasons for the crash, one of which is the “fat-finger theory”).
54. What is considered the prime target of the Stuxnet Worm?
A. Centrifuges used in Iran for uranium enrichment. (Also accept: uranium enrichment, centrifuges, industrial control systems).
55. Howard Devoto and John McGeoch were members of which seminal Manchester band?
A. Magazine.
56. Which actress and singer starred in Derek Jarman’s film of “The Tempest”?
A. Toyah Wilcox (also accept Elisabeth Welch).
57. Which poet died and was buried at Skyros en route to battle in Gallipoli in 1915?
A. Rupert Brooke.
58. Where did Lord Elgin loot and destroy the Summer Palace?
A. Beijing (Peking).
(Lord Elgin was the son of the 7th Earl of Elgin who had obtained the Parthenon (Elgin) Marbles from the Ottoman authorities.)
59. Who is the current (as of 7th February 2011), Shadow Home Secretary?
A. Yvette Cooper.
60. Who wrote the Regeneration Trilogy of novels. (“Regeneration”, “The Eye in the Door” and “The Ghost Road”)?
A. Pat Barker.
61. By what name is Beethoven’s 5th Piano concerto popularly known in this country? (Though the name was not Beethoven’s).
A. The Emperor.
62. Complete this quotation, attributed (dubiously) to Oscar Wilde: “We have everything in common with America nowadays except, of course,.......”
A. The language.
63. In the past Penguin Books used to publish whole ranges of similar books under the name of a different bird. What bird gave its name to Penguin’s academic books, always published in blue cover?
A. Pelican.
64. What type of art form is made up of tesserae?
A. A mosaic.
65. In Greek mythology, what form did the god Zeus adopt in order to seduce Europa?
A. A bull.
66. During the war, “Operation Crucible” was the German code name for the bombing of which British city?
A. Sheffield. (Crucible – steel industry).
67. In which geological period did trilobites first appear?
A. Cambrian. (Also accept Atdabanian).
68. Which anti-art movement, which emerged during the First World War, took its name from a French childish word for hobbyhorse?
A. Dada, or Dadaism.
69. What do the following Shakespeare characters, who all appear in different plays, have in common? Feste, Touchstone, Trinculo, Costard, and Launcelot Gobbo.
A. They are all clowns, fools or jesters.
70. When a person or event has a brief moment of fame it may be described as “a flash in the pan”. To what activity does this metaphor refer?
A. Firing a musket. (Or, more precisely, mis-firing!).
71. The width of a ship at its widest point is known as what?
A. Beam.
72. Which was the last Scottish football club other than Rangers or Celtic to win the Scottish Premier League?
A. Aberdeen. (1984-85).
73. Who is the star of the Legally Blonde series of films?
A. Reece Witherspoon.
74. In terms of residence, what do Peru, Nutwood and the 100 Acre Wood have in common?
A. They are all home to fictional bears, respectively Paddington, Rupert and Winnie the Pooh.
75. What nickname was shared by the creator of Jeeves and Wooster, and the man who gave his name to the Warner stand at Lords Cricket Ground?
A. Plum. (For Pelham).
76. Why was Mark Kennedy in the national news lately?
A. The undercover policeman who infiltrated climate change protesters and then appeared to change sides.
77. In cooking what would beurre manié be used for?
A. Thickening stews or casseroles. (A mixture of butter and flour).
78. Who, in 1932, received the Nobel Prize for Physics for “the indeterminancy principle of quantum mechanics”.
A. Werner Heisenberg. (Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle).
79. Which actor appeared in all 295 episodes of the BBC sitcom The Last of the Summer Wine, from the first in 1973 to the last in 2010?
A. Peter Sallis. (Norman Clegg).
80. In which geological period did dinosaurs first appear?
A. Triassic.
81. Which former West Indian fast bowler had the nickname “the Whispering Death”?
A. Michael Holding. (Immortalised in the commentary “the bowler’s Holding the Batsman’s Willey”).
82. At which battle did Horatio Nelson put the telescope to his blind eye?
A. Copenhagen.
83. In a famous play, what are the characters Vladimir and Estragon doing?
A. Waiting for Godot.
84. In the acronym SIM, as in SIM card, what does the S stand for?
A. Subscriber.
85. What did the philosopher Sartre consider Hell to be?
A. Other people.
86. A character in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice shares a name with a character in Julius Caesar. What name?
A. Portia.
87. Who fell to an untimely death from the roof of his stately home in Ambridge on 6th January this year?
A. Nigel Pargeter.
88. The music hall entertainers Wilson, Keppel and Betty were famous for what act?
A. The Sand Dance.
89. Alyson Krauss, who recently released a joint album with Robert Plant, is better known for performing with her own band. What is it called?
A. Union Station.
90. Sue Ryder is a prominent name in the field of palliative health care, but who was her husband, also famous in the charity field and for other reasons?
A. Leonard Cheshire.
91. Which Commonwealth country is divided administratively into three counties, Cornwall, Surrey and Middlesex?
A. Jamaica.
92. Who plays Rooster Cogburn in the Coen Brothers 2011 remake of the film True Grit?
A. Jeff Bridges.
93. Which actress, who played Superman’s mother in film, died recently?
A. Susannah York.
94. Tschaikovsky’s 6th Symphony has the same name as Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No 8, Opus 13. What is it?
A. Pathétique.
95. The first volume of which writer’s autobiography was published in November, 9010, 100 years after his death, in accordance with his wishes?
A. Mark Twain.
96. How many cards are required to play the game of Canasta?
A. 108. (2 full decks, plus 4 Jokers).
97. In ancient Greece a small piece of broken pottery was called an ostrakon. In politics, what were they used for?
A. Citizens wrote on them the name of anyone they wanted to be exiled. Hence the word “ostracism”.
98. Every Christmas The Guardian newspaper publishes the pretentiously obscure quiz set for the pupils of which Isle of Man school?
A. King William’ School.
99. What is the name of the political party founded in Israel in 1973 by Menachem Begin, and currently led by Binyamin Netenyahu?
A. Likud.
100. Which US city is served by Louis Armstrong Airport?
A. New Orleans.
101. Someone who puts in the maximum effort to achieve something may be said to be “pulling out all the stops”. To what activity does this metaphor refer?
A. Organ playing.
102. After spending only a few weeks at Saracens, which French Rugby club has Gavin Henson recently joined?
A. Toulon.
103. What name is given to the tube connection the pharynx to the middle ear?
A. The Eustachian Tube. (Also accept Pharyngotympanic Tube).
104. The King Cobra has an alternative name, which it shares with the tree Nymphs of Greek mythology. What is it?
A. Hamadryad.
105. The father of which TV comedienne commanded the ill-fated HMS Coventry during the Falklands War, being last to leave when it sank?
A. Miranda Hart.
106. In which of G. B. Shaw’s plays is a Salvation Army officer the central character?
A. Major Barbara.
107. The prize for winning the American Football Super Bowl is named after the coach of the Green Bay Packers, who won the first two. Who was he?
A. Vince Lombardi.
108. In which town do Wallace and Gromit reside?
A. Wigan.
109. Who, in 1935, received the Nobel Prize for Physics for discovering the Neutron?
A. Sir James Chadwick.
110. Which popular garden shrub has a name derived from the Greek for water vessel?
A. Hydrangea.
111. What distinctive method of painting is particularly associated with the French artist Georges Seurat?
A. Pointillism. (Applying colours in lots of tiny dots on the canvas, rather than mixing them beforehand).
112. American actress Linda Gray made her name in the role of Sue Ellen Ewing in Dallas. But what contribution did she make to the 1967 film The Graduate?
A. It was her seductively stocking-clad legs which appeared on the film posters. (Not those of female lead, Anne Bancroft).
113. In the wartime acronym ATS, what did the T stand for?
A. Territorial. (Auxiliary Territorial Service).
114. Which European capital city stands on the River Vltava?
A. Prague.
115. Who is the fictional proprietor of the satirical magazine Private Eye?
A. Lord Gnome.
116. The American writers and cousins Frederick Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee wrote crime novels under which pseudonym, which was also the name of their fictional detective?
A. Ellery Queen.
117. Where did James IV of Scotland die in 1513?
A. The battle of Flodden.
118. Who was the UK’s first female Foreign Secretary?
A. Margaret Beckett. (2006).
119. In which Dickens novel would you hear the message “Barkis is willing”?
A. David Copperfield.
120. Which former Thin Lizzie guitarist died earlier this month aged 58?
A. Gary Moore.
1. Who directed the film Black Swan released in late 2010?
A. Darren Aronofsky.
2. Who directed the film The King’s Speech?
A. Tom Hooper.
3. In the Booker Prize winner Wolf Hall, what is Wolf Hall?
A. The family home or seat of the Seymour family. (Accept the home of Jane Seymour).
4. Name one of the two authors who has won the Booker Prize twice. (Note to QMs: this is the straight Booker Prize, not the special awards like “Booker of Bookers” or “Best of Booker”).
A. J. M. Coetzee or Peter Carey.
5. What was the name of the US sitcom based on Steptoe and Son?
A. Sanford and Son.
6. What was the name of the UK sitcom based on the US sitcom Who’s the Boss??
A. The Upper Hand.
7. Who is the President of South Africa (as of 20th Feb.)?
A. Jacob Zuma.
8. Bertha Mason was the mad wife of which of Charlotte Bronte’s characters?
A. Mr. Rochester (in Jane Eyre).
9. Sagamore Hill in New York state was the home of which US President, who lived there from 1885 until his death in 1919?
A. Theodore Roosevelt.
10. Which was England’s first Garden City?
A. Letchworth.
Tie Breaker Question:
In view of the recent thread about ‘ageism at the BBC’, carry out the following calculation:
Multiply the age (as at February 7th 2011) of Miriam O’Reilly by age of Joan Bakewell by age of Arlene Phillips
and then divide the result by the age of Jennie Bond multiplied by the age of Gloria Hunniford .
Suggestion for question masters: Allow 2 minutes for responses and allow calculators to be used if both sides have them available.
Answer: (53 x 77 x 67) ÷ (60 X 70) = 273,427 ÷ 4,200
= 65.10
The team with the closest answer to this is the winner.
All ages used for this question are from the Guardian article on this topic on February 5th 2011 titled ‘Who are you calling Past it? Female Presenters fight back’.
Round 7 : Arts and Entertainment
Round 8 : This Green And Pleasant Land
Love is in the Air (A round inspired by St Valentine’s Day)
1. What nationality was legendary heartthrob Rudolf Valentino?
A. Italian
2 The Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan in memory of his wife. It took 21 years to complete. Give one of the years in this period of construction.
A 1632 to 1653
3 In which city was Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet set?
A Verona
4 Who created the statue The Kiss?
A Auguste Rodin
5 The St Valentine’s Day Massacre, with a distinct lack of love in the air, was an attack by Al Capone on which of his rival gang leaders?
A Bugs Moran
6 Valentino Rossi, winner of 9 Motorcycle World Championships, has announced that he will ride which make of bike in 2011?
A Ducati
7 In which year was Captain James Cook killed on Hawaii on February 14th?
A 1779 (accept anything between 1774 and 1784)
8 Who played the female lead opposite Ryan O’Neal in the 1970 film Love Story?
A Ali McGraw
1. Who was the first woman in space?
A. Valentina Tereshkova
2 Which singer married Renate Blauel in Sydney on February 14th, 1984?
A Elton John
1. What did Leonard Rossiter pour over Joan Collins?
CINZANO
2. Who manufactures the “Ultimate driving machine”?
BMW
3. The painting, called “Bubbles”, as used in the Pears soap advert, was painted by whom ?
Sir John MILLAIS
4. In relation to which product did Ian Botham cause a stir by ordering three?
SHREDDED WHEAT
5. Which product is described as “Liquid engineering”?
CASTROL GTX
6. Which brand of soup was depicted in a famous painting by Andy Warhol?
CAMPBELL’S
7. Which was the first product to be advertised on ITV ?
GIBBS SR TOOTHPASTE (accept toothpaste)
8. In which year was the first advertisement on British TV?
1955 (allow 1 year either side)
Supplementaries
1. Which European football team this season has no shirt sponsorship and instead makes a donation to advertise UNICEF on its shirts ?
BARCELONA
2. Which company currently sponsors both Rangers and Celtic football teams ?
TENNENT’S LAGER
SPORT All these events have taken place this year
Which golfer was recently named as the European captain for the 2012 Ryder Cup ?
Jose Maria OLAZABAL
2. To whom did Andy Murray lose in the final of the Australian Open tennis tournament ?
Novak DJOKOVIC
3. In the January transfer window, which footballer was transferred from Sunderland to Aston Villa for £18 million ?
Darren BENT
4. England won the 5th and final test match against Australia by an innings and 83 runs, having made their highest ever innings score on Australian soil. How many runs did England score ? There is some leeway.
644 RUNS (allow 624 to 664)
5. The winner of the 2011 Snooker Masters tournament at Wembley and the runner-up in the Australian Open women’s singles final share which nationality ?
CHINESE (Ding Junhui won the snooker, Na Li was the defeated tennis player)
6. Why was Sian Massey in the news recently ?
SHE IS THE FEMALE LINESMAN/ASSISTANT REFEREE ABOUT WHOM ANDY GRAY MADE SEXIST COMMENTS, THUS GETTING HIM THE SACK FROM HIS JOB AS A FOOTBALL PUNDIT ON SKY SPORTS
7. The clear favourite to win a 5th consecutive King George VI Chase only finished 3rd in January to the winner Long Run. What was the name of that horse ?
KAUTO STAR
8. On January 19th at a Romford greyhound racing meeting something happened for probably the 1st time ever in a race. What ?
A THREE WAY DEAD HEAT
Supplementaries
S1. Which golfer was recently named as the American captain for the 2012 Ryder Cup ?
DAVIES LOVE III
S2. Why was footballer Jermaine Pennant’s Porsche featured in the news recently ?
IT HAD BEEN ABANDONED IN A STATION CAR PARK FOR 5 MONTHS AND HE’D FORGOTTEN HE’D BOUGHT THE CAR. HE EVEN LEFT THE KEYS ON THE DASHBOARD !!!
GEOGRAPHY
1. Which is the largest of the National Parks in England and Wales ?
LAKE DISTRICT
2. Which lake in the Lake District lies immediately south of Keswick ?
DERWENT WATER
3. Where in Cheshire is the National Waterways Museum ?
ELLESMERE PORT
4. Which city has the largest port in Europe ?
ROTTERDAM
5. Rotterdam is the 2nd largest city in The Netherlands. Amsterdam is the largest. Which city was formerly known as New Amsterdam ?
NEW YORK
6. York stands at the confluence of two rivers. Name either.
OUSE or FOSS
7. The Fosse Way links 2 cities in England. Name either.
EXETER or LINCOLN
8. Until 1974, Lincolnshire was split into 3 parts, each with their own administration. Lindsey and Holland were two. What was the third ?
KESTEVEN
1. Podgorica is the capital city of which European country ?
MONTENEGRO
2. Which country has the longest land border with Russia ?
KAZAKHSTAN
HISTORY
1. Which English king was buried next to his wife and son at Faversham Abbey, which he had founded with his wife Matilda in 1148?
STEPHEN
2. Which tax was introduced in England in 1662 to support the Royal Household of Charles II? It was abolished in 1689.
HEARTH TAX
3. What was the name of the first qualified female doctor in Britain?
ELIZABETH GARRETT ANDERSON
4. After declaring war on Russia on 1st August 1914, which country did Germany invade the next day?
LUXEMBOURG
5. Opened in 1863, what is the name of Britain’s oldest museum, which houses the "Alfred Jewel", a Saxon relic, possibly made for Alfred the Great?
ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM
6. Who in 1768, became the first president of the Royal Academy of Arts?
JOSHUA REYNOLDS
7. Buried in Rome in 1821, on whose gravestone are the words, “Here lies one whose name is writ in water”?
JOHN KEATS
8.What is the name of the British political regime of 1649-60 established by Oliver Cromwell?
THE COMMONWEALTH (accept The Protectorate although this was 1653 to 1659)
Supplementaries
9. Following the 'Mutiny’, which island did Fletcher Christian and his cohorts colonise?
PITCAIRN
10.Whose report led to savage railway cuts in Britain in the 1960s?
DR. BEECHING
1. Which product do you associate with the Gay-Lussac process?
SULPHURIC ACID
2. Who first demonstrated electro-magnetic inductance to the Royal Society in 1831?
Michael FARADAY
3. What drug occurs naturally in the bark of a willow tree?
ASPIRIN
4. Which city is the centre of the French aeroplane industry ?
TOULOUSE
5. The Spitfire aircraft was produced with 2 engines. Name either
(Rolls Royce) MERLIN or (Rolls Royce) GRIFFON
6. What name is given to the process of treating rubber with sulphur at great heat to improve elasticity and strength?
VULCANISATION
7. Which geological period comes between the Devonian and Permian periods?
CARBONIFEROUS
8. Rocks can be one of three types: metamorphic and sedimentary are two. What is the other?
IGNEOUS
1. Bora, Brickfielder and Levanter are types of what?
WINDS
2. Who was the last man to walk on the moon ?
EUGENE CERNAN
1 Which classic 1994 movie had leading characters called Vincent Vega, Mia Wallace & Zed?
A Pulp Fiction
2 Who were the British band whose albums in the late 1960’s included On the Threshold of a Dream and Days of Future Passed?
A The Moody Blues
3 La Pieta by Michelangelo, which was damaged by a lunatic with a hammer in 1972, can be found where?
A St Peter’s Basilica (in Rome)
4 In 2006 record producer and film maker David Geffen sold the painting “No 5, 1948” for $140 million, still the world’s most expensive piece of art. Who painted it?
A Jackson Pollock
5 In January 2011 who, at the British Comedy Awards, won Best Female Comedy Actress and Best New TV Comedy for her eponymous sitcom?
A Miranda Hart
6 Which classic 1979 movie had leading characters called Biggus Dickus, Mandy Cohen & Pontius Pilate ?
A The Life of Brian
7 Who were the British band whose 1970’s albums included Sheer Heart Attack and News of the World?
A Queen
8 Who was the host of the 2011 Golden Globes who was heavily criticised for being overly offensive to many of the stars present?
A Ricky Gervais
Supplementaries
1 Who has been nominated for the Best Supporting Actor for his role as Lionel Logue the voice coach in The King’s Speech?
A Geoffrey Rush
2 In which field of the arts is Ansel Adams a famous exponent?
A Photography
This green and pleasant land (Picture Round)
All of the pictures in this round are of tourist attractions in England, which feature on brown signs.
If anyone is visually impaired, use the extra supplementaries.
1. Anderton boat lift
3. Epstein’s St Michael and the Devil, Coventry cathedral (accept either)
4. Angel of the North, Gateshead
5. Eden Project, Cornwall
7. Mow Cop castle or folly
8. Tatton Hall
1. Cleopatra’s Needle Thames Embankment
2. Spinnaker Tower, Portsmouth
1. The Monument in London is a memorial to what ?
THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON
2. In which Lakeland town would you find the Laurel and Hardy museum ?
ULVERSTON
Worth Having a Look At
ARTS and ENTERTAINMENT
1/ Who wrote the children’s stories entitled PUCK OF POOK HILL?
ANS RUDYARD KIPLING.
2/ Which fictional doctor lived in the village of PUDDLEBY-ON-THE-MARSH?
ANS Dr DOOLITTLE.
3/ Which town, in Britain, has a brick monument called TRAIN, by David Mach, unveiled in 1997 and showing a life size brick steam train exiting a tunnel?
ANS DARLINGTON.
4/ What is the name of the hotel in The Archers radio series run by Caroline Sterling?
ANS GREY GABLES. (Oliver Sterling now deceased)
5/ Which Scottish novelist is commemorated by a 61 metre high monument in Princess street, Edinburgh.
ANS SIR WALTER SCOTT.
6/ What artists colour is made from the pigment gamboges?
ANS YELLOW (mustard yellow)
7/ The title of which classic American cop show refers to an event that took place in America in 1959?
ANS HAWAII FIVE-O (in that year Hawaii became the 50th state).
8/ Who painted the cartoon-style picture Whaam! Now in the Tate Gallery London?
ANS ROY LICHTENSTEIN.
SUP1 Rambo, played by Sylvester Stallone, has appeared in 4 films, what is his Christian name?
ANS JOHN.
SUP2 Which film distribution company was formed by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D W Griffith?
ANS UNITED ARTISTS
1/ Which American sport is played under the CARTWRIGHT rules.
ANS BASEBALL.
2/ Which sport generates the highest recorded ball speed of 204mph?
ANS GOLF (Jason Zuback’s drive, 2nd Pelota Jai Alai 188mph)
3/ Who was the first person to captain and manage a world cup winning team?
ANS FRANZ BECKENBAUER
4/ How many laps have to be completed in the Indianapolis 500?
ANS 200.
5/ Whose autobiography was entitled “Scoring at Half Time”?
ANS GEORGE BEST.
7/ Name the cricket coach found dead in his hotel room during the 2007 world cup?
ANS BOB WOOLMER
6/ Which famous American sports star was nicknamed “The Juice”?
ANS O J SIMPSON.
8/ “Stand up Pinocchio” is an autobiography by which Liverpool footballer?
ANS PHIL THOMPSON.
SUP1 In darts, what is the lowest number that cannot be scored with a single dart?
ANS 23.
SUP2 What colour hat does a water polo goalkeeper wear?
ANS RED.
Space, The Final Frontier
These are the questions of the Bowling Club “Pack Horse”
1. What links the Chuck Berry song Johnny B Goode with the Voyager space probe launched in 1971?
A It is included on a record of Earth sounds carried by the probe (in the event of being intercepted by Aliens)
2. Which book of the Old Testament did the Apollo 8 crew read from, on a broadcast to
Earth, whilst orbiting the Moon on Christmas Eve 1968?
A Genesis
3. Who was the first Briton in space?
A Helen Sharman.
4. What space first was achieved by Alexei Leonov on March 18th 1965?
A A space walk or E.V.A.
5. What was the name of the unsuccessful British space probe sent to Mars in 2003?
A Beagle 2 (Accept Beagle)
6. In which successful film did astronaut Jim Lovell have a bit part?
A Apollo 13 (he played the captain of the ship sent to pick the astronauts up. Tom Hanks played Jim Lovell, if you follow me)
7. The space centre at Kourou, French Guiana is owned by which organisation?
A The European Space Agency.
8. What was the name of the spaceship Yuri Gagarin was in when he made the first space
flight?
A Vostok 1 (accept Vostok).
Supplementaries
S1 In which year was the first Space Shuttle launched?
A 1981 (accept 80-82)
S2 Which Apollo 11 astronaut did not walk on the Moon?
A Michael Collins
1/ Which Chancellor of the Exchequer introduced Premium Bonds in 1956?
ANS HAROLD MACMILLAN.
2/ In which prison did John Bunyan write The Pilgrims Progress?
ANS BEDFORD GAOL.
3/ At 64, who, up until now, was the oldest heir apparent to accede to the British throne, (Prince Charles now being in his 63rd year)
ANS WILLIAM IV.
4/ What emblem was adopted by the Free French forces during WWII?
ANS THE CROSS OF LORRAINE.
5/ Which King of Ireland defeated The Danes at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014.
ANS BRIAN BORU
6/ Dick Whittington was Mayor of London 4 times and under 3 monarchs, name one?
ANS RICHARD II, HENRY IV, and HENRY V. Mayor 1397/8 1398/9 1406/7 and 1419/20.
7/ Which king was threatened by the Rye House plot?
ANS CHARLES II
8/ “He is not a great man” said Herbert Asquith “he is a great poster”. Who?
ANS LORD KITCHENER.
SUP1 Which battle of the Spanish Civil War marked the final defeat and demise of the International Brigades?
ANS The BATTLE of the EBRO.
SUP2 Which British monarch was only crowned 11 years after becoming king?
ANS CHARLES II
1/ Where would you find an ABYSSAL PLAIN?
ANS. On the SEAFLOOR. (Adjacent to a continent 10 to 20,000ft deep.)
2/ Infamously known as STALINGRAD during the war, what is it’s
current name?
3/ In which body of water would you find The LEVANTINE basin?
ANS. The MEDITERRANEAN Sea. (Just off Cyprus.)
4/ If you travelled from Berkeley to Fort Bragg to Eureka, in which American state would you be in?
ANS. CALIFORNIA.
5/ If you travelled from St Petersburg to Clearwater to Tallahassee, in which American state would you be in?
ANS. FLORIDA
6/ On which parallel is a significant part of the American, Canadian border?
ANS. 49th.
7/ Which island is divided into six administrive regions called SHEADINGS
ANS THE ISLE OF MAN
8/ On the shores of which sea is the Pakistani port of Karachi?
ANS The ARABIAN SEA
SUP1 The Union Jack flag appears in the top left corner of the flag of which US state?
ANS HAWAII (the flag is one of the oldest in the world in continuous use)
SUP2 Which Arab country had a capital city known as Philadelphia up to the Byzantine period.
ANS JORDON (Amman)
COMICAL CHARACTERS
In this round you will be given the years of publication and 3 characters / story lines from a comic. All I need is the name of the comic concerned.
1/ 1937 – present. Korky the cat, Harry Hill, Tin Lizzie.
Ans. THE DANDY.
2/ 53 – 90 Beryl the Peril, Mickey the Monkey, Tricky Dicky.
Ans. THE TOPPER
3/ 19 – 29 and 50 – 65 The Silent 3, Bessie Bunter, The Storyteller.
Ans. SCHOOL FRIEND
4/ 38 – Present. Biffo the Bear, Ivy the Terrible, Roger the Dodger.
Ans. THE BEANO
5/ 56 – 90 Baby Crockett, Little Mo, The Banana Bunch.
Ans. THE BEEZER
6/ 58 – 2001 The 4 Mary’s, Little Miss Lonely, Ernie’s Girl.
Ans. BUNTY.
7/ 61 – 92 Alf Tupper, I Flew with Braddock, Gorgeous Gus.
Ans. THE VICTOR.
8/ 22 – 63 Wilson – Wonder Athlete, Wolf of Kabul, Limp along Leslie.
Ans. THE WIZARD.
Sup1/ 52 – 74 Paddy Payne, Robot Archie, Danger Man.
Ans. THE LION.
Sup 2/ 54 – 85 Roy of the Rovers, Bulldog Bryant, Dodger Caine.
Ans. THE TIGER.
Sup 3/ 50 – 69 PC49, Storm Nelson, Dan Dare !
Ans. THE EAGLE.
1/ What process is used to harden fats and oils in the manufacture of margarine?
ANS HYDROGENATION.
2/ Which cluster of blue stars is also known as the SEVEN SISTERS?
ANS THE PLEIADES.
3/ What metallic element is obtained from the ore Cassiterite?
ANS TIN.
4/ The use of which dangerous gas, known to kill white blood cells, was instrumental in pioneering chemotherapy in the 1940’s?
ANS MUSTARD GAS.
5/ What is Neptune’s largest moon?
ANS TRITON.
6/ What name did the Romans give to the hottest days of the year – July 3rd to August 15th – when the star Sirius is rising?
ANS DOG DAYS. (DIES CANIS)
7/ What name is given to the sugary substance exuded by aphids feeding on sap?
ANS HONEYDEW.
8/ What is the more common name for 2H2O or D2O.
ANS HEAVY WATER
SUP 1/ What does a Limnologist study?
ANS LAKES
SUP2/ What did the word Astronaut originally mean?
ANS STAR SAILOR
SUP3 What is the densest element?
ANS OSMIUM (followed by Iridium 0.1% lower)
Worth Having a Look At
You will be given the name of a well known artefact which has artistic or historical importance and you have to name the Museum, Gallery or Institution where you would have to go in the UK or beyond to see it (but don’t touch anything).
Q1. The Venus de Milo.
A The Louvre
Q3. The “Spirit of St Louis” aeroplane
A The Smithsonian (Institute or Museum)
Q4. Stephenson’s Original Rocket
A The Science Museum London
Q5. The Book of Kells.
A Trinity College Library Dublin (accept Trinity College)
Q6. The Mary Rose
Q7. A painting entitled “Going to Work”.
A The Lowry (Manchester)
Q8. The earliest surviving version of “Alice’s Adventures Underground”
A The British Library
S1. An item of clothing simply labelled “Mary Quant Mini Dress 1967”
A The Victoria and Albert Museum, or V &A.
S2. The original Prime Meridian.
A Greenwich Royal Observatory (accept Greenwich)
set by The Cock Inn Henbury
1. Which nation first gave women the vote?
NEW ZEALAND
2. Who played Mrs Peel in The Avengers?
DIANA RIGG
3. Who played Steed in The Avengers?
PATRICK McNEE
4. Which singer is known as The Queen of Soul?
ARETHA FRANKLIN
5. What was Lady Chatterley's first name?
CONSTANCE
6. What is the Star of India?
THE WORLD'S SECOND LARGEST BLUE STAR SAPPHIRE
7. Which is the most common non-contagious disease in the world?
TOOTH DECAY
8. What, in feet, is the stopping distance of a car travelling at 50mph?
175
9. What is the currency of Chile?
THE PESO
10. What is the chemical symbol for potassium?
K
11. Groucho, Harpo And Zeppo were three of the Marx Brothers, who
was the fourth?
12. Which year did the pound note cease to be legal tender?
1983
13. What year did the first public library open in Britain?
1847 (allow 1845-1850)
14. What did the F stand for in JFK?
FITZGERALD
15. Which musical term means quickly?
ALLEGRO
16. Who was Luke Skywalker's father in Star Wars?
DARTHVADER
17. Which is the earth's smallest ocean?
THE ARCTIC
18. How many lines are there in a Limerick?
5
19. Which tube-train line would you use to get to Heathrow?
PICCADILLY
20. In which year were the Olympics held in Mexico?
1968
21. Which of the Lake Poets had a sister named Dorothy?
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
22. Which plant is used to make linen?
FLAX
23. What is the maximum score possible in Ten Pin Bowling?
300 (12 strikes)
24. In which city is the Taj Mahal?
AGRA
25. What was the name of the dummy of Ray Allen ventriloquist?
LORD CHARLES
26. Who was Nelson's mistress?
LADY HAMILTON
27. How many cards are there in a Tarot pack?
78
28. What was a pedologist study?
SOIL
29. How long is a Dog Watch when at sea?
2 hours
30. What is a Culverin?
A TYPE OF GUN/CANNON
31. In which year was the formal abolition of the death penalty in
Britain?
32. What was the surname of Bonnie in Bonnie and Clyde?
PARKER
33. Who was the first Tory Prime minister?
Earl of Bute
39. What is the name of the prisoner in The Birdman of Alcatraz?
Robert Stroud
40. In which of Charles Dickens's novels does Jarndyce appear?
Bleak House
41. Which is the largest National Park in Britain?
Cairngorms
42. In the TV comedy Rising Damp what was Rigsby's first name?
Rupert
43. Ruth Ellis was the last woman to be banged in England, whom did she kill?
David Blakeley
44. Who is the artistic director of the National Theatre?
Nicholas Hytner
45. By what name is Brian Robson Rankin better known?
Hank Marvin
46. . In Verdi's opera "Otello" how does Otello die?
Stabs himself
47. Where is Hellenikon airport?
Athens
48. . Cronus, the father of Zeus, was which Greek God?
Agriculture
49. In which 1996 film does Eddie Murphy play seven parts?
The Nutty Professor
50. . Who was Eric Arthur Blair?
George Orwell
51. What was the name of the first Carry on film?
Carry On Sergeant
52. Which creature nests in a fortress?
Mole
53. Which British city had the Roman name of Noviomagus Reginorum?
Chichester
54. What is the main constituent of the Earth atmosphere?
Nitrogen
55. What is the last (and unfinished) Charles Dickens novel?
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Earl of Bute
56. For which monarch was Hampton Court Maze built?
William III
57.. The adjective "taurine" relates to which animal?
Bull
58. Who said "Wine is sunlight held together by water"?
Galileo Galilei
59. Who did Alex Higgins beat to win the 1982 World Snooker Championship?
Ray Reardon
60. What is the state capital of Alaska?
Juno
61. What does a soldier keep in a frog?
Bayonet
62. What name is given to the negative electrode of an electrolytic cell?
Cathode
63. Which military dictator died on August 16th 2003 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia at the age of 78?
Idi Amin
64. In the motoring acronym OHC, what does the "C'stand for?
Camshaft
65. How many teeth does an elephant have?
4
66. How many valves does a trumpet have?
3
67. How many players are there in an Australian Rules football team?
18
68. What is the opposite of oriental?
Occidental
69. For what was Operation Z the codename in World War II?
The attack on Pearl Harbour
70. What is the process known by which plants make food using light?
Photosynthesis
71. Sardines and pilchards belong to which family of fish?
Herring
72. With which heavy metal band did Ozzy Osbourne come to fame?
Black Sabbath
73. . What is a cross between a Blackberry and a Raspberry?
Loganberry
74. What is a cross between an Orange, Tangerine and Grapefruit?
Ugli fruit
75. How is David Robert Jones better known?
David Bowie
76. How is Marie Mcdonald McLaughlin Lawrie better known?
Lulu
77. Who married Constanze Weber in 1782?
Mozart
78. Who married his cousin Maria in 1707?
Bach
79. Who plays the Archbishop of Canterbury in "The King's Speech"?
Derek Jacobi
80. Who was the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time?
Cosmo Lang
91. What shape is the pasta called Farfalle?
Butterfly or bow-tie shape
82. What shape is the pasta called Conchigilette?
Shell shaped
83. How is the mountain called Mont Cervin in French better known?
The Mattgerhorn
84. In which country is Mount Aconcagua?
Argentina
,85. In the Just William books, what is the name of William's sister?
Ethel
86. In Peter Pan, Wendy Darling has two brothers, Peter is one, what is the name of the other?
Michael
87. Which river flows through Carlisle?
Eden
88. Which river flows through Winchester?
Itchen
89. What is the name of the largest diamond ever mined?
Cullinen/Star of Africa
90. What does the name of the diamond Koh I Moor mean?
Mountain of Light
91. In a TV or film studio, what is a dolly?
Mounting for a camera
92. In the acronym BAFT A, what does the "A" stand for?
Arts
93. On which island is Mount Etna?
Sicily
94. What colour is the central line on the London Underground?
Red
95. Who was the Queen of the Greek gods?
Hera
96. Who was the Greek Messenger of the gods?
Hermes
EAST, WEST, HOME’S BEST
DUPLICATES
HISTORY – MURDER MOST FOUL
This bloodthirsty round seeks the names of victims of some notable assassinations
1) Which Israeli Prime Minister was assassinated in Tel Aviv on the 4th November 1995 as he left a meeting in support of the Oslo Peace accords?
YITZHAK RABIN
2) Which Tory politician was assassinated by a car bomb as he drove out of the Palace of Westminster on 30th March 1979?
AIREY NEAVE
3) Which Irish soldier and politician was assassinated on the 22nd August 1922 in an ambush as he drove back to Cork City during the Irish Civil War?
MICHAEL COLLINS
4) Which Swedish Prime Minister was assassinated as he walked home from a cinema in Stockholm on February 28th 1986?
OLAF PALME
5) Which Egyptian President was assassinated in Cairo on 6th October 1981 as he took the salute during a military parade?
ANWAR SADAT
6) Which SS General was assassinated in Prague on the 27th May 1942?
REINHARD HEYDRICH
7) Which Indian Prime Minister was assassinated by two of her bodyguards on 31st October 1984 as she was about to be interviewed by Peter Ustinov?
INDIRA GANDHI
8) Which Soviet politician, soldier and revolutionary was assassinated in Mexico City in August 1940?
LEON TROTSKY
SUPPLEMENTARIES
9) Which crusading journalist was assassinated as she sat in her car at traffic lights near Dublin on 26th June 1996?
VERONICA GUERIN
10) Which South African Prime Minister was assassinated in Parliament in Cape Town on 6th September 1966?
HENDRIK VERWOERD
Sport
1 In football in which decade was the first substitute called on in a Football League match
= 1960s (1965)
2 Which jockey shot himself in 1886 at the age of only 29 having already won 13 successive jockey championships?
= Fred Archer
3 On which course will the 2011 Open Golf championship be held?
= Royal St Georges at Sandwich (accept either)
4 The rugby union World Cup will be held in New Zealand in 2011. How many nations will compete?
= 20
5 Which player won the Golden Ball award as the best player at the football World Cup tournament held in South Africa in 2010?
= Diego Forlan (of Uruguay)
6 In athletics who has held the men’s 400 metres world record for over 10 years?
= Michael Johnson
7 Roger Federer holds the record for the most consecutive weeks ranked men’s number one in the official tennis rankings. For how many weeks was he at number 1?
= 237 (allow 217 to 257)
8 On which track did Sebastian Vettel win the 2010 world drivers championship?
= Yas Marina track in Abu Dhabi (accept either)
Supplementaries
1 Which team won the rugby league grand final in October 2010?
= Wigan Warriors (beat St Helens)
2 Which version of the world heavyweight championship does David Haye hold?
= WBA (World Boxing Association)
1 Which African country has the capital Maseru?
= Lesotho
2 The Nubian Desert lies within which modern country?
= Sudan
3 Which motorway connects the M60 with Manchester and Salford city centres from the west?
= M602
4 In which country is the town and holiday resort of Bodrum?
= Turkey
5 Catania is a main town and airport on which island?
= Sicily
6 Part of the Yorkshire Dales National Park also lies within which other county?
= Cumbria
7 Which French city is the capital of the Acquitaine region?
= Bordeaux
8 What is the county town of Wiltshire?
= Trowbridge
1 What is a moraine?
= Mound or ridge formed by a glacier
2 How long in miles is the Great Wall of China?
Latest estimate (from Wikipedia) is 5,500 miles. Accept 5,200 to 5,800
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
1 Which American composer wrote the music to the 1938 ballet “Billy the Kid”?
= Aaron Copland
2 John Hamm is the star, and Matthew Weiner the creator of which recent TV series set in 1960’s America?
= Mad Men
3 Which Verdi opera is based on Dumas’ novel “La Dame Aux Camellias”?
= La Traviata
4 Which music did Tchaikovsky write to commemorate the battle of Borodino?
= The 1812 Overture
5 Who wrote the novel “Birdsong”, set in World War I, and the recent best seller “A Week in December”?
= Sebastian Faulks
6 Which artist painted “The Light of the World”?
= Holman Hunt
7 Highclere Castle featured as what, in a TV series shown in 2010?
= Downton Abbey
8 Who wrote the poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade?”
= Alfred Lord Tennyson
9 What is the name of the title music/theme tune to “The Archers”?
= Barwick Green
10 Give the next line in this song:
“Let the wind blow high, let the wind blow low,
Down the street in ma’ kilt I’ll go!
All the lassies shout, “Hello!” ………………..
= “Donald! Where’s your troosers?”
SCIENCE & NATURE
1 What is a gecko?
= A Lizard
2 What is a young beaver called?
= Kit
3 What ancient scent comes from the bark of the commiphora tree?
= Myrrh
4 Which astronomer coined the term “Big Bang”?
= Fred Hoyle (1915-2001)
5 What is the chemical symbol for silver?
= Ag
6 Which of the senses is missing if you suffer from anosmia?
= Smell
7 What is the average resting heart rate per minute in men?
= 68 (Accept 65 to 70)
8 In which year did the Chernobyl nuclear power station incident occur?
= 1986 (Accept 1985 to 1987)
SUPPLEMENTARIES
9 What is the PV system of converting solar energy into electrical energy?
= Photo-voltaic
10 The kittiwake is a species of which family of birds?
= The Gulls
GOING TO THE MOVIES
From the details given, name the famous film.
1 Comedy directed by Robert Hamer in 1949 starring Dennis Price as a homicidal social outcast, and Alec Guiness as the aristocratic relatives who stand between Price and his seat in the House of Lords.
= Kind Hearts and Coronets
2 World War II story directed by Robert Aldrich in 1967 about a bunch of psychos and misfits, assembled to kill senior German officers on the eve of D-Day. Donald Sutherland, Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson star.
= The Dirty Dozen
3 Thriller directed by Joel Coen in 1996 in which a car dealer hires a pair of inept criminals to kidnap his own wife. When things go wrong, Francis McDormand (as the Sherriff) investigates.
= Fargo
4 Horror/sci-fi directed by Ridley Scott in 1979. Sigourney Weaver plays Ripley, who is the only survivor of the crew of the “Nostromo” after it picks up an unwelcome passenger on its return to Earth.
= Alien
5 Directed by Barry Sonnenfield in 1997, this comedy thriller stars Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as members of a top secret US Government agency which polices extra-terrestrials in USA
= Men in Black
6 Directed by Mike Hodges in 1971, in which Michael Caine plays a London gangster who travels to Newcastle to investigate his brother’s death, and confront a Tyneside racketeer played by John Osborne. There is also a memorable cameo appearance by Britt Ekland.
= Get Carter
7 A musical version of the Collette play about the making of a Parisienne courtesan played by Leslie Caron. Directed by Vincente Minnelli in 1958, with script and score by Lerner and Lowe.
= Gigi
8 Musical directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly in 1952. Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor dance and sing in a story about the coming of sound to Hollywood
= Singing in the Rain
SUPPLEMENTARIES
9 Directed by Robert Neame and Irwin Allen in 1972, Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine and Shelley winters fight for survival in a luxury liner submerged upside down in the Mediterranean.
= The Poseidon Adventure
10 Russell Crowe stars in an historical epic directed by Ridley Scott in 2000, as a Roman general betrayed by the vicious emperor Joachin Phoenix. Sold into slavery, he returns in triumph before his inevitable death.
= Gladiator
EAST, WEST HOME’S BEST;
A “POT POURRI” of LOCAL INTEREST
1 How many miles is it necessary to sail to complete the Cheshire Ring (of canals)?
= 97 (Accept 95 to 99. Do not accept 100.)
2 According to the 2010 handbook, how many National Trust locations are in Cheshire (East and West)? (NB. Where places have multiple attractions such as Quarry Bank Mill, count these as a total of ONE for this question.)
= 13 (Accept 12-14) (Alderley Edge, Bickerton Hill, Bulkeley, Hare Hill, Helsby, Little Moreton Hall, Lyme Park, Maiden Castle, Nether Alderley Mill, Oakmere Hill Fort, Peckforton Hills, Quarry Bank Mill, Tatton)
3 There is a town called Macclesfield in Australia. In which state does it lie?
= South Australia (Pop. 350!)
4 There are 2 National Nature Reserves in Cheshire. Wybunbury Moss is one. What is the other?
= Rostherne Mere
5 Which number junction of the M56 is the most common to use for Manchester Airport?
= Junction 5
6 In which year did The RHS have its first show at Tatton Park?
= 1999 (Accept 1998-2000)
7 Near which local town would you find Prince’s Incline and Lady’s Incline?
= Poynton
8 What is the number of the Macclesfield to Buxton (Cat & Fiddle) road?
= A537
9 Which is the highest peak in Cheshire?
= Shining Tor
10 Which metal was mined at Alderley Edge?
= Copper
DUPLICATES
This round involves words that have two meanings, e.g.: NOGGIN: a small tot of spirits and a slang word for your head
1) This word can describe both a the nickname of a swashbuckling movie character and a US state
= INDIANA
2) This word can describe both a type of cabbage and a famous London hotel
= SAVOY
3) This word can describe both a high Chinese official and a type of fruit
= MANDARIN
4) This word can describe both a type of loaf and a mistake
= BLOOMER
5) This word can describe both a Turkish dynasty and a type of upholstered bench or stool
= OTTOMAN
6) This word can describe both a wise man and a variety of herb
= SAGE
7) This word can describe both a kitchen utensil and an exclusive news story
= SCOOP
8) This word can describe both part of a human foot and a fish
= SOLE
9) This word can describe both a suit of cards and a type of weapon
= CLUB
10) This word can describe both a military vehicle and a receptacle for holding fish
= TANK
SET BY THE KNOT KNOW-ALLS
1
| i don't know |
In April 1940, author and political leader Booker T Washington became the first African American to be depicted on an American what? | Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington
Educator, author, and African American civil rights leader
Political party
Ernest Davidson Washington
Signature
Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856 – November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and advisor to presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American community.
Washington was from the last generation of black American leaders born into slavery and became the leading voice of the former slaves and their descendants. They were newly oppressed in the South by disenfranchisement and the Jim Crow discriminatory laws enacted in the post- Reconstruction Southern states in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Washington was a key proponent of African-American businesses and one of the founders of the National Negro Business League.
His base was the Tuskegee Institute , a historically black college in Alabama. As lynchings in the South reached a peak in 1895, Washington gave a speech, known as the “ Atlanta compromise ,” which brought him national fame. He called for black progress through education and entrepreneurship, rather than trying to challenge directly the Jim Crow segregation and the disenfranchisement of black voters in the South. Washington mobilized a nationwide coalition of middle-class blacks, church leaders, and white philanthropists and politicians, with a long-term goal of building the community’s economic strength and pride by a focus on self-help and schooling. But, secretly, he also supported court challenges to segregation and passed on funds raised for this purpose. [1] Black militants in the North, led by W. E. B. Du Bois , at first supported the Atlanta compromise but after 1909, they set up the NAACP to work for political change. They tried with limited success to challenge Washington’s political machine for leadership in the black community but also built wider networks among white allies in the North. [2] Decades after Washington’s death in 1915, the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s took a more active and militant approach, which was also based on new grassroots organizations based in the South, such as CORE , SNCC and SCLC .
Booker T. Washington mastered the nuances of the political arena in the late 19th century, which enabled him to manipulate the media, raise money, strategize, network, pressure, reward friends and distribute funds while punishing those who opposed his plans for uplifting blacks. His long-term goal was to end the disenfranchisement of the vast majority of African Americans, who still lived in the South. [3]
Contents
18 External links
Overview
In 1856, Washington was born into slavery in Virginia as the son of Jane, an African-American slave. [4] After emancipation, she moved the family to West Virginia to join her husband Washington Ferguson. As a young man, Washington worked his way through Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (now Hampton University ) and attended college at Wayland Seminary (now Virginia Union University ). In 1881, he was named as the first leader of the new Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
Washington attained national prominence for his Atlanta Address of 1895 , which attracted the attention of politicians and the public, making him a popular spokesperson for African-American citizens. He built a nationwide network of supporters in many black communities, with black ministers, educators and businessmen composing his core supporters. Washington played a dominant role in black politics, winning wide support in the black community of the South and among more liberal whites (especially rich Northern whites). He gained access to top national leaders in politics, philanthropy and education. Washington’s efforts included cooperating with white people and enlisting the support of wealthy philanthropists, helping to raise funds to establish and operate thousands of small community schools and institutions of higher education for the betterment of blacks throughout the South . This work continued for many years after his death. Washington argued that the surest way for blacks to gain equal social rights was to demonstrate “industry, thrift, intelligence and property.”
Northern critics called Washington’s widespread organization the “Tuskegee Machine”. After 1909, Washington was criticized by the leaders of the new NAACP , especially W. E. B. Du Bois , who demanded a stronger tone of protest for advancement of civil rights needs. Washington replied that confrontation would lead to disaster for the outnumbered blacks in society, and that cooperation with supportive whites was the only way to overcome pervasive racism in the long run. At the same time, he secretly funded litigation for civil rights cases, such as challenges to southern constitutions and laws that disfranchised blacks. [1] [5] Washington was on close terms with national Republican Party leaders, and often was asked for political advice by presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft . [6]
In addition to his contributions in education, Washington wrote 14 books; his autobiography, Up from Slavery , first published in 1901, is still widely read today. During a difficult period of transition, he did much to improve the working relationship between the races. His work greatly helped blacks to achieve higher education, financial power and understanding of the U.S. legal system. This contributed to blacks’ attaining the skills to create and support the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s , leading to the passage of important federal civil rights laws.
Early life
Washington early in his career.
Booker was born into slavery to Jane, an enslaved African-American woman on the plantation of James Burroughs in southwest Virginia, near Hale’s Ford in Franklin County . The day, month, and even precise year of Booker’s birth were not known even by him. [7] Nor did he ever know his father, said to be a white man who resided on a neighboring plantation — an individual who, in any event, played no financial or emotional role in Washington’s life. [8]
From his earliest years the slave boy he was known simply as “Booker,” with no surname and no middle name. [9] His family was atomized and he later recalled that
“I cannot recall a single instance during my childhood or early boyhood when our entire family sat down to the table together, and God’s blessing was asked, and the family ate a meal in a civilized manner. On the plantation in Virginia, and even later, meals were gotten to the children very much as dumb animals get theirs. It was a piece of bread here and a scrap of meat there. It was a cup of milk at one time and some potatoes at another.” [10]
As a boy of about nine in Virginia, Booker and his family gained freedom under the Emancipation Proclamation as US troops occupied their region in Virginia. Booker was thrilled by the day of emancipation in early 1865:
“As the great day drew nearer, there was more singing in the slave quarters than usual. It was bolder, had more ring, and lasted later into the night. Most of the verses of the plantation songs had some reference to freedom… Some man who seemed to be a stranger (a United States officer, I presume) made a little speech and then read a rather long paper—the Emancipation Proclamation , I think. After the reading we were told that we were all free, and could go when and where we pleased. My mother, who was standing by my side, leaned over and kissed her children, while tears of joy ran down her cheeks. She explained to us what it all meant, that this was the day for which she had been so long praying, but fearing that she would never live to see.” [11]
After emancipation Jane took her family to West Virginia to join her husband Washington Ferguson, who had escaped from slavery to live there during the war. It was there that the wholly illiterate Booker began to painstakingly teach himself to read and attended school for the first time. [12]
At the time he started school Booker was faced with the need to rapidly invent a surname, and he claimed for himself the family name Washington, after his stepfather. [9] Still later he learned from his mother that she had originally given him the name “Booker Taliaferro” at the time of his birth, with the second name instantly falling into disuse. [13] Upon learning of his original name, Washington immediately readopted it as his own, assuming the name he used for the rest of his life, Booker Taliaferro Washington. [13]
Higher education
Washington worked in salt furnaces and coal mines in West Virginia for several years to earn money. He made his way east to Hampton Institute , a school established to educate freedmen, where he worked to pay for his studies. He also attended Wayland Seminary in Washington, D.C. in 1878 and left after 6 months.
Tuskegee Institute
A history class conducted at the Tuskegee Institute in 1902
In 1881, the Hampton Institute president Samuel C. Armstrong recommended Washington to become the first leader of Tuskegee Institute , the new normal school (teachers’ college) in Alabama . He led the institution for the rest of his life and became a prominent national leader among African Americans, with considerable influence with wealthy white philanthropists and politicians.
Washington was instrumental in lobbying the state legislature in 1891 to locate the newly authorized West Virginia State University in the Kanawha Valley of West Virginia. He visited the campus often and spoke at its first commencement exercise. [14]
Washington was a dominant figure of the African-American community, then largely based in the South, from 1890 to his death in 1915. His Atlanta Address of 1895 received national attention. To many he was seen as a popular spokesman for African-American citizens. Representing the last generation of black leaders born into slavery, Washington was generally perceived as a supporter of education for freedmen and their descendants in the post-Reconstruction, Jim Crow-era South. Throughout the final twenty years of his life, he maintained his standing through a nationwide network of supporters including black educators, ministers, editors, and businessmen, especially those who supported his views on social and educational issues for blacks. He also gained access to top national white leaders in politics, philanthropy and education, raised large sums, was consulted on race issues, and was awarded honorary degrees from leading American universities.
Late in his career, Washington was criticized by leaders of the NAACP , a civil rights organization formed in 1909. W. E. B. Du Bois advocated activism to achieve civil rights. He labeled Washington “the Great Accommodator”. Washington’s response was that confrontation could lead to disaster for the outnumbered blacks. He believed that cooperation with supportive whites was the only way for his people to overcome racism in the long run.
While promoting moderation, Washington contributed secretly and substantially to mounting legal challenges against segregation and disenfranchisement of blacks. [5] In his public role, he believed he could achieve more by skillful accommodation to the social realities of the age of segregation . [15]
Washington’s work on education problems helped him enlist both the moral and substantial financial support of many major white philanthropists . He became a friend of such self-made men as Standard Oil magnate Henry Huttleston Rogers ; Sears, Roebuck and Company President Julius Rosenwald ; and George Eastman , inventor of roll film and founder of Kodak , and developer of a major part of the photography industry. These individuals and many other wealthy men and women funded his causes, including Hampton and Tuskegee institutes.
He also gave lectures in support of raising money for the school, including one on January 23, 1906, at Carnegie Hall in New York called the Tuskegee Institute Silver Anniversary Lecture in which he spoke along with great orators of the day including Mark Twain , Joseph Hodges Choate , and Robert Curtis Ogden that was the kickoff of a campaign to raise $1,800,000. [16]
The schools which Washington supported were founded primarily to produce teachers, a key need for the black community in the 19th century. Freedmen strongly supported literacy and education as the keys to their future. Graduates had often returned to their largely impoverished rural southern communities to find few schools and educational resources, as the white-dominated state legislatures consistently underfunded black schools in their segregated system.
To address those needs, in the 20th century Washington enlisted his philanthropic network to create matching funds programs to stimulate construction of numerous rural public schools for black children in the South. Working especially with Julius Rosenwald from Chicago, Washington had Tuskegee architects develop model school designs. The Rosenwald Fund helped support the construction and operation of more than 5,000 schools and supporting resources for the betterment of blacks throughout the South in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The local schools were a source of communal pride and were priceless to African-American families when poverty and segregation severely limited the life chances of the pupils. A major part of Washington’s legacy, the model rural schools continued to be constructed into the 1930s, with matching funds from the Rosenwald Fund . Washington also helped with the Progressive Era by forming the National Negro Business League. [17]
His autobiography, Up From Slavery , first published in 1901, [18] is still widely read in the early 21st century.
Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute
Booker T. Washington’s house at Tuskegee University
The organizers of the new, all-black state school in Alabama called the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute — the forerunner of Tuskegee University — found the energetic leader they sought in 25-year-old Washington. He believed that with self-help, people could go from poverty to success. The new school opened on July 4, 1881, initially using space in a local church. The next year, Washington purchased a former plantation, which became the permanent site of the campus. Under his direction, his students literally built their own school: making bricks, constructing classrooms, barns and outbuildings; and growing their own crops and raising livestock; both for learning and to provide for most of the basic necessities. [19] Both men and women had to learn trades as well as academics. Washington helped raise funds to establish and operate hundreds of small community schools and institutions of higher educations for blacks. [20] The Tuskegee faculty used all the activities to teach the students basic skills to take back to their mostly rural black communities throughout the South. The main goal was not to produce farmers and tradesmen, but teachers of farming and trades who taught in the new schools and colleges for blacks across the South. The school expanded over the decades, adding programs and departments, to become the present-day Tuskegee University. [21]
Washington expressed his vision for his race in his direction of the school. He believed that by providing needed skills to society, African Americans would play their part, leading to acceptance by white Americans. He believed that blacks would eventually gain full participation in society by acting as responsible, reliable American citizens. Shortly after the Spanish–American War , President William McKinley and most of his cabinet visited Booker Washington. He led the school until his death in 1915. By then Tuskegee’s endowment had grown to over $1.5 million, compared to its initial $2,000 annual appropriation. [21] [22]
Marriages and children
Booker T. Washington with his third wife Margaret and two sons.
Washington was married three times. In his autobiography Up From Slavery , he gave all three of his wives credit for their contributions at Tuskegee. His first wife Fannie N. Smith was from Malden, West Virginia , the same Kanawha River Valley town where Washington had lived from age nine to sixteen. He maintained ties there all his life, and Smith was his student in Marden. He helped her gain entrance into the Hampton Institute, and Washington and Smith were married in the summer of 1882. They had one child, Portia M. Washington. Fannie died in May 1884. [21]
Washington next wed Olivia A. Davidson in 1885. Born in Virginia , she had studied at Hampton Institute and the Massachusetts State Normal School at Framingham . She taught in Mississippi and Tennessee before going to Tuskegee to work as a teacher. Washington met Davidson at Tuskegee, where she was promoted to assistant principal. They had two sons, Booker T. Washington Jr. and Ernest Davidson Washington, before she died in 1889.
In 1893 Washington married Margaret James Murray. She was from Mississippi and had graduated from Fisk University , a historically black college . They had no children together, but she helped rear Washington’s three children. Murray outlived Washington and died in 1925.
Politics and the Atlanta compromise
Washington circa 1895, by Frances Benjamin Johnston
Washington’s 1895 Atlanta Exposition address was viewed as a “revolutionary moment” [23] by both African Americans and whites across the country. At the time W. E. B. Du Bois supported him, but they grew apart as Du Bois sought more action to remedy disfranchisement and improve educational opportunities for blacks. After their falling out, Du Bois and his supporters referred to Washington’s speech as the “Atlanta Compromise” to express their criticism that Washington was too accommodating to white interests.
Washington advocated a “go slow” approach to avoid a harsh white backlash. [23] The effect was that many youths in the South had to accept sacrifices of potential political power, civil rights and higher education. [24] His belief was that African Americans should “concentrate all their energies on industrial education, and accumulation of wealth, and the conciliation of the South.” [25] Washington valued the “industrial” education, as it provided critical skills for the jobs then available to the majority of African Americans at the time, as most lived in the South, which was overwhelmingly rural and agricultural. He thought these skills would lay the foundation for the creation of stability that the African-American community required in order to move forward. He believed that in the long term, “blacks would eventually gain full participation in society by showing themselves to be responsible, reliable American citizens.” His approach advocated for an initial step toward equal rights, rather than full equality under the law, gaining economic power to back up black demands for political equality in the future. [26] he believed that such achievements would prove to the deeply-prejudiced white America that African Americans were not “‘naturally’ stupid and incompetent.” [27]
Washington giving a speech at Carnegie Hall in New York City , 1909
Well-educated blacks in the North advocated a different approach, in part due to the differences they perceived in opportunities. Du Bois wanted blacks to have the same “classical” liberal arts education as upscale whites did, along with voting rights and civic equality, the latter two elements granted since 1870 by constitutional amendments after the Civil War. He believed that an elite, which he called the Talented Tenth , would advance to lead the race to a wider variety of occupations. [28] Du Bois and Washington were divided in part by differences in treatment of African Americans in the North versus the South; although both groups suffered discrimination, the mass of blacks in the South were far more constrained by legal segregation and exclusion from the political process. Many in the North objected to being ‘led’, and authoritatively spoken for, by a Southern accommodationist strategy which they considered to have been “imposed on them [Southern blacks] primarily by Southern whites.” [29] Historian Clarence E. Walker wrote that, for white Southerners,
Free black people were ‘matter out of place’. Their emancipation was an affront to southern white freedom. Booker T. Washington did not understand that his program was perceived as subversive of a natural order in which black people were to remain forever subordinate or unfree. [30]
Both Washington and Du Bois sought to define the best means to improve the conditions of the post-Civil War African-American community through education.
Blacks were solidly Republican in this period, having gained emancipation and suffrage with the President Lincoln and his party and later fellow Republican President Ulysses S. Grant defending African American’s newly won freedom and civil rights in the South during Reconstruction . After Federal troops left, Southern states disfranchised most blacks and many poor whites from 1890–1908 through constitutional amendments and statutes that created barriers to voter registration and voting, such as poll taxes and literacy tests . By the late nineteenth century, Southern white Democrats defeated some biracial Populist-Republican coalitions and regained power in the state legislatures of the former Confederacy; they passed laws establishing racial segregation and Jim Crow . In the border states and North, blacks continued to exercise the vote; the well-established Maryland African-American community defeated attempts there to disfranchise them.
Washington worked and socialized with many national white politicians and industry leaders. He developed the ability to persuade wealthy whites, many of them self-made men, to donate money to black causes by appealing to values they had exercised in their rise to power. He argued that the surest way for blacks to gain equal social rights was to demonstrate “industry, thrift, intelligence and property.” [31] He believed these were key to improved conditions for African Americans in the United States. Because African Americans had only recently been emancipated and most lived in a hostile environment, Washington believed they could not expect too much at once. He said, “I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed.” [21]
Along with Du Bois, Washington partly organized the “Negro exhibition” at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris , where photos of Hampton Institute’s black students were displayed. These were taken by his friend Frances Benjamin Johnston . [32] The exhibition demonstrated African Americans’ positive contributions to United States’ society. [32]
Washington privately contributed substantial funds for legal challenges to segregation and disfranchisement , such as the case of Giles v. Harris , which was heard before the United States Supreme Court in 1903. [33] Even when such challenges were won at the Supreme Court, southern states quickly responded with new laws to accomplish the same ends, for instance, adding “ grandfather clauses ” that covered whites and not blacks.
Wealthy friends and benefactors
Washington’s wealthy friends included Andrew Carnegie and Robert Curtis Ogden , seen here in 1906 while visiting Tuskegee Institute .
State and local governments gave little money to black schools, but white philanthropists proved willing to invest heavily. Washington encouraged them and directed millions of their money to projects all across the South that Washington thought best reflected his self-help philosophy. Washington associated with the richest and most powerful businessmen and politicians of the era. He was seen as a spokesperson for African Americans and became a conduit for funding educational programs.
His contacts included such diverse and well-known entrepreneurs and philanthropists as Andrew Carnegie , William Howard Taft , John D. Rockefeller , Henry Huttleston Rogers , George Eastman , Julius Rosenwald , Robert Curtis Ogden , Collis Potter Huntington , and William Henry Baldwin Jr. . The latter donated large sums of money to agencies such as the Jeanes and Slater Funds. As a result, countless small rural schools were established through his efforts, under programs that continued many years after his death. Along with rich white men, the black communities helped their communities directly by donating time, money, and labor to schools in a sort of matching fund. [34]
Henry Huttleston Rogers
Handbill from 1909 tour of southern Virginia and West Virginia .
A representative case of an exceptional relationship was Washington’s friendship with millionaire industrialist and financier Henry H. Rogers (1840–1909). Henry Rogers was a self-made man , who had risen from a modest working-class family to become a principal officer of Standard Oil , and one of the richest men in the United States. Around 1894 Rogers heard Washington speak at Madison Square Garden . The next day he contacted Washington and requested a meeting, during which Washington later recounted that he was told that Rogers “was surprised that no one had ‘passed the hat’ after the speech.” The meeting began a close relationship that was to extend over a period of 15 years. Although Washington and the very-private Rogers were seen by the public as friends, the true depth and scope of their relationship was not publicly revealed until after Rogers’ sudden death of a stroke in May 1909. Washington was a frequent guest at Rogers’ New York office, his Fairhaven, Massachusetts summer home, and aboard his steam yacht Kanawha .
A few weeks later Washington went on a previously planned speaking tour along the newly completed Virginian Railway , a $40-million enterprise which had been built almost entirely from Rogers’ personal fortune. As Washington rode in the late financier’s private railroad car , Dixie, he stopped and made speeches at many locations, where his companions later recounted that he had been warmly welcomed by both black and white citizens at each stop.
Washington revealed that Rogers had been quietly funding operations of 65 small country schools for African Americans, and had given substantial sums of money to support Tuskegee and Hampton institutes. He also disclosed that Rogers had encouraged programs with matching funds requirements so the recipients had a stake in the outcome.
Anna T. Jeanes
In 1907 Philadelphia Quaker Anna T. Jeanes (1822–1907) donated one million dollars to Washington for elementary schools for black children in the South. Her contributions and those of Henry Rogers and others funded schools in many poor communities.
Julius Rosenwald
Julius Rosenwald (1862–1932) was another self-made wealthy man with whom Washington found common ground. By 1908 Rosenwald, son of an immigrant clothier, had become part-owner and president of Sears, Roebuck and Company in Chicago. Rosenwald was a philanthropist who was deeply concerned about the poor state of African-American education, especially in the Southern states, where their schools were underfunded. [35]
The collaboration between Booker T. Washington and Julius Rosenwald, who was Jewish, was the subject of the 2015 documentary Rosenwald , subtitled [36] A Remarkable Story of a Jewish Partnership with African American Communities by by writer, producer and director Aviva Kempner , [37] [38] which won Best Documentary Jury Award at the Teaneck International Film Festival and the Lipscomb University Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, Nashville Film Festival. [36]
In 1912 Rosenwald was asked to serve on the Board of Directors of Tuskegee Institute, a position he held for the remainder of his life. Rosenwald endowed Tuskegee so that Washington could spend less time fundraising and more managing the school. Later in 1912 Rosenwald provided funds for a pilot program to build six new small schools in rural Alabama. They were designed, constructed and opened in 1913 and 1914 and overseen by Tuskegee; the model proved successful. Rosenwald established the Rosenwald Fund . The school building program was one of its largest programs. Using architectural model plans developed by professors at Tuskegee Institute, the Rosenwald Fund spent over $4 million to help build 4,977 schools, 217 teachers’ homes, and 163 shop buildings in 883 counties in 15 states, from Maryland to Texas. [39] The Rosenwald Fund made matching grants , requiring community support, cooperation from the white school boards, and fundraising. Black communities raised more than $4.7 million to aid the construction; essentially they taxed themselves twice to do so. [40] These schools became informally known as Rosenwald Schools . By 1932, the facilities could accommodate one third of all African-American children in Southern U.S. schools.
Up from Slavery to the White House
Booker Washington and Theodore Roosevelt at Tuskegee Institute , 1905
Washington’s long-term adviser, Timothy Thomas Fortune (1856–1928), was a respected African-American economist and editor of the The New York Age , the most widely read newspaper in the black community within the United States. He was the ghost-writer and editor of Washington’s first autobiography, The Story of My Life and Work. [41] Washington published five books during his lifetime with the aid of ghost-writers Timothy Fortune, Max Bennett Thrasher and Robert E. Park . [42]
They included compilations of speeches and essays:
The Story of My Life and Work (1900)
The Story of the Negro: The Rise of the Race from Slavery (2 vol 1909)
My Larger Education (1911)
The Man Farthest Down (1912)
In an effort to inspire the “commercial, agricultural, educational, and industrial advancement” of African Americans, Washington founded the National Negro Business League (NNBL) in 1900. [43]
When Washington’s second autobiography, Up From Slavery , was published in 1901, it became a bestseller and had a major effect on the African-American community, its friends and allies. In October 1901 President Theodore Roosevelt invited Washington to dine with him and his family at the White House ; he was the first African American to be invited there by a president. Democratic Party politicians from the South, including future Governor of Mississippi James K. Vardaman and Senator Benjamin Tillman of South Carolina indulged in racist personal attacks when they learned of the invitation. Vardaman described the White House as
“so saturated with the odor of the nigger that the rats have taken refuge in the stable”, [44] [45] and declared “I am just as much opposed to Booker T. Washington as a voter as I am to the cocoanut-headed, chocolate-colored typical little coon who blacks my shoes every morning. Neither is fit to perform the supreme function of citizenship.” [46]
Tillman said, “The action of President Roosevelt in entertaining that nigger will necessitate our killing a thousand niggers in the South before they will learn their place again.” [47]
Austro-Hungarian ambassador to the United States Ladislaus Hengelmüller von Hengervár , who was visiting the White House on the same day, claimed to have found a rabbit’s foot in Washington’s coat pocket when he mistakenly put on the coat. The Washington Post elaborately described it as “the left hind foot of a graveyard rabbit, killed in the dark of the moon”. [48] The Detroit Journal quipped the next day, “The Austrian ambassador may have made off with Booker T. Washington’s coat at the White House, but he’d have a bad time trying to fill his shoes.” [48] [49]
Death
Booker T. Washington’s coffin being carried to grave site.
Despite his travels and widespread work, Washington remained as principal of Tuskegee. Washington’s health was deteriorating rapidly in 1915; he collapsed in New York City and was brought home to Tuskegee, where he died on November 14, 1915, at the age of 59. He was buried on the campus of Tuskegee University near the University Chapel.
His death was believed at the time to have been a result of congestive heart failure , aggravated by overwork. In March 2006, with the permission of his descendants, examination of medical records indicated that he died of hypertension , with a blood pressure more than twice normal, confirming what had long been suspected.
At his death Tuskegee’s endowment exceeded $1.5 million. Washington’s greatest life’s work, the education of blacks in the South, was well underway and expanding.
Honors and memorials
For his contributions to American society, Washington was granted an honorary master’s degree from Harvard University in 1896 and an honorary doctorate from Dartmouth College in 1901.
At the end of the 2008 presidential election, the defeated Republican candidate, Senator John McCain , recalled the outrage that Booker Washington’s visit to Theodore Roosevelt’s White House a century before, caused. McCain pointed out the evident progress the country had made since that event: Barack Obama was elected as the first African-American President of the United States. [50]
In 1934 Robert Russa Moton , Washington’s successor as president of Tuskegee University, arranged an air tour for two African-American aviators. Afterward he had the plane named the Booker T. Washington.
Booker T. Washington was honored on a ‘Famous Americans Series’ Commemorative U.S. Postage stamp, issue of 1940.
On April 7, 1940, Washington became the first African American to be depicted on a United States postage stamp. Several years later, he was honored on the first coin to feature an African American, the Booker T. Washington Memorial Half Dollar, which was minted by the United States from 1946 to 1951. He was also depicted on a U.S. Half Dollar from 1951–1954. [51]
In 1942, the liberty ship Booker T. Washington was named in his honor, the first major oceangoing vessel to be named after an African American. The ship was christened by Marian Anderson . [52]
On April 5, 1956, the hundredth anniversary of Washington’s birth, the house where he was born in Franklin County, Virginia , was designated as the Booker T. Washington National Monument .
A state park in Chattanooga, Tennessee , was named in his honor, as was a bridge spanning the Hampton River adjacent to his alma mater , Hampton University .
In 1984 Hampton University dedicated a Booker T. Washington Memorial on campus near the historic Emancipation Oak , establishing, in the words of the University, “a relationship between one of America’s great educators and social activists, and the symbol of Black achievement in education.” [53]
Numerous high schools , middle schools and elementary schools [54] across the United States have been named after Booker T. Washington.
At the center of the campus at Tuskegee University , the Booker T. Washington Monument, called Lifting the Veil, was dedicated in 1922. The inscription at its base reads:
He lifted the veil of ignorance from his people and pointed the way to progress through education and industry.
In 2000, West Virginia State University (WVSU; then West Va. State College), in cooperation with other organizations including the Booker T. Washington Association, established the Booker T. Washington Institute, to honor Washington’s boyhood home, the old town of Malden, and the ideals Booker Washington stood for. [55]
On October 19, 2009, WVSU dedicated a monument to the memory of noted African American educator and statesman Booker T. Washington. The event took place at West Virginia State University’s Booker T. Washington Park in Malden, West Virginia . The monument also honors the families of African ancestry who lived in Old Malden in the early 20th century and who knew and encouraged Booker T. Washington. Special guest speakers at the event included West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin III , Malden attorney Larry L. Rowe, and the president of WVSU. Musical selections were provided by the WVSU “Marching Swarm.” [56]
Legacy
Sculpture of Booker T. Washington at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.
Washington was held in high regard by business-oriented conservatives, both white and black. Historian Eric Foner argues that the freedom movement of the late nineteenth century changed directions so as to align with America’s new economic and intellectual framework. Black leaders emphasized economic self-help and individual advancement into the middle class as a more fruitful strategy than political agitation. There was emphasis on education and literacy throughout the period after the Civil War. Washington’s famous Atlanta speech of 1895 marked this transition, as it called on blacks to develop their farms, their industrial skills and their entrepreneurship as the next stage in emerging from slavery. By this time, Mississippi had passed a new constitution, and other southern states were following suit, or using electoral laws to complete disfranchisement of blacks and maintain white political supremacy. At the same time, Washington secretly arranged to fund numerous legal challenges to voting exclusions and segregation. [1]
Washington repudiated the abolitionist emphasis on unceasing agitation for full equality, advising blacks that it was counterproductive to fight segregation at this point. Foner concludes that Washington’s strong support in the black community was rooted in its widespread realization that frontal assaults on white supremacy were impossible, and the best way forward was to concentrate on building up the economic and social structures inside segregated communities. [57] C. Vann Woodward concluded, “The businessman’s gospel of free enterprise, competition, and laissez faire never had a more loyal exponent.” [58]
Historians since the late 20th century have been divided in their characterization of Washington: some describe him as a visionary capable of “read[ing] minds with the skill of a master psychologist,” who expertly played the political game in 19th century Washington by its own rules. [3] Others say he was a self-serving, crafty narcissist who threatened and punished those in the way of his personal interests, traveled with an entourage and spent much time fundraising, signing autographs, and giving flowery patriotic speeches with lots of flag waving — acts more indicative of an artful political boss than an altruistic civil rights leader. [3]
People called Washington the “Wizard of Tuskegee” because of his highly developed political skills, and his creation of a nationwide political machine based on the black middle class, white philanthropy, and Republican Party support. Opponents called this network the “Tuskegee Machine.” Washington maintained control because of his ability to gain support of numerous groups, including influential whites and the black business, educational and religious communities nationwide. He advised on the use of financial donations from philanthropists, and avoided antagonizing white Southerners with his accommodation to the political realities of the age of Jim Crow segregation . [15]
Representation in other media
Washington, as the guest of President Theodore Roosevelt in 1901, was the first African American ever invited to the White House. The visit was the subject of an opera, A Guest of Honor , by Scott Joplin , noted African-American composer, which was performed in 1903. [59] It was also recalled in the 1927 song by Banjo Blues Musician Gus Cannon , titled “Can You Blame The Colored Man.” [60]
A fictional version of Washington is featured near the conclusion of the 1975 novel Ragtime and its 1981 film adaptation trying to negotiate the surrender of an African-American musician who is threatening to blow up the Pierpont Morgan Library .
See also
Wintz, Cary D (1996), African American Political Thought, 1890–1930: Washington, Du Bois, Garvey, and Randolph
.
Pole, JR (1974), “Review: Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others; The Children of Pride”, The Historical Journal, 17 (4), JSTOR 2638562
.
Zimmerman, Andrew (2012), Alabama in Africa: Booker T. Washington, the German Empire, and the Globalization of the New South, Princeton: Princeton University Press
.
Historiography
Bieze, Michael Scott, and Marybeth Gasman, eds. Booker T. Washington Rediscovered (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012), 265 pp. scholarly essays
Brundage, W Fitzhugh, ed. (2003), Booker T. Washington and Black Progress: Up from Slavery 100 Years Later
.
Dagbovie, Pero Gaglo. “Exploring a Century of Historical Scholarship on Booker T. Washington,” Journal of African American History 92#2 (2007), pp. 239–264 in JSTOR ; also pp 127-57 partly online
Friedman, Lawrence J (October 1974), “Life ‘In the Lion’s Mouth’: Another Look at Booker T. Washington”, Journal of Negro History, 59 (4): 337–351, doi : 10.2307/2717315 , JSTOR 2717315
.
Harlan, Louis R (Oct 1970), “Booker T. Washington in Biographical Perspective”, American Historical Review, 75 (6): 1581–99, doi : 10.2307/1850756 , JSTOR 1850756
Norrell, Robert J. “Booker T. Washington: Understanding the Wizard of Tuskegee,” Journal of Blacks in Higher Education 42 (2003–4), pp. 96–109 in JSTOR
Strickland, Arvarh E (December 1973), “Booker T. Washington: The Myth and the Man”, Reviews in American History (Review), 1 (4): 559–564, doi : 10.2307/2701723 , JSTOR 2701723
.
Zeringue, Joshua Thomas. “Booker T. Washington and the Historians: How Changing Views on Race Relations, Economics, and Education Shaped Washington Historiography, 1915-2010″ (MA Thesis, LSU, 2015) online .
Primary sources
| Postage stamp |
The village of Tolpuddle, the home of the 19th century Tolpuddle Martyrs, is in which English county? | Publishers' Bindings Online: Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington's Own Story of His Life and Work
(J. L. Nichols, 1915)
After the Civil War , newly freed slaves faced the struggle of integrating into white America. A century-long fight for equal rights began in the postbellum decades with black leaders such as Booker T. Washington, who worked as an educator, speaker, and writer for the gradual improvement of African American life.
Childhood and Education
Booker Taliaferro was born a slave in Hales Ford, Virginia , on 5 April 1856. His father was an unknown white man, and his mother Jane was the cook on the 207-acre tobacco farm of James Burroughs.
Emancipation freed Booker, his mother, his brother John and his sister Amanda. During the summer of 1865, the family moved to Malden, West Virginia , to live with Jane’s new husband, a former slave named Washington Ferguson. Booker took his step-father’s first name as his last name, officially becoming Booker T. Washington.
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Up from Slavery
(J. L. Nichols and Co., 1901)
Poverty prevented the young Washington from attending school. Instead, he began working the local salt furnace and coal mines at the age of nine. Yet education was important to him, and he read all he could in his spare time, memorizing a worn copy of a spelling book. Washington soon became the houseboy of Viola Ruffner, wife of mine-owner Lewis Ruffner. Mrs. Ruffner had dismissed her previous, incompetent houseboys in a matter of days. Impressed with Washington’s diligence and attention to detail, she kept him on staff for several years. She also encouraged his education, allowing him to attend a local school at night.
By the age of 16, Washington had become frustrated with the inferiority of the local education and set out on foot for Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (now Hampton University ), nearly 400 miles away. The principal of the institute was Gen. Samuel Armstrong, an opponent of slavery who had been commander of African American troops during the Civil War. Armstrong believed it was important for freed slaves to receive a practical education, and he became Washington’s mentor. Washington had to work as a janitor to pay his room and board, but Armstrong secured his tuition from a wealthy white benefactor. Washington graduated from Hampton with honors in 1875.
Tuskegee and Its People: Their Ideals and Achievements
(D. Appleton and Company, 1906)
The Founding of Tuskegee
After a short time teaching in Malden and a stint as a student at Washington, D.C.’s Wayland Seminary , Washington returned to Hampton to teach in a program for Native Americans . Meanwhile, Lewis Adams, a black political leader in Tuskegee, Alabama , helped two white politicians win a local election in return for the building of a Negro school in the area. Adams asked Armstrong to recommend a white teacher to take charge of the school, but Armstrong suggested Booker instead. Booker was 25 when he took over the Tuskegee Normal School for Colored Teachers, which later became the Tuskegee Institute .
Tuskegee opened on 4 July 1881, with 30 students in a dilapidated church building. The school received funding of $2,000 a year, which was only enough to pay the staff. Washington borrowed money from Hampton Institute to purchase an abandoned plantation on the outskirts of Tuskegee. Hampton also provided books and supplies.
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Working with the Hands: Being a Sequel to Up from Slavery, Covering the Author's Experiences in Industrial Training at Tuskegee
(Doubleday, Page and Co., 1904)
Although Tuskegee's program provided students with both academic and vocational training, Washington emphasized industrial work that would help students to become self-reliant. The students, under Washington's direction, built their own buildings, produced their own food, and provided for most of their own basic necessities. They also learned trades such as carpentry, brick making, shoemaking, printing and cabinetmaking. Washington believed that by providing these skills, African Americans would play their part in society, and this would lead to acceptance by white Americans. He believed that African Americans eventually would gain full Civil Rights by showing themselves to be responsible, reliable American citizens. Many southern whites previously opposed to the education of African Americans supported Washington's ideas, because they saw them as a means of encouraging blacks to accept an inferior economic and social status. This resulted in white businessmen such as Andrew Carnegie donating large sums of money to Tuskegee.
While Washington and his students worked to build their school, Washington also built a family. He married Fanny N. Smith, whom he had met in Malden, in the summer of 1882. They had a daughter, Portia, before Fanny’s death in 1884. A year later, Washington married Olivia Davidson , a teacher and later assistant principal at Tuskegee. The couple had two sons, Booker T. Washington, Jr., and Ernest Davidson Washington . Four years after Olivia’s death in 1889, Washington married Margaret James Murray .
A New Negro for a New Century
(American Publishing House, 1900)
Controversial Views
By the 1890s, Washington had become the most prominent black leader in America. He was invited to deliver an address at the opening of the Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition in September of 1895, marking the first opportunity for an African American to speak on the same platform as white men in the South. He stated his conviction that blacks could best gain equality in America by improving their economic situation through education—particularly industrial training—rather than by demanding their rights. He proclaimed that blacks could not expect too much, because they only recently had won emancipation, and that gradual change would be the most effective route.
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The Negro in Business
(Hertel, Jenkins and Co., 1907)
He demonstrated these views again in 1900, when he helped establish the National Negro Business League , which encouraged blacks to become business owners, promoted the achievements of black businessmen, and protected them against fraud. Washington ensured that the organization concentrated on commercial issues, not questions of African American civil rights.
Washington’s views were unpopular with many blacks who advocated for classical education and immediate, full civil rights, particularly Washington’s former friend W.E.B. DuBois. Washington and DuBois eventually became involved in a public intellectual war, with each man attacking the others’ convictions.
Washington's conservative views made him popular with white politicians. President William McKinley visited the Tuskegee Institute and praised Washington's achievements. In 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt invited Washington to visit him in the White House, a move seen as scandalous at the time. Both Roosevelt and his successor, William H. Taft , consulted Washington on African American appointments.
Booker T. Washington, the Master Mind of a Child of Slavery
(National Publishing Company, 1915)
A Lasting Legacy
Washington spread his ideas nationwide, through his books and speaking tours. He was in New York for a speaking engagement when he collapsed on 5 November 1915. Doctors warned him that he did not have long to live. Rather than remaining in the hospital, he returned home to Tuskegee, where he died on November 14. More than 8,000 people attended his funeral at the Tuskegee Institute Chapel. He was buried on the campus, which by then had more than 1500 students, almost 200 teachers, more than 100 buildings, and thousands of loyal alumni.
Washington remained one of the most influential and respected blacks in American history long after his death. In 1940, he became the first African American to be depicted on a U.S. postage stamp. He also was the first African American to appear on a coin: the Booker T. Washington Memorial Half Dollar, minted by the United States from 1946 to 1951. In addition, numerous schools across the United States and a state park in Tennessee are named for him.
Bibliography
Booker T. Washington penned a number of books (many of them autobiographical) that advanced his purposes of encouraging black self-reliance and demonstrating African Americans’ worth in the post-Civil War social and economic world. Following is a chronological bibliography. Hyperlinked articles are available full-text.
Daily Resolves (1896)
Progress of a Race (1898)
Black-belt Diamonds (1898)
The Future of the American Negro (1899)
Education of the Negro (1900)
The Negro and the "Solid South" (1900)
A New Negro for a New Century (1900)
Sowing and Reaping (1900)
The Story of Slavery (1913)
Booker T. Washington’s Own Story of His Life and Work (1915)
Search the PBO database for books by and about Booker T. Washington
Suggested Readings
Denton, Virginia Lantz. Booker T. Washington and the Adult Education Movement. Gainesville, Fla.: University Press of Florida, 1993.
Drinker, Frederick E. Booker T. Washington, the Master Mind of a Child of Slavery: A Human Interest Story Depicting the Life Achievements of a Great Leader of a Rising Race. Philadelphia: National Publishing Co., 1915.
Franklin, John Hope, and August Meier. Black Leaders of the Twentieth Century. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1982.
Gates, Jr., Henry Louis, and Cornel West. The African-American Century: How Black Americans Have Shaped Our Country. New York: Free Press, 2000.
Harlan, Louis R. Booker T. Washington: The Making of a Black Leader, 1856-1901. New York: Oxford University Press, 1972.
____________. Booker T. Washington: The Wizard of Tuskegee, 1901-1915. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983.
Hawkins, Hugh. Booker T. Washington and His Critics: The Problem of Negro Leadership. Boston: Heath, 1962.
Meier, August. Negro Thought in America, 1880-1915: Racial Ideologies in the Age of Booker T. Washington. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1963.
Moore, Jacqueline M. Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, and the Struggle for Racial Uplift. Wilmington, Del.: Scholarly Resources, 2003.
Spencer, Samuel R. Booker T. Washington and the Negro's Place in American Life. Boston: Little, Brown, 1955.
Related Online Resources
| i don't know |
Aside from being a 'nuisance' if one gets into your garden, what is an animal called that feeds only on plants? | Groundhogs In Your Garden: What You Should Know About The Woodchuck | The Huffington Post
Groundhogs In Your Garden: What You Should Know About The Woodchuck
02/01/2013 08:26 am ET | Updated Feb 02, 2013
110
From Vetstreet's Samantha Bartram:
“This is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather.” —Phil Conners, Groundhog Day
Our friend Marmota Monax — better known as the groundhog — is one of the most legendary rodents in North America. Roaming a swath of territory extending from Alaska to Alabama, the humble groundhog is held responsible each year for predicting the start of spring (or the end of winter, depending on your perspective). Pennsylvania’s Punxsutawney Phil is perhaps the most well-known meteorological marmot; each year, on Feb. 2, tens of thousands of people wait patiently for the sleepy ground squirrel to emerge from his burrow and either lament the cloudy day or be startled by his own shadow. The former is said to mean an early spring is imminent, while the latter supposedly signals six more weeks of dreary winter weather.
Although the groundhog finds himself in the spotlight once a year, he's not hard to find the other 364 days. Ubiquitous in the backyards, highway medians and fields of nearly half the United States and most of Canada, groundhogs can often be a nuisance to homeowners and farmers.
A Long Winter's Sleep
It’s fairly easy to tell if a family of groundhogs has taken up residence on your property. Often they make little effort to conceal themselves — groundhogs can commonly be found out in the open, sunning themselves in a patch of grass or atop a fence post. Or they may leave clues behind, such as chewed wood or plants, with tooth markings that are similar to that of a rabbit, but larger.
Groundhogs, like most pets and people, are active during the day and retreat to their burrows for a good night’s sleep. But the groundhog takes his sleep more seriously than we do: The bristly herbivores are true hibernators, meaning they bulk up in the fall and sleep from roughly October to March. While the groundhog will occasionally snack on a grub or other smallish insect, for the most part they rely on grasses, fruits and nuts to give them a rich fat reserve that will last through the coldest months of winter.
The groundhog has a few tricks up his sleeve when it comes to foraging. “They’ll also eat crops and ornamental plants," says Suzie Prange, a wildlife research biologist with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, "and a lot of people don’t know they can actually climb trees quite well to eat cherries, apples and other fruits." Groundhogs are perfectly content to forage and fatten up for the better part of the year, reproducing once, preparing for winter hibernation — and intermittently chewing on and burrowing under our decks, patios and trees.
Although groundhogs don’t pose much of a threat to our pets, their chewing can be somewhat destructive. Prange says a homeowner’s best bet is to work to discourage their entry in the first place. “There’s got to be an attractant that’s bringing the animal there, whether it’s fruit trees or a garden, so one option is to get rid of those.” You can also try to exclude the animal from what’s attracting it. Generally, that means erecting a fence around tasty garden produce. Still, whether you’re in a rural or semi-urban area, groundhogs may be likely visitors.
Hormones or other deterrents, such as tying bundles of human or pet hair to garden stakes, are not effective, Prange says. “Things that scare off an animal for a while don’t work forever, especially with groundhogs, which are very intelligent." Your best bet, she says, is deterrence. "Really, you need to exclude them from whatever is attracting them, whether that’s wrapping fruit trees with wire or something so they can’t climb or gnaw, or putting up fencing so they can’t get under or over it."
Predator or Prey?
While there are a number of stories of dogs chasing and treeing groundhogs, the big rodents can be quite spunky when feeling threatened. “They have good eyesight. They’re good swimmers and good climbers," Prange says. "I can say I’ve trapped them before, and the groundhog is the only species that has actually turned around and lunged at me. I don’t think it would’ve actually attacked, but he was standing his ground.”
Ultimately, though, groundhogs pose little, if any, threat to pets or livestock, save for the burrows they dig that can prove troublesome for cattle and horses as they move across a pasture area. “The biggest problem with them is that they gnaw on things, eat plants, fruits, vegetables. And they make holes in the ground,” Prange says.
Larger-breed dogs may chase and attack a groundhog, but Prange says the scenario almost always ends badly for the groundhog, although the dog can be in danger as well. “Groundhogs do have large incisors like rodents do, so your dog stands a chance of being bitten. A big dog will kill a groundhog, and a small dog probably wouldn’t get close enough to get bitten." Cats, on the other hand, are rarely threatened by groundhogs; a cat "probably wouldn’t have anything to do with it, and a groundhog won’t go out of its way to attack if he’s not threatened."
As far as disease goes, Prange says groundhogs sometimes will contract roundworm as an intermediate host, but other ailments are rarely an issue. “If your dog is bitten, there’s basically no danger of roundworm. The dog would have to consume the animal, but there are lots of ways dogs can get roundworms — consuming other vermin, feces, et cetera." She adds that "all animals can have rabies, but rabies in groundhogs would be very rare."
While the groundhog may not threaten your pets, it can be in danger from other predators. Baby and adolescent groundhogs are a tasty snack for many birds of prey; coyotes, bobcats and occasionally foxes will try their hand at nabbing full-grown groundhogs for lunch. If you spot groundhogs in your yard or neighborhood, Prange says, it’s likely a good sign that predators are not afoot. “Be happy you don’t have coyotes in your yard!"
She adds: "Groundhogs are widespread, and they’re just one species these [predators] eat — coyotes and bobcats are very generalist in what they take. There’s voles, rabbits, squirrels and everything else — they won't go in just to get a groundhog." That's good news for pet owners.
The bottom line: If you find groundhogs on your property, depending on the time of year, they’re probably there simply to eat, burrow and reproduce or hibernate for the winter — not to bother your pets. And who knows? Your resident groundhog just may give you the inside scoop on how soon spring is coming.
More from Vetstreet:
| Herbivore |
In England, celebrating the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, on which date was Oak Apple Day celebrated? | Groundhogs In Your Garden: What You Should Know About The Woodchuck | The Huffington Post
Groundhogs In Your Garden: What You Should Know About The Woodchuck
02/01/2013 08:26 am ET | Updated Feb 02, 2013
110
From Vetstreet's Samantha Bartram:
“This is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather.” —Phil Conners, Groundhog Day
Our friend Marmota Monax — better known as the groundhog — is one of the most legendary rodents in North America. Roaming a swath of territory extending from Alaska to Alabama, the humble groundhog is held responsible each year for predicting the start of spring (or the end of winter, depending on your perspective). Pennsylvania’s Punxsutawney Phil is perhaps the most well-known meteorological marmot; each year, on Feb. 2, tens of thousands of people wait patiently for the sleepy ground squirrel to emerge from his burrow and either lament the cloudy day or be startled by his own shadow. The former is said to mean an early spring is imminent, while the latter supposedly signals six more weeks of dreary winter weather.
Although the groundhog finds himself in the spotlight once a year, he's not hard to find the other 364 days. Ubiquitous in the backyards, highway medians and fields of nearly half the United States and most of Canada, groundhogs can often be a nuisance to homeowners and farmers.
A Long Winter's Sleep
It’s fairly easy to tell if a family of groundhogs has taken up residence on your property. Often they make little effort to conceal themselves — groundhogs can commonly be found out in the open, sunning themselves in a patch of grass or atop a fence post. Or they may leave clues behind, such as chewed wood or plants, with tooth markings that are similar to that of a rabbit, but larger.
Groundhogs, like most pets and people, are active during the day and retreat to their burrows for a good night’s sleep. But the groundhog takes his sleep more seriously than we do: The bristly herbivores are true hibernators, meaning they bulk up in the fall and sleep from roughly October to March. While the groundhog will occasionally snack on a grub or other smallish insect, for the most part they rely on grasses, fruits and nuts to give them a rich fat reserve that will last through the coldest months of winter.
The groundhog has a few tricks up his sleeve when it comes to foraging. “They’ll also eat crops and ornamental plants," says Suzie Prange, a wildlife research biologist with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, "and a lot of people don’t know they can actually climb trees quite well to eat cherries, apples and other fruits." Groundhogs are perfectly content to forage and fatten up for the better part of the year, reproducing once, preparing for winter hibernation — and intermittently chewing on and burrowing under our decks, patios and trees.
Although groundhogs don’t pose much of a threat to our pets, their chewing can be somewhat destructive. Prange says a homeowner’s best bet is to work to discourage their entry in the first place. “There’s got to be an attractant that’s bringing the animal there, whether it’s fruit trees or a garden, so one option is to get rid of those.” You can also try to exclude the animal from what’s attracting it. Generally, that means erecting a fence around tasty garden produce. Still, whether you’re in a rural or semi-urban area, groundhogs may be likely visitors.
Hormones or other deterrents, such as tying bundles of human or pet hair to garden stakes, are not effective, Prange says. “Things that scare off an animal for a while don’t work forever, especially with groundhogs, which are very intelligent." Your best bet, she says, is deterrence. "Really, you need to exclude them from whatever is attracting them, whether that’s wrapping fruit trees with wire or something so they can’t climb or gnaw, or putting up fencing so they can’t get under or over it."
Predator or Prey?
While there are a number of stories of dogs chasing and treeing groundhogs, the big rodents can be quite spunky when feeling threatened. “They have good eyesight. They’re good swimmers and good climbers," Prange says. "I can say I’ve trapped them before, and the groundhog is the only species that has actually turned around and lunged at me. I don’t think it would’ve actually attacked, but he was standing his ground.”
Ultimately, though, groundhogs pose little, if any, threat to pets or livestock, save for the burrows they dig that can prove troublesome for cattle and horses as they move across a pasture area. “The biggest problem with them is that they gnaw on things, eat plants, fruits, vegetables. And they make holes in the ground,” Prange says.
Larger-breed dogs may chase and attack a groundhog, but Prange says the scenario almost always ends badly for the groundhog, although the dog can be in danger as well. “Groundhogs do have large incisors like rodents do, so your dog stands a chance of being bitten. A big dog will kill a groundhog, and a small dog probably wouldn’t get close enough to get bitten." Cats, on the other hand, are rarely threatened by groundhogs; a cat "probably wouldn’t have anything to do with it, and a groundhog won’t go out of its way to attack if he’s not threatened."
As far as disease goes, Prange says groundhogs sometimes will contract roundworm as an intermediate host, but other ailments are rarely an issue. “If your dog is bitten, there’s basically no danger of roundworm. The dog would have to consume the animal, but there are lots of ways dogs can get roundworms — consuming other vermin, feces, et cetera." She adds that "all animals can have rabies, but rabies in groundhogs would be very rare."
While the groundhog may not threaten your pets, it can be in danger from other predators. Baby and adolescent groundhogs are a tasty snack for many birds of prey; coyotes, bobcats and occasionally foxes will try their hand at nabbing full-grown groundhogs for lunch. If you spot groundhogs in your yard or neighborhood, Prange says, it’s likely a good sign that predators are not afoot. “Be happy you don’t have coyotes in your yard!"
She adds: "Groundhogs are widespread, and they’re just one species these [predators] eat — coyotes and bobcats are very generalist in what they take. There’s voles, rabbits, squirrels and everything else — they won't go in just to get a groundhog." That's good news for pet owners.
The bottom line: If you find groundhogs on your property, depending on the time of year, they’re probably there simply to eat, burrow and reproduce or hibernate for the winter — not to bother your pets. And who knows? Your resident groundhog just may give you the inside scoop on how soon spring is coming.
More from Vetstreet:
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The Pictish language was spoken in which nation in early medieval times? | Picts - 必应
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Picts
The Picts were a tribal confederation of peoples who lived in what is today eastern and northern Scotland during the Late Iron Age and Early Medieval periods. They are thought to have been ethnolinguistically Celtic. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from the geographical distribution of brochs, Brittonic place name elements, and Pictish stones. Picts are attested to in written records from before the Roman conquest of Britain to the 10th century, when they are thought to have merged with the Gaels. Th ... (展开) ey lived to the north of the rivers Forth and Clyde, and spoke the now-extinct Pictish language, which is thought to have been related to the Brittonic language spoken by the Britons who lived to the south of them. Picts are assumed to have been the descendants of the Caledonii and other tribes that were mentioned by Roman historians or on the world map of Ptolemy. Pictland, also called Pictavia by some sources, gradually merged with the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata to form the Kingdom of Alba (Scotland). Alba then expanded, absorbing the Brittonic kingdom of Strathclyde and Bernician Lothian, and by the 11th century the Pictish identity had been subsumed into the "Scots" amalgamation of peoples. Pictish society was typical of many Iron Age societies in northern Europe, having "wide connections and parallels" with neighbouring groups. Archaeology gives some impression of the society of the Picts. While very little in the way of Pictish writing has survived, Pictish history since the late 6th century is known from a variety of sources, including Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, saints' lives such as that of Columba by Adomnán, and various Irish annals.
history of celts and picts
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A Pictish confederation was formed in Late Antiquity from a number of tribes—how and why is not known. Some scholars have speculated that it was partly in response to the growth of the Roman Empire.
Pictland had previously been described by Roman writers and geographers as the home of the Caledonii. ...
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我喜欢你的照片追问： i like your picts too 可以这样说吗回答： 可以呀，不过picts 后要加个逗号， 追问： 我喜欢你的活泼 可爱 善良怎么说? 追问： pictures 这样对不...
Picts Etymology
What the Picts called themselves is unknown.[nb 1] The Latin word Picti first occurs in a panegyric written by Eumenius in AD 297 and is taken to mean "painted or tattooed people" (from Latin pingere "to paint"; pictus, "painted", cf. Greek "πυκτίς" pyktis, "picture"). As Sally M. Foster noted, "Much ink has been spilt over what the ancient writers meant by Picts, but it seems to be a generic term for people living north of the Forth–Clyde isthmus who raided the Roman Empire."
Their Old English name gave the modern Scots form Pechts and the Welsh word Fichti.[citation needed] In writings from Ireland, the name Cruthin, Cruthini, Cruthni, Cruithni or Cruithini (Modern Irish: Cruithne) was used to refer both to the Picts and to another group of people who lived alongside the Ulaid in eastern Ulster. It is generally accepted that this is derived from *Qritani, which is the Goidelic/Q-Celtic version of the Britonnic/P-Celtic *Pritani. From this came Britanni, the Roman name for those now called the Britons. It has been suggested that Cruthin referred to all Britons not conquered by the Romans—those who lived outside Roman Britannia, north of Hadrian's Wall.
Picts History
A Pictish confederation was formed in Late Antiquity from a number of tribes—how and why is not known. Some scholars have speculated that it was partly in response to the growth of the Roman Empire.
Pictland had previously been described by Roman writers and geographers as the home of the Caledonii. These Romans also used other names to refer to tribes living in that area, including Verturiones, Taexali and Venicones. But they may have heard these other names only second- or third-hand, from speakers of Brittonic or Gaulish languages, who may have used different names for the same group or groups.
Pictish recorded history begins in the Dark Ages. It appears that Picts were not the dominant power in Northern Britain for that entire period[citation needed]. The Gaels of Dál Riata controlled what is present day Argyll for a time, although they suffered a series of defeats in the first third of the 7th century. The Angles of Bernicia overwhelmed the adjacent British kingdoms, one of which, the Anglian kingdom of Deira, later became the most powerful kingdom in Britain. (Deira and Bernicia together were called Northumbria). The Picts were probably tributary to Northumbria until the reign of Bridei mac Beli, when, in 685, the Anglians suffered a defeat at the Battle of Dun Nechtain that halted their northward expansion. The Northumbrians continued to dominate southern Scotland for the remainder of the Pictish period.
Dál Riata was subject to the Pictish king Óengus mac Fergusa during his reign (729–761), and though it had its own kings beginning in the 760s, does not appear to have recovered its political independence from the Picts. A later Pictish king, Caustantín mac Fergusa (793–820), placed his son Domnall on the throne of Dál Riata (811–835). Pictish attempts to achieve a similar dominance over the Britons of Alt Clut (Dumbarton) were not successful.
The Viking Age brought great changes in Britain and Ireland, no less in Scotland than elsewhere. By the middle of the 9th century, when Ketil Flatnose is said to have founded the Kingdom of the Isles, the Vikings had destroyed the kingdoms of Dál Riata and Northumbria, greatly diminished the power of the Kingdom of Strathclyde, and founded the Kingdom of York. In a major battle in 839, the Vikings killed the king of Fortriu, Eógan mac Óengusa, the king of Dál Riata Áed mac Boanta, and many others. In the aftermath, in the 840s, Cínaed mac Ailpín (Kenneth MacAlpin) became king of the Picts.[citation needed]
During the reign of Cínaed's grandson, Caustantín mac Áeda (900–943), outsiders began to refer to the region as the kingdom of Alba rather than the kingdom of the Picts, but we do not know whether this was because a new kingdom was established or Alba was simply a closer approximation of the Pictish name for the Picts. However, though the Pictish language did not disappear suddenly, a process of Gaelicisation (which may have begun generations earlier) was clearly underway during the reigns of Caustantín and his successors. By a certain point, probably during the 11th century, all the inhabitants of Alba had become fully Gaelicised Scots, and Pictish identity was forgotten. Later, the idea of Picts as a tribe was revived in myth and legend.
Picts Kings and kingdoms
See also: List of Kings of the Picts
The early history of Pictland is unclear. In later periods multiple kings existed, ruling over separate kingdoms, with one king, sometimes two, more or less dominating their lesser neighbours. De Situ Albanie, a late document, the Pictish Chronicle, the Duan Albanach, along with Irish legends, have been used to argue the existence of seven Pictish kingdoms. These are as follows; those in bold are known to have had kings, or are otherwise attested in the Pictish period:
Cait, or Cat, situated in modern Caithness and Sutherland
Ce, situated in modern Mar and Buchan
Circinn, perhaps situated in modern Angus and the Mearns
Fib, the modern Fife, known to this day as 'the Kingdom of Fife'
Fidach, location unknown, but possibly near Inverness
Fotla, modern Atholl (Ath-Fotla)
Fortriu, cognate with the Verturiones of the Romans; recently shown to be centred on Moray
More small kingdoms may have existed. Some evidence suggests that a Pictish kingdom also existed in Orkney. De Situ Albanie is not the most reliable of sources, and the number of kingdoms, one for each of the seven sons of Cruithne, the eponymous founder of the Picts, may well be grounds enough for disbelief. Regardless of the exact number of kingdoms and their names, the Pictish nation was not a united one.
For most of Pictish recorded history the kingdom of Fortriu appears dominant, so much so that king of Fortriu and king of the Picts may mean one and the same thing in the annals. This was previously thought to lie in the area around Perth and the southern Strathearn, whereas recent work has convinced those working in the field that Moray (a name referring to a very much larger area in the High Middle Ages than the county of Moray), was the core of Fortriu.
The Picts are often said to have practised matrilineal kingship succession on the basis of Irish legends and a statement in Bede's history. In fact, Bede merely says that the Picts used matrilineal kingship succession in exceptional cases. The kings of the Picts when Bede was writing were Bridei and Nechtan, sons of Der Ilei, who indeed claimed the throne through their mother Der Ilei, daughter of an earlier Pictish king.
In Ireland, kings were expected to come from among those who had a great-grandfather who had been king. Kingly fathers were not frequently succeeded by their sons, not because the Picts practised matrilineal succession, but because they were usually followed by their own brothers or cousins, more likely to be experienced men with the authority and the support necessary to be king. Very likely to tanistry.
The nature of kingship changed considerably during the centuries of Pictish history. While earlier kings had to be successful war leaders to maintain their authority, kingship became rather less personalised and more institutionalised during this time. Bureaucratic kingship was still far in the future when Pictland became Alba, but the support of the church, and the apparent ability of a small number of families to control the kingship for much of the period from the later 7th century onwards, provided a considerable degree of continuity. In much the same period, the Picts' neighbours in Dál Riata and Northumbria faced considerable difficulties, as the stability of succession and rule that previously benefited them ended.
The later Mormaers are thought to have originated in Pictish times, and to have been copied from, or inspired by, Northumbrian usages. It is unclear whether the Mormaers were originally former kings, royal officials, or local nobles, or some combination of these. Likewise, the Pictish shires and thanages, traces of which are found in later times, are thought to have been adopted from their southern neighbours.
Picts Society
The archaeological record provides evidence of the material culture of the Picts. It tells of a society not readily distinguishable from its similar Gaelic and British neighbours, nor very different from the Anglo-Saxons to the south. Although analogy and knowledge of other Celtic societies may be a useful guide, these extended across a very large area. Relying on knowledge of pre-Roman Gaul, or 13th century Ireland, as a guide to the Picts of the 6th century may be misleading if analogy is pursued too far.
As with most peoples in the north of Europe in Late Antiquity, the Picts were farmers living in small communities. Cattle and horses were an obvious sign of wealth and prestige, sheep and pigs were kept in large numbers, and place names suggest that transhumance was common. Animals were small by later standards, although horses from Britain were imported into Ireland as breed-stock to enlarge native horses. From Irish sources it appears that the élite engaged in competitive cattle-breeding for size, and this may have been the case in Pictland also. Carvings show hunting with dogs, and also, unlike in Ireland, with falcons. Cereal crops included wheat, barley, oats and rye. Vegetables included kale, cabbage, onions and leeks, peas and beans and turnips, and some types no longer common, such as skirret. Plants such as wild garlic, nettles and watercress may have been gathered in the wild. The pastoral economy meant that hides and leather were readily available. Wool was the main source of fibres for clothing, and flax was also common, although it is not clear if they grew it for fibres, for oil, or as a foodstuff. Fish, shellfish, seals, and whales were exploited along coasts and rivers. The importance of domesticated animals argues that meat and milk products were a major part of the diet of ordinary people, while the élite would have eaten a diet rich in meat from farming and hunting.
No Pictish counterparts to the areas of denser settlement around important fortresses in Gaul and southern Britain, or any other significant urban settlements, are known. Larger, but not large, settlements existed around royal forts, such as at Burghead Fort, or associated with religious foundations. No towns are known in Scotland until the 12th century.
The technology of everyday life is not well recorded, but archaeological evidence shows it to have been similar to that in Ireland and Anglo-Saxon England. Recently evidence has been found of watermills in Pictland. Kilns were used for drying kernels of wheat or barley, not otherwise easy in the changeable, temperate climate.
The early Picts are associated with piracy and raiding along the coasts of Roman Britain. Even in the Late Middle Ages, the line between traders and pirates was unclear, so that Pictish pirates were probably merchants on other occasions. It is generally assumed that trade collapsed with the Roman Empire, but this is to overstate the case. There is only limited evidence of long-distance trade with Pictland, but tableware and storage vessels from Gaul, probably transported up the Irish Sea, have been found. This trade may have been controlled from Dunadd in Dál Riata, where such goods appear to have been common. While long-distance travel was unusual in Pictish times, it was far from unknown as stories of missionaries, travelling clerics and exiles show.
Brochs are popularly associated with the Picts. Although these were built earlier in the Iron Age, with construction ending around 100 AD, they remained in use into and beyond the Pictish period. Crannóg, which may originate in Neolithic Scotland, may have been rebuilt, and some were still in use in the time of the Picts. The most common sort of buildings would have been roundhouses and rectangular timbered halls. While many churches were built in wood, from the early 8th century, if not earlier, some were built in stone.
The Picts are often said to have tattooed themselves, but evidence for this is limited. Naturalistic depictions of Pictish nobles, hunters and warriors, male and female, without obvious tattoos, are found on monumental stones. These stones include inscriptions in Latin and ogham script, not all of which have been deciphered. The well known Pictish symbols found on stones, and elsewhere, are obscure in meaning. A variety of esoteric explanations have been offered, but the simplest conclusion may be that these symbols represent the names of those who had raised, or are commemorated on, the stones. Pictish art can be classed as Celtic, and later as Insular. Irish poets portrayed their Pictish counterparts as very much like themselves.
Picts Religion
Main article: Christianisation of Scotland
Early Pictish religion is presumed to have resembled Celtic polytheism in general, although only place names remain from the pre-Christian era. When the Pictish elite converted to Christianity is uncertain, but traditions place Saint Palladius in Pictland after he left Ireland, and link Abernethy with Saint Brigid of Kildare. Saint Patrick refers to "apostate Picts", while the poem Y Gododdin does not remark on the Picts as pagans. Bede wrote that Saint Ninian (confused by some with Saint Finnian of Moville, who died c. 589), had converted the southern Picts. Recent archaeological work at Portmahomack places the foundation of the monastery there, an area once assumed to be among the last converted, in the late 6th century. This is contemporary with Bridei mac Maelchon and Columba, but the process of establishing Christianity throughout Pictland will have extended over a much longer period.
Pictland was not solely influenced by Iona and Ireland. It also had ties to churches in Northumbria, as seen in the reign of Nechtan mac Der Ilei. The reported expulsion of Ionan monks and clergy by Nechtan in 717 may have been related to the controversy over the dating of Easter, and the manner of tonsure, where Nechtan appears to have supported the Roman usages, but may equally have been intended to increase royal power over the church. Nonetheless, the evidence of place names suggests a wide area of Ionan influence in Pictland. Likewise, the Cáin Adomnáin (Law of Adomnán, Lex Innocentium) counts Nechtan's brother Bridei among its guarantors.
The importance of monastic centres in Pictland was not, perhaps, as great as in Ireland. In areas that have been studied, such as Strathspey and Perthshire, it appears that the parochial structure of the High Middle Ages existed in early medieval times. Among the major religious sites of eastern Pictland were Portmahomack, Cennrígmonaid (later St Andrews), Dunkeld, Abernethy and Rosemarkie. It appears that these are associated with Pictish kings, which argues for a considerable degree of royal patronage and control of the church. Portmahomack in particular has been the subject of recent excavation and research, published by Martin Carver.
The cult of Saints was, as throughout Christian lands, of great importance in later Pictland. While kings might patronise great Saints, such as Saint Peter in the case of Nechtan, and perhaps Saint Andrew in the case of the second Óengus mac Fergusa, many lesser Saints, some now obscure, were important. The Pictish Saint Drostan appears to have had a wide following in the north in earlier times, although he was all but forgotten by the 12th century. Saint Serf of Culross was associated with Nechtan's brother Bridei. It appears, as is well known in later times, that noble kin groups had their own patron saints, and their own churches or abbeys.
Picts Art
Pictish art appears on stones, metalwork and small objects of stone and bone. It uses a distinctive form of the general Celtic Early Medieval development of La Tène style with increasing influences from the Insular art of 7th and 8th century Ireland and Northumbria, and then Anglo-Saxon and Irish art as the Early Medieval period continues. The most conspicuous survivals are the many Pictish stones that are located all over Pictland, from Inverness to Lanarkshire. An illustrated catalogue of these stones was produced by J. Romilly Allen as part of The Early Church Monuments of Scotland, with lists of their symbols and patterns. The symbols and patterns consist of animals including the Pictish Beast, the "rectangle", the "mirror and comb", "double-disk and Z-rod" and the "crescent and V-rod," among many others. There are also bosses and lenses with pelta and spiral designs. The patterns are curvilinear with hatchings. The so-called cross-slabs are carved with Pictish symbols, Insular-derived interlace and Christian imagery, though interpretation is often difficult due to wear and obscurity. Several of the Christian images carved on various stones, such as David the harpist, Daniel and the lion, or scenes of St Paul and St Anthony meeting in the desert, have been influenced by the Insular manuscript tradition.
Pictish metalwork is found throughout Pictland (modern-day Scotland) and also further south; the Picts appeared to have a considerable amount of silver available, probably from raiding further south, or the payment of subsidies to keep them from doing so. The very large hoard of late Roman hacksilver found at Traprain Law may have originated in either way. The largest hoard of early Pictish metalwork was found in 1819 at Norrie's Law in Fife, but unfortunately much was dispersed and melted down (Scottish law on treasure finds has always been unhelpful to preservation). Two famous 7th century silver and enamel plaques from the hoard, one shown above, have a "Z-rod", one of the Pictish symbols, in a particularly well-preserved and elegant form; unfortunately few comparable pieces have survived. Over ten heavy silver chains, some over 0.5m long, have been found from this period; the double-linked Whitecleuch Chain is one of only two that have a penannular ring, with symbol decoration including enamel, which shows how these were probably used as "choker" necklaces.
In the 8th and 9th centuries, after Christianization, the Pictish elite adopted a particular form of the Celtic brooch from Ireland, preferring true penannular brooches with lobed terminals. Some older Irish pseudo-penannular brooches were adapted to the Pictish style, for example the Breadalbane Brooch (British Museum). The St Ninian's Isle Treasure contains the best collection of Pictish forms. Other characteristics of Pictish metalwork are dotted backgrounds or designs and animal forms influenced by Insular art. The 8th century Monymusk Reliquary has elements of Pictish and Irish style.
Picts Language
Main article: Pictish language
The Pictish language is extinct. Evidence is limited to place names, the names of people found on monuments, and the contemporary records. The evidence of place-names and personal names argues strongly that the Picts spoke Insular Celtic languages related to the more southerly Brittonic languages. A number of Ogham inscriptions have been argued to be unidentifiable as Celtic, and on this basis, it has been suggested that non-Celtic languages were also in use.
The absence of surviving written material in Pictish—if the ambiguous "Pictish inscriptions" in the Ogham script are discounted—does not indicate a pre-literate society. The church certainly required literacy in Latin, and could not function without copyists to produce liturgical documents. Pictish iconography shows books being read, and carried, and its naturalistic style gives every reason to suppose that such images were of real life. Literacy was not widespread, but among the senior clergy, and in monasteries, it would have been common enough.
Place-names often allow us to deduce the existence of historic Pictish settlements in Scotland. Those prefixed with the Brittonic prefixes "Aber-", "Lhan-", or "Pit-" (=? "peth", a thing) are claimed to indicate regions inhabited by Picts in the past (for example: Aberdeen, Lhanbryde, Pitmedden, etc.). Some of these, such as "Pit-" (portion, share), may have been formed after Pictish times, and may refer to previous "shires" or "thanages".
The evidence of place-names may also reveal the advance of Gaelic into Pictland. As noted, Atholl, meaning New Ireland, is attested in the early 8th century. This may be an indication of the advance of Gaelic. Fortriu also contains place-names suggesting Gaelic settlement, or Gaelic influences. A pre-Gaelic interpretation of the name as Athfocla meaning 'north pass' or 'north way', as in gateway to Moray, suggests that the Gaelic Athfotla may be a Gaelic misreading of the minuscule c for t.
^ Katherine Forsyth, Language in Pictland. The case against non-Indo-European Pictisch, Studia Hamelina 2, Utrecht 1997
^ Foster 1996. p. 17.
^ pingo, Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, on Perseus Digital Library
^ πυκτίς, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library
^ Foster 1996. p. 11.
^ The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle has pihtas and pehtas.
^ a b Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí. A New History of Ireland: Prehistoric and Early Ireland. Oxford University Press, 2008. Page 213.
^ a b Chadwick, Hector Munro. Early Scotland: the Picts, the Scots & the Welsh of southern Scotland. CUP Archive, 1949. Page 66-80.
^ a b Dunbavin, Paul. Picts and ancient Britons: an exploration of Pictish origins. Third Millennium Publishing, 1998. Page 3.
^ See the discussion of the creation of the Frankish Confederacy in Geary, Before France, chapter 2.
^ e.g. by Tacitus, Ptolemy, and as the Dicalydonii by Ammianus Marcellinus. Ptolemy called the sea to the west of Scotland the Oceanus Duecaledonius.
^ e.g. Ptolemy, Ammianus Marcellinus.
^ Caledonii is attested from a grave marker in Roman Britain.
^ At Degsastan in the first decade of that century, and several times under Domnall Brecc in its third and fourth decades.
^ For more on Bernicia and Northumbria, see e.g. Higham, The Kingdom of Northumbria.
^ Broun, "Pictish Kings", attempts to reconstruct the confused late history of Dál Riata. The silence in the Irish Annals is ignored by Bannerman in "The Scottish Takeover of Pictland and the relics of Columba".
^ According to Broun, "Pictish Kings"--but the history of Dál Riata after that is obscure.
^ Cf. the failed attempts by Óengus mac Fergusa.
^ Annals of Ulster (s.a. 839): "The (Vikings) won a battle against the men of Fortriu, and Eóganán son of Aengus, Bran son of Óengus, Aed son of Boanta, and others almost innumerable fell there."
^ Broun, "Dunkeld", Broun, "National Identity", Forsyth, "Scotland to 1100", pp. 28–32, Woolf, "Constantine II"; cf. Bannerman, "Scottish Takeover", passim, representing the "traditional" view.
^ For example, Pechs, and perhaps Pixies. However, Sally Foster quotes John Toland in 1726: "they are apt all over Scotland to make everything Pictish whose origin they do not know." The same could be said of the Picts in myth.
^ Broun, "Kingship", for Ireland see, e.g. Byrne, Irish Kings and High-Kings, and more generally Ó Cróinín, Early Medieval Ireland.
^ Forsyth, "Lost Pictish Source", Watson, Celtic Place Names, pp. 108–109.
^ Scotland in the Middle Ages#Minor kingdoms
^ earls of moray. Irvinemclean.com (2010-12-15). Retrieved on 2014-06-20.
^ earls of ross. Irvinemclean.com (2011-04-22). Retrieved on 2014-06-20.
^ Bruford, "What happened to the Caledonians", Watson, Celtic Place Names, pp. 108–113.
^ Woolf, "Dun Nechtain"; Yorke, Conversion, p. 47. Compare earlier works such as Foster, Picts, Gaels and Scots, p. 33.
^ Adomnán, "Life of Columba", editor's notes on pp. 342–343.
^ Broun, "Seven Kingdoms".
^ The Female Royal Line: matrilineal succession amongst the Picts?
^ Clancy, "Nechtan".
^ Byrne, Irish Kings and High-Kings, pp. 35–41 & pp. 122–123, also p. 108 & p. 287, stating that derbfhine was practised by the cruithni in Ireland.
^ Byrne, Irish Kings and High-Kings, p. 35, "Elder for kin, worth for rulership, wisdom for the church." See also Foster, Picts, Gaels and Scots, pp. 32–34, Smyth, Warlords and Holy Men, p. 67ff.
^ Broun, "Kingship", Broun, "Pictish Kings"; for Dál Riata, Broun, "Dál Riata", for a more positive view Sharpe, "The thriving of Dalriada"; for Northumbria, Higham, Kingdom of Northumbria, pp. 144–149.
^ Woolf, "Nobility".
^ Barrow, "Pre-Feudal Scotland", Woolf, "Nobility".
^ See, e.g. Campbell, Saints and Sea-kings for the Gaels of Dál Riata, Lowe, Angels, Fools and Tyrants for Britons and Anglians.
^ Foster, Picts, Gaels and Scots, pp. 49–61. Fergus Kelly, Early Irish Farming: a study based mainly on the law-texts of the 7th and 8th centuries AD (School of Celtic Studies/DAIS, Dublin, 2000. ISBN 1-85500-180-2) provides an extensive review of farming in Ireland in the middle Pictish period.
^ The interior of the fort at Burghead was some 12 acres (5 hectares) in size, see Driscoll, "Burghead"; for Verlamion (later Roman Verulamium), a southern British settlement on a very much larger scale, see e.g. Pryor, Britain AD, pp. 64–70.
^ Dennison, "Urban settlement: medieval".
^ Carver (2008)
^ Foster, Picts, Gaels and Scots, pp. 52–53.
^ Trade, see Foster, Picts, Gaels and Scots, pp. 65–68; seafaring in general, e.g. Haywood, Dark Age Naval Power, Rodger, Safeguard of the Sea.
^ Armit, Towers In The North, chapter 7.
^ Crone, "Crannogs and Chronologies", PSAS, vol. 123, pp. 245–254.
^ Foster, Picts, Gaels and Scots, pp. 52–61.
^ See Clancy, "Nechtan", Foster, Picts, Gaels and Scots, p. 89.
^ For art in general see Foster, Picts, Gaels and Scots, pp. 26–28, Laing & Laing, p. 89ff., Ritchie, "Picto-Celtic Culture".
^ Forsyth, "Evidence of a lost Pictish Source", pp. 27–28.
^ Clancy, "'Nennian recension'", pp. 95–96, Smyth, Warlords and Holy Men, pp. 82–83.
^ Markus, "Conversion to Christianity".
^ Bede, III, 4. For the identities of Ninian/Finnian see Yorke, p. 129.
^ Mentioned by Foster, but more information is available from the Tarbat Discovery Programme: see under External links.
^ Bede, IV, cc. 21–22, Clancy, "Church institutions", Clancy, "Nechtan".
^ Taylor, "Iona abbots".
^ Clancy, "Church institutions", Markus, "Religious life".
^ See Carver, Portmahomack.
^ Clancy, "Cult of Saints", Clancy, "Nechtan", Taylor, "Iona abbots"
^ Markus, "Religious life".
^ Youngs, no. 111, with a plate showing the decoration much better; Laing, 310
^ Henderson, Isabel,‘"The "David Cycle" in Pictish Art.' Early Medieval Sculpture. Ed. J.Higgitt. Oxford, 1986. pp. 87-113., ‘The Meeting of Saint Paul and Saint Anthony: Visual and Literary Uses of a Eucharistic Motif.' Keimelia. Eds. P. Wallace and G. M. Niocaill. Galway, 1989. pp 1-58.
^ Youngs, 26-28; Poor image of 19th-century illustration
^ Youngs, 28
^ Youngs, 109-113
^ Forsyth, Language in Pictland, Price "Pictish", Taylor, "Place names", Watson, Celtic Place Names. For K.H. Jackson's views, see "The Language of the Picts" in Wainwright (ed.) The Problem of the Picts.
^ Jackson, "The Language of the Picts", discussed by Forsyth, Language in Pictland.
^ Forsyth, "Literacy in Pictland".
^ For place names in general, see Watson, Celtic Place Names; Nicolaisen, Scottish Place Names, pp 156–246. For shires and thanages see Barrow, "Pre-Feudal Scotland".
^ Watson, Celtic Place Names, pp. 225–233.
^ James E. Fraser, The New Edinburgh History Of Scotland Vol.1 - From Caledonia To Pictland, Edinburgh University Press(2009) ISBN 978-0-7486-1232-1.
^ The statement Nid oedhynt y Picteit onyd yr hen Gymry. ("The Picts were none other than the old Cymry" (i.e., Welsh) is recorded in Peniarth MS. 118. Op. cit. Wade-Evans, Arthur. Welsh Medieval Law. "Introduction". Oxford Univ., 1909. Accessed 30 Jan 2013.
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Woolf, Alex (2007), From Pictland to Alba, 789–1070, The New Edinburgh History of Scotland 2, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, ISBN0-7486-1234-3
Woolf, Alex, "Ungus (Onuist) son of Uurgust" in Lynch (2001).
Yorke, Barbara, The Conversion of Britain: Religion, Politics and Society c.600–800. Longman, London, 2006. ISBN 0-582-77292-3
Youngs, Susan (ed), "The Work of Angels", Masterpieces of Celtic Metalwork, 6th–9th centuries AD, 1989, British Museum Press, London, ISBN 0-7141-0554-6
Glasgow University ePrints server, including Katherine Forsyth's
Language in Pictland (pdf) and
Literacy in Pictland (pdf)
CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts at University College Cork
The Corpus of Electronic Texts includes the Annals of Ulster, Tigernach, the Four Masters and Innisfallen, the Chronicon Scotorum, the Lebor Bretnach, Genealogies, and various Saints' Lives. Most are translated into English, or translations are in progress
Scotland Royalty
The Chronicle of the Kings of Alba
Annals of Clonmacnoise at Cornell
Bede's Ecclesiastical History and its Continuation (pdf), at CCEL, translated by A.M. Sellar.
Annales Cambriae (translated) at the Internet Medieval Sourcebook.
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (PSAS) through 1999 (pdf).
Tarbat Discovery Programme with reports on excavations at Portmahomack.
SPNS the Scottish Place-Name Society (Comann Ainmean-Áite na h-Alba), including commentary on and extracts from Watson's The History of the Celtic Place-names of Scotland.
The Picts and Scots in history
Historic Scotland website on Pictish stones
Ancient Scotland: Caledonia and Pictavia
| Scotland |
In Norse mythology, from which type of tree was the first man created? | Orkneyjar - Who were the Picts?
The Picts
Who were the Picts?
From the accounts of Britain made by the classical authors, we know that by the fourth century AD, the predominant people in northern Scotland were referred to as "Picts".
Throughout history, these Picts have been shadowy, enigmatic figures.
From the outset, they were regarded as savage warriors but by the time the Norsemen were compiling their sagas and histories, the memory of the Picts had degenerated into a semi-mythical race of fairies.
Theories abound, although these days it is generally accepted that the Picts were not, as was once believed, a new race, but were simply the descendents of the indigenous Iron Age people of northern Scotland.
The cloud of uncertainty that surrounds the Picts is simply because they left no written records.
Because of this, we have no clear insight into how they lived, their beliefs or society. All we know of them is from second-hand anecdotal evidence, lifted from the various historical writers who recorded their own, possibly biased, impressions of the Pictish people.
The earliest surviving mention of the Picts dates from AD297.
In a poem praising the Roman emperor Constantius Chlorus, the orator Eumenius wrote that the Britons were already accustomed to the semi-naked "Picti and Hiberni (Irish) as their enemies."
From Emenius' statement, we can see that the Picts were already a major thorn in the Roman Empire's side. And they continued to be a problem for their neighbours – continually harassing them for centuries after the Roman legions abandoned Britain. But who were they?
The term "Picti" was more than likely a Roman nickname used to describe the people north of Hadrian's Wall.
In much the same way as the term “European” is used today to describe people from a number of countries, "Pict" was a blanket term applied to an agglomeration of different people in the northern Scotland, probably with different cultures and, if the Life of St Columba is to believed, language .
The Painted People
The word "Pict" means "painted people", probably referring to the Pictish custom of either tattooing their bodies or embellishing themselves with "warpaint".
However, their Irish term "Cruithni", meaning "the people of the designs", seems to parallel the Roman name, so it may be that "Picti" was an adaptation of the name they called themselves.
The toponymic elements "Pett" and "Pitt" are certainly a common feature of placenames in Pictish territories. The Norsemen, when they arrived in Orkney, certainly described the inhabitants at "Pettr"
Before the Romans arrived in Britain, these northern peoples were probably fragmented tribes who spent much of their time fighting among themselves.
The Roman threat from the south, however, appears to have forced them together in an embryonic Pictish state. This allowed the tribes to resist the continental invaders as well as take advantage of the opportunity for plunder.
This forced co-operation in the face of the Roman invaders developed over time. By the time the empire abandoned Britannia in the fifth century AD, the northern tribes had begun to form into what would later become the Pictish Kingdom.
The Pictish Nation
The Pictish nation was made up of several federations, each with its own leader or king.
Orkney was, at least for a time, part of the Pictish Kingdom, probably with its own local ruler, but owing fealty to a central High King.
The extent of this allegiance is debatable but it seems likely that people of Orkney maintained considerable independence, by virtue of their isolation - an independence that may have prompted certain measures to keep the islands under control.
Adomnan, the biographer of St Columbus, states that there were Orcadians at the court of the Pictish High King, Bridei, in 565 AD. He described these Orcadians as "hostages", which implies that relations between Orkney and Pictish King were perhaps strained. The hostages would have been Bridei's insurance policy to keep Orkney on a tight leash.
Some historians, however, have pointed out that these "hostages" could have an altogether less hostile interpretation and that they were merely guests at the King's court.
Where we know little about the Picts of what is now mainland Scotland, we know even less about the people of Orkney in the Pictish period. This is primarily due to the fact that the Romans, the major chroniclers of early British History, never made it this far north in any great numbers – if at all .
Their language is a mystery; the meaning of the symbols stones they left remains an enigma.
Despite having uncovered several examples of Pictish houses in Orkney, we can only speculate about their everyday life, religion and social structure.
Although recent archaeological work in Orkney, and mainland Scotland, continues to shed light on the Picts, many of the theories about their way of life remain educated speculation, with scholars divided on many elements.
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What is the name of the Japanese plant, used as a condiment in cooking, with a thick green root which tastes like strong horseradish? | Japanese horseradish - definition of Japanese horseradish by The Free Dictionary
Japanese horseradish - definition of Japanese horseradish by The Free Dictionary
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Japanese+horseradish
Also found in: Thesaurus , Medical , Wikipedia .
wa·sa·bi
(wə-sä′bē, wä′sə-)
n.
1. A very pungent green Japanese condiment made from the root of the herb Wasabia japonica (syn. Eutrema wasabi) of the mustard family.
2. A similarly pungent condiment made from a mixture of horseradish, mustard, green food coloring, and other ingredients.
[Japanese.]
n
1. (Plants) a Japanese cruciferous plant, Eutrema Wasabi, cultivated for its thick green pungent root
2. (Cookery) the root of this plant, esp in paste or powder form, used as a condiment in Japanese cookery
[Japanese]
n., pl. -bis.
1. an Asian plant, Eutrema wasabi, of the mustard family.
2. the pungent root of this plant, which can be grated and used as a condiment.
[1900–05; (< New Latin) < Japanese]
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
1.
wasabi - a Japanese plant of the family Cruciferae with a thick green root
Brassicaceae , Cruciferae , family Brassicaceae , family Cruciferae , mustard family - a large family of plants with four-petaled flowers; includes mustards, cabbages, broccoli, turnips, cresses, and their many relatives
herb , herbaceous plant - a plant lacking a permanent woody stem; many are flowering garden plants or potherbs; some having medicinal properties; some are pests
2.
wasabi - the thick green root of the wasabi plant that the Japanese use in cooking and that tastes like strong horseradish; in powder or paste form it is often eaten with raw fish
condiment - a preparation (a sauce or relish or spice) to enhance flavor or enjoyment; "mustard and ketchup are condiments"
Nihon , Nippon , Japan - a constitutional monarchy occupying the Japanese Archipelago; a world leader in electronics and automobile manufacture and ship building
Translations
Wasabi
| Wasabi |
Algeria became independent from which European country in 1962 after over 100 years of rule? | wasabi - definition of wasabi in English | Oxford Dictionaries
Definition of wasabi in English:
wasabi
noun
[mass noun] A Japanese plant with a thick green root which tastes like strong horseradish and is used in cooking, especially in powder or paste form as an accompaniment to raw fish.
Example sentences
‘For sashimi, put a dab of wasabi directly on the fish.’
‘We ate the fish with soy and wasabi and admired the beautiful scenery of Obama bay, the lush forested mountains shrouded in dawn mist giving a mysterious calm to the place.’
‘It comes with slices of sweet pickled ginger and a dish of salty soy sauce and fiery-hot wasabi (a green paste, similar to horseradish).’
‘The pungency of wasabi, horseradish, Brussels sprouts, and mustards comes from compounds called isothiocyanates.’
‘Adjust the amount of wasabi powder to taste - with 1/2 teaspoon the noodles are fairly spicy.’
‘The cooked fish are dipped into tangy sauces, including wasabi, the Japanese mustard, satay sauce and chilli soya sauce.’
‘You'll also find the peas that, laced with wasabi, pack a significant wallop.’
‘These are served with wasabi, a super-hot green horseradish, and dipped in soy sauce.’
‘Main course was fillet of beef with a wild mushroom mousse, wasabi and potato rosti, wilted pak-choi and tempura vegetables and hoi-sin jus.’
‘Drain the vinegar from the clam and add the sweet pea juice, wasabi, water chestnuts, chili, parsley and sea salt and toss to combine.’
‘Isothiocyanates are also found in cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli and Brussels sprouts, and wasabi, the Japanese condiment.’
‘Dinner began with fresh sashimi with soy and wasabi.’
‘It starts with dried whole peas and of course uses wasabi powder or paste, the amount of which can be adjusted to your taste.’
‘Be careful if you are not accustomed to Japanese horseradish paste, known as wasabi, with its warm and unique sensation that permeates up to the inner part of your nose.’
‘Beside clearing your sinuses, wasabi - horseradish - has a few benefits including lowering your cancer risk.’
‘The name is deceptive because this dish isn't tofu at all but consists of cream cheese cubes topped with green onions and bonito flakes and is eaten with a smidgen of wasabi.’
‘Sashimi consists of cuts of the finest raw fish and seafood garnished with crisp shreds of daikon and dipped into soy sauce and the hot, green Japanese horseradish called wasabi.’
‘In a bowl, add the beef, soy sauce, wasabi, scallion, soybean oil and season with salt and pepper.’
‘Use the Japanese condiment wasabi or sprinkle cayenne pepper on your food.’
‘When eating Japanese cuisine, her favorite, she opts for a little extra wasabi and green tea to keep her teeth healthy.’
Origin
Early 20th century: from Japanese.
Pronunciation:
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it strips them bear
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the classic film bears his name
the classic film bares his name
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I built it with my bear hands
I built it with my bare hands
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it is worth baring in mind
it is worth bearing in mind
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the orchards bare more fruit
the orchards bear more fruit
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the results bear out in other tests
the results bare out in other tests
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the right to bare arms
the right to bear arms
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it bears up well under strain
it bares up well under strain
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the landscape is bear
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the cupboard was bear
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In 2011 the notorious ex-dictator Jean-Claude 'Baby Doc' Duvalier returned to and was arrested in which country? | Former Haiti president Duvalier dies - BBC News
BBC News
Former Haiti president Duvalier dies
4 October 2014
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Media captionJean-Claude Duvalier was a controversial figure, as Tom Esslemont explains
Haiti's former ruler Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier has died of a heart attack in the capital Port-au-Prince aged 63, official sources say.
Duvalier was just 19 when in 1971 he inherited the title of "president-for-life" from his father, the notorious Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier.
He was accused of corruption, human rights abuses and repression in his rule, which ended in a 1986 uprising.
After years of exile in France, he returned to Haiti in 2011.
His death was announced by Haiti's health minister, and the ex-leader's attorney Reynold Georges confirmed he died at home on Saturday.
Lavish wedding
At the time of his swearing in, Jean-Claude Duvalier was the youngest president in the world.
Initially it seemed that there could be a significant move away from his father's harsh regime, underpinned as it was by Haiti's notorious secret police, the Tontons Macoutes, says BBC world affairs correspondent Mike Wooldridge.
Image copyright AFP
Image caption For some time, Jean-Claude Duvalier was the youngest president in the world
He moved closer to the Americans, from whom his father had been estranged. US businesses moved in and he allowed limited press freedom.
But Jean-Claude Duvalier lived lavishly. His state-sponsored wedding reportedly cost $5m in 1980, while most of the people in his ravaged nation endured the worst poverty in the Western hemisphere.
Repression continued, too, and amid massive unrest in 1986 he fled to France.
Human rights groups say thousands of political prisoners were tortured or killed under his rule, and he was accused of massive corruption.
He described his return to Haiti - a year after it was devastated by a major earthquake, as a gesture of solidarity to the nation.
Image copyright AFP
Image caption His unexpected return to Haiti saw him arrested and charged, but the case against him stalled
But he was arrested and charged, and although released he finally appeared in court in February 2013, where in an emotionally-charged hearing in front of some of his alleged victims, he denied responsibility for abuses carried out during his time as president.
Judges ruled he could face crimes against humanity charges, but the case had stalled some time before he died.
Jean-Claude 'Baby Doc' Duvalier
Image copyright AP
Image caption Jean-Claude Duvalier, pictured here in 1980, ruled Haiti with an iron fist for 15 years
Took over presidency aged just 19 when his father, Haiti's authoritarian leader Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, died in 1971
Called himself "president-for-life" and ruled with an iron fist, aided by a brutal private militia known as the Tontons Macoutes
Accused of corruption and human rights abuses that prompted more than 100,000 Haitians to flee the country during his presidency
Ruled for 15 years before outbreak of popular protests led him to flee to France in 1986
Asked Haitian people for forgiveness for "errors" made during his rule in a 2007 radio interview
Returned to Haiti in 2011 as it was supposed to hold run-off elections to choose successor to outgoing President Rene Preval
| Haiti |
What was the name of the American pioneer whose son was killed when a party of pioneers was led into Kentucky in 1773? | Haitian Police Take 'Baby Doc' Duvalier Into Custody : NPR
Haitian Police Take 'Baby Doc' Duvalier Into Custody
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Haitian Police Take 'Baby Doc' Duvalier Into Custody
Haitian Police Take 'Baby Doc' Duvalier Into Custody
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Heard on All Things Considered
A Haitian judge will decide whether former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier will be tried on corruption charges. Duvalier returned to Haiti on Sunday after 25 years in exile. Host Robert Siegel speaks to NPR's Jason Beaubien for the latest on the strongman's return and what might be in store for him.
ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
Now to Haiti, where the story of a brutal ex-dictator, and his return from exile, has taken another strange turn. Human rights groups accuse Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier of abuses committed during his 15 years in power. He was forced to leave the country in 1986, but he returned to Haiti on Sunday. That is despite authorities saying he could be prosecuted for stealing millions from the nation's coffers.
Well, today, police escorted Duvalier from the luxury hotel where he's been staying. NPR's Jason Beaubien joins us now from Port-au-Prince to help make sense of this.
And Jason, where did police take Duvalier to and why?
JASON BEAUBIEN: He was taken to a courthouse in downtown Port-au-Prince, and his people point out that he has not been arrested and that he's simply been taken into custody for questioning. He was also not in handcuffs as they took him out of the hotel, although he was surrounded by heavily-armed police in riot gear.
And the country's top prosecutor says that Duvalier is being questioned over money that was stolen from the national treasury or at least went missing during Duvalier's 15 years in office.
SIEGEL: Were you able to see Duvalier? And if so, how did he look?
BEAUBIEN: Yes, despite the fact that there was an elevator at this hotel, they for some reason brought him down the stairs on the outside, from the fourth floor. And so we got a fairly good look at him.
He was wearing a dark suit and a tie, but he did look sort of frail, and he waved to the crowd but just sort of waved slowly to the crowd, and he didn't say anything.
Yes, he looked frail, I think is how I would sum it up.
SIEGEL: Jason, this is a pretty confusing story. Duvalier was picked up by the police, but he returned to Haiti on a diplomatic passport, which suggests that he made the trip with the approval of the government. Do you know anything more about the reason for his return to Haiti?
BEAUBIEN: Yeah, we don't really know the reason for his return, and certainly, the timing of it was very strange, in the midst of this current political crisis and this unfinished presidential election that's going on.
Several of his former ministers have come out and spoken to the press. He, himself, has not really spoken to the press. And they say that he's come as a private citizen, that he is here only for a few days, he just came to visit after being in exile for 25 years and is going to leave in three days and that he does not want to get in politics, and he's here to help with the earthquake recovery.
SIEGEL: And how would you describe the reactions that you've heard or seen from Haitians to the return of Baby Doc?
BEAUBIEN: It's very strange, and it's very mixed. There were huge crowds outside the airport of people cheering Jean-Claude Duvalier, as he arrived at the airport, even today, as he was being led out by the police from the hotel. At the same time, some people were trying to block the streets with earthquake rubble. They were moving rubble into the streets so that his convoy couldn't move through the streets and get to this courthouse.
Other people are absolutely shocked that he's here, people who were tortured by his regime. People are very worried that he may somehow come in and meddle in politics here, and that's a great concern among other people here in Port-au-Prince.
SIEGEL: Okay, thank you, Jason.
BEAUBIEN: You're welcome.
SIEGEL: That's NPR's Jason Beaubien, speaking to us from Port-au-Prince in Haiti about the latest twist in the story of Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier's return to the country. Today, he was escorted from his hotel by Haitian police.
Copyright © 2011 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc. , an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
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In Greek mythology, Algaia, Thalia and Euphrosyne are the three what? | ALGAEA (Aglaia) - Greek Goddess Charis of Beauty & Glory
[1.2] ZEUS & EUNOMIA (Orphic Hymn 60)
OFFSPRING
[1.1] EUKLEIA , EUTHENIA , EUPHEME , PHILOPHROSYNE (by Hephaistos ) (Orphic Rhapsodies Frag)
ENCYCLOPEDIA
AGLAEA (Aglaia). Charis, the personification of Grace and Beauty. Homer, without giving her any other name, describes a Charis as the wife of Hephaestus. (Il. xviii. 382.) Hesiod (Theog. 945) calls the Charis who is the wife of Hephaestus, Aglaia, and the youngest of the Charites. (Comp. Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1148.) According to the Odyssey, on the other hand, Aphrodite was the wife of Hephaestus, from which we may infer, if not the identity of Aphrodite and Charis, at least a close connexion and resemblance in the notions entertained about the two divinities. Sostratus (ap. Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1665) relates that Aphrodite and the three Charites, Pasithea, Cale, and Euphrosyne, disputed about their beauty with one another, and when Teiresias awarded the prize to Cale he was changed by Aphrodite into an old woman, but Cale rewarded him with a beautiful head of hair and took him to Crete. The name Cale in this passage has led some critics to think that Homer also (Il. xviii. 393) mentions the names of two Charites, Pasithea and Cale, and that kalê should accordingly be written by a capital initial.
Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
ALTERNATE NAMES
Hephaestus, Thetis and Charis, Greco-Roman fresco from Pompeii C1st A.D., Naples National Archaeological Museum
Homer, Iliad 18. 382 ff (trans. Lattimore) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :
"Thetis of the silver feet came to the house of Hephaistos (Hephaestus) . . . As he was at work . . . the goddess Thetis the silver-footed drew near him. Kharis (Charis, Grace) of the shining veil saw her as she came forward, she, the lovely goddess the renowned strong-armed one had married. She came, and caught her hand and called her by name and spoke to her : ‘Why is it, Thetis of the light robes, you have come to our house now? We honour you and love you; but you have not come much before this. But come in with me so I may put entertainment before you.’
She spoke, and, shining among divinities, led the way forward and made Thetis sit down in a chair that was wrought elaborately and splendid with silver nails, and under it was a footstool. She called to Hephaistos the renowned smith and spoke a word to him : ‘Hephaistos, come this way; here is Thetis, who has need of you.’
Hearing her the renowned smith of the strong arms answered her : ‘Then there is a goddess we honour and respect in our house. She saved me when I suffered much at the time of my great fall through the will of my own brazen-faced mother, who wanted to hide me for being lame . . . Now she has come into our house; so I must by all means do everything to give recompense to lovely-haired Thetis for my life. Therefore set out before her fair entertainment.’"
Hesiod, Theogony 907 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) :
"And Eurynome, the daughter of Okeanos (Oceanus), beautiful in form, bare him [Zeus] three fair-cheeked Kharites (Charites, Graces), Aglaia (Aglaea), and Euphrosyne, and lovely Thalie (Thalia), from whose eyes as they glanced flowed love that unnerves the limbs : and beautiful is their glance beneath their brows."
Hesiod, Theogony 945 ff :
"And Hephaistos (Hephaestus), the famous Lame One, made Aglaia (Aglaea), youngest of the Kharites (Charites, Graces), his buxom wife."
Pindar, Olympian Ode 14. 1 ff (trans. Conway) (Greek lyric C5th B.C.) :
"Whose haunts are by Kephissos' (Cephisus') river, you queens [the Kharites] beloved of poets' song, ruling Orkhomenos (Orchomenus), that sunlit city and land of lovely steeds, watch and ward of the ancient Minyan race, hear now my prayer, you Kharites (Charites, Graces) three. For in your gift are all our mortal joys, and every sweet thing, be it wisdom, beauty, or glory, that makes rich the soul of man. Nor even can the immortal gods order at their behest the dance and festals, lacking the Kharites' aid; who are the steward of all rites of heaven, whose thrones are set at Pytho beside Apollon of the golden bow, and who with everlasting honour worship the Father, lord of great Olympos. Euphrosyne, lover of song, and Aglaia (Aglaea) revered, daughters of Zeus the all-highest, hearken, and with Thalia, darling of harmony, look on our songs of revel, on light feet stepping to grace this happy hour . . . I come to praise Asopikhos (Asopichus), whose Minyan house, Thalia, now of your favour wears the pride of the Olympian victor."
Bacchylides, Fragment 3 (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric IV) (Greek lyric C5th B.C.) :
"Hiero's swift horses, Olympic runners: they sped in the company of pre-eminent Nikai (Victories) and Aglaiai (Aglaeae, Glories) by the wide-eddying Alpheus."
The Anacreontea , Fragment 19 (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric II) (Greek lyric C5th to 4th B.C.) :
"The Mousai (Muses) tied Eros (Love) with garlands and handed him over to Kalleis (Calleis, Beauty). And now Kythereia (Cytherea) [Aphrodite] brings a ransom and seeks to have him released."
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 13 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"By Okeanos' (Oceanus') daughter Eurynome he [Zeus] had the Kharites (Charites, Graces), named Aglaia (Aglaea), Eurphrosyne, and Thaleia (Thalia)."
Callimachus, Fragment 471 (from Scholiast V on Homer's Iliad 18. 399) (trans. Trypanis) (Greek poet C3rd B.C.) :
"[On Kharis (Charis), Hephaistos's wife in the Iliad :] Some said that Eurynome Titanias (the Titaness) was her mother."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 5. 11. 1 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"[Among the images decorating the throne of Zeus in his temple at Olympia :] On the pedestal supporting the throne and Zeus with all his adornments are works in gold : . . . Hephaistos (Hephaestus), and by his side a Kharis (Charis)."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 9. 35. 1 :
"Homer, he too refers to the Kharites (Charites, Graces), makes one the wife of Hephaistos (Hephaestus), giving her the name Kharis (Charis) . . . Hence some have suspected that Homer knew of older Kharites as well. Hesiod in the Theogony says that the Kharites are daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, giving them the names of Euphrosyne, Aglaia (Aglaea) and Thalia."
Orphic Hymn 60 to the Charites (trans. Taylor) (Greek hymns C3rd B.C. to 2nd A.D.) :
"Illustrious Kharites (Charites, Graces), mighty named, from Zeus descended, and Eunomia famed [here equated with Eurynome], Thalia and Aglaia (Aglaea) fair and bright, and blest Euphrosyne, whom joys delight."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 24. 261 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"[The Kharites (Charites), Graces] the dancers of Orkhomenos (Orchomenus) who were attendants upon the Paphian [Aphrodite] had no dancing then to do [when Aphrodite entered a contest against Athena in weaving]; but Pasithea made the spindle run round, Peitho dressed the wool, Aglaia (Aglaea) gave thread and yarn to her mistress. And weddings went all astray in human life."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 29. 330 ff :
"[Ares is visited by a false dream :] ‘Hephaistos (Hephaestus) lies again in his bed and possesses Aphrodite, once yours! He has chased out of the house Kharis (Charis) his jealous bride.’"
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 33. 57 ff :
"Then sweetsmiling Aphrodite put off the wonted laugh from her radiant rosy face, and told her messenger Aglaia (Aglaea) to call Eros (Love) her son, that swift airy flyer, that guide to the fruitful increase of the human race. The Kharis (Charis, Grace) moved her footsteps, and turned her face this way over earth and sea and sky, if somewhere she might find the restless track of Eros--for he beats his wings everywhere circling the four separate regions of the universe [earth, sea and sky]. She found him on the golden top of Olympos, shooting the nectar-drops from a cup [playing cottabus and game in which wine was thrown out of cups at a mark]. Beside him stood Hymenaios (Hymenaeus), his fair-haired playfellow in the dainty game . . . [Eros won the contest and] Aglaia stood by him, and she received the prizes from the hands of the prince of heart's delight. She beckoned the boy aside, and with silence their only witness, she whispered into his ear the artful message of her intriguing mistress : ‘Allvanquisher unvanquished, preserver of life coeval with the universe, make haste! Kythereia (Cytherea) is in distress. None of her attendants has remained with her; Kharis (Charis, Grace) has gone, Peitho (Seduction) has vanished, Pothos (Sexual Longing) the inconstant has left her; she had none to send but me. She needs your invincible quiver!’
No sooner had she spoken, than Eros wanted to know all about it; for all young people, when they hear only the beginning of a story, are eager to hear the end. So he rattled out with that unbridled tongue of his--‘Who has hurt my dear Paphian? Let me take arms in hand and fight all the world!’
He spoke, and straight through the air he plied his feet, and reached the dwelling of eager Aphrodite long before Aglaia with his pair of whirring wings."
ANCIENT GREEK & ROMAN ART
| Charites |
Reportedly written by Julius Caesar in 47BC, what do the words 'Veni, vidi, vici,' translate to in English? | Euphrosyne | Article about Euphrosyne by The Free Dictionary
Euphrosyne | Article about Euphrosyne by The Free Dictionary
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Euphrosyne
Also found in: Dictionary , Thesaurus , Wikipedia .
Euphrosyne
(yo͞ofrŏs`ənē'): see Graces Graces,
in Greek mythology, personifications of beauty, charm, and grace; daughters of Zeus and the oceanid Eurynome. Also known as the Charites, they were usually three in number and were called Aglaia, Thalia, and Euphrosyne.
..... Click the link for more information. .
Euphrosyne
(religion, spiritualism, and occult)
Euphrosyne, asteroid 31 (the 31st asteroid to be discovered, on September 1, 1854), is approximately 270 kilometers in diameter and has an orbital period of 5.5 years. Euphrosyne, whose appellation means cheerfulness or joy, was named after one of the three Graces (the other two are Thalia and Aglaja). Euphrosyne was a daughter of Zeus and Eurynome. Like its mythological namesake, the asteroid confers the “grace” of joy to natives in whose chart it is prominent.
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The only Swiss guard still in existence serve in which European city? | Swiss Guard | Deadliest Fiction Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia
Victorious over Amazon Guard .Will fight GSG-9 and Snow Leopard Commando Unit .
“
I swear I will faithfully, loyally and honourably serve the Supreme Pontiff Francis and his legitimate successors, and also dedicate myself to them with all my strength, sacrificing if necessary also my life to defend them. I assume this same commitment with regard to the Sacred College of Cardinals whenever the see is vacant. Furthermore I promise to the Commanding Captain and my other superiors, respect, fidelity and obedience. This I swear! May God and our Holy Patrons assist me!"
— Swiss Guard Oath.
”
The Swiss Guard is a group of Swiss, military volunteers who provide their services in protecting nobles and high-ranking officials at ceremonies and European courts. Today, the term "Swiss Guard" refers to the Pontifical Swiss Guard of Vatican City. Founded in 1506, the Papal Swiss Guard is the only Swiss Guard division still in existence. Many of the Swiss Guard were used in France during the 15th Century as mercenaries who were given orders to protect the king, like Louis XI.
Francis I used the Swiss soldiers regularly in his campaigns in the 16th Century. The Pontifical Swiss Guard was founded by Pope Sixtus IV to defend the Pope. They have engaged in countless conflicts and have been able to save the Popes of the past including Pope Clement VII during the Sacking of Rome. This even is formally known as the Stand of the Swiss Guard where a majority of the 189 Guards were slain. Today, the Swiss Guard carry ceremonial weapons like the partisan, halberd, and rapier. However, the main, non-ceremonial armory includes SIG Sauer pistols and rifles. To be a Swiss Guard one must be a Roman Catholic, single, and a male with Swiss citizenship and has received basic training by the Swiss military. The Swiss Guard engage in marksmanship competitions year-round.
Contents
| Vatican City |
Lee Hsien Loong was reportedly the highest paid what, globally, in 2010? | The Swiss Guard - History
The "Helvetians":
Not many of the visitors to Rome, who pose for a photograph in front of the Swiss soldiers on guard at the gates of Vatican City, are familiar with the history of these troops who take an oath of loyalty to the Pope. To know more we must go back to the period of the Renaissance and discover the motives that in 1506 caused Pope Julius II to invite to Rome the Helvetian soldiers, renowned for their courage, noble sentiments and loyalty. Many centuries earlier the great Latin historian, Tacitus, had said: "The Helvetians are a people of warriors, famous for the valour of their soldiers." This is why the Swiss Cantons, as allies first with one side and then with another, played such an important role in the history of European politics. In fact as allies of Pope Julius II in 1512 they helped to shape Italy's destiny and were granted by the Pope the title of "Defenders of the Church's freedom". In those times, when to be a mercenary soldier was a commonplace occupation, there lived a people of warriors in the very heart of the Alps. The first Swiss Cantons had about 500,000 inhabitants and formed an overpopulated
country, where, because of the precarious economic conditions of the times, there was much poverty. There was no choice but to emigrate and one of the most profitable jobs was that of a mercenary soldier abroad.
The Swiss Mercenaries:
There were some 15,000 men available for this type of work which was "organized" and controlled by the small Confederation of Cantons. The Confederation authorized the enlistment of the men and in return received corn, salt, or other commercial goods. The men themselves regarded this warring as a temporary period of summer emigration. They took part in brief but glorious wars and then returned home with the "pay" and the booty, to spend the winter. They were the best troops of those times. Without cavalry and with little artillery, they had invented a tactic of movement that was superior to all others. Therefore they were in great demand both by France and by Spain. They were similar to a semimobile rampart, standing tall and impenetrable, and it is impossible to understand the Italian Wars without taking these mercenaries into account. Already in the 13th and 14th centuries, after the Swiss Cantons had become independent, many of their men were fighting in Germany and Italy and as the Cantons were unable to prevent this type of emigration, they sought at least to organize it.
The Swiss Mercenaries and France:
The alliance with France was the most important and it began with Charles VII in 1453, and was later renewed in 1474 by Louis XI, who had seen for himself near Basle how 1,500 Swiss soldiers had resisted against twenty times as many men.
Louis XI hired some of the Confederate soldiers as instructors for the French army and the King of Spain did the same. When, at the end of the 15th century, with Charles VIII the Italian Wars began, the Swiss were described by the Italian historian, Guicciardini, as "the nerve and the hope of an army".
In 1495 the life of the King of France was saved thanks to the immovable firmness of his Swiss foot-soldiers.
The foreign service of the Confederates was better regulated under the 1521 alliance between France and the Cantons. With it the Swiss agreed to provide from six to sixteen thousand men for the King and in return the Cantons would benefit from the protection of the most powerful European prince. They became permanent allies and auxiliaries, but the Cantons were still the true sovereigns of the troops and reserved to themselves the right to withdraw them. These armed corps were completely independent, with their own regulations, their own judges and their own flags. The orders were given in their own language, German, by Swiss officers and they
remained under the law of their Cantons: in short, the regiment was their fatherland and all these customs were confirmed in similar agreements made in later years.
The Swiss Guards in the Vatican:
January 22nd, 1506, is the official date of birth of the Pontifical Swiss Guard, because on that day, towards the evening, a group of one hundred and fifty Swiss soldiers commanded by Captain Kasparvon Silenen, of Canton Uri, passed through the Porta del Popolo and entered for the first time the Vatican, where they were blessed by Pope Julius II.
The prelate Johann Burchard of Stras�bourg, Master of Pontifical Ceremonies at that time, and author of a famous chronicle, noted the event in his diary.
In actual fact Pope Sixtus IV made a previous alliance in 1497 with the Confederates, which forsaw the possibility of recruiting mercenaries, and he had barracks built for them near where there is, still today, the small Church of St. Pellegrino, in Via Pellegrino in Vatican City. Later, renewing the old pact, Innocent VIII (1484-1492) also desired to make use of them against the Duke of Milan. And Alexander VI also engaged Confederate soldiers during the time of the alliance between the Borgia family and the King of France. While the Borgias were so powerful the so called Italian Wars began in which the Swiss soldiers were always present, in the front line, at times for France, and at others to support the Holy See or the Holy Roman Empire ruled by a German sovereign. When the Swiss mercenaries heard that Charles VIII, King of France, was planning a great expedition against Naples, they flocked to enlist. Towards the end of the year 1494, thousands of them were in Rome, passing through with the French army, which in February of the following year, occupied Naples. Among the participants in that expedition against Naples, there was also Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, future Pope Julius II, who under Pope Alexander VI had left Italy and gone to France.
He was well aquainted with the Swiss, because some twenty years earlier he had been granted as one of many benefices, the Bishopric of Lausanne. A few months later however, Charles VIII was forced to abandon Naples in all haste and he barely succeeded in forcing a blockade and escaping to France. In fact Pope Alexander VI had connected Milan, Venice, the Germanic Empire and Ferdinand the Catholic to form a barrier against the French.
The Sack of Rome:
On the morning of May 6th, 1527, from his headquarters set up in St. Onofrio's Convent on the Gianicolo hill, Captain General Bourbon launched a series of attacks on Rome. During one of them, at the Torrione Gate, while leading the assault of the walls, he himself was mortally wounded. After just a moment's hesitation, the Spanish mercenaries broke through the Torrione Gate, while the lansquenets invaded the road of Borgo Santo Spirito and St. Peter's. The Swiss Guard, standing firm at the foot of the obelisk (now in St. Peter's Square, but then near the German cemetery within the Vatican close to the Basilica), together with the few remnants of the Roman troops, resisted desperately. Their Captain, Kaspar R�ist was wounded, and later killed by the Spaniards in his quarters in front of his wife, Elizabeth Klingler. Of the 189 Swiss Guards, only 42 survived, the ones who, when all was lost, under the command of Hercules G�ldli guarded Clement VII�s retreat to safety in Castel Sant�Angelo. The rest fell gloriously,
massacred together with two hundred fugitives, on the steps of the High Altar in St. Peter's Basilica.
Pope Clement VII and his men were able to escape to safety, thanks to the "Passetto", a secret corridor which Pope Alexander VI had built along the top of the wall connect�ing the Vatican with Castel Sant�Angelo. The savage horde was in a hurry, for fear that the League troups would cut off their retreat. Across the Sisto bridge the lansquenets and Spaniards fell on the city and for eight days committed every sort of violence, theft, sacrilege and massacre, even the tombs of the Popes, including that of Julius II, were violated in search of spoils. There were as many as 12 thousand dead and the booty amounted to ten million ducats.
All that happened cannot really be regarded with surprise because the imperial army and in particular Frundsberg's lansquenets, were animated by a violent spirit of crusade against the Pope. In front of Castel Sant�Angelo where the Pope had retreated, a parody of a religious procession was set up, in which Clement was asked to cede the sails and oars of the "Navicella" (boat of Peter) to Luther, and the angry soldiery shouted "Vivat Lutherus pontifex!" (Long live Luther, Pontiff!) The name of Luther was incised with the tip of a sword across the painting of the "Dispute of the Most Holy Sacrament" in the Rooms of Raffaello, out of disdain, while on another wall a graffito hailed Charles V, emperor.
Concise and exact was the description given by the Prior of the Canons of St. Augustine at that time: "Mali fuere Germani, pejores Itali, Hispani vero pessimi." (The Germans were bad, the Italians were worse, the Spaniards were the worst.)
Besides the irreplaceable damage of the destruction of the relics, during the Sack of Rome, inestimable art treasures, namely the greater part of the Church's finest artisan-made gold and silver ware, were lost forever.
On June 5th, Clement had to surrender and to accept heavy conditions: he had to cede the fortresses of Ostia, Civitavecchia, and Civita Castellana, to hand over the cities of Modena, Parma and Piacenza, and to pay the sum of four thousand ducats. Moreover, a ransom for the freedom of prisoners was demanded. The papal garrison was replaced by four companies of Germans and Spaniards, and two hundred lansquenets took the place of the Swiss Guard which had been suppressed. The Pope obtained permission for the surviving Swiss Guards to join the new Guard, but only 12 of them accepted, among them Hans Gutenberg of Chur and Albert Rosin of Zurich. The others wished to have nothing to do with the hated lansquenets.
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Hezbollah is a political/terrorist organization in which country? | Hezbollah: Political Party or Terrorist Organization?
Political Party or Terrorist Organization?
Hezbollah: Political Party or Terrorist Organization?
Published
, in Ideology
Hezbollah was born during the First Lebanon War in 1982. It arose out of an anti-Israel Shia Muslim rebel movement, and was funded by Iran and trained by Iran’s Quds Force. Hezbollah has been based in Southern Lebanon since its creation and is now led by Hassan Nasrallah. Under Nasrallah’s leadership, Hezbollah quickly began conducting guerrilla attacks, suicide bombings, kidnappings and assassinations. In 1992, Hezbollah entered the Lebanese political arena in an effort to both take control of Lebanon and to make the world believe that it was a legitimate political movement and not a terrorist organization .
Our struggle will end only when this entity [Israel] is obliterated. ( Hezbollah open letter , february 1985)
Today, Hezbollah’s primary aim is to destroy Israel. Hezbollah has been openly anti-Israel and anti-Semitic since its inception. Its leader, Hassan Nasrallah , has repeatedly proved this in various statements :
I’m against any reconciliation with Israel. I don’t recognize the presence of a state that is called Israel. (February 2000)
If they (Jews) all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide. (October 2002)
Al Manar TV, Hezbollah’s channel
Al-Manar TV, the official television channel of Hezbollah, has broadcast numerous anti-Israel and anti-Semitic programs, claiming, for example, that Israel spread H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS , and other diseases, throughout the Arab world. A second television report called for war against Jews and the destruction of Israel. This channel was banned by the highest administrative court in France for inciting racial hatred. The channel is also banned in the US, Spain and Germany.
Hezbollah strictly follows a radical version of Islamic Shia ideology, developed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the first Supreme Leader of Iran. In Hezbollah’s ‘open letter’, which was published on February 16, 1985, and which marked the official launch of the movement, they write: “We obey the orders of one leader, wise and just … Ruhollah Musawi Khomeini. God save him!”
What is the Khomeini Shia ideology?
In Khomeini’s book , Islamic government must be imposed upon Muslim countries in order to preserve the ‘Islamic order’ and to keep all individuals on the ‘just path of Islam’. Such an Islamic government must therefore impose Sharia Law on the entire population. Khomeini explains: “There is not a single topic in human life for which Islam has not provided instruction.” In Khomeini’s view, all Islamic governments will follow the “victorious and triumphant” armies of Muslims who will set “out from the mosque to go into battle and fear only God.”
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
This is the ideology Hezbollah has embraced and propagated since its founding . Their stated objectives, as explained in their founding charter, are the destruction of Israel, the elimination of Western influence in the Middle East and the establishment of a Shia theocracy in Lebanon.
Anomalies
Hezbollah is part of the Lebanese political system, but does not act like any other political party in the world. Undeniably, the movement provides social and educational services to the Shiah community of Lebanon. But as core members of the Lebanese government, should they not provide this to all Lebanese citizens? Hezbollah’s hospitals are free, but only for its members. Imagine if the Republican Party in the US or the Conservatives in Britain built hospitals that only members of their parties could use.
As explained by Lebanese writer Dr. Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, these efforts may strengthen the social contract between Hezbollah and its followers, though “it would be a mistake, however, to think this is the main reason why Hezbollah’s followers are attracted to [the movement].” The organization’s message of resistance against Israel is what resonates the most among Hezbollah’s supporters.
The Lebanese parliament
How does Hezbollah deal with political opposition? Rafiq Hariri twice served as the Prime Minister of Lebanon, from 1992 to 1998 and from 2000 to 2004. He was a member of the March 14 Alliance, in opposition to the March 8 Alliance to which Hezbollah belongs. Rafiq Hariri was assassinated on 14 February 2005. The UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon found Hezbollah guilty of his murder. More recently, on October 19, 2012, Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan was assassinated. He had been affiliated with the March 14 camp and was close to the Hariri family. Many voices in Lebanon accused Hezbollah of killing him.
Lastly, Hezbollah has stockpiled an arsenal of 60,000 rockets , and maintains a force of thousands of armed militants. But Hezbollah is not Lebanon’s army. Why would it need so many weapons and so many soldiers? Can you imagine if David Cameron’s political party owned an arsenal of weaponry that was not the property of the British Army?
In order to understand Hezbollah, we must first find out who really controls it, who makes the decisions, and whose interests it serves.
Who controls Hezbollah?
Hezbollah would not have been born without the financial help and the training of Iran and the Quds Force. The Iranian Quds Force has trained Hezbollah members numerous times in the past.
Why would Iran want to control Lebanon-based Hezbollah? Since the Islamic Revolution, Iran has sought to export its revolution to Arab nations and especially to their Shia minority populations. A desire to impose Islamic law and expel all Western influences has driven the Supreme Leader of Iran, Khomeini, and his heir, Khamenei, for over three decades. They achieve these goals through terrorism. Their main proxies are Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas (although their support to that movement has lessened since its leadership left Damascus). Iran provides money, materiel and training to these terrorist groups through its Quds Force.
On the left Hezbollah’s flag, on the right the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution’s flag
Hassan Nasrallah himself studied among Shia leaders who were supported by the Iranian regime. He followed the teachings of the Iranian-backed Iraqi cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr and studied in a seminary in the city of Qom in Iran.
Nasrallah and Hezbollah receive their orders directly from Iran and serve Iran’s interests.
“Southern Lebanon is a base of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.”– Commander of the Iranian regime’s Quds Force.
Hezbollah’s fealty to Iran is most clearly expressed by their current intervention in the Syrian civil war . Hezbollah has sent hundreds of its members to fight the rebellion and assist the Syrian regime, in order to preserve the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah axis. Iran fears losing a strong ally in the Alawite -controlled Syrian regime (the Alawites are a sect of Shia Islam) and the direct supply line to its operational branch, Hezbollah.
These actions have been contested by the Lebanese political opposition: “Hezbollah keeps putting Iran’s interest before Lebanon’s,” members of the Democratic Renewal Party have said (April 2013).
Naim Qassem, second-in-command of Hezbollah
Hezbollah has never been anything less than a terrorist organization that answers to the command of the Supreme Leader of Iran and seeks to destroy Israel, the Jewish people and any foreign presence in Lebanon. They will continue to play a dual role by, on the one hand, providing for the Shia minority, and on the other hand, committing guerrilla attacks, suicide bombings, kidnappings and assassinations. Hezbollah pretends to be a legitimate political organization, but their political and military wings are really one and the same. “Hezbollah has a single leadership,” Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem told an American journalist . “The same leadership that directs the parliamentary and government work also leads jihad actions in the struggle against Israel.”
“We are not a regular army,” Nasrallah said (August 2006 ). “And we will not fight like a regular army.”
| Lebanon |
Relating to the sea, what are spring and neap? | Michael Moran
Michael Moran is an author and geopolitical analyst.
In September1983, Bobby was flying C-130 hospital aircraft for the U.S. Air Force. When a truck loaded with explosives leveled barracks housing U.S. Marines and French paratroops in Beirut, Lebanon, (killing 241 and 58 respectively), the Air Force dispatched Varga to ferry rows of mangled and maimed soldiers to military hospitals across Europe.
“It was horrible,” he told me. “Sometimes you’d be talking to a guy when the flight began, and then he’d just stop talking, and you’d know, ‘There’s another one gone.’ ”
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Since 1983, the United States has regarded the bombing of those barracks—as well as an attack a few months earlier on the U.S. Embassy in Beirut that killed 60 people—as the work of Hezbollah. In fact, since those bombings, the United States has identified Hezbollah as being responsible for dozens of murderous attacks, including the assassination of American University of Beirut President Malcolm Kerr in 1984; the hijacking of a TWA airliner and murder of a U.S. Navy SEAL who was on board; the 1996 bombing of the U.S. Air Force barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, that killed 19; and bombings of Jewish community centers in Buenos Aires, Argentina, that killed 114 people in the early 1990s. That’s why Hezbollah was a charter member of the U.S. State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations when it was launched in 1997.
But somehow when Europe looked at Hezbollah, it didn’t see terrorists, at least not officially. That ended this week when the European Union listed the military wing of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. Still, it has been nearly 30 years since Hezbollah’s vile attack on U.S. and French service members. How is it that Hezbollah remained off the European Union’s list of banned terrorist groups for so long?
The answer lay partly in the cat-herding process that is EU policymaking; partly in the EU’s desire to remain a mediator between Middle Eastern groups and American and Israeli officials; and partly out of fear for the safety of Austrian, French, Irish, and other EU peacekeepers who patrol United Nations peacekeeping positions between Lebanon and Israel meant to prevent another outbreak of war.
So why the change of heart now?
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To be fair, Germany and Britain had long campaigned for listing Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. What may have pushed more of Europe’s doubters into their camp was the airport bombing at the Bulgarian resort city of Burgas a year ago. EU investigators eventually linked Hezbollah to the attack, and it probably helped concentrate minds on the true nature of the group.
But Hezbollah’s prominent role in propping up Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria has raised the stakes for Europe, too. Indeed, hopes that Europe may be able to act as a mediator in that conflict may explain why the banning of Hezbollah was confined to its “military wing,” a distinction most analysts agree simply does not exist. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah certainly makes no such distinction.
At the end of the day, diplomacy generally prefers a bit of ambiguity, and there is ample history of the United States being slow to state the obvious on such lists. For instance, in 2001, the Taliban was not listed as a foreign terrorist organization or on the separate state sponsors of terrorism list—largely in order to allow U.S. anti-narcotics aid to continue to flow to the poppy-rich nation. This despite harboring Osama Bin Laden, who by that time was tied to bombings of the USS Cole, and U.S. Embassies in East Africa.
The Burgas bombing was significantly less dramatic, of course, and the EU’s decision to ban only the military wing of the Lebanese movement preserves a little wiggle room. But for those like Varga who have seen Hezbollah’s handiwork up close, that’s still more than the group deserves.
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Apron, Borrow and Line are terms associated with which sport? | What Are the Break and Borrow of Putted Balls in Golf?
By Brent Kelley
Updated December 22, 2016.
"Break" can refer to the amount the path of the putted ball curves in response to the contours of a putting green , or to the amount the green itself curves or slopes.
"Borrow" refers to the distance right or left of a straight line to the hole that the golfer must start his putted ball to account for the slope of the green.
Hey, 'Borrow' and Break' Sound a Lot Alike!
You might have noticed that "borrow" sounds a lot like "break." And you're right! They are essentially the same. Golf isn't complicated enough, we had to invent multiple words for the same thing.
But there's a reason, in this case: "Borrow" is the traditional term in British golf; "break" is the traditional term in American golf. In the modern golf world, with tournaments on many continents broadcast around the world, both terms are used more interchangeably by all golfers.
A Difference in Usage Between Borrow and Break
One difference in usage between the terms: "Break" is more likely to be used as a verb than is "borrow." For example, you might say:
continue reading below our video
How to Read Break on the Putting Green
This putt is going to break two feet.
But if using borrow, that statement is more likely to be rendered thusly:
This putt requires two feet of borrow.
Sometimes, both terms might be used in the same sentence:
He needs to play two feet of borrow to account for the break.
Which is kind of redundant, but you hear it. That's because "break" has a second meaning in which it is applied to the putting green rather than to the putted ball. Saying "there's a lot of break in this green" means that the golfer will have to play a lot of borrow (starting the ball above or below the straight line to the cup) to account for the slope of the green.
So again: "borrow" is the deviation from a straight line to the cup that a golfer putts his ball in order to account for the slope of a green, and can be used interchangeably with that same meaning of "break."
| Golf |
Jutland is part of which European country? | The Funny Apron Company
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In heraldry, what is a wyvern? | Category:Wyverns in heraldry - Wikimedia Commons
Category:Wyverns in heraldry
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English: In English heraldry, a wyvern is a creature similar to a dragon, with two legs (whereas the dragon has four legs) and two wings. This kind of creatures is often simply called a "dragon" in heraldry of other countries. For example, in French heraldry, a "dragon" has generally two legs and two wings.
Français : Dans l'héraldique anglaise, une wyvern (« vouivre ») est une créature similaire a un dragon, à deux pattes (alors que le dragon anglais en a quatre) et deux ailes. Ce type de créatures est généralement simplement appelé « dragon » dans l'héraldique des autres pays. C'est notamment le cas en héraldique française, où un dragon a généralement deux pattes et deux ailes.
Deutsch: Im Unterschied zu anderen Drachen in der Heraldik verfügen Wyvern über zwei Beine, Flügel und ein schlangenartiges Hinterteil, das mit Stacheln versehen ist. Im übertragenen Sinn wird das Wort für jede bildliche oder figürliche Abbildung von Drachen verwendet, die dem heraldischen Drachen nachempfunden ist.
Subcategories
| Dragon |
"In January 2011 British government sports minister Hugh Roberts asserted what to be the ""...worst governed sport in the country..""?" | Dictionary of Heraldic Beasts at Mostly Medieval - Exploring the Middle Ages
A bull with a short tail like a bear
Ass-Bittern
A cross between an ass and the bittern; a small nocturnal heron
Bagwyn
The bagwyn has the tail of a horse and the horns of a goat, which are curved backward.
Baphomet
A symbol attributed to the Knights Templar , which was supposed to feature in mysterious rites practiced by them. The baphomet is depicted as a female with two heads; one male, the other female.
Calopus
A wolf-like animal with spiked horns
Calygreyhound
Like an antelope but with the fore-legs and claws of an eagle and the rear-legs and feet of an ox
Camelopard
A graceful beast with the height and proportion of a camel but the skin of a leopard; possibly derived from an account of a giraffe.
Camelopardel
Like the camelopard, except it also possesses two long horns which curve backwards
Cat-Fish
A compound creature, part cat, part fish; not to be confused with the ordinary catfish.
Cock-Fish
Like the cat-fish, but with a cock's body and a fish's tail
Cockatrice
Half-cock, half-snake with reptilian rather than feathered wings
Dragon
The heraldic dragon has a huge body of reptilian nature covered with a mail of plate and scales and a row of extending from head to tail, ending in a great and deadly stinger. From gaping jaws with formidable fangs he belches flames. He has round luminous eyes, a dangerous spike on his nose, a forked tongue, eagle's feet and bat's wings. The dragon in heraldry is symbolic of power, wisdom and astuteness.
Dragon-Tygre
Part dragon, part tygre: a cat like creature, though unstriped
Dragon-Wolf
Compound creature, part dragon, part wolf
Enfield
Particularly associated with some Irish families, the enfield has the head of a fox, the chest of a greyhound, the body of a lion, the legs and tail of a wolf, and the talons of an eagle.
Falcon-Fish:
Along with combined bird-fish features, it possesses hound's ears.
Griffin (Gryphon)
Combining the qualities of the lion as the king of beasts and the eagle as the king of birds, the gryphon has four lion's legs with eagle's claws. The back feathers were black, the front red, the wings white and the neck a deep blue.
Harpy:
Bird with the head and breasts of a woman and the body and limbs of a vulture. Their claws were bared and they had metallic wings.
Leonine Whale
The general size and shape of a lion, with small ears, a human face, scales on its body and four lion's paws.
Lindorm
A huge snake-like creature, like a dragon or wyvern without wings.
Lions:
Heraldic lions are sometimes found with two or three bodies, or two heads and are occasionally winged.
Lybbarde
Matching the general description of a leopard, the lybbarde is supposedly the offspring of a lioness and a panther. It became the heraldic symbol of boldness.
Lympago
Half-ape, half-swine
Opinicus
Similar to the heraldic griffin, with the body and four legs of a lion. It has the neck and wings of an eagle and a short camel's tail.
Pantheon:
A type of panther with boar-like hooves
Satyre Fish
A compound monster with satyr's head, fish body and wings
Sea Dogs
The body of a talbot (a large heavy mostly white hound with pendulous ears), but covered with scales over their body; they have a broad scaly tail and webbed feet.
Stellione
A lizard with a weasel's head; covered with stars
Tityron
A cross between a sheep and a goat
Tyger
A cat-like creature, though unstriped
Unicorn
Early descriptions of the unicorn characterized it as having the body of a horse, feet of the elephant, a swine's tail and the head of a stag with a four-foot horn in the middle of its forehead.
Wonderful Pig of the Ocean
Sea-pig with a quarter moon behind its head, dragon's feet, horns with eyes on each side, an eye in its belly and a fish tail
Wyvern
Flying serpent like a dragon, with two legs like an eagle's and a barbed tail
Ypotryll
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What is the descriptively named painting technique where tiny dots blend to form a picture? | Pointillism | crayola.com
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Pointillism
We’re making a point to break the mold on Pointillism! Experiment with different materials and techniques as you explore the art of Seurat & Signac.
Directions
Explore the style of art called Pointillism. Artists Georges Seurat and Paul Signac are very well known for their contributions to the Pointillism movement. They combined tiny dots of color to create a painting. From a distance, the dots blend together to form a picture! What examples of their works can you find? How do these artists use paintbrushes and colors in unique ways? Organize a variety of text and electronic resources for students to use during their research.
Ask students what other materials can be used to create a pointillist picture? Experiment with a variety of products like Crayola Washable Markers, Crayola Slick Stix™, and even Crayola Model Magic®!
To use Markers and Slick Stix, gently press down onto paper to create colorful dots. Slick Stix contain pigments that may stain clothing, fabrics and other household surfaces. Wear a smock to protect clothing and cover your work surface with newspaper. Blend colors by placing dots close together to give the illusion of another color. For example, dots of blue and yellow near each other will appear green from far away!
Flatten a small amount of Model Magic on a hard surface like a table. Press a Crayola Marker cap firmly into the flattened Model Magic. Remove the Model Magic and roll it into a small ball. Model Magic that is fresh from the pack will stick to itself. Dried pieces can be glued together. You may need some glue to stick Model Magic dots to the paper. Combine a variety of different colored dots to create interesting Pointillism effects!
On a sheet of heavy white paper or oak tag, design your own Pointillism picture. Choose a bright, colorful subject, like a sunny apple orchard you’ve visited or your favorite sporting event. You may wish you sketch out your drawing with colored pencils or crayons first and plan where each dot color will go.
Students choose any of the Markers, Slick Stix, or Model Magic to make the dots for drawings, or combine all the materials for a really intriguing image!
Students share their artwork with small groups of classmates. As they present their work, encourage them to incorporate information from research into their talks.
Standards
LA: Read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grade level text complexity band independently and proficiently.
LA: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade level topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
LA: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
LA: Report on a topic or text or present an opinion, sequencing ideas logically and using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.
SS: Describe ways in which language, stories, folktales, music, and artistic creations serve as expressions of culture and influence behavior of people living in a particular culture.
SS: Use appropriate resources, data sources, and geographic tools to generate, manipulate, and interpret information.
SS: Identify and describe ways family, groups, and community influence the individual's daily life and personal choices.
VA: Select media, techniques, an processes; analyze what makes them effective or not effective in communicating ideas; and reflect upon the effectiveness of choices.
VA: Intentionally take advantage of the qualities and characteristics of art media, techniques, and processes to enhance communication of experiences and ideas.
VA: Describe and place a variety of art objects in historical and cultural contexts.
VA: Analyze contemporary and historic meanings in specific artworks through cultural and aesthetic inquiry.
Adaptations
Students may wish to research the art of Georges Seurat and Paul Signac and explore Pointillism. Organize research into an electronic format for presentation to classmates.
Challenge students to use the colors of nature to inspire them. Seurat and Signac often featured landscapes in their paintings. Organize a school yard field trip for a study of light, shadow, and colors. Have students work individually or in teams of two to create a Pointillism landscape.
Challenge students to use warm and cool colors when creating highlights and shadows. How does this make the drawing more realistic?
Pointillism artists drew their inspiration from another style of art called Impressionism, which uses loose brushstrokes of color to create movement in paintings. Swirl and blend colors of Crayola Model Magic to give an Impressionist style to Presto Dots before adding them to the drawing.
Students collaborate in small groups to create one art piece. Prior to beginning the work, students brainstorm what they envision for their collaborative art piece. Write a summary paragraph describing the team's effort to create their artwork.
Students use this technique to create a portrait of an important historical personality that they are currently studying or have recently studied. Accompanying the Pointillism portrait is a summary of research on the historic personality.
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What flowers prompted William Wordsworth write (and title) a poem about after seeing them at Lake Ullswater in 1802? |
ABSTRACT
Not realistic, though the intention is often based on an actual subject, place, or feeling. Pure abstraction can be interpreted as any art in which the depiction of real objects has been entirely discarded and whose aesthetic content is expressed in a formal pattern or structure of shapes, lines and colors. When the representation of real objects is completely absent, such art may be called non-objective.
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM
1940's New York painting movement based on Abstract Art. This type of painting is often referred to as action painting.
ACCENT
Emphasis given to certain elements in a painting which makes them attract more attention.� Details that define an object or piece of art.
ACRYLIC
A rapid drying paint which is easy to remove with mineral spirits; a plastic substance commonly used as a binder for paints.
ACTION PAINTING
Any painting style calling for vigorous physical activity; specifically, Abstract Expressionism. Examples include the New York School art movement and the work of Jackson Pollock.
AERIAL PERSPECTIVE
Capturing the earth�s atmosphere by using painting techniques that make distant objects appear to have less color, texture, and distinction.
AESTHETIC
Pertaining to the beautiful, as opposed to the useful, scientific, or emotional. An aesthetic response is an appreciation of such beauty.
ALKYD
Synthetic resin used in paints and mediums. As a medium works as a binder that encapsulates the pigment and speeds the drying time.
ALLA PRIMA
Technique in which the final surface of a painting is completed in one sitting, without under painting. Italian for "at the first".
ANALOGOUS COLORS
Colors that are closely related, or near each other on the color spectrum. Especially those in which we can see common hues.
AQUATINT
A print produced by the same technique as an etching, except that the areas between the etched lines are covered with a powdered resin that protects the surface from the biting process of the acid bath. The granular appearance that results in the print aims at approximating the effects and gray tonalities of a watercolor drawing.
ARCHIVAL
Refers to materials that meet certain criteria for permanence such as lignin-free, pH neutral, alkaline-buffered, stable in light, etc.
ARMATURE
A rigid framework, often wood or steel, used to support a sculpture or other large work while it is being made.
ART DECO
An art style of the 1920s and 1930s based on modern materials (steel, chrome, glass).� A style characterized by repetitive, geometric patterns of curves and lines.
ART NOUVEAU
An art style of the late 1800's featuring curving, often swirling shapes based on organic forms.
Artist's Proof
An Artist's Proof is one outside the regular edition. By custom, the artist retains the A/Ps for his personal use or sale.
ASSEMBLAGE
The technique of creating a sculpture by joining together individual pieces or segments, sometimes �found� objects that originally served another purpose.
French term for "artist�s workshop."
ATMOSPHERIC PERSPECTIVE
A device for suggesting three - dimensional depth on a two-dimensional surface. Forms meant to be perceived as distant from the viewer are blurred, indistinct, misty and often bluer.
AVANT-GARDE
A group active in the invention and application of new ideas and techniques in an original or experimental way. A group of practitioners and/or advocates of a new art form may also be called avant-garde. Some avant-garde works are intended to shock those who are accustomed to traditional, established styles.
BAROQUE
A theatrical style usually associated with European art and architecture ca. 1550-1750, characterized by much ornamentation and curved rather than straight lines; gaudily ornate.
BAS RELIEF
Sculpture in which figures project only slightly from a background, as on a coin. Also known as low relief sculpture.
BAUHAUS
A design school founded by Walter Gropius in 1919 in Germany. The Bauhaus attempted to achieve reconciliation between the aesthetics of design and the more commercial demands of industrial mass production. Artists include Klee, Kandinsky, and Feininger.
A school of fine arts located in Paris, which stressed the necessity of academic painting.
BINDER
A substance in paints that causes particles of pigment to adhere to one another and to a
support such as oil or acrylic.
BRONZE
An alloy of copper and tin, sometimes containing small proportions of other elements such as zinc or phosphorus. It is stronger, harder, and more durable than brass, and has been used most extensively since antiquity for cast sculpture. Bronze alloys vary in color from a silvery hue to a rich, coppery red. U.S. standard
bronze is composed of 90% copper, 7% tin, and 3% zinc.
The characteristic way each artist brushes paint onto a support.
BURNISHING
The act of rubbing greenware (clay) with any smooth tool to polish it, and tighten the surface.
CALLIGRAPHY
In printing and drawing a free and rhythmic use of line to accentuate design. It is seen at its best in Japanese wood-block prints and Chinese scrolls. Also, fine, stylized handwriting using quills, brushes or pens with ink.
Closely woven cloth used as a support for paintings.
1. A simple drawing with humorous or satirical content.
2. A preliminary drawing for any large work such as a mural or tapestry.
CASTING
The process of making a sculpture or other object by pouring liquid material such as clay, metal or plastic into
a mold and allowing it to harden, thereby taking on the shape of the confining mold.
Ceramics
The art of making objects of clay and firing them in a kiln. Wares of earthenware and porcelain, as well as sculpture are made by ceramists. Enamel is also a ceramic technique. Ceramic materials may be decorated with slip, engobe, or glaze, applied by any number of techniques. Sculpture usually made by coil, slab, or other manual technique.
Chiaroscuro
In drawing, painting, and the graphic arts, chiaroscuro (ke-�ra-skooro) refers to the rendering of forms through a balanced contrast between light and dark areas.� The technique that was introduced during the Renaissance, is effective in creating an illusion of depth and space around the principal figures in a composition. Leonardo Da Vinci and Rembrandt were painters who excelled in the use of this technique.
CLASSICAL STYLE
In Greek art, the style of the 5th century B.C. Loosely, the term �classical� is often applied to all the art of ancient Greece and Rome, as well as to any art based on logical, rational principles and deliberate composition.
COILING
A method of forming pottery or sculpture from rolls of clay that are smoothed together to form the sides of a jar or pot.
COLLAGE
A work of art made by pasting various materials such as bits of paper, cloth, etc. onto a piece of paper, board or canvas.
COLOR FIELD PAINTING
A style of painting prominent from the 1950s through the 1970s, featuring large �fields� or areas of color, meant to evoke an aesthetic or emotional response through the color alone.
COLOR WHEEL
A circular grid that represents the colors based on color theory. This grid clearly shows the relationships colors have with each other (complimentary, opposite, etc.).
COMPLIMENTARY COLORS
Hues directly opposite one another on the color wheel and therefore assumed to be as different from one another as possible. When placed side by side, complementary colors are intensified; when mixed together, they produce a neutral (or gray) color.
COMPOSITION
The organization, design or placement of the individual elements in a work of art. The aim is to achieve balance and proportionality. Usually applied to two-dimensional art.
CONCEPTUAL ART
An art form in which the underlying idea or concept and the process by which it is achieved are more important than any tangible product.
CONSTRUCTION
An art work that is actually assembled or built on the premises where it is to be shown. Many constructions are meant to be temporary and are disassembled after the exhibition is over.
CONTE
Initially it was a trade name for a brand of French crayons made from a unique compound of pigments with a chalk binder. Conte crayons are free from grease, making them acceptable for lithographic drawing.
Contemporary Art
Generally defined as art that has been produced since the second half of the twentieth century.
CONTENT
The message conveyed by a work of art - its subject matter and whatever the artist hopes to convey by that subject matter.
CONTOUR
A line that creates a boundary separating an area of space or object from the space around it.
CONTRAPPOSTO
Literally, �counterpoise.� A method of portraying the human figure, especially in sculpture, often achieved by placing the weight on one foot and turning the shoulder so the figure appears relaxed and mobile. The result is often a graceful S-curve.
Lines that go towards the same point.
Those that suggest a sense of coolness. Blue , Green , Violet
Aptitude, skill, and manual dexterity in the use of tools and materials.
CROSS-HATCHING
An area of closely spaced lines intersecting one another, used to create a sense of three-dimensionality on a flat surface, especially in drawing and printmaking. See also hatching, stippling.
CUBISM
A style of art pioneered in the early 20th century by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. In the most developed form of Cubism, forms are fragmented into planes or geometric facets, like the facets in a diamond; these planes are rearranged to foster a pictorial, but not naturalistic, reality; forms may be viewed simultaneously from several vantage points; figure and background have equal importance; and the colors are deliberately restricted to a range of neutrals.
Stressing the use of curved lines as opposed to rectilinear which stresses straight lines.
DADA
A movement that emerged during World War I in Europe that purported to be anti-everything, even anti-art. Dada poked fun at all the established traditions and tastes in art with works that were deliberately shocking, vulgar, and nonsensical.
DECOUPAGE
The act of cutting out paper designs and applying them to a surface to make an all over collage.
DESIGN
The planned organization of lines, shapes, masses, colors, textures, and space in a work of art. In two-dimensional art, often called composition.
DISTORTION
Any change made by an artist in the size, position, or general character of forms based on visual perception, when those forms are organized into a pictorial image. Any personal or subjective interpretation of natural forms must necessarily involve a degree of distortion.
DOMINANCE
The principle of visual organization which suggests that certain elements should assume more importance than others in the same composition. It contributes to the organic unity by emphasizing the fact that there is one main feature and that other elements are subordinate to it.
DRYPOINT
An intaglio printmaking technique, similar to engraving, in which a sharp needle is used to draw on a metal plate, raising a thin ridge of metal that creates a soft line when the plate is printed. Also, the resultant print.
Giving an effect of movement, vitality, or energy.
EARTHENWARE
Ceramic ware, usually coarse and reddish in color, fired in the lowest temperature ranges. Used for domestic ware, glazed or unglazed.
EDITION
In bronze sculpture and printmaking, the number of pieces/images made from a single mold/plate and authorized by the artist.
ENCAUSTIC
Literally, to burn in. A painting technique in which the pigment is mixed with melted wax and resin and then applied to a surface while hot.
ENGRAVING
Printmaking method in which a sharp tool (burin) is used to scratch lines into a hard surface such as metal or wood.
1. Art that is large enough for viewers to enter and move about in.
2. Art designed for display in the outdoor environment.
3. Art that actually transforms the natural landscape.
Etching
The technique of reproducing a design by coating a metal plate with wax and drawing with a sharp instrument called a stylus through the wax down to the metal. The plate is put in an acid bath, which eats away the incised lines; it is then heated to dissolve the wax and finally inked and printed on paper. The resulting print is called the etching.
EXPRESSIONISM
Any art that stresses the artist�s emotional and psychological reaction to subject matter, often with bold colors and distortions of form. Specifically, an art style of the early 20th century followed principally by certain German artists.
FAUVISM
A short lived painting style in early 20th century France, which featured bold, clashing, arbitrary colors - colors unrelated to the appearance of forms in the natural world. Henri Matisse was its best-known practitioner. The word fauve means �wild beast.�
FIGURE - GROUND
In two-dimensional art, the relationship between the principal forms and the background. Figure-ground ambiguity suggests equal importance for the two.
FINE ART
An art form created primarily as an aesthetic expression to be enjoyed for its own sake. The viewer must be prepared to search for the intent of the artist as the all-important first step toward communication and active participation.
FIRING
Heating pottery or sculpture in a kiln or open fire to bring the clay to maturity. The temperature needed to mature the clay varies with the type of body used. Also, heating glazed ware to the necessary point to cause the glaze to mature.
FIXATIVE
A solution, usually of shellac and alcohol, sprayed onto drawings, to prevent their smudging or crumbling off the support.
FOLK ART
Primitive art, by an untrained artist who paints in the common tradition of his community and reflects the life style of the people.� Also called �Outsider art� & �Art brut�.
FORESHORTENING
A method of portraying forms on a two-dimensional surface so that they appear to project or recede from the picture plane.
Shaping metal with hammers while it is hot; the method for making wrought iron.
1. The physical appearance of a work of art - its materials, style, and composition.
2. Any identifiable shape or mass, as a �geometric form.�
FRESCO
A painting technique in which the pigments are dispersed in plain water and applied to a damp plaster wall.
The wall becomes the binder, as well as the support.
FUTURISM
Art movement founded in Italy in 1909 and lasting only a few years. Futurism concentrated on the dynamic quality of modern technological life, emphasizing speed� and movement.
Art that depicts the casual moments of everyday life and its surroundings.
Shapes created by exact mathematical law.
GESSO
A white ground material for preparing rigid supports for painting. made of a mixture of chalk, white pigment, and glue. Same name applied to acrylic bound chalk and pigment used on flexible supports as well as rigid.
GLAZE
A very thin, transparent colored paint applied over a previously painted surface to alter the appearance and color of the surface.� In ceramics, washes applied to the clay body which, when fired to temperature, vitrify to form a thin, usually colored, glass layer.
GOTHIC
A style of architecture and art dominant in Europe from the 12th to the 15th century. Gothic architecture features pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and often large areas of stained glass.
Opaque watercolors used for illustrations.
GROUND
1. A substance applied to a painting or drawing support in preparation for the pigmented material.
2. The preparatory substance used as a coating for a printmaking plate.
3. The background in a work of two-dimensional art.
HARD-EDGE PAINTING
A recent innovation that originated in New York and was adopted by certain contemporary painters. Forms are depicted with precise, geometric lines and edges.
HARMONY
The unity of all the visual elements of a composition achieved by repetition of the same characteristics.
HATCHING
A technique of modeling, indicating tone and suggesting light and shade in drawing or tempera painting, using closely set parallel lines.
HORS COMMERCE
(�Before commerce�) traditionally were the sculpture/graphics pulled with the regular edition, but were marked by the artist for business use only. These pieces were used for entering exhibitions and competitions, but today, these they generally are allowed into distribution through regular channels.
HUE
The perceived color of an object, identified by a common name such as red, orange, blue.
ICONOGRAPHY
Loosely, the �story� depicted in a work of art; people, places, events, and other images in a work, as well as the symbolism and conventions attached to those images by a particular religion or culture.
Hand-drawn decoration or illustration in a manuscript, especially prevalent in medieval art.
IMPASTO
A thick, juicy application of paint to canvas or other support; emphasizes texture, as distinguished from a smooth flat surface.
Impressionism
A painting technique in which the artist concentrates on the changing effects of light and color. Often this style can be characterized by its use of discontinuous brush strokes and heavy impasto.
INLAY
In woodworking, a technique in which small pieces of wood, often with varying grains and colours, are glued together to make a pattern.
The degree of purity or brilliance of a color. Also known as chroma or saturation.
KINETIC ART
Kinetic art is art that incorporates movement as part of its expression � either mechanically, by hand, or by natural forces.
A furnace or oven built of heat-resistant materials for firing pottery, glass and sculpture.
LANDSCAPE
A generalization for any artist�s depiction of natural scenery.� Figures and other objects should be of secondary importance to the composition and incidental to the content.
A mark made by an instrument as it is drawn across a surface.
LINEAR PERSPECTIVE
A method of depicting three-dimensional depth on a flat or two-dimensional surface.� Linear perspective has two main precepts: 1. Forms that are meant to be perceived as far away from the viewer are made smaller than those meant to be seen as close 2. Parallel lines receding into the distance converge at a point on the horizon line known as the vanishing point.
LITHOGRAPHY - LITHOGRAPH
A printing process in which a surface, as stone or sheet aluminum, is treated so that the ink adheres only
to the portions that are to be printed. The resulting image is a lithograph or a lithographic print
Lost Wax
A method of creating a wax mold of a sculpture and then heating the mold to melt out the wax and replacing it with a molten metal or resin. (see our page on Bronze Casting).
Manifesto
In art, a public declaration or exposition in print of the theories and directions of a movement. The manifestos issued by various individual artists or groups of artists, in the first half of the twentieth century served to reveal their motivations and raisons d�etre and stimulated support for or reactions against them.
MANNERISM
A term sometimes applied to art of late 16th early 17th century Europe, characterized by a dramatic use of space and light and a tendency toward elongated figures.
Maquette
In sculpture, a small model in wax or clay, made as a preliminary sketch, presented to the client for approval of the proposed work, or for entry in a competition. The Italian equivalent of the term is bozzetto, meaning small sketch.
Three-dimensional form, often implying bulk, density and weight.
Flat, non-glossy; having a dull surface appearance.
MEDIEVAL ART
The art of the Middle Ages ca. 500 A.D. through the 14th century. The art produced immediately prior to the Renaissance.
MEDIUM
1. The material used to create a work of art. 2. The binder for a paint, such as oil. 3. An expressive art form, such as painting, drawing, or sculpture.
MINIMALISM
A style of painting and sculpture in the mid 20th century in which the art elements are rendered with a minimum of lines, shapes, and sometimes color. The works may look and feel sparse, spare, restricted or empty.
MIXED MEDIA
Descriptive of art that employs more than one medium � e.g., a work that combines paint, natural materials (wood, pebbles, bones), and man made items (glass, plastic, metals) into a single image or piece of art.
Mobile/Stabile
Terms coined to describe work created by Alexander Calder. The mobile is a hanging, movable sculpture and the stabile rests on the ground but also may have moving parts.
MODELLING
1. In sculpture, shaping a form in some plastic material, such as clay, wax, or plaster. 2. In drawing, painting, or printmaking, the illusion of three-dimensionality on a flat surface created by simulating effects of light and shadow.
MONOCHROMATIC
Having only one color. Descriptive of work in which one hue - perhaps with variations of value and intensity - predominates.
Monotype
A one-of-a-kind print made by painting on a sheet or slab of glass and transferring the still-wet painting to a sheet of paper held firmly on the glass by rubbing the back of the paper with a smooth implement, such as a large hardwood spoon. The painting may also be done on a polished plate, in which case it may be either
printed by hand or transferred to the paper by running the plate and paper through an etching press.
MONTAGE
A picture composed of other existing illustrations, pictures, photographs, newspaper clippings, etc. that are arranged so they combine to create a new or original image.� A collage.
MOSAIC
An art form in which small pieces of tile, glass, or stone are fitted together and embedded into a background to create a pattern or image.
Any large-scale wall decoration done in painting, fresco, mosaic, or other medium.
Museum
A building, place or institution devoted to the acquisition, conservation, study, exhibition and educational interpretation of objects having scientific, historical or artistic value. The word Museum is derived from the Latin muses, meaning "a source of inspiration," or "to be absorbed in one's thoughts."
A painting where a story line serves as a dominant feature.
NATURALISTIC
Descriptive of an artwork that closely resembles forms in the natural world.� Synonymous with representational.
The space in a painting around the objects depicted.
NEOCLASSICISM
- �New� classicism - a style in 19th century Western art that referred back to the classical styles of Greece and Rome. Neoclassical paintings have sharp outlines, reserved emotions, deliberate (often mathematical) composition, and cool colors.
NEO-EXPRESSIONISM
- �New� expressionism - a term originally applied to works done primarily by German and Italian, who came to maturity in the post-WWII era; and later expanded (in the 1980�s) to include certain American artists. Neo- Expressionist works depict intense emotions and symbolism, sometimes using unconventional media and intense colors with turbulent compositions and subject matter.
NEUTRAL
Having no hue - black, white, or gray; sometimes a tannish color achieved by mixing two complementary colours.
Completely non-representational; pure design; fully abstract.
OP ART
Short for Optical Art, a style popular in the 1960s that was based on optical principles and optical illusion. Op Art deals in complex color interactions, to the point where colors and lines seem to vibrate before the eyes
OPTICAL COLOR MIXTURE
The tendency of the eyes to blend patches of individual colors placed near one another so as to perceive a different, combined color. Also, any art style that exploits this tendency, especially the pointillism of Georges Seurat.
ORGANIC
An image that shows a relationship to nature as opposed to man-made images. Any shape that resembles a naturally occurring form or that suggests a natural growing or expanding process.
An art form that emphasizes an object alive in its own right and not contrived.
OVERLAP EFFECT
Spatial relationships are achieved by placing one object in front of another. The object closest to the viewer blocks out the view of any part of any other object located behind it (or, where the two objects overlap, the one in back is obscured).
PAINTERLY
Descriptive of paintings in which forms are defined principally by color areas, not by lines or edges. Where the artist's brushstrokes are noticeable. Any image that looks as though it may have been created with the style or techniques used by a painter.
PASTEL
A colored crayon that consists of pigment mixed with just enough of a aqueous binder to hold it together; a work of art produced by pastel crayons; the technique itself. Pastels vary according to the volume of chalk contained...the deepest in tone are pure pigment. Pastel is the simplest and purest method of painting,
since pure color is used without a fluid medium and the crayons are applied directly to the pastel paper.
PATINA
A film or an incrustation, often green, that forms on copper and bronze after a certain period of weathering and as a result of the oxidation of the copper. Different chemical treatments will also induce myriad colored patinas on new Bronze works. Bronzes may additionally be painted with acrylic and lacquer.
PENTIMENTO
A condition of old paintings where lead-containing pigments have become more transparent over time, revealing earlier layers.
PERFORMANCE ART
Art in which there is no concrete object, but rather a series of events performed by the artist in front of an audience, possibly including music, sight gags, recitation, audio-visual presentations, or other elements.
PERSPECTIVE
The representation of three-dimensional objects on a flat surface so as to produce the same impression of distance and relative size as that received by the human eye. In one-point linear perspective, developed during the fifteenth century, all parallel lines in a given visual field converge at a single vanishing point on the
horizon. In aerial or atmospheric perspective, the relative distance of objects is indicated by gradations of tone and color and by variations in the clarity of outlines.
PHOTO REALISM
A painting and drawing style of the mid 20th century in which people, objects, and scenes are depicted with such naturalism that the paintings resemble photographs � an almost exact visual duplication of the subject.
PICTORIAL SPACE
The illusory space in a painting or other work of two-dimensional art that seems to recede backward into depth from the picture plane, giving the illusion of distance.
PICTURE PLANE
An imaginary flat surface that is assumed to be identical to the surface of a painting. Forms in a painting meant to be perceived in deep three-dimensional space are said to be �behind� the picture plane. The picture plane is commonly associated with the foreground of a painting.
PIGMENT
A coloring substance made from plants, earth, or minerals and may include other synthetic elements. When mixed with binders it becomes paint, ink or crayon, etc.
POINTILLISM
A branch of French Impressionism in which the principle of optical mixture or broken color was carried to the extreme of applying color in tiny dots or small, isolated strokes. Forms are visible in a pointillist painting only from a distance, when the viewer's eye blends the colors to create visual masses and outlines. The inventor and chief exponent of pointillism was George Seurat (1859-1891); the other leading figure was Paul Signac (1863-1935).
Having many colors, as opposed to monochromatic which means only one hue or color.
POP ART
A style derived from commercial art forms and characterized by larger than life replicas of items from mass culture. This style evolved in the late 1950s and was characterized in the 1960s by such artists as Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Claus Oldenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Larry Rivers, Robert Rauschenberg, George Segal, and Robert Indiana.
PORCELAIN
A ceramic ware fired to the highest temperature ranges and often used for dinnerware, vases, and smaller sculpture.
The space in a painting occupied by the object depicted (not the spaces in-between objects)
POST IMPRESSIONISM
A term applied to the work of several artists - French or living in France - from about 1885 to 1900. Although they all painted in highly personal styles, the Post-Impressionists were united in rejecting the relative absence of form characteristic of Impressionism and stressed more formal qualities and the significance of subject matter.
Art forms predating recorded history, such as Old, Middle, and New Stone Ages.
PRE-COLUMBIAN
Art created in the America's by native people that pre-dates the discovery of the new world
PRIMARY COLORS
Any hue that, in theory, cannot be created by a mixture of any other hues. Varying combinations of the primary hues can be used to create all the other hues of the spectrum. In pigment the primaries are red, yellow, and blue.
PRINT
An image created from a master wood block, stone, plate, or screen, usually on paper. Prints are referred to as multiples, because as a rule many identical or similar impressions are made from the same printing surface, the number of impressions being called an edition. When an edition is limited to a specified number of prints, it is a limited edition. A print is considered an original work of art and today is customarily signed and numbered by the artist.
PRIMITIVE ART
1. Paintings and drawings of and by peoples and races outside the influence of accepted Western styles.
2. Religious portrayals predating scientific studies of perspective and anatomy.
3. Intuitive artists with a "naive" style often due to little, if any, training (or works intentionally made to
��� look� this way).
PROPORTION
Size relationships between parts of a whole, or between two or more objects perceived as a unit.
REALISM
Any art in which the goal is to portray forms in the natural world in a highly representational manner. Specifically, an art style of the mid 19th century, which fostered the idea that everyday people and events are worthy subjects for important art.
Objects appear smaller as their distance from the viewer increases.
RELATIVE POSITION
We view nature from our own eye level. Objects in the foreground appear lower and distant objects appear higher relative to the imaginary line created by our level of sight.
RELIEF
1. Sculpture in which figures or other images are attached to a flat background but project out from it to some degree (bas-relief, haut-relief). 2. A printmaking technique in which portions of a block meant to be printed are raised above the surface.
RENAISSANCE
Literally, �rebirth�. The period in Europe from the 14th to the 16th century, characterized by a renewed interest in Classical art, architecture, literature, and philosophy. The Renaissance began in Italy and gradually spread to the rest of Europe. In art, it is most closely associated with Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael.
Works of art that closely resemble forms in the natural world. Synonymous with naturalistic
ROCOCO
A style of art popular in Europe in the first three quarters of the 18th century, Rococo architecture and furnishings emphasized ornate but small-scale decoration, curvilinear forms, and pastel colors. Rococo painting has a playful, light-hearted romantic quality and often pictures the aristocracy at leisure.
ROMANESQUE
A style of architecture and art dominant in Europe from the 9th to the 12th century. Romanesque architecture, based on ancient Roman precedents, emphasizes the round arch and barrel vault.
ROMANTICISM
A movement in Western art of the 19th century generally assumed to be in opposition to Neoclassicism. Romantic works are marked by intense colors, turbulent emotions, complex composition, soft outlines, and sometimes heroic subject matter.
1. Fashionable gathering of artists, writers, and intellectuals held in a private home.
2. In France, a state-sponsored exhibition of art, held in Paris, controlled by the
��� Academy of Fine Arts.
Size in relation to some �normal� or constant size. Compare with proportion.
A three-dimensional form modeled, carved, or assembled.
SECONDARY COLORS
A hue created by combining two primary colours, as yellow and blue mixed together yield green. In pigment the secondary colors are orange, green, and violet.
SERIGRAPH
Serigraphy is a color stencil printing process in which a special paint is forced through a fine screen onto the paper beneath. Areas that do not print are blocked with photo sensitive emulsion that has been exposed with high intensity arc lights. A squeegee is pulled from back to front, producing a direct transfer of the image from screen to paper. A separate stencil is required for each color and one hundred colors or more may be necessary to achieve the desired effect. A serigraph, also referred to as a screen print, differs from other graphics in that its
color is made up of paint films rather than printing ink stains. This technique is extremely versatile, and can create effects similar to oil color and transparent washes, as well as gouache and pastel.
SFUMATO
From the Italian work for �smoke,� a technique of painting in thin glazes to achieve a hazy, cloudy atmosphere, often to represent objects or landscape meant to be perceived as distant from the picture plane.
SHAPE
A two-dimensional area having identifiable boundaries, created by lines, color, or value changes, or some combination of these; broadly, form.
SIMULTANEOUS CONTRAST
The tendency of complementary colors to seem brighter and more intense when placed side by side.
The outer shape of an object.� An outline, often filled in with color.
A preliminary drawing of a composition.
SPACE
In painting, space may by defined as the distances between shapes on a flat surface and the illusion of three-dimensions on a two-dimensional surface. Also refers to a physical site where art is displayed for viewing.
STILL LIFE
A painting or other two-dimensional work in which the subject matter is an arrangement of objects - fruit, flowers, tableware, pottery, and so forth - brought together for their pleasing contrasts of shape, color, and texture, Also the arrangement of the objects itself.
STIPPLING
A pattern of closely spaced dots or small marks used to create a sense of three-dimensionally on a flat surface, especially in drawing and printmaking. See also hatching, cross-hatching.
STUDY
A detailed drawing or painting made of one or more parts of a final composition, but not the whole work.
STYLE
A characteristic, or a number of characteristics that we can identify as constant, recurring, or coherent. In art, the sum of such characteristics associated with a particular artist, group, or culture, or with an artist�s work at a specific time.
STYLIZED
Descriptive of works based on forms in the natural world, but simplified or distorted for design purposes. See also abstract.
SUPPORT
The surface on which a work of two-dimensional art is made i.e.: canvas, paper, cardboard, or wood.
SURREALISM
A painting style of the early 20th century that emphasized imagery and visions from dreams and fantasies, as well as an intuitive, spontaneous method of recording such imagery, often combining unrelated or unexpected objects in compositions .
An image or sign that represents something else, because of convention, association, or resemblance.
SYMMETRICAL
Descriptive of a design in which the two halves of a composition on either side of an imaginary central vertical axis correspond to one another in size, shape, and placement.
A quality which refers to the sense of touch.
TAPESTRY
A type of weaving in which the crosswise yarns are manipulated freely to create patterned or pictorial effects.
A painting medium in which the binder is egg yolk.
Six colors positioned between the primary and secondary colors on the color wheel.
TEXTURE
The actual feel (roughness or smoothness) of a surface. In art, texture may refer to the illusion of roughness or smoothness often achieved with contrasting patterns.
TRIPTYCH
A three-part work of art; especially a painting, meant for placement on an altar, with three panels that fold together.
TONALITY
The overall color effect in terms of hue and value. Often one dominating hue is employed in various shades and values.
TROMPE-L�OEIL
A French term meaning "deception of the eye." A painting or other work of two-dimensional art rendered in such a photographically realistic manner as to �trick� the viewer into thinking it is three-dimensional reality.
UNDERPAINTING
The traditional stage in oil painting of using a monochrome or dead color as a base for composition. Also known as laying in.
VALUE
The relative lightness or darkness of a hue, or of a neutral varying from white to black.
In linear perspective, the point on the horizon line where parallel lines appear to converge.
The entire liquid contents of a paint.
A line from top to bottom or bottom to top. upright.
VOLUME
Similar to mass, a three-dimensional form implying bulk, density, and weight; but also a void or empty, enclosed space.
Those which suggest a sense of warmth i.e.: red, yellow and orange.
Wash
Used in watercolor painting, brush drawing, and occasionally in oil painting and sculpture to describe a broad thin layer of diluted pigment, ink, glaze or patina. Also refers to a drawing made in this technique.
WATERCOLOR
A painting medium in which the binder is gum arabic. Water is used to thinning, lightening or mixing.
YELLOWING
This effect on oil paintings is usually caused by one of three reasons: excessive use of linseed oil medium; applying any of the varnishes that are prone to yellow with age; or most often � an accumulation of dirt embedded into the varnish.
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Which fish is known in the British fishing industry as 'Silver Darlings'? | The Release of - Herring: A History of the Silver Darlings - Fishupdate.com - FISHupdate
The Release of – Herring: A History of the Silver Darlings – Fishupdate.com
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The Release of – Herring: A History of the Silver Darlings Published: 24 May, 2011
The history of the herring and those whose lives have been devoted to getting it to the tables of the masses.
The story of herring is entwined in the history of commercial fishing. For over two millennia, herring have been commercially caught and its importance to the coastal peoples of Britain cannot be measured. At one point tens of thousands were involved in the catching, processing and sale of herring. They followed the shoals around the coast from Stornoway to Penzance and many towns on Britains East Coast grew rich on the backs of the silver darlings.
Fishing historian Mike Smylie looks at the effects of herring on the people who caught them, their unique ways of life, the superstitions of the fisher folk, their boats and the communities who lived for the silver darlings. The trouble with Herring is that it doesnt have a good public image. It was regarded once as food of the poor and fresh Herring is considered to be bony and unpalatable. If the British public were persuaded to eat at least two Herring a week then there would almost certainly be an improvement in the publics health.
The book includes:
* Revealing the fascinating yet little-known history of the herring.
* Documenting its importance and versatility.
* Illustrated with a variety of maps and photographs, both black and white and colour.
* Mouth watering recipes including Baked Buttered Bloaters, Salmagundy and Super Sgadan.
Mike Smylie, also known as Kipperman, has been researching the history of the herring for nearly three decades. He has written extensively on fishing vessels and the fishing industry, including Fishing Around Morecambe Bay, Fishing in Cornwall and Fishing the European Coast for The History Press. He divides his time between Bristol and Greece and can often be spotted at fishing festivals manning his herring smoker.
Herring: A History of the Silver Darlings
Mike Smylie
Published 13th June 2011, £12.99 hardback
ISBN: 978-0-7524-5951-6
| Herring |
What is the basic monetary unit of Iceland? | Here be herrings: the return of the silver darlings | Life and style | The Guardian
Fish
Here be herrings: the return of the silver darlings
Herring once provided millions of Britons with their main source of protein, but overfishing caused stocks to collapse. Now sustainable fisheries are reappearing – and one Danish-born chef is putting the fish on the menu in her UK sushi restaurants
Silla Bjerrum with herrings on Bornholm, Denmark. Photograph: David Trood/Marine Stewardship Council
Wednesday 12 November 2014 08.15 EST
Last modified on Wednesday 12 November 2014 19.03 EST
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An autumn storm is grumbling through the Baltic, the sky as dark and troubled as the sea. On the little Danish island of Bornholm, fresh herrings are being salted for the winter, as they have been for thousands of years, to keep humans going during the hungry months ahead. Kim Rømer and his five staff have been working since before dawn to get a tonne of the fish, newly caught in the Kattegat, into barrels of brine and vinegar while they are still firm and fresh.
Silla Bjerrum dips her finger into a brimming barrel to taste the curing liquid – she’s surprised by how strong it is. Danish by birth, Bjerrum is head chef and chief executive of Feng Sushi , a chain of inventive sushi restaurants in London that, since she co-founded it in 1999, has always promoted sustainable fish and the work of the Marine Stewardship Council. We’re here so she can see how sustainable herring might make it on to a sushi restaurant’s menu. “In traditional Japanese cuisine, every wild fish eaten raw, except tuna, is cured. That makes them healthy and brings out flavour,” she explains. “I want to take these Danish traditional cures and give them a Japanese twist.”
The little factory is so close to the sea, the storm-spray is marinating the roof. Inside, spices are packed into tubs of cured herring, all headed for Denmark’s Christmas tables, where sild is as crucial as mince pies. British people now know herring chiefly as kippers or tongue-curling pickles. But in the Nordic states, cured, spiced herring is a celebration food. Like air-cured ham in the mountains of Spain and Italy or potted shrimp in Morecambe bay, a processed food born of seasonal pressures and lack of refrigeration has become a treasured delicacy.
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Herring: the word comes from the Old German for ‘multitude’. Photograph: David Trood/Marine Stewardship Council
The Christiansøpigen cure that Bjerrum wants to track down makes something very different from the industrial-vinegar herring we get in Britain, skewered with a toothpick in jars marked Bismarck. Sweet, spicy, softly chewy to the bite and paprika-red, these are a treat. In the factory, we scoff them with Rømer’s staff for lunch. “If I tell you the recipe, I will have to kill you,” says Rømer, a former fisherman who bought the secret off its original owner for a million Danish krone (£100,000). “Only two people in the whole of Denmark know it.” But the overwhelming smell of clove and allspice as you enter the shed tells you a bit about what’s going on.
The story goes that in the 1890s, a Danish sailor returned from east Asia to Christiansø, a tiny herring-fishing island just off Bornholm, with a present for his sister. Curing the herring catch one day, she put aside the usual bay leaf and dill to try the packet of foreign spices her brother had brought – sandalwood, allspice, pepper, paprika and nutmeg. The recipe is the one Rømer bought, and now “herrings of the girl from Christiansø” are served in most of Denmark’s Michelin-starred restaurants, and sought out by food-hounds from across the world (you can buy them on a Danish-language site via tinyurl.com/nxvvlqm ). In Danish shops, a 500g tub of Kim’s Christiansøpigen rød kryddersild sells for about £8.
From the middle ages on, herring and cod provided Atlantic Europe with most of its protein. But now, herrings are one of Britain’s lost foods. We used to call them the silver darlings. They were small and tasty, whether fried, smoked or cured, and full of the healthy oils we now buy in expensive food supplements. They are indeed silver, as slick and bright as mercury. They once existed in unbelievable abundance – the word herring comes from the Old German for “multitude”. In 1913, it was estimated that 10,000 boats from all over Europe fished herring in Scottish waters. At the peak of the herring boom, Britain exported a quarter of a million tonnes a year.
Herring processing plant on Bornholm, Denmark. Photograph: David Trood/Marine Stewardship Council
For the poorer people of Britain in the 19th and early 20th century, herring was absolutely crucial – tens of thousands of jobs and the nutrition of millions were dependent on the fish. For generations of young women, who travelled to work in the sea ports when the season was at its height, herring brought adventure, escape from home and a chance at an independent income. Scotland is full of songs about herring and recipes for cooking them: “caller” or fresh ones rolled in oatmeal and fried in dripping, potted in vinegar with a bay leaf, or the classic tatties and herring: salt herring slow-stewed with potatoes (far tastier than it sounds).
But though most of the herring now eaten in Scandinavia come from the North Sea, overfishing saw the collapse of the British North Sea herring fishery by the 1970s, and for four years it was banned completely. After many years of tight controls, the silver darlings may be at last returning. A small fishery based in Hastings in East Sussex, which has been certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council for 10 years, held its annual fair earlier this month, though it is permitted to catch just 10 tonnes a year. Five other revived herring fisheries around Britain and Ireland have recently been MSC-certified, and more are in the pipeline.
Bjerrum’s investigation paid off: the menu at Feng Sushi now features sashimi of herring and mackerel, cured in salt, sugar and rice vinegar , with shredded daikon, mirin and beetroot. But the recipe her eight-year-old daughter really likes merges the many northern herring cooking traditions: Scots, Danish and Japanese. She gently poaches the fish in soy sauce, water and daikon, then uses the liquid as the basis of a herring and soba noodle soup . “I want to see if I, a Japanese chef with Danish roots, can reinvent herring,” Bjerrum says. Her efforts are welcome – though most of us would just be happy to see the return of the silver darlings.
Cured herrings with spices. Photograph: David Trood/Marine Stewardship Council
• The Marine Stewardship Council has details of herring conservation efforts and some recipes .
Silla Bjerrum’s herring soba noodles
(Serves 4)
1 medium-sized daikon (also known as mooli), peeled and sliced into 1cm discs
30ml soy sauce
1 tbsp hondashi (Japanese fish stock made from cured and smoked bonito)
1 tbsp honey
1kg fresh spinach, washed and stalks removed
A kettle of boiling water
Salt, to season
8 fresh herring fillets, pinboned (preferably MSC-certified)
Freshly ground pepper, to season
4 spring onions, chopped extra-finely on the diagonal
Put the mooli pieces in a medium saucepan and add soy, mirin, hondashi, honey and 500ml water. Leave to simmer on a gentle heat for about 10-12 minutes, until the daikon is tender.
Put the spinach in a large bowl and pour over boiling water. Add a pinch of salt and leave to soak for 8-10 minutes, until blanched.
Put another saucepan on the stove, bring salty water to the boil and cook soba noodles for up to seven minutes, until al dente. Drain in a colander and rinse in cold water for one minute to add a nice shine to the noodles, then return to saucepan.
Drain the spinach of the hot water, leave in a colander for a few minutes, then squeeze out all of the liquid.
Unravel a large piece of cling film, add the spinach and roll into a chunky sausage shape to ensure all excess water has been squeezed out.
Add the herring to the daikon liquid and poach for for three minutes (handle the herring gently, as they break easily). Season with pepper, then take off the heat.
Using a ladle, pour all the poaching liquid over the noodles to reheat for one minute. Divide the noodles and liquid into four large bowls, and top up with boiling water so they are fully covered.
Unroll the spinach and cut into four portions. Add one to each bowl, plus two or three pieces of mooli and two herring fillets. Sprinkle with spring onions and serve.
• Silla Bjerrum’s Simple Japanese has some mackerel recipes that can be easily adapted to herring.
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What was poet Lord Byron's first name? | Lord Byron (George Gordon) | Poetry Foundation
Poetry Foundation
Poet Details
1788–1824
The most flamboyant and notorious of the major Romantics, George Gordon, Lord Byron, was likewise the most fashionable poet of the day. He created an immensely popular Romantic hero—defiant, melancholy, haunted by secret guilt—for which, to many, he seemed the model. He is also a Romantic paradox: a leader of the era’s poetic revolution, he named Alexander Pope as his master; a worshiper of the ideal, he never lost touch with reality; a deist and freethinker, he retained from his youth a Calvinist sense of original sin; a peer of the realm, he championed liberty in his works and deeds, giving money, time, energy, and finally his life to the Greek war of independence. His faceted personality found expression in satire, verse narrative, ode, lyric, speculative drama, historical tragedy, confessional poetry, dramatic monologue, seriocomic epic, and voluminous correspondence, written in Spenserian stanzas, heroic couplets, blank verse, terza rima, ottava rima, and vigorous prose. In his dynamism, sexuality, self-revelation, and demands for freedom for oppressed people everywhere, Byron captivated the Western mind and heart as few writers have, stamping upon nineteenth-century letters, arts, politics, even clothing styles, his image and name as the embodiment of Romanticism.
George Gordon Noel Byron was born, with a clubbed right foot, in London on 22 January 1788, the son of Catherine Gordon of Gight, an impoverished Scots heiress, and Captain John ("Mad Jack") Byron, a fortune-hunting widower with a daughter, Augusta. The profligate captain squandered his wife’s inheritance, was absent for the birth of his only son, and eventually decamped for France, an exile from English creditors, where he died in 1791 at thirty-six, the mortal age for both the poet and his daughter Ada.
In the summer of 1789 Byron moved with his mother to Aberdeen. (His half sister had earlier been sent to her maternal grandmother.) Emotionally unstable, Catherine Byron raised her son in an atmosphere variously colored by her excessive tenderness, fierce temper, insensitivity, and pride. She was as likely to mock his lameness as to consult doctors about its correction. From his Presbyterian nurse Byron developed a lifelong love for the Bible and an abiding fascination with the Calvinist doctrines of innate evil and predestined salvation. Early schooling instilled a devotion to reading and especially a "grand passion" for history that informed much of his later writing.
With the death in 1798 of his great-uncle, the "Wicked" fifth Lord Byron, George became the sixth Baron Byron of Rochdale, heir to Newstead Abbey, the family seat in Nottinghamshire. He enjoyed the role of landed nobleman, proud of his coat of arms with its mermaid and chestnut horses surmounting the motto "Crede Byron" ("Trust Byron").
An "ebullition of passion" for his cousin Margaret Parker in 1800 inspired his "first dash into poetry." When she died two years later, he composed "On the Death of a Young Lady"; throughout his life poetic expression would serve him as a catharsis of strong emotion.
At Harrow (1801-1805), he excelled in oratory, wrote verse, and played sports, even cricket. (After a quack doctor subjected him to painful, futile treatments for his foot, London specialists prescribed a corrective boot, later fitted with a brace, which the patient often refused to wear.) He also formed the first of those passionate attachments with other, chiefly younger, boys that he would enjoy throughout his life; before reaching his teen years he had been sexually initiated by his maid. There can be little doubt that he had strong bisexual tendencies, though relationships with women seem generally, but not always, to have satisfied his emotional needs more fully.
In the summer of 1803 he fell so deeply in love with his distant cousin, the beautiful-and engaged-Mary Chaworth of Annesley Hall, that he interrupted his education for a term to be near her. His unrequited passion found expression in such poems as "Hills of Annesley" (written 1805), "The Adieu" (written 1807), "Stanzas to a Lady on Leaving England" (written 1809), and "The Dream" (written 1816). Years later he told Thomas Medwin that all his "fables about the celestial nature of women" originated from "the perfection" his imagination created in Mary Chaworth.
Early in 1804 he began an intimate correspondence with his half sister, Augusta, five years his senior. He asked that she consider him "not only as a Brother" but as her "warmest and most affectionate Friend." As he grew apart from his coarse, often violent, mother, he drew closer to Augusta.
Byron attended Trinity College, Cambridge, intermittently from October 1805 until July 1808, when he received an M.A. degree. During "the most romantic period of [his] life," he experienced a "violent, though pure, love and passion" for John Edleston, a choirboy at Trinity two years younger than he. Intellectual pursuits interested him less than such London diversions as fencing and boxing lessons, the theater, demimondes, and gambling. Living extravagantly, he began to amass the debts that would bedevil him for years. In Southwell, where his mother had moved in 1803, he prepared his verses for publication.
In November 1806 he distributed around Southwell his first book of poetry. Fugitive Pieces, printed at his expense and anonymously, collects the poems inspired by his early infatuations, friendships, and experiences at Harrow, Cambridge, and elsewhere. When his literary adviser, the Reverend John Thomas Becher, a local minister, objected to the frank eroticism of certain lines, Byron suppressed the volume. A revised and expurgated selection of verses appeared in January 1807 as Poems on Various Occasions, in an edition of one hundred copies, also printed privately and anonymously. An augmented collection, Hours of Idleness, "By George Gordon, Lord Byron, A Minor," was published in June. The new poems in this first public volume of his poetry are little more than schoolboy translations from the classics and imitations of such pre-Romantics as Thomas Gray , Thomas Chatterton , Robert Burns , and James Macpherson’s Ossian, and of contemporaries including Walter Scott and Thomas Moore . Missing were the original flashes of eroticism and satire that had enlivened poems in the private editions that were omitted from Hours of Idleness. The work has value for what it reveals about the youthful poet’s influences, interests, talent, and direction. In "On a Change of Masters at a Great Public School," he employs heroic couplets for satiric effect in the manner—if without the polish—of Alexander Pope, a model for Byron throughout his career. In obviously autobiographical poems Byron experiments with personae, compounded of his true self and of fictive elements, which both disclose and disguise him. Groups of verses on a single subject show his understanding of the effectiveness of multiple points of view. He continued to refine these techniques in works from Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage and the Oriental tales through the dramas to Don Juan.
The imitativeness and sentimentality in Hours of Idleness were not excused by a preface that, with pompous mock modesty, pleaded the poet’s youth and inexperience, while disclaiming any intention of his undertaking a poetic career. A second edition, on Byron’s instructions retitled Poems Original and Translated, appeared in 1808; the contents had been altered slightly and the preface omitted.
It was as a published poet that Byron returned to Cambridge in June 1807. Besides renewing acquaintances, he formed an enduring friendship with John Cam Hobhouse—his beloved "Hobby." Inclined to liberalism in politics, Byron joined Hobhouse in the Cambridge Whig Club.
In February 1808 the influential Whig journal the Edinburgh Review, published anonymously (in an issue dated January 1808) Henry Brougham’s notice of Hours of Idleness, which combined justifiable criticism of the book with unwarranted personal assaults on the author. The scornfully worded review had a beneficial effect. Stung and infuriated, Byron set aside mawkish, derivative, occasional verse and began avenging himself through satire, expanding his poetic commentary on present-day "British Bards," started the previous year, to include a counterblast against "Scotch Reviewers."
In March 1809, two months after attaining his majority, he took his seat in the House of Lords; seven times that spring he attended sessions of Parliament.
Shortly thereafter, Byron’s first major poetic work, English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers. A Satire, was published anonymously in an edition of one thousand copies. Inspired by the Dunciad (1728, 1742) of his idol, Pope, and modeled largely on William Gifford’s Baviad (1791) and Maeviad (1795), the poem, in heroic couplets, takes indiscriminate aim at most of the poets and playwrights of the moment, notably Walter Scott, Robert Southey, William Wordsworth , and Samuel Taylor Coleridge , sparing only Gifford, Samuel Rogers, and Thomas Campbell, who deferred to Pope, along with dramatists George Colman the Younger, Richard Cumberland, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan . His main target is the critics. From these "harpies that must be fed" he singles out for condemnation "immortal" Francis Jeffrey, whom he mistakenly assumed had written the offending comments on Hours of Idleness in the Edinburgh Review.
The satire created a stir and found general favor with the reviewers. The Gentleman’s Magazine (March 1809) praised the poem as "unquestionably an original work," replete with a "mingled genius, good sense, and spirited animadversion" unseen in many years. By May English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers had gone into a second, revised and enlarged edition in which Byron abandoned his anonymity. Third and fourth editions followed in 1810. He suppressed a fifth edition in 1812, as he had come to know and respect some of his victims and to regret many of his critical and personal jabs.
The overall aim, as stated in the preface, is "to make others write better." Of the major Romantic poets, Byron most sympathized with neoclassicism, with its order, discipline, and clarity. The importance of English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers lies not only in its vigor and vitality but in Byron’s lively advocacy of the neoclassical virtues found in such seventeenth- and eighteenth-century poets as Dryden and Pope, and, from his own day, in Gifford. His admiration for Pope never wavered, nor did he ever totally abandon the heroic couplet and Augustan role of censor and moralist, as seen in Hints from Horace (written 1811), The Curse of Minerva (written 1811), and The Age of Bronze (written 1822-1823).
Feeling revenged on the reviewers, Byron was anxious to realize a long-held dream of traveling abroad. Though in debt, he gathered together sufficient resources to allow him to begin a tour of the eastern Mediterranean. On 2 July 1809 he sailed from England on the Lisbon packet, accompanied by Hobhouse and three servants, including William Fletcher, who remained as valet until Byron’s death, and Robert Rushton, the "little page" of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto I. Their route took them from Lisbon on horseback across Spain, the scene of Wellington’s Peninsular Campaign and of Spanish partisans’ resistance to the French. Once in Greece, Byron and Hobhouse pushed by boat and horseback into virtually unvisited Albania; in Jannina, Byron bought several magnificent native costumes (in one of which Thomas Phillips painted him in 1814). In Tepelene they were entertained by Ali Pasha, effective ruler, with his son Veli, of Albania and western Greece as far south as the Peloponnesus. Ruthless, sophisticated, and sensuous, the "Lion of Ioannina" represented the type of romantic villain Byron later drew in his Oriental tales and in the character of Lambro, Haidée’s "piratical papa" in Don Juan (Canto III).
Anxious to set down the myriad experiences the trip afforded him, Byron began an autobiographical poem in Jannina on 31 October 1809, wherein he recorded the adventures and reflections of Childe Burun (a combination of the archaic title for a youth of noble birth and an ancient form of his own surname); he subsequently renamed the hero Harold. The Spenserian stanza in which he cast his impressions no doubt derived from his readings in Edmund Spenser ’s Faerie Queene (1590, 1596) reprinted in an anthology he had carried to Albania. Byron completed the first canto in Athens at the end of the year.
Turning southward, he and Hobhouse journeyed through fateful Missolonghi and rode into Athens on Christmas night 1809. They lodged at the foot of the Acropolis with Mrs. Tarsia Macri, widow of a Greek who had been British vice consul. Byron soon fell in love with her three daughters, all under the age of fifteen, but especially with Theresa, only twelve, his "Maid of Athens."
Near the end of English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers, Byron had scoffed at Thomas Bruce, Earl of Elgin’s waste of money on the "Phidian freaks, / Mis-shapen monuments and maimed antiques" he was removing from the Acropolis and shipping to England. Now, the Parthenon and other ruins of Greece’s golden age, everywhere to be seen, increasingly filled Byron with sorrow, while the despoilation of the country’s treasures and its people’s enslavement by the Turks fueled his indignation. His anger at the ignoble Elgin would flash forth in Childe Harold (Canto II) and in The Curse of Minerva. Excursions in January 1810 to Cape Sounion, overlooking the green islands of the Cyclades, and to Marathon, where the Athenians defeated the invading Persians in 490 B.C., reinforced for him the appalling contrast between the glory and might of ancient Greece and its contemporary disgrace under Turkish domination. He movingly evoked these scenes and sentiments a decade later in the often-quoted stanzas on "The Isles of Greece" and on Marathon in Don Juan (Canto III).
In March 1810 Byron and Hobhouse extended their tour into Turkey. On 28 March, in Smyrna, he completed the second canto of Childe Harold, incorporating his adventures in Albania and his thoughts on Greece. He visited the plain of Troy and on 3 May, while Hobhouse read Ovid ’s Hero and Leander, imitated Leander’s feat of swimming the Hellespont; within a week, lines "Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos" commemorated his pride in this exploit. During the two months he spent in Constantinople amid Oriental splendor, filth, and cruelty, his distaste for the Turks grew. In July he parted with Hobhouse, who was bound for England, and traveled back to Athens, where he settled in the Capuchin monastery below the Acropolis. Here, he studied Italian and modern Greek, just as he would learn Armenian from monks in Venice six years later. He also moved easily in the cosmopolitan society of Athens.
Stirred to literary composition, he first produced explanatory notes for Childe Harold; then, in February and March 1811, he wrote two poems in heroic couplets. Hints from Horace, an inferior sequel to English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers, satirizes contemporary poetry and drama, while praising Dryden, Pope, Swift , and Butler. The Curse of Minerva, in its attack on Lord Elgin for pillaging Greece’s heritage, records for the first time the full extent of Byron’s sympathy for classical Greek culture as well as for modern Greece and her people.
When he sailed for England in April 1811, he traveled for a time aboard the transport ship Hydra, which also carried the last large shipments of Lord Elgin’s marbles. He arrived at Sheerness, Kent, on 14 July, two years and twelve days after his departure. To Augusta he wrote on 9 September that he had probably acquired nothing by his travels but "a smattering of two languages & a habit of chewing Tobacco," but this claim was disingenuous. "If I am a poet," he mused, "... the air of Greece has made me one." He had accumulated source material for any number of works. More, exposure to all manner of persons, behavior, government, and thought had transformed him into a citizen of the world, with broadened political opinions and a clear-sighted view of prejudice and hypocrisy in the "tight little island" of England. Significantly, he would select as the epigraph for Childe Harold a passage from Le Cosmopolite, ou, le Citoyen du Monde (1753), by Louis Charles Fougeret de Monbron, that, in part, compares the universe to a book of which one has read but the first page if he has seen only his own country.
Within three weeks of his return, Byron was plunged into a period of prolonged mourning. His mother died on 2 August, before he set out for Newstead. Whatever her failings, she had loved her son, taken pride in his accomplishments, and managed Newstead economically in his absence. "I had but one friend in the world," he exclaimed, "and she is gone." News of the deaths of two classmates followed hard upon this sorrow. Then, in October, he learned of the death from consumption that May of John Edleston, the former choirboy at Trinity College. Deeply affected, he lamented his loss in the lines "To Thyrza" (1811), a woman’s name concealing the subject’s true identity and gender. This was the first of several "Thyrza" poems, among them, "Away, Away, Ye Notes of Woe" (written 1811), "One Struggle More, and I Am Free" (written 1812), and "And Thou Art Dead, As Young and Fair" (written 1812). He also commemorated Edleston in additions to Childe Harold (Canto II).
In January 1812 Byron resumed his seat in the House of Lords, allying himself with the Liberal Whigs represented by Henry Richard Vassall Fox, Lord Holland. During his political career he spoke but three times in the House of Lords, taking unpopular sides. In his maiden speech on 27 February he defended stocking weavers in his home area of Nottinghamshire who had broken the improved weaving machinery, or frames, that deprived them of work and reduced them to near starvation; he opposed as cruel and unjust a government-sponsored bill that made frame breaking a capital offense. On 21 April he made a plea for Catholic emancipation, the most controversial issue of the day. On 1 June he stood to present the petition of Major John Cartwright for the right to petition for the reform of Parliament.
Upon his return to England in July 1811, Byron had given the manuscript of Childe Harold to R.C. Dallas, his adviser in the publication of English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers. Dallas enthusiastically showed the poem to John Murray II, the respected publisher of Scott and Southey, who agreed to publish Byron, beginning a rich association between publisher and poet.
On 10 March 1812 Murray published Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Cantos I and II. Five hundred quarto copies, priced at thirty shillings each, sold out in three days. An octavo edition of three thousand copies at twelve shillings was on the market within two days. Shortly after Childe Harold appeared, Byron remarked, "I awoke one morning and found myself famous." Murray brought out five editions of the poem in 1812 alone, and published the tenth, and last, separate edition in 1815. In less than six months sales had reached forty-five hundred copies. In the Edinburgh Review (February 1812), Francis Jeffrey commented that Byron had "improved marvellously since his last appearance at our tribunal." While noting Byron’s statements of unorthodox political and religious opinions and the poem’s "considerable marks of haste and carelessness," Jeffrey cited as the "chief excellence" of Childe Harold "a singular freedom and boldness, both of thought and expression, and a great occasional force and felicity of diction." Byron promptly apologized for his unfair attack on Jeffrey in English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers. In the Quarterly Review (March 1812), George Ellis concluded that the poem exhibited "some marks of carelessness, many of caprice, but many also of sterling genius."
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Cantos I and II, can with profit be read as Byron’s poetic journal of his Mediterranean and Eastern tour in 1809-1811. Color and energy animate descriptions of the familiar (Spain and Portugal), the exotic (Albania and Greece), and the violent (a Spanish bullfight and feuding Albanians). But the international popularity of the work’s eventual four cantos (represented in the nineteenth century by partial and complete translations into no fewer than ten languages) derived less from its appeal as a travelogue than from its powerful articulation of the Weltschmerz, or "World-weariness," born of the chaos of the French Revolution and Napoléonic Wars that disrupted all of European society. The poem is the record of the contemporary quest for moral and intellectual certainty and positive self-assertion. The route for many was through sensation and emotional experience.
In Canto I Harold, "sore sick at heart" with his life of "revel and ungodly glee," leaves his native Albion on pilgrimage to find peace and spiritual rebirth. As befits a quest poem, Childe Harold is subtitled A Romaunt, recalling the medieval romances whose knighted heroes go in search of holy objects, and is cast in the stanza and archaic language of Spenser’s Faerie Queene. Byron soon abandoned the linguistic pretense for a more modern, if highly literary, style, but he continued to use the Spenserian stanza effectively throughout the poem’s four cantos of observation, description, sentiment, and meditation.
In Childe Harold Byron began to blend narration and digression to produce a type of descriptive-meditative poetry which he would use to greater advantage in Don Juan. Scenes Harold and the narrator describe often spur them to moral reflections. Sites associated with the Napoléonic campaign, such as Cintra, Talavera, and Albuera, elicit comments on the follies of war (Canto I); the ruins of Greece evoke thoughts on the evils of tyranny and on the transience of powerful civilizations and "men of might" (Canto II). Byron’s sic transit gloria mundi theme—from the Latin maxim translated "Thus passes away the glory of the world"—figures prominently in the remaining cantos of Childe Harold and in Don Juan. The work repeatedly stresses the rich heritage of poetry and liberty which contemporary Europe has received from classical Greece. The country’s ancient greatness serves as a standard by which modern Greeks are measured: "Hereditary bondsmen! know ye not / Who would be free themselves must strike the blow? / ... / Greece! change thy lords, thy state is still the same; / Thy glorious day is o’er, but not thine years of shame" (Canto II).
Harold was introduced, Byron wrote in the preface, "for the sake of giving some connexion to the piece." By labeling Harold "a fictitious character" Byron sought to dissociate himself from his protagonist, but his readers, noting many and striking similarities, persisted in equating the artist with his hero. Though he, too, speculated on such a relationship, Walter Scott, reviewing the third canto of Childe Harold and The Prisoner of Chillon, and Other Poems in the Quarterly Review (October 1816), recognized that in Harold Byron had created a new and significant Romantic character type which reappeared in almost all his heroes.
Harold is the first "Byronic Hero." Of complicated ancestry (admirably traced by Peter L. Thorslev, Jr.), he descends, with inherited traits, from Prometheus, Milton ’s Satan, the sentimental heroes found in Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, hero-villains in Gothic novels by Horace Walpole and Ann Radcliffe, Friedrich von Schiller’s Karl Moor, and Sir Walter Scott’s Marmion. Thorslev insists that, as befits their complex genealogy, Byron’s various heroes exhibit not uniformity, but considerable diversity. To stress their distinctions he classifies Byron’s protagonists under such rubrics as "Gothic Hero-Villains," "Heroes of Sensibility," and "Noble Outlaws." Among their possible traits are romantic melancholy, guilt for secret sin, pride, defiance, restlessness, alienation, revenge, remorse, moodiness, and such noble virtues as honor, altruism, courage, and pure love for a gentle woman. Their later Byronic incarnations include the heroes of the Eastern tales—the Giaour, Selim, Conrad, Lara, Alp, and Hugo—as well as Manfred and Cain.
According to Thorslev, Harold in Cantos I and II evidences characteristics of such hero types as the Gloomy Egoist, meditating on ruins, death, and the vanity of life; the Man of Feeling, concerned with the suffering caused by war or oppression; and the Gothic Villain, unregenerate or remorseful. Harold likewise reflects Byron’s occasional melancholy and loneliness. The narrator embodies Byron’s more usual attractive personality. In Cantos III and IV, the Gothic traits are diminished, and those of the Gloomy Egoist and the Man of Feeling combine to form the Hero of Sensibility. He, in turn, is absorbed into the narrator, to produce a sensitive, meditative, melancholy observer-narrator of his pilgrimage.
The drawing rooms and salons of Whig society vied for Byron’s presence and lionized him. At Holland House, he met the spirited, impulsive Lady Caroline Lamb, who initially judged him "mad—bad—and dangerous to know." Their tempestuous affair lasted through the summer, until Byron rejected her; she continued the pursuit, burned "effigies" of his picture, and transformed their relationship into a Gothic romance in her novel Glenarvon (1816).
Despite its outcome, his connection with Lady Caroline left him on friendly terms with her mother-in-law, the witty Elizabeth Milbanke Lamb, Lady Melbourne. Through her, in September, he proposed marriage to her niece, Anne Isabella (Annabella) Milbanke, as a possible means of escaping the insistent Caroline. A twenty-year-old bluestocking, Annabella was widely read in literature and philosophy and showed a talent for mathematics. She declined the proposal in the belief that Byron would never be "the object of that strong affection" which would make her "happy in domestic life." With good humor and perhaps relief Byron accepted the refusal; in a letter of 18 October 1812 he thanked Lady Melbourne for her efforts with his "Princess of Parallelograms." By November he was conducting an affair with the mature Jane Elizabeth Scott, Lady Oxford, a patroness of the Reform Movement.
Between June 1813 and February 1816, Byron completed and had published six extremely popular verse tales, five of them influenced by his travels in Greece and Turkey: The Giaour (June 1813), The Bride of Abydos (December 1813), The Corsair (February 1814), Lara (August 1814), and The Siege of Corinth and Parisina (February 1816). Walter Scott had created the market for Romantic narratives in verse, but Byron outrivaled him with his erotic fare set in exotic climes, to the extent that Scott gave up the genre in favor of novel writing; Waverley appeared in 1814.
Byron’s Eastern tales received mixed, even contradictory, notices. Critics commended their structure, phrasing, and versification (Monthly Review, June 1813, January and February 1814; Edinburgh Review, July 1813, April 1814) and faulted them in these technical areas (Eclectic Review, February 1814; Monthly Review, February 1816); found their characters well delineated (Eclectic Review, April 1814) and too vague, melodramatic, and incredible (Examiner, July 1821); censured their plots as immoral (Eclectic Review, November 1813, March 1816; British Critic, April 1816) and praised them as virtuous (Eclectic Review, April and October 1814); judged them inferior to, and ranked them higher than, Childe Harold (Monthly Review, February 1814; Quarterly Review, July 1814, respectively); and encouraged Byron to continue the series of narratives (Edinburgh Review, July 1813), only to complain, when he did so, of their monotony (British Critic, March 1814; Eclectic Review, March 1816).
The Giaour, written in the spring of 1813, rapidly went through eight editions before the end of the year, and through twelve editions in eighteen months. During July and August Byron made additions to his "snake of a poem" which lengthened "its rattles every month," from a 407-line sketch to 685 lines in the first edition to the final 1,334 lines of the seventh edition. In this tale, the Turkish lord Hassan punishes the infidelity of his wife Leila by drowning her in a sack (Byron had prevented a similar death at Piraeus in 1810). In revenge, her lover, the Giaour (or non-Moslem), slays Hassan.
The story’s fascination as well as its occasional confusion lies in its sudden shifts in time, place, and speaker. Many events are presented out of sequence in a series of what Byron termed "disjointed fragments" ("Advertisement"). Especially striking is his narration of the story from multiple points of view—those of the poet-traveler, of a Moslem fisherman, of a monk, and of the Giaour himself. Thorslev identifies the hero as a remorseful and sympathetic Gothic Villain, who experiences no guilt for killing Hassan but suffers deep anguish for causing Leila’s death.
In June 1813 Byron began an affair with his twenty-nine-year-old half sister, Augusta. Married since 1807 to her spendthrift cousin, Colonel George Leigh, she had three daughters and lived at Six Mile Bottom, near Cambridge. With his mother’s death in 1811, Augusta became Byron’s sole remaining close relative, a situation which doubtless increased his sense of identity with her. While no legal proof exists, the circumstantial evidence in Byron’s letters dating from August 1813 to his horrified confidante Lady Melbourne strongly suggests an incestuous connection with Augusta.
In the midst of this relationship, Byron received a letter from Annabella Milbanke, who confessed her mistake in rejecting his proposal and cautiously sought to renew their friendship. Correspondence ensued. He later wrote Lady Melbourne that Augusta wished him "much to marry—because it was the only chance of redemption for two persons."
Through poetry he found relief from his involvement with Augusta and from an inconclusive flirtation in the autumn of 1813 with Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster. In November he wrote Thomas Moore, "All convulsions end with me in rhyme; and to solace my midnights, I have scribbled another Turkish Tale." The Bride of Abydos, published by Murray on 2 December, sold six thousand copies in one month. Zuleika, engaged daughter of the Pasha Giaffir, is also loved by Selim, her supposed half brother (actually, her cousin), the leader of a pirate band. When they are discovered together, Selim is shot by Giaffir’s men, and Zuleika dies of a broken heart. For the first time Byron dealt with the theme of incest, his "perverse passion," as he told Lady Melbourne, to which he would return in such poems as Parisina, Manfred, and Cain.
To Thorslev, Selim represents another variation on the Byronic hero—the Hero of Sensibility. Like the Giaour, he is associated with illicit love, violence, and death. But he also enjoys stories and songs, responds to the beauty in nature, and, out of consideration for Zuleika, refrains from avenging his father, murdered by Giaffir.
Another burst of poetic creativity overlapped the success of The Bride of Abydos. Between 18 and 31 December Byron produced a third Oriental tale, The Corsair. For the first time he used heroic couplets for extended romantic narrative rather than for Popean satire. On the day of publication in February 1814 ten thousand copies were sold, "a thing," Murray excitedly assured him, "perfectly unprecedented." Driven by love, the harem queen Gulnare saves Conrad the Corsair from impalement by killing her master the Pasha. Fleeing to the pirate’s stronghold, they discover Conrad’s beloved Medora dead of heartbreak. United by guilt, Conrad and Gulnare disappear.
Conrad’s personality is that of the Gothic Villain. He is "The man of loneliness and mystery" (Canto I), whose name is "Linked with one virtue, and a thousand crimes" (Canto III). Conrad also embodies traits of the Noble Outlaw and the Hero of Sensibility. He displays true chivalry in his rescue of the women in the Pasha’s harem, a deed which causes his defeat and capture (Canto II); in his recoil from "Gulnare, the homicide" (Canto III); and in his "love—unchangeable—unchanged" for Medora (Canto I).
On 10 April 1814, amid rumors of the abdication and exile of the emperor Napoléon (which in fact occurred the next day), Byron wrote and copied Ode to Napoléon Buonaparte. On the sixteenth it was published anonymously, though the inscription to Hobhouse revealed its parentage. Since Harrow, Byron had had mixed feelings about Napoléon. He admired the titanic qualities of the brilliant strategist, dynamic soldier, and statesman, but he was repelled by his brutal conquest of Iberia and his perversion of liberal ideals. That ambivalence colors the poem. Recalling Napoléon’s military triumphs, Byron admits "It is enough to grieve the heart, / To see thine own unstrung," but he also denounces his fallen hero as "a nameless thing," "All Evil Spirit," and "Timor." In the final stanza, Byron celebrates George Washington as "the first—the last—the best—/ The Cincinnatus of the West, / Whom envy dared not hate."
On 15 April 1814 Augusta gave birth to a little girl, Elizabeth Medora. When Medora Leigh grew up, she believed herself to be Byron’s daughter, although Byron never acknowledged the paternity, as he did for his other illegitimate off-spring, either because of uncertainty or concern for his and Augusta’s reputations. There is no extant proof on either. On 14 May Byron began a sequel to The Corsair entitled Lara, the new name of Conrad the pirate. Murray published the work anonymously in August in a volume with Samuel Rogers’s sentimental tale Jacqueline, but Byron’s authorship was soon known, and the book sold six thousand copies in three editions. The fourth edition of Lara was a separate printing. Forsaking the name of Corsair, Lara returned to the feudal castle of his youth, followed by his page Kaled (Gulnare in disguise). When Lara is suspected of murdering a man who would reveal his past crimes, he joins a serf uprising and is killed in battle. Kaled, her true identity discovered, goes mad and dies.
In this melodramatic piece, containing much tortured Byronic self-analysis and self-defense, the action is shifted away from the Mediterranean locales of the earlier Oriental tales apparently to an inland region of Spain. A less sympathetic outlaw than Conrad, Lara is proud, scornful, brooding, alienated; his leadership of the peasants’ revolt makes him a representative of Byron’s liberalism.
Byron spent much of the summer of 1814 with Augusta, while continuing to correspond with Annabella. In a letter dated 9 September, he made a tentative proposal of marriage; she promptly accepted it. In marriage Byron hoped to find a rational pattern of living and to reconcile the conflicts that plagued him. After inauspicious hesitations and postponements, many of his own making, Byron married Annabella on 2 January 1815 in the parlor of her parents’ home in Seaham; there was no reception. Halnaby Hall, the Milbankes’ Yorkshire seat forty miles distant, was the site of Lord and Lady Byron’s three-week "treaclemoon," as the poet called it. Toward his bride the groom was by turns tender and abusive.
At Halnaby Hall Byron resumed work on the Hebrew Melodies, lyrics for airs Jewish composer Isaac Nathan was adapting from the music of the synagogue. The project held much personal appeal for the poet. Throughout his life he was a fervent reader of the Bible and a lover of traditional songs and legends. As a champion of freedom, he may also have responded instinctively to the oppression long suffered by the Jewish people. To the "nine or ten" short poems he had already written he now added several more. He also began Parisina, based on an account in Edward Gibbon of a fifteenth-century tragedy of incest. In April, after a tempestuous visit with Augusta, Lord and Lady Byron settled in the Duchess of Devonshire’s London house, at 13 Piccadilly Terrace.
That same month, Isaac Nathan published A Selection of Hebrew Melodies, with Byron’s verses and Nathan and John Braham’s music. Despite the high price of one guinea for a thin folio, the work sold ten thousand copies in two editions. In the summer, Murray brought out the poetry separately as Hebrew Melodies. Despite the title of the volume, some of Byron’s contributions are not at all Hebrew (or even religious) in theme. Along with verses inspired by the Old Testament are love songs and reflective pieces, some written before the book’s conception, though in their expressions of sadness, longing, and desolation, they voice sentiments found in the biblical poems bewailing the lost Jewish homeland. The work opens with the now-famous lyric, "She Walks in Beauty," written in 1814 after Byron saw a cousin at a party wearing a dress of mourning with spangles on it. The themes dear to Byron recur in the lyrics based on scripture. A lament for a homeless race can be heard in such poems as "The Wild Gazelle" and "Oh! Weep for Those." The battle cry for Jewish nationalism sounds in "On Jordan’s Banks," "On the Day of the Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus," "By the Rivers of Babylon," and, especially, in "The Destruction of Sennacherib" (with its memorable opening simile, "The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold").
Throughout 1815 financial problems and heavy drinking drove Byron into rages and fits of irrational behavior. When Annabella was in an advanced stage of pregnancy, he made her the scapegoat for his troubles. On 10 December 1815, she gave birth to Augusta Ada Byron (the first name was later dropped). Early in the new year, increased money worries forced Byron to suggest that they move from their expensive Piccadilly Terrace address. Lady Byron and Augusta Ada would precede him to her family’s estate in Leicestershire, Kirkby Mallory, while he attempted to placate the creditors. Because of his anger and violent utterances, Lady Byron had concluded that her husband was mentally deranged; she drew up a list of his symptoms, which she submitted to two doctors. In Don Juan, Donna Inez, based in part on Annabella, "called some druggists and physicians / And tried to prove her loving lord was mad" (Canto I). Early in the morning of 15 January 1816, Lady Byron and Augusta Ada left London by carriage for Kirkby Mallory before Byron had risen. He never saw them again.
In February Murray published The Siege of Corinth and Parisina in a single volume. The anonymous first edition comprised six thousand copies. The Siege of Corinth, the last of the Eastern tales, recounts, in often slovenly octosyllabic couplets, the Turks’ bloody attack in 1715 on the Venetian held citadel. Alp, the poem’s hero, is a renegade from Christian Venice, who, as the proud leader of the besiegers, seeks revenge on the countrymen who wronged him.
In the companion piece, Azo, Marquis of Este, discovers an incestuous affair between his wife, Parisina, and his illegitimate son, Hugo, the Byronic hero. Hugo is beheaded, and Parisina is condemned to an unrevealed fate. In construction, situation, and characterization, the poem is arguably superior to Byron’s earlier narrative tales. The psychological drama advances without the usual digressive descriptions and intense self-analysis; passions are realized with poetic eloquence. Especially compelling in the triangular relationship which gives the work its strength is the tension between father and son.
From Kirkby Mallory Lady Byron wrote affectionately to her husband in London, urging him to join her. Her subsequent revelations to her parents about Byron’s threatening speech and cruel behavior turned them against him. On 2 February her father wrote Byron to propose a quiet separation. Byron was shocked. Unavailing was his protest, in a letter to his wife on the fifteenth, that he loved his "dearest Bell ... to the dregs of [his] memory & existence." A week later, Lady Byron probably confessed to her lawyer her suspicion of incest between Byron and Augusta, adding it to the prior charges of adultery and cruelty; by the end of the month, the rumors about brother and sister were widespread. On 17 March the terms for the legal separation were agreed upon.
During the separation crisis, Byron had a casual liaison with Claire (Jane) Clairmont. That she was the stepdaughter of the philosopher William Godwin and the stepsister of Mary Godwin, with whom Percy Bysshe Shelley had eloped in 1814, may have induced him to tolerate her determined advances, which he had no intention of encouraging.
Byron signed the final deed of separation on 21 April, having decided to go abroad with the completion of this formality. He had bid farewell to Augusta on the fourteenth, Easter Sunday. On his trip he was accompanied by Fletcher the valet, his personal physician, Dr. John Polidori ("Pollydolly"), Robert Rushton, and a Swiss servant. He also traveled with a huge coach, copied from one Napoléon captured at Genappe. On the twenty-fifth they sailed from Dover bound for Ostend. Byron would never see England again.
The party reached Geneva on 25 May 1816. Byron was unaware that waiting for him were Claire Clairmont, pregnant with his child, Shelley, and Mary Godwin. A genuine friendship and mutual high regard flourished between the two poets. They passed the time agreeably by boating on Lake Leman and conversing at the Villa Diodati, which Byron had rented, with its commanding view of the lake and the Juras beyond. In this environment Mary wrote Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, published in 1818.
In June Byron and Shelley sailed to the fortified Château de Chillon. The story of François Bonivard, a sixteenth-century Swiss patriot and political prisoner in the château’s dungeon, inspired Byron to compose one of his most popular poems, The Prisoner of Chillon. The work represents Byron’s finest verse tale. For the first time he recounts a dramatic story, adapted from fact, about a historical person (as he would do in such later works as Mazeppa and his historical tragedies). The simplicity and directness of Bonivard’s dramatic monologue throw into relief the powerful theme of political tyranny. Bonivard, shackled to a pillar by civil authorities for his religious beliefs, reminds the reader of the mythological Prometheus, chained to a rock by Zeus for his gift of fire to mortals, both figures resolutely suffering for their principles and ennobled by their courageous defiance of tyrannical authority. Bonivard’s incarceration is effectively contrasted with Nature’s liberty as glimpsed through his barred window. Given his engrossing story, his closing confession startles:
My very chains and I grew friends,
So much a long communion tends
To make us what we are: —even I
Regain’d my freedom with a sigh.
A testament to Byron’s abilities within the narrow compass of a form he disliked, "The Sonnet on Chillon," preceding the poem proper and treating the same theme, celebrates the "Eternal spirit of the chainless mind! / Brightest in dungeons, Liberty! thou art."
In Bonivard, Byron created a protagonist free from the traits of the typical "Byronic hero," one who possessed greater credibility and maturity than his predecessors. The poem, in turn, expresses deeper human understanding and advances more positive values than earlier works.
On 4 July, three days after returning from his boat tour of Lake Leman, Byron completed the third canto of Childe Harold, which he had begun in early May in Brussels after a visit to Waterloo. Its framework is a poetic travelogue based on his journey from Dover to Waterloo, then along the Rhine and into Switzerland. Having failed to maintain a convincing distinction between himself and his hero in the previous cantos, Byron drops the pretense and speaks in his own right. Harold becomes a shadowy presence who disappears in the middle of the canto, absorbed into the narrator. The new protagonist, a Hero of Sensibility, expresses the melancholy, passion, and alienation of the original Harold, as well as Byronic liberalism, sensitivity, and meditation. If, occasionally, he irritatingly hints at sins and sorrows or descends to bathos, Byron also infuses the canto with titanic power and an elevated style. Because of their many references to lightning, flame, and Prometheus, Cantos III and IV are called the "fire cantos." In a letter to Moore on 28 January 1817, Byron judged this work "a fine indistinct piece of poetical desolation, and my favourite."
Four major themes inform the third canto. The invocation in the opening stanza—made not to the Muse or another classical figure but to Ada, "sole daughter of my house and heart"—sounds the theme of personal sorrow. The poet-hero is alone, in voluntary exile, "grown aged in this world of woe." "Still round him clung invisibly a chain / Which gall’d for ever, fettering though unseen, / And heavy though it clank’d not ...." He remains "Proud though in desolation."
The sight of the field of Waterloo, "this place of skulls, / The grave of France," prompts the second theme, an analysis of the strengths and flaws of genius in Napoléon and Rousseau. Byron recognized himself in the characters of both men. Like Napoléon he was "antithetically mixt," "Extreme in all things," and possessed of "a fire / And motion of the soul" that "Preys upon high adventure." Like "the self-torturing sophist, wild Rousseau, / The apostle of affliction," he "threw / Enchantment over passion, and from woe / Wrung overwhelming eloquence."
Rousseau, whose writings helped to kindle the French Revolution, and Napoléon, whose campaigns doomed the hopes born of that struggle, relate directly to the canto’s theme of war. Byron despised wars of aggression waged for personal gain while championing as honorable those conflicts that defended freedom, such as the battles of Marathon and Morat and the French Revolution. Bravura rhetoric animates the stanzas on Waterloo, from the memorable recreation of the Duchess of Richmond’s ball in Brussels on the night before the battle, to Byron’s grim evocation of war—a contemplation of the futility of bravery and of the blood shed in purposeless slaughter.
Inspired by Rousseau’s Lake Leman, the Alpine scenery, and by Shelley’s presentation of Wordsworthian pantheism, the pilgrim-poet temporarily experiences the thrill of a transcendental concept of nature, the fourth theme of the canto:
I live not in myself, but I become
Portion of that around me; and to me,
High mountains are a feeling....
.............................
And thus I am absorb’d, and this is life [.]
But Byron’s affinity with reality prevented him from "Spurning the clay-cold bonds which round our being cling." Nature would provide him with no permanent escape from himself, no remedy for his suffering.
Near the end he returns to his first theme, of personal sorrow defiantly borne by a Promethean rebel:
I have not loved the world, nor the world me;
I have not flattered its rank breath, nor bow’d
To its idolatries a patient knee [.]
He closes the canto as he began it, with an apostrophe to his daughter, "The child of love."
July 1816 represents a remarkably creative month for Byron. Among other pieces written at this time appear three notable short poems. "The Dream" concisely traces his emotional development from idealism to despair in his love for Mary Chaworth; "Darkness" imagines the last days of the disintegrating universe; "Prometheus" celebrates the triumph of the defiant spirit over torture.
The arrival of Hobhouse at the end of August coincided with the departure of Shelley, Mary, and Claire, who returned to England with the manuscripts of the third canto of Childe Harold, The Prisoner of Chillon, and the shorter poems; at Bath on 12 January 1817, Claire gave birth to a daughter Byron named Clara Allegra, and called by her second name. When a tour of the Bernese Alps with Hobhouse failed to "lighten the weight" on his heart or enable him to lose his "own wretched identity," Byron turned, as usual, to poetry to purge his broodings and guilt over the separation, Augusta, and his exile. The catharsis assumed a form new to him—blank-verse drama. He would write, "not a drama properly—but a dialogue," set in the high Alps he had recently visited. He rewrote the third act during a trip to Rome the following May. Manfred, the eponymous protagonist, is essentially Byron, the drama’s conflict a fusion of the personal and the cosmic, its goal relief.
Count Manfred, tortured by "the strong curse" on his soul for some unutterable, inexpiable, "half-maddening sin" (II.i), seeks "Forgetfulness—/ ... / Of that which is within me" (I.i). In the first scene, proud and defiant, he revels in the supremacy of his will over the spirits he raises who are powerless over the inner self:
The mind, the spirit, the Promethean spark,
The lightning of my being, is as bright,
Pervading, and far-darting as your own,
And shall not yield to yours, though coop’d in clay!
The poetic drama signals Byron’s rejection of the Wordsworthian belief in the benevolence of Nature. In act I, scene 2, Manfred on the Jungfrau finds no solace among the crags, torrents, and pines. Beautiful and glorious, Nature is also destructive, sending avalanches crashing down "on things which still would live; / On the young flourishing forest, or the hut / And hamlet of the harmless villager."
A passing eagle underscores the Romantic quandary—that the putative "sovereigns" of Nature are "Half dust, half deity, alike unfit / To sink or soar." Frustrated by the limitations mortality imposes on his soaring aspirations, Manfred starts to leap from the cliff, only to be saved by a chamois hunter.
In the underworld of Arimanes, spirit of evil, to whom he will not kneel, Manfred seeks out the phantom Astarte, object of his tragic, seemingly incestuous, love, but for him she has no words of endearment or forgiveness, only the prophecy of his death the next day (II.iv).
As a "metaphysical" poem, in Byron’s term, Manfred has as its theme defiant humanism, represented by the hero’s refusal to bow to supernatural authority, and by his insistence on the independence and self-sufficiency of the human mind. Unable to find consolation for his guilt in this world or in the supernatural, Manfred does not know what to do at first. With its Miltonic echoes, his great speech to the fiends near the end of the play contains the answer he has discovered:
What I have done is done; I bear within
A torture which could nothing gain from thine:
The mind which is immortal makes itself
Requital for its good or evil thoughts—
Is its own origin of ill and end—
And its own place and time ... [.]
As an abbot witnesses his stoic demise, Manfred explains: "Old man! ‘tis not so difficult to die." The unconquerable individual to the end, Manfred gives his soul to neither heaven nor hell, only to death.
As Thorslev notes, Manfred conceals behind a Gothic exterior the tender heart of the Hero of Sensibility; but as a rebel, like Satan, Cain, and Prometheus, he embodies Romantic self-assertion. In Manfred Byron voiced his most profound opinions to date on the aspirations and fate of the human creature. His title character recognizes the mind’s boundaries but also its Promethean invincibility and integrity.
After four months in Switzerland, Byron, accompanied by Hobhouse, lumbered in the Napoléonic coach toward Italy in October 1816. Following a sojourn in Milan, they reached Venice the next month. The watery city enchanted Byron with its canals, gondolas, and palaces, becoming "the greenest island of my imagination." For now, he felt that he had written himself out. He began an affair with Marianna Segati, his landlord’s wife, attended the conversazione of Countess Isabella Teotochi Albrizzi, the center of Venetian literary-social life, and studied Armenian at the Armenian monastery on the island of San Lazzaro near the Lido.
Murray published Childe Harold, Canto III, on 18 November, and The Prisoner of Chillon, and Other Poems on 5 December. Within a week of publication, seven thousand copies of each volume had been sold. Reviewing these works in the December 1816 number of the Edinburgh Review, Jeffrey proclaimed that "in force of diction, and inextinguishable energy of sentiment," Byron took "precedence of all his distinguished contemporaries," Scott, Campbell, Crabbe, and Moore.
Byron set out in mid April 1817 to join Hobhouse in Rome. In Ferrara, his visit to the cell where the sixteenth-century poet Torquato Tasso had been confined for madness inspired an impassioned dramatic monologue, The Lament of Tasso. Byron identified with this "eagle-spirit of a Child of Song" who, through "Long years of outrage, calumny, and wrong," "found resource" in "the innate force" of his own spirit. Byron was "delighted" with the Eternal City, which he reached at the end of the month.
On 16 June Murray published Manfred, fearful of public reaction to its unorthodox speculations and overtones of unnatural love. To Jeffrey (Edinburgh Review, August 1817), the work suffered from "the uniformity of its terror and solemnity" as well as from its "painful and offensive" theme of incest. Despite these flaws, he said, Manfred remained "undoubtedly a work of genius and originality," its "obscurity" and "darkness" serving only "to increase its majesty, to stimulate our curiosity, and to impress us with deeper awe." Writing in 1817, Goethe considered the poem "a wonderful phenomenon" (London Magazine, May 1820).
Byron settled in mid June at the Villa Foscarini at La Mira on the Brenta, seven miles from Venice. Here, he began to distill his memories of Rome into poetry. Composing rapidly, he had completed the first draft for 126 stanzas of Childe Harold, Canto IV, by mid July, but he revised and expanded the manuscript for the rest of the year.
Continuing the pilgrimage format of the earlier cantos, the framework for this longest of the sections is a spirited Italian journey from Venice through Arqua (where Byron had seen the house and tomb of Petrarch) and Ferrara (city of Tasso and Ludovico Ariosto) to Florence and on to Rome, the setting for half of the canto.
In the prefatory letter to Hobhouse, who provided historical annotations and to whom the poem is dedicated, Byron addressed directly the matter of the hero-narrator. In this canto would be found "less of the pilgrim than in any of the preceding, and that little slightly, if at all, separated from the author speaking in his own person." Byron had "become weary of drawing a line which every one seemed determined not to perceive." A Hero of Sensibility, the pilgrim-narrator of Canto IV focuses sharply on the contrast between the transience of mighty empires, exemplified by Venice and Rome, and the transcendence of great art over human limitations, change, and death. An elegiac tone evoked by "Fall’n states and buried greatness" suffuses the verses. "A ruin amidst ruins," the pilgrim-narrator digresses easily from scenes of shattered columns and broken arches to considerations of his own sufferings and of war and liberty. Throughout, Nature is valued, not for any Wordsworthian pantheism, but for its intrinsic beauty.
The principal theme is immediately established. The days of Venice’s glory are no more, "but Beauty still is here. / ... Nature doth not die." Literature, too, is permanent and beneficial:
The beings of the mind are not of clay;
Essentially immortal, they create
And multiply in us a brighter ray
And more beloved existence...[.]
The "mighty shadows" of William Shakespeare ’s Shylock and Othello and of Thomas Otway’s Pierre repeople the Rialto and, unlike the bridge, "can not be swept or worn away." Transcendent also is sculpture—"poetic marble ... array’d / With an eternal glory"—as shown by the Venus de’ Medici, the Laocoön, and the Apollo Belvedere. Architecture particularly demonstrates this transcendence. There is "A spirit’s feeling," "a power / And magic" in such structures as the Colosseum seen by moonlight (also described in Manfred, III. iv); the "sublime" Pantheon, and St. Peter’s Basilica.
The sic transit gloria mundi theme in Childe Harold finds its finest Byronic expression in this canto, which traces through their history and ruins the "dying Glory" of Venice and, especially, the fall of Rome. Inviting the reader to plod with him "O’er steps of broken thrones and temples," the pilgrim-narrator is careful to point out that "A world is at our feet as fragile as our clay," leading to the inevitable ending: "‘tis thus the mighty falls."
His delineation of the dictators of ancient Rome prompts him to consider anew tyranny and liberty in his own time. He brands Napoléon as "The fool of false dominion—and a kind / Of bastard Caesar," praises George Washington and the "undefiled" origins of the United States, and blames "vile Ambition" for the failure of the French Revolution. Yet Freedom’s banner still flies, and in Freedom’s tree the sap still flows—"So shall a better spring less bitter fruit bring forth."
The fourth canto, begun with a view of a prison, ends at the edge of a free ocean. The poet is heartened:
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:
I love not Man the less, but Nature more [.]
"To mingle with the Universe" becomes a substitute for the Wordsworthian transcendental leap. In his famous apostrophe to the ocean, beginning "Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean—roll!," Byron contrasts its permanence, power, and freedom with vanished civilizations: "Thy shores are empires, changed in all save thee—/ Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, what are they?" The ocean remains, "Dark-heaving;—boundless, endless, and sublime—/ The image of Eternity...."
Melancholy colors the farewell; Byron knew that the Childe Harold theme had "died into an echo." As William J. Calvert writes, "The fourth canto is Byron’s final, complete break with the past.... He is from now on committed to truth and reason." Life in Venice had lifted his spirits. Before he finished this canto, he had begun the spritely Beppo, with which he returned to satire and prepared the way for Don Juan.
Late summer 1817 marks a significant development in Byron’s literary career. On 29 August he heard about the return of a supposedly deceased husband to his Venetian wife; she had meanwhile taken an amoroso, and then had to choose her husband, her lover, or solitary life on a pension. At this time, serendipitously, he happened to see John Hookham Frere’s Whistlecraft (1817), a mock-heroic satire in ottava rima modeled on the Italian burlesque manner of Luigi Pulci, Francesco Berni, and Abate Giambattista Casti. The demanding rhyme scheme of ottava rima—a b a b a c c—encourages comic rhymes. Its couplet allows the stanza to end with a witty punch line, with a reversal in tone from high to low, or with a clever rhyme to surprise the reader. The seriocomic mood, colloquial style, and digressions of ottava rima, no less than his fondness for couplets in his Popean satires, attracted Byron to this verse form as the medium for his witty version of the story of Venetian customs and light morals. By 10 October he had finished Beppo. His new poem, he assured Murray on 25 March 1818, would show the public that he could "write cheerfully, & repel the charge of monotony & mannerism."
The story Byron tells is slight. Beppo, a Venetian merchant, returns home during Carnival after years of Turkish captivity, to discover that his wife, Laura, has taken a count for her lover. After the three pleasantly discuss the amatory triangle, the husband and wife reunite, and Beppo befriends the count. Filling out the slender narrative are the poet’s digressions and pointed commentaries. In his asides he particularly contrasts climate, language, attitudes, and customs in Italy and England, to the detriment of the latter; his homeland receives ironic praise. He especially prefers the relaxed moral code of Italy, as illustrated by his heroine Laura who, having "waited long, and wept a little, / And thought of wearing weeds, as well she might" for her missing Beppo, finally "thought it prudent to connect her / With a vice-husband, chiefly to protect her."
In its gaiety, verve, and absence of rhetoric, Beppo signaled a break with Byron’s earlier, darker works. Banished is the soul-ravaged hero with his pride and pessimism, replaced by the poet-narrator—conversational, digressive, witty, observant, cynical. The poem’s seriocomic manner and idiom reflect with greater clarity and honesty the facets of Byron’s mind and emotions as well as his view of the world: satiric, urbane, cosmopolitan, self-deprecating. Though inconsequential, Byron’s first attempt at the Italian "medley poem" allowed him to experiment with the style most congenial to his spirit and best suited to his talents. In this fresh, realistic voice he would create his comic masterpiece Don Juan.
Murray published Beppo, A Venetian Story, without Byron’s name on the title page, on 28 February 1818, to immediate success. The Monthly Review (March 1818) found Byron’s "satire, though at times a little tinged with vulgarity, ... usually good-humoured and often well pointed." In the Edinburgh Review (February 1818), Jeffrey commended "the matchless facility" with which the "unknown writer" "cast into regular, and even difficult versification ... the most light, familiar, and ordinary conversations." The author’s "digressions and dissertations"—the bulk of the poem—formed its "most lively and interesting part." Jeffrey even suggested that the anonymous poet had "caught a spark from the ardent genius of Byron."
On 28 April 1818 Murray brought out Childe Harold, Canto IV; the five printings of the first edition comprise ten thousand copies. In the Quarterly Review (April 1818) Scott judged that the last part of "this great poem ... sustained Lord Byron’s high reputation," though it possessed less passion and more "deep thought and sentiment" than the earlier cantos.
Early in June Byron moved into the Palazzo Mocenigo, his spacious residence overlooking the Grand Canal (whose length he swam), within sight of the Rialto Bridge. Living with him was his daughter Allegra (brought to Venice by the Shelley party in April), whom he had agreed to support and educate. Here, too, he lodged his fourteen servants, a menagerie, and a veritable harem. His housekeeper was the passionate Margarita Cogni (called "La Fornarina" as she was a baker’s wife), Byron’s latest inamorata.
In a letter to Murray dated 10 July 1818, he mentioned that he had completed an ode on Venice, and that he had "two stories—one serious & one ludicrous (a la Beppo) not yet finished—& in no hurry to be so." The "serious" poem was Mazeppa, a Cossack verse tale of illicit love and a wild horseback ride. The "ludicrous" work was the lengthy first canto of his comic epic Don Juan, pronounced, for the sake of the humor, to rhyme with "new one" and “true one.” In this opening canto, the sixteen-year-old Juan has a first love affair with a married woman and then is sent by his mother on an extended European tour. Over the next five years Byron added fifteen more cantos to the poem, leaving a seventeenth unfinished at his death. In November he sent Murray the canto along with Mazeppa (published in June 1819 with "Ode on Venice"), and soon was at work on Canto II, an account of Juan’s sea voyage, shipwreck, and rescue by Haidée. Hobhouse and other friends in England praised the poetry and satire in Don Juan, Canto I, but voiced alarm at its indecencies and attacks on religion, writers, and Lady Byron (in the character of Donna Inez, Juan’s "mathematical" mother). They urged that the manuscript be suppressed. Murray was willing, and eager, to publish the piece, especially if some of the "indelicacies" were omitted. But Byron would have none of his "damned cutting and slashing"; the poem would succeed or fail on its own merits.
Byron, exhausted by debauchery, cut and slashed in his personal life, getting rid of "La Fornarina" and his harem. In early April 1819 at the Benzoni conversazione, he encountered the Countess Teresa Guiccioli, whom he had met casually on his thirtieth birthday at the Countess Albrizzi’s. Now nineteen, she had been married for just over a year to a rich count of fifty-eight. A strong mutual attraction quickly developed between Byron and Teresa. Having given up "miscellaneous harlotry," he settled for "strictest adultery" as cavalier servente to Teresa, his "last attachment." For the next four years, until his departure for Greece in July 1823, they lived in several Italian cities and towns—Venice, La Mira, Ravenna, Filetto, Pisa, and Genoa—as dictated by her husband, by her health and desires, and, after her separation from her husband in July 1820, by her father.
In June, in Ravenna, the site of the Palazzo Guiccioli and Dante’s tomb, Byron wrote at Teresa’s request The Prophecy of Dante, in the terza rima of the Commedia. In Byron’s poem the exiled Florentine poet—with whom Byron, for personal and literary reasons, was sympathetic—laments the political factions of his day, champions Italian nationalism, and urges his nineteenth-century countrymen to unite against the oppressor. Since the Congress of Vienna (1815), Austria had been an overlord in part of Italy. Byron had had his first view of Austrian tyranny in Milan, where his associations brought him under the surveillance of the Austrian secret police.
On 15 July 1819, Murray, after some hesitation, cautiously published the first two cantos of Don Juan in an expensive quarto format of fifteen hundred copies. Missing were Byron’s savage "Dedication" to the poet laureate Robert Southey (first published in The Works of Lord Byron, 1832) and the names of the author and publisher on the title page; only the printer, Thomas Davison, was identified, as required by English law. By tacitly admitting, through anonymous publication, that Don Juan was disreputable, Murray intensified the outcry against the work. The critics hit back with a fury virtually unprecedented, vilifying both poet and poem. Typical was the review in Blackwood’s Magazine (August 1819), which branded Byron as "a cool unconcerned fiend" who derided love, honor, patriotism, and religion in his "filthy and impious poem"; the "coldblooded mockery" of his injured wife was "brutally, fiendishly, inexpiably mean." Not all the notices were negative. In a pseudonymous Letter to the Right Hon. Lord Byron (1821), "John Bull" (John Gibson Lockhart) encouraged him to "Stick to Don Juan: it is the only sincere thing you have ever written; ... it is by far the most spirited, the most straightforward, the most interesting, and the most poetical." In a German review written in 1819 but not published until 1821, Goethe praised Don Juan as "a work of boundless energy."
Byron’s serious poems and Childe Harold had given but limited voice to his complex personality; his comic masterpiece Don Juan permitted him full expression. It is at once a satire on his age, a picaresque novel in poetry, and arguably the greatest verse epic in English since Paradise Lost.
The dazzling range of subjects, incidents, and moods in his "versified Aurora Borealis" (Canto VII), and its geographical sweep, no less than its genre, justify his claim that "My poem’s epic" (Canto I). the stanzas teem with Byronic observations on liberty, tyranny, war, love, hypocrisy, cant, and much more. The landscape stretches from Juan’s native Spain across the Mediterranean to the Greek Cyclades, up to Constantinople and on to Russia, with a digression to Kentucky, before stopping in England. Byron’s literary models include the classical epics of Homer and Virgil and the Renaissance Italian epics of Ariosto and Tasso. He drew, too, on satiric prose romances as written by Françis Rabelais, Miguel de Cervantes, Jonathan Swift, and Laurence Sterne, and on the picaresque novels of Henry Fielding. He humorously claims that his poem will adhere to epic conventions, all arranged "With strict regard to Aristotle’s rules" (Canto I), but, in fact, he writes a modern epic, indebted to the older forms but not in thrall to them.
In a "slight difference" from his "epic brethern," Byron does not make Don Juan a "labyrinth of fables" but a story that is "actually true" (Canto I), based, as he told Murray, almost entirely on "real life—either my own—or from people I knew." He told Marguerite, Lady Blessington, that he always wrote best when "truth" inspired him. The Juan-Julia affair is derived from events in an acquaintance’s boyhood; the architecture of Norman Abbey owes much to Newstead Abbey; and the narrator’s digressive thoughts and opinions are Byron’s. For the sake of accuracy he also referred to source books for particulars in such episodes as the shipwreck and the siege of Ismail.
Related to Byron’s insistence on truth is his "mobility," which he defined in a note to Canto XVI, stanza 97, as "an excessive susceptibility of immediate impressions—at the same time without losing the past." Byron himself, like his character Lady Adeline Amundeville, was "strongly acted on by what is nearest," for all he saw and experienced seemed to imprint itself on his memory and to reappear later, often little changed, in his writings.
For the discursive, digressive manner of Don Juan, Byron returned to the versatile ottava rima he had first used in Beppo , ideally suited to the conversational style of the "Improvisatore" (Canto XV). The rapidity of the stanza facilitates the poem’s myriad changing tones—serious, cynical, sentimental, humorous, satiric, bawdy—as the verse shifts from narrative to commentary, from romance to burlesque, from banter to invective.
"I want a hero," Byron declares in the poem’s opening line, but finding that the modern age does not provide a "true one," he will "therefore take our ancient friend Don Juan." The anglicized pronunciation of the name, as dictated by the rhyme, signals the first of several significant Byronic alterations in the figure familiar from works by Tirso de Molina, Molière, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte. Whereas the legendary Juan is a libertine and a heartless despoiler of women, deserving of his eternal perdition, Byron’s young don is friendly, innately good, courteous, impulsive, and sensuous—more the seduced than the seducer. He experiences shipwreck, slavery, war, dissipation, and illness in his travels, gaining worldly wisdom and discretion as he goes. Though he gradually becomes gaté and blasé in the process, the Juan of Canto XVI retains his good qualities from Canto I.
In Don Juan Byron successfully dissociates himself from his title character, as he had sought in vain to do in Childe Harold. The poem’s structure contributes to the separation of creator and creation. Juan’s picaresque adventures occupy one level; on a second occasionally exists Byron the narrator, behind the partial persona of friend of Juan’s family; on a third level, superintending all, Byron, in his own voice, digresses at will on favorite subjects.
A dual time scheme lengthens the distance between Juan and Byron. The hero lives in the 1790s, Byron as narrator-digressor in the 1820s. These ages are juxtaposed in the "English Cantos," which place Juan in the aristocratic society of Byron’s native land. In the "Ubi sunt" stanzas (Canto XI, stanzas 76-84), Byron looks back over the period of his exile, wondering "Where is the world of eight years past?" In Canto I Byron is concerned that at thirty he has gray hair; in the meditation on middle age that opens Canto XII, he laments that he is thirty-five. If Juan preserves essentially the same nature throughout the poem, the poet obviously changes and ages.
For many critics, the pervading theme of Don Juan is Nature versus Civilization, which allows Byron to realize his serious purpose for the poem, as explained to Murray in a letter on Christmas Day 1822: to satirize "abuses of the present states of Society." His depictions of contrasting types of love repeatedly reveal the larger theme. In Canto I he presents both the loveless marriage of Donna Julia and Don Alfonso, and Juan’s sentimental, comic initiation into love by Julia. Beside these examples drawn from Civilization he sets the idyll of Juan and Haidée in their island Eden (Cantos II-IV), which Lambro, symbolizing Eastern society, destroys, along with his daughter, Haidée, "Nature’s bride" (Canto II), and her unborn child by Juan (Canto IV.) He exposes the English commercial marriage, which conceals sexuality behind hypocritical convention, and juxtaposes the frustrated passion of Lady Adeline Amundeville and the amorality of "her frolic Grace," the Duchess of Fitz-Fulke, with the ingenuousness and purity of Aurora Raby.
Byron reserves his most graphic illustration of the grand theme for his denunciation of the brutality and futility of wars of conquest, represented by the Russo-Turkish War, in which Juan participates (Cantos VII-VIII). In Canto VIII, in the midst of the siege of Ismail, Byron digresses for seven stanzas to praise Daniel Boone, "back-woodsman of Kentucky," and his "sylvan tribe of children of the chace": "Simple they were, not savage; and their rifles, / Though very true, were not yet used for trifles." Abruptly Byron ends this scene with an ironic transition:
So much for Nature:—by way of variety,
Now back to thy great joys, Civilization!
And the sweet consequence of large society,
War, Pestilence, the despot’s desolation,
The kingly scourge, the Lust of Notoriety,
The millions slain by soldiers for their ration[.]
War, tyranny, and the pretense and corruption in society are the major butts of Byron’s satire in Don Juan . Even as he assails political and social constraints on human freedom, he writes an inherently positive poem. As Paul G. Trueblood notes, Don Juan exalts "the indestructibility of the human spirit, the creative power of human love, and the supreme importance of personal and national liberty." As an epic-satire on all obstructions to that liberty, Don Juan represents "the flowering of Byron’s essentially satiric genius."
At La Mira with Teresa and Allegra in September 1819 Byron proceeded with the third canto of Don Juan. To Moore, his visitor in October, he presented the manuscript of his memoirs, begun in Venice the previous year and not to be published during Byron’s lifetime. They were intended to be "Memoranda—and not Confessions," containing, among other things, "a detailed account" of his marriage and its "consequences." Moore sold them to Murray; on 17 May 1824, three days after news of Byron’s death reached England, Hobhouse and Murray, over Moore’s objections, had the memoirs burned in Murray’s parlor to protect Byron’s reputation from his indiscretions.
In February 1820, while in residence at the Palazzo Guiccioli, Byron sent Murray, along with other works, the third and fourth cantos of Don Juan, depicting the love between Juan and Haidée, her tragic death, and his captivity on a ship bound for the slave market at Constantinople.
Byron’s life and writing in 1820-1821 evidenced a shared political theme. Influenced by Teresa’s father, Count Ruggero Gamba Ghiselli, and his son, Count Pietro Gamba, both ardent patriots, he began to take a serious interest in the Carbonari, one of the secret revolutionary societies seeking to overthrow Austrian despotism. In time Byron became an honorary Capo (Chief) of a workmen’s group of the Carbonari; he supplied them with arms and made his house their arsenal. The Austrian secret police increased their observation of Byron’s activities and opened his mail. Uncertain about the future of Don Juan, he expended a portion of his creative energy on a trio of historical tragedies based on political subjects and modeled on neoclassical principles. These blank-verse plays were, he maintained, closet dramas, not designed for the stage. Marino Faliero, which he began in April and finished in July 1820, concerns the doge of Venice beheaded in 1355 for plotting with the oppressed plebeians to overthrow the oligarchical Republic; Faliero—like Byron, an aristocrat—hates tyranny but, in a reflection of Byron’s dilemma, must ally himself with the mob and oppose noble friends in the cause of liberty. Sardanapalus (written January-May 1821) recounts the final hours of the quasi-historical last king of Assyria, a benevolent voluptuary who scorns the lust for power and forcefully indicts war; spurred to military action only by a plot to depose him, he avoids capture through self-immolation. In The Two Foscari (written June and July 1821), a sense of duty compels a fifteenth-century doge to sentence his son to torture and perpetual exile for crimes against the state; his daughter-in-law, Marina, is the voice of rebellion that cannot be intimidated into silence.
From his patronage of the theater and his year (1815-1816) on the Subcommittee of Management at Drury Lane, Byron was acutely aware of the rant, Gothic melodramas, child-tragedians, and performing animals that increasingly dominated the English stage and dimmed its luster. To reform the drama, Byron in his history plays observed classical principles, finding his models in works by ancient Greek, neoclassical French, and contemporary Italian playwrights, particularly Vittorio Alfieri. Whenever possible, Byron observed the unities of time, place, and action.
On 28 December 1820 Byron forwarded to England the fifth canto of Don Juan retailing Juan’s adventures, en travesti as a harem girl, with the love-starved sultana, Gulbeyez. Moore received additional pages of Byron’s memoirs. In mid February he sent a fifty-five page Letter to **** ***** [John Murray] on the Rev. W. L. Bowles’ Strictures on the Life and Writings of Pope, refuting Bowles’s attack on his idol.
In April 1821 Murray published in a single volume Marino Faliero and The Prophecy of Dante. The critics thought the drama failed as play and poem. To Jeffrey, The Prophecy of Dante suffered from obscurities in diction and undigested subject matter (Edinburgh Review, July 1821). Without Byron’s permission, Marino Faliero was given seven performances at Drury Lane in April and May 1821, the only one of his plays acted in his lifetime. Adaptations of Sardanapalus and Werner (1823) enjoyed great success on the nineteenth-century stage.
With the completion of The Two Foscari in July, Byron began work on Cain, A Mystery, its subtitle an allusion to the medieval dramas on biblical themes and, he told Moore, "in honour of what it probably will remain to the reader." Grounding his play in the Old Testament and eighteenth-century rationalism, Byron challenged accepted religious beliefs in good, evil, death, and immortality.
Adam and Eve inhabit a postlapsarian world with their sons, Cain and Abel; daughters, Adah (Cain’s twin) and Zillah; and grandchild, Enoch, the son of Cain and Adah. In act 1, scene 1, Cain appears as the first skeptic and a Romantic rebel, a blend of the rational and the Promethean, defiantly, even blasphemously questioning his parents’ views of God’s goodness and justice.
Lucifer, too, is Promethean, championing humanity against an authoritarian and arbitrary God. The underlying philosophy is Manichaean, based on the belief that two equal and irreconcilable forces divide the rule of the universe: good (light, God, intellect) and evil (darkness, Satan, flesh). In making Lucifer a rival of God, Byron reverses the associations, allying Lucifer with good, and God, the "Omnipotent Tyrant," with all manner of evil—war, death, disease, pangs, and bitterness.
In act 3, scene 1, when God violently rejects his offering of fruit but accepts with gratitude Abel’s animal sacrifice, Cain takes a Promethean stand for life, denouncing the death principle behind God’s tyrannical "pleasure" in "The fumes of scorching flesh and smoking blood. “With tragic irony Cain then sheds his brother’s blood in the human world’s first death. Remorseful and repentant, he goes into exile accompanied by Adah and Enoch, without railing against an unjust God.
Cain was the product of Byron’s contemplation, in January 1821, of a drama on "a metaphysical subject, something in the style of Manfred." Manfred’s complaint that man is "half dust, half deity" assumed that escape from the dust into bodiless spirit would result in happiness. But Cain’s journey through the "Abyss of Space" (II.i) and Hades (II.ii) in search of knowledge suggests that supernatural beings might not be happy either: "sorrow seems / Half of his [Lucifer’s] immortality" (I.i). Cain learns that he anticipates his own immortality by "suffering," and that "torture" is destined to be immortal (II.i). All that remains is a sort of desperate stoicism based on his unconquerable will and his acceptance of the futility of aspiration.
In publishing Don Juan, Cantos III, IV, and V, in August 1821, Murray still refused to attach his name to the poem, though he had it printed in an octavo edition of 1500 copies, which gave it a wider circulation among the middle-class reading public. To Shelley, "every word" of the fifth canto was "pregnant with immortality." In another key the reviewer for the British Critic (September 1821) denounced the poem, "begotten" and "spawned in filth and darkness," as an "obscure and ditch-delivered foundling," whose father, though well known, forbore "to give it the full title of avowed legitimacy."
In September, amid the confusion of packing for his move to Pisa, Byron took up a poem he had begun in May and immediately set aside. On 4 October, he completed one of his greatest works, The Vision of Judgment, a satiric riposte to Robert Southey’s A Vision of Judgment, which had appeared in April. This solemn, sycophantic eulogy in limping hexameters commemorates the death, burial, and supposed apotheosis of King George III. In his preface, chiefly concerning the poem’s metrics, Southey virulently attacked Byron (without naming him) as the leader of the "Satanic school" of contemporary writers, whose works mocked religion, represented "loathsome images of atrocities and horrors" and exhibited "a Satanic spirit of pride and audacious impiety."
In his "true dream" or vision, Byron, under the pseudonym "Quevedo Redivivus," trains his telescope on "the celestial gate" to espy the truth about George III’s arrival there for judgment. He discovers that, during the mayhem caused by Southey’s reading from his Vision of Judgment, the decrepit king simply "slipped into Heaven." Byron’s hatred of oppression finds a worthy target in George III, whom Satan indicts as a warmonger and a symbol of tyranny in England, America, and Europe. Byron also directs his despite at Southey’s poetry and politics: "He had written much blank verse, and blanker prose, / And more of both than any body knows." A political apostate, Southey began as an exponent of revolutionary views in Wat Tyler (written in 1795 but unpublished until 1817) only to become a voice of conservative reaction: this "hearty antijacobin" had "turned his coat—and would have turned his skin."
First published in the first number of The Liberal (15 October 1821), The Vision of Judgment is distinguished from Byron’s other satires by its unity of structure and compactness of expression. A single significant target is attacked with a specific satiric purpose and without excessive digression. The fact that Byron leaves George III in heaven "practising the hundredth psalm" indicates that his satire was aimed less at the mad king than at toady Southey. Byron’s biographer Leslie A. Marchand regards The Vision of Judgment as "the masterpiece of his whole writing career" and "the rarest distillation of his satiric genius."
Byron based Heaven and Earth, the "Mystery" he began in October, on Genesis 6:1-2, which records that the "sons of God" (to Byron, angels) took as wives "the daughters of men" (women descended from Cain, who were condemned to destruction in the Flood). Through Japhet, the elect but troubled son of Noah, Byron questions the doctrine of predestination, which had disturbed him all his life. As in Cain, this drama asks why evil exists, since Jehovah is good. Aholibamah, one of the women, articulates the familiar Byronic theme of human aspiration for celestial existence free from the limitations of the body: "where is the impiety of loving / Celestial natures?" (I.i).
The blank-verse evocations of the natural beauty of the earth and the defiant addresses to Jehovah impress by their power and majesty. The work was printed in the second number of The Liberal (1 January 1823). A projected second part to the drama was never written.
In Pisa, which he reached in November, Byron was drawn into a delightful circle of friends that included Percy and Mary Shelley, Edward and Jane Williams, and Shelley’s cousin Thomas Medwin. They were joined in mid January by the flamboyant adventurer Edward John Trelawny.
On 19 December Murray published Sardanapalus, The Two Foscari, and Cain in a single volume (6,099 copies). In a letter of 26 January 1822, Shelley proclaimed Cain "apocalyptic—it is a revelation not before communicated to man." His was a minority opinion. Byron wrote Moore that "the parsons [were] all preaching at it from Kentish Town and Oxford to Pisa." To John Gibson Lockhart (Blackwood’s Magazine, January 1822), Cain was "a wicked and blasphemous performance." To the Gentleman’s Magazine (supplement to 1821), the play was "neither more nor less than a series of wanton libels upon the Supreme Being and His attributes." Few critics embraced Sardanapalus and fewer still The Two Foscari.
Byron had placed his daughter Allegra in a convent school in Bagnacavallo in March 1821; on 20 April 1822 she died there at the age of five, after a brief illness. Following Byron’s instructions, she was buried in Harrow Church.
In July, the poet, critic, and editor Leigh Hunt accepted Shelley’s year-old invitation, extended in Byron’s name, to come to Pisa with his family to help edit a new literary journal. Despite Shelley’s drowning death in July, plans went forward to start The Liberal. Verse and Prose from the South, to be published in London by Hunt’s brother, John. Byron contributed to each of its four issues (published in 1822 and 1823).
He was also proceeding rapidly with Don Juan. After the erotic seraglio scenes in the sixth canto, he began to exhibit a new gravity. His satire on war and its false glory fills Cantos VII and VIII, on the siege of Ismail (with its panegyric digression on Daniel Boone in VIII, stanzas 61-66). Canto IX sends Juan with news of Ismail to Empress Catherine the Great of Russia.
In late September, the remnants of the Pisan Circle relocated to Genoa. Within a week of his arrival, Byron had completed the tenth canto of Don Juan, which carries the hero to England, and started the eleventh, with its satire on the shallowness and hypocrisy of the English aristocracy.
The first number of The Liberal appeared in mid October, leading with Byron’s Vision of Judgment. Though published under a pseudonym and without the explanatory preface, the satire was immediately recognized as Byron’s and deplored as slanderous, seditious, and impious. John Hunt was prosecuted for libeling the late king; he remained the publisher of The Liberal but turned printing duties over to the less radical printer C. H. Reynell.
Murray found Don Juan, Cantos VI, VII, and VIII "so outrageously shocking" that he refused to publish them. Byron responded by withdrawing from Murray and turning to John Hunt as his publisher. He analyzed the Englishwoman in the twelfth canto, completed by December 1822. Then, between December and January 1823 he composed a slashing satire, The Age of Bronze (published by John Hunt in 1823). As the title suggests, Byron voices disillusionment with the modern era, his targets being both political and economic. He aims his scornful heroic couplets at the reactionary Congress of Verona (November 1822), which had assembled to make Europe less free, and at "uncountry gentlemen" who profited during the Napoleonic Wars. A long passage contains his final thinking on Napoléon, who had died in 1821; the poet bemoans the what-might-have-been for this Promethean figure: "A single step into the right had made / This man the Washington of worlds betrayed." The evergreen theme of freedom fills the sixth section, with its hopes for liberation in Spain, the New World, and Greece.
In January 1823, in the midst of his satire, he reverted briefly to his earlier manner—the verse narrative. The Island; or, Christian and His Comrades is compounded from Captain William Bligh’s Narrative of the Mutiny on ... [the] Bounty (1790) and the popular Romantic theme of the Noble Savage, depicted in the idyll of Neuha, "the gentle savage of the wild," and Torquil, "The fair-hair’d offspring of the Hebrides." Three editions, totaling three thousand copies, were published by John Hunt in 1823.
In the summer of 1823 he told his guest "the most gorgeous" Marguerite, Countess of Blessington, that "he who is only a poet has done little for mankind"; he would therefore "endeavour to prove in his own person that a poet may be a soldier." To this end he devoted himself to the Greek War of Independence from the Turks, begun in March 1821. In May he was elected to the London Greek Committee, recently formed to aid the struggling insurgents. After a reluctant farewell to Teresa, he made good on his offer of personal assistance to the patriots by sailing from Genoa on 16 July, bound for Leghorn and Greece. He was accompanied by Pietro Gamba, Trelawny, and a considerable sum of money and medical supplies for the Greek cause; he also packed gold and scarlet uniforms and heroic helmets for their landing on Greek shores. On 3 August they reached the island of Cephalonia, then under British protection. Byron did not immediately commit himself to any faction, preferring to wait for signs of unity in the Greek effort. Intent on the war, he gave no time to poetry, adding nothing to the fourteen stanzas of Don Juan, Canto XVII, he had started in Genoa.
Unknown to him, John Hunt published Don Juan, Cantos VI.—VII.—and VIII. in July. In Blackwood’s Magazine (July 1823), "Timothy Tickler" (William Maginn) attacked them as "mere filth" for abusing chastity, matrimony, monarchy, and lawful government. In the September number of Blackwood’s "Odoherty" (John Gibson Lockhart) maintained that Cantos IX, X, and XI (published in August) were, "without exception, the first of Lord Byron’s works," containing the finest specimens of his serious poetry and of contemporary "ludicrous poetry"; Don Juan was "destined to hold a permanent rank" in British literature. The Literary Gazette (6 December 1823) found the "sportive satirical vein" of Cantos XII, XIII, and XIV (published that month) "very entertaining."
In November Byron agreed to loan four thousand pounds to the Greek fleet for its activation. In January 1824 he joined the moderate leader Prince Alexander Mavrokordátos on the mainland in swampy Missolonghi. Wearing his red military uniform, Byron was enthusiastically welcomed by shouts, salutes, and salvos, and hailed as a "Messiah." On the eve of his birthday, he turned once more to poetry to express his inner feelings on his life and the principles of freedom; the ten stanzas of "On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year" constitute one of his last poems. Over the next three and one-half months, all occasions—military, political, physical, climatic, and amorous—seemed to conspire against him: his leadership of a planned attack on the Turkish stronghold at Lepanto was postponed for lack of soldiers; factions still prevented a unified war effort; his constitution, weakened by years of dieting to combat congenital portliness, deteriorated under the constant strain and the cold winter rains in Missolonghi; the emotional frustration of his unrequited love for his handsome fifteen-year-old page boy, Loukas Chalandritsanos, seems to have inspired his final poem (posthumously titled and published as "Love and Death") which concludes, "Nor can I blame thee, though it be my lot / To strongly, wrongly, vainly love thee still." Despite uncertainty and reverses, he continued to commit money and energy to Mavrokordátos and the Greek cause.
In March 1824, John and H. L. Hunt published the last complete sections of Don Juan, Cantos XV and XVI. The Literary Gazette (3 April 1824) pronounced them "destitute of the least glimmering of talent" and a "wretched" "piece of stuff altogether."
On 9 April, having been soaked by a heavy rain while out riding, Byron suffered fever and rheumatic pains. By the twelfth he was seriously ill. Repeated bleedings, which he initially resisted, further debilitated him. On Easter Sunday, he entered a comatose state. At six o’clock on the evening of Easter Monday, 19 April 1824, during a violent electrical storm, Byron died.
In memorial services throughout the country, he was proclaimed a national hero of Greece. His death proved effective in uniting Greece against the enemy and in eliciting support for its struggle from all parts of the civilized world. In October 1827 British, French, and Russian forces destroyed the Turkish and Egyptian fleets at Navarino, assuring Greek independence, which was acknowledged by the sultan in 1829.
Byron’s body arrived in England on 29 June, and for two days lay in state in a house in Great George Street, London. On Friday, 16 July 1824, Lord Byron was buried in the family vault beneath the chancel of Hucknall Torkard Church near Newstead Abbey.
The fame to which Byron awoke in London in 1812 was spread rapidly throughout Europe and the English-speaking world by scores of translations and editions. He was delighted to see his merits argued in a Java gazette in 1814 and gratified some years later to find himself described as "the favourite poet of the Americans." His influence was pervasive and prolonged. Alfred de Musset was his disciple in France, Aleksandr Pushkin in Russia, Heinrich Heine in Germany, Adam Mickiewicz in Poland. His poetry inspired musical compositions by Hector Berlioz, Robert Schumann, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; operas by Gaetano Donizetti and Giuseppe Verdi; and paintings by J. M. W. Turner, John Martin, Ford Madox Brown, and Eugène Delacroix. His spirit animated liberal revolutionary movements: most of the officers executed following the unsuccessful 1825 Decembrist uprising in Russia were Byronists; the Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini associated Byron with the eternal struggle of the oppressed to be free. Shelley, Heine, and others adopted Byron’s open-necked shirt, which he wears in Thomas Phillips’s striking 1814 painting.
Philosophically and stylistically, Byron stands apart from the other major Romantics. He was the least insular, the most cosmopolitan of them. Poetic imagination was not for him, as for them, the medium of revelation of ultimate truth. He wished that Coleridge would "explain his Explanation" of his thought (Dedication to Don Juan). He did not embrace for long Wordsworth’s belief in the benevolence of nature, espouse Shelley’s faith in human perfectibility, or experience Keats’s private vision. Yet, as Leslie A. Marchand observes, "The core of his thinking and the basis of his poetry is romantic aspiration," and he evidences a "romantic zest for life and experience." In narrative skill, Byron has no superior in English poetry, save Geoffrey Chaucer; as Ronald Bottrall notes, Byron, like his illustrious predecessor, could "sum up a society and an era." His subjects are fundamental ones: life and death, growth and decay, humankind and nature. His "apotheosis of the commonplace" is, to Edward E. Bostetter, "one of his great contributions to the language of poetry." Lacking the inhibitions of his contemporaries, Byron created verse that is exuberant, spontaneous, expansive, digressive, concrete, lucid, colloquial—in celebration of "unadorned reality."
"I was born for opposition," Byron proclaimed in Don Juan, Canto XV. The outstanding elements of his poetry both support his self-analysis and insure his enduring reputation. As a major political and social satirist, he starts, in the Classical and Augustan manner, with a fixed standard of judgment, then, in either seriocomic or savage tones, repeatedly denounces war, tyranny, and hypocrisy. As an untiring champion of liberty, he firmly believed that "Revolution / Alone can save the earth from hell’s pollution"“(Don Juan, Canto VIII), a tenet he defended with his life.
The last word properly belongs to Byron, who perceptively captured his essence in Canto IV of Childe Harold:
But I have lived, and have not lived in vain:
My mind may lose its force, my blood its fire,
And my frame perish even in conquering pain,
But there is that within me which shall tire
Torture and Time, and breathe when I expire [.]
| George |
Eric Schmidt announced in 2011 stepping down from CEO to Executive Chairman of what corporation, whose vast growth in the 2000s he oversaw? | When We Two Parted - Poems | Academy of American Poets
Academy of American Poets
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George Gordon Byron was born on January 22, 1788, in Aberdeen, Scotland, and inherited his family's English title at the age of ten, becoming Baron Byron of Rochdale. Abandoned by his father at an early age and resentful of his mother, who he blamed for his being born with a deformed foot, Byron isolated himself during his youth and was deeply unhappy. Though he was the heir to an idyllic estate, the property was run down and his family had no assets with which to care for it. As a teenager, Byron discovered that he was attracted to men as well as women, which made him all the more remote and secretive.
He studied at Aberdeen Grammar School and then Trinity College in Cambridge. During this time Byron collected and published his first volumes of poetry. The first, published anonymously and titled Fugitive Pieces, was printed in 1806 and contained a miscellany of poems, some of which were written when Byron was only fourteen. As a whole, the collection was considered obscene, in part because it ridiculed specific teachers by name, and in part because it contained frank, erotic verses. At the request of a friend, Byron recalled and burned all but four copies of the book, then immediately began compiling a revised version—though it was not published during his lifetime. The next year, however, Byron published his second collection, Hours of Idleness, which contained many of his early poems, as well as significant additions, including poems addressed to John Edelston, a younger boy whom Byron had befriended and deeply loved.
By Byron's twentieth birthday, he faced overwhelming debt. Though his second collection received an initially favorable response, a disturbingly negative review was printed in January of 1808, followed by even more scathing criticism a few months later. His response was a satire, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, which received mixed attention. Publicly humiliated and with nowhere else to turn, Byron set out on a tour of the Mediterranean, traveling with a friend to Portugal, Spain, Albania, Turkey, and finally Athens. Enjoying his new-found sexual freedom, Byron decided to stay in Greece after his friend returned to England, studying the language and working on a poem loosely based on his adventures. Inspired by the culture and climate around him, he later wrote to his sister, "If I am a poet ... the air of Greece has made me one."
Byron returned to England in the summer of 1811 having completed the opening cantos of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, a poem which tells the story of a world-weary young man looking for meaning in the world. When the first two cantos were published in March of 1812, the expensive first printing sold out in three days. Byron reportedly said, "I awoke one morning and found myself famous."
His fame, however, was among the aristocratic intellectual class, at a time when only cultivated people read and discussed literature. The significant rise in a middle-class reading public, and with it the dominance of the novel, was still a few years away. At 24, Byron was invited to the homes of the most prestigious families and received hundreds of fan letters, many of them asking for the remaining cantos of his great poem—which eventually appeared in 1818.
An outspoken politician in the House of Lords, Byron used his popularity for public good, speaking in favor of workers' rights and social reform. He also continued to publish romantic tales in verse. His personal life, however, remained rocky. He was married and divorced, his wife Anne Isabella Milbanke having accused him of everything from incest to sodomy. A number of love affairs also followed, including one with Claire Clairmont, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley <’s sister-in-law. By 1816, Byron was afraid for his life, warned that a crowd might lynch him if he were seen in public.
Forced to flee England, Byron settled in Italy and began writing his masterpiece, Don Juan, an epic-satire novel-in-verse loosely based on a legendary hero. He also spent much of his time engaged in the Greek fight for independence and planned to join a battle against a Turkish-held fortress when he fell ill, becoming increasingly sick with persistent colds and fevers.
When he died on April 19, 1824, at the age of 36, Don Juan was yet to be finished, though 17 cantos had been written. A memoir, which also hadn't been published, was burned by Byron's friends who were either afraid of being implicated in scandal or protective of his reputation.
Today, Byron's Don Juan is considered one of the greatest long poems in English written since John Milton’ s Paradise Lost. The Byronic hero, characterized by passion, talent, and rebellion, pervades Byron's work and greatly influenced the work of later Romantic poets .
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Jazz musician Gene Krupa was famous for playing which musical instrument? | Gene Krupa | American musician | Britannica.com
American musician
Gene Krupa, in full Eugene Bertram Krupa (born Jan. 15, 1909, Chicago , Ill., U.S.—died Oct. 16, 1973, Yonkers , N.Y.), American jazz drummer who was perhaps the most popular percussionist of the swing era.
Gene Krupa, c. 1945.
Metronome/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
After the death of his father, Krupa went to work at age 11 as an errand boy for a music company. He soon earned enough money to purchase a musical instrument and decided upon a drum set because it was the least expensive instrument in a wholesale catalog. In the early 1920s, Krupa learned from and sometimes jammed with many of the great jazz performers who were then in Chicago, receiving his greatest inspiration from New Orleans drummer Baby Dodds . Immersing himself in the study of jazz, Krupa began to play in several Chicago-area jazz groups with musicians such as Frank Teschmacher, Bix Beiderbecke , and his future employer Benny Goodman .
In 1927, during a recording session with the McKenzie-Condon Chicagoans, Krupa became the first drummer to use a full kit on a recording, a significant technological accomplishment during a time when the pounding of a bass drum could easily dislocate the stylus on the recording equipment. Recordings from this session are regarded as the first aural example of authentic Chicago-style jazz.
Krupa worked for several bands during the early 1930s and was a drummer in the pit orchestras for two Broadway musicals by George Gershwin . By 1934 Krupa was the most sought-after drummer in the business. He was persuaded by the record producer John Hammond to join Goodman ’s band , with the assurance that the band would prominently showcase his drumming talents. Krupa stayed with Goodman until 1938 and played on many of the band’s best-known recordings (such as the classic drum workout “
Sing, Sing, Sing
”); he was also a fixture in the Benny Goodman Trio (featuring Goodman and pianist Teddy Wilson ) and subsequent Quartet (adding vibraphonist Lionel Hampton ). With his movie-star good looks and tousle-haired, gum-chewing “hot jazzman” persona, Krupa attracted many female fans and provided the Goodman band with much of its visual appeal, elevating the role of the drummer from mere timekeeper to front-line performer. To many swing fans, Krupa epitomized jazz drumming; he went on to become perhaps the most famous drummer in jazz history.
Krupa had a tendency to grandstand during his tenure with Goodman, yet his infectious energy propelled the band. His flamboyance and popularity led to personality clashes with Goodman, who thought that Krupa’s showmanship often overshadowed the music. Less than two months after the Goodman band’s historic performance at Carnegie Hall in January 1938, Krupa left to form his own band.
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Initially Krupa’s band followed in the style of Goodman’s. Many of its early recordings are fine examples of swing and commercial pop, and many feature well-performed drum solos. The band’s jazz credentials were significantly enhanced in 1941 with the addition of trumpeter Roy Eldridge and singer Anita O’Day . One of jazz’s most influential players, Eldridge was the stylistic link between the traditional jazz of Louis Armstrong and the wailing bebop of Dizzy Gillespie . O’Day, whose style was cool and detached, was one of the most renowned band vocalists. The Krupa-Eldridge-O’Day triumvirate combined to produce some of the band’s best-known recordings, including “
Boogie Blues,
Just a Little Bit South of North Carolina,
” and, especially, “
Let Me Off Uptown,
” the Krupa band’s biggest hit.
In 1943 Krupa served a three-month jail term for marijuana possession; for a time after his release, he drummed with the Goodman and Tommy Dorsey orchestras before re-forming his own band in 1944. His new band, which incorporated a string section, played in a more modern style and featured several talented young players who were influenced by the bebop movement. Hits such as “
Leave Us Leap,
| Drum kit |
'Dancer' was the American Secret Service code name for the wife of which US president? | Gene Krupa Biography
Gene Krupa Biography
Find Gene Krupa on Amazon.com
Born Eugene Bertram Krupa, January 15, 1909, in Chicago, IL; died of heart failure, October 16, 1973, in Yonkers, NY. Education: Studied at St. Joseph's College, 1924-25.
The name Gene Krupa is synonymous with a driving drum style and a dynamic sense of showmanship--qualities that made the Chicago-born drummer one of the musical giants of the Swing Era. Behind his public image--the gum-chewing hipster with the uncontrollable shock of black hair--Krupa was a devoutly serious and self-disciplined musician. As Benny Goodman would recall in his autobiography Kingdom of Swing, "No matter how much playing [Krupa] did, he was always working, developing his hands, and getting new ideas." Krupa's technique and explosive attack earned him praise from all quarters of the jazz world, from traditional swing stylists like Buddy Rich to modernist drummer Max Roach.
The youngest of nine children, Eugene Bertram Krupa was born on January 15, 1909, in Chicago, Illinois. After the untimely death of his father when Krupa was young, his mother went to work as a milliner to support her family. At around the age of 11, Krupa got a job running errands and cleaning windows at Brown Music Company, a music store on Chicago's South Side. With the money he earned, Krupa decided to purchase a musical instrument, and he ultimately chose the drums, the "cheapest item" listed in the wholesale catalogue.
Taken with the idea of playing the drums, Krupa searched his South Side neighborhood for the company of young musicians. "There were a few little bands in school that I got to hear at socials and tea dances," the musician recalled in Drummin' Men. "I'd watch the drummers and pick up what I could. After a bit, I got to make music with some of these fellows and substitute at the dances and socials."
Soon Krupa's musical activities began to take precedence over his school work. As a result of his late-night musical activities, Krupa often fell asleep during classes. In 1924, in an effort to placate his mother' disappointment over his failing school studies, Krupa enrolled in St. Joseph's College, a seminary prep school in Rensselaer, Indiana. At St. Joseph's, Krupa studied under a classically trained professor of music, Father Ildefonse Rapp.
Although Krupa received first-rate instruction at St. Joseph's, he decided to leave the school in 1925 in order to pursue a career as a professional drummer. He soon played various jobs around Chicago with commercial dance bands such as the Hossier Bellhops, Ed Mulaney's Red Jackets, and the band of Joe Kayser. Living on the South Side, Krupa spent evenings searching for jazz in neighborhood cabarets and nightclubs.
In the spring of 1927 Krupa discovered a talented group of young white jazzmen playing at a South Side movie house. Known as the Austin High Gang, this devoted coterie of musicians included banjoist Eddie Condon, saxophonist Bud Freeman, and Dave Tough, the premiere white Chicago drum stylist. Krupa "sat through two shows every night and three on Saturday to hear Tough on drums," remembered Condon in his autobiography We Called It Music.
Soon afterward Tough, in an effort to introduce his younger protege to authentic jazz, took Krupa to see the great New Orleans drummer Baby Dodds. "Baby was the band's central strength," reminisced Krupa in Drumming Men, "the way he used the drums, the rims, the cymbals was just marvelous. I kept coming back to dig Baby, always showing my appreciation for the extremely musical things he was doing. He was one of my main inspirations."
Krupa was so impressed by Dodds that he began to immerse himself in the study of black jazz. Austin High Gang member Milton "Mess" Mezzrow recalled in his autobiography, Really the Blues, how he and Krupa analyzed the rhythmic patterns of New Orleans drummers: "More than anything, it was the Negroes' time and rhythm that fascinated us. I would sit there with Gene for hours, just beating out rhythms of Zutty Singleton and Johnny Wells until my hands swole double." By 1927 Krupa was attending a regular jazz jam session held at the Three Deuces, located across from the Chicago Theater--legendary sessions that included Austin High Gang clarinetist Frank Teschmaker, trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke, and Krupa's future employer Benny Goodman.
In December of the same year, Red Mckenzie assisted the Austin High Gang in landing a recording session with the Okeh label. Billed as Mckenzie's and Condon's Chicagoans, Krupa, Freeman, Teschmaker, Condon, bassist Jim Lannigan, and pianist Joe Sullivan recorded four sides: "China Boy," "Sugar," "Nobody's Sweetheart," and "Liza." Expecting to use his entire drum set, Krupa became outraged when producer Tommy Rockwell demanded that he play the standard set-up: a snare and cymbals.
Although Krupa argued that the recording equipment could not handle the vibration of the additional drums, Rockwell finally agreed, at Mckenzie's urging, to allow Krupa to use his entire kit. "So they let Gene play the drums, and he beat the heck out of them all the way through the set," described Jimmy McPartland in Talking Jazz, "It gave us a good solid beat." Assessing the impact of the session, Condon wrote, "Krupa's drums went through us like triple bourbon."
The success of the Okeh session didn't just mark the first known recording of the bass drum in jazz music, it defined the Chicago jazz sound. As Richard Hadlock pointed out in Jazz Masters of the Twenties, Krupa was the "biggest surprise" of these sessions, "an unknown, whose well-recorded drum work ... rocked the New York Jazz cliques." In 1928 Condon's Chicagoans headed to New York to back singer Bee Palmer. When the job fell through, Krupa and the Chicagoans recorded sessions with trumpeter Red Nichols and trombonist Miff Mole.
After playing with Nichols's band, Krupa performed with the pit band for George and Ira Gershwin's 1930 Broadway production Strike Up the Band. "Gershwin was crazy about his playing," explained Max Kaminsky in My Life in Jazz, "because Gene was the first white drummer who could swing the beat so that the chorus girls could kick, in time."
While working with commercial groups in the early 1930s, Krupa, determined to become a "legit" drummer, began formal music instruction with "Gus" Moeller. Practicing eight hours a day, he worked on inventing his own rhythmic variations and patterns. "My work with Moeller," related Krupa in Drummin' Men, "made possible more graceful playing, better control and freedom to be myself no matter what kind of music I had to interpret."
In 1934 record producer John Hammond traveled to Chicago to recruit Krupa for Benny Goodman's big band. Although Krupa had reservations about joining, Hammond convinced him that he would be a featured performer of the Goodman band, a noncommercial swing group featuring the arrangements of Fletcher Henderson. "Our drummer was merely adequate," explained Goodman in Eddie Condon's Treasury of Jazz. "The man we wanted, Gene Krupa, was in Chicago playing with Buddy Rogers." Through Hammond, Goodman hoped to draw Krupa to New York City, for as he stated in Kingdom of Swing, "Gene had some not too favorable recollections of our previous jobs together, but he had the same feeling about real jazz that I did, and the chance to play music the way we felt it was as important in his life as it was mine."
Joining Goodman in New York in December of 1934, Krupa performed on the NBC Saturday broadcast Let's Dance, a national radio spot that bolstered the popularity of Goodman's orchestra and brought great attention to Krupa's drumming talent. In 1935 the band's engagement at Los Angeles's Palomar Ballroom extended from four to seven weeks, drawing more than 200,000 listeners who responded wildly to the solos of Goodman, Krupa, and trumpeter Bunny Berigan. Around this time, Goodman formed a trio with Krupa and pianist Teddy Wilson, and a quartet featuring vibraphonist Lionel Hampton. Krupa's brush work with these two groups displayed his musical versatility and refined sense of accompaniment.
By the late 1930s Krupa emerged as a national phenomenon. His work on Goodman's 1936 hit "Sing, Sing, Sing" produced the classic drum anthem of the Swing Era, and his appearance on stage and film catapulted him to superstar status. In 1938 he performed on Goodman's classic live recording Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert, which emanates with the intensity of Krupa's near-frantic drum work. Despite the popularity of the Goodman-Krupa combination, however, artistic and personal disputes prompted Krupa to leave the group in 1938. "They had different ideas about how to play music," explained band member Lionel Hampton in his book Hamp. "Benny didn't like all the crazy antics and sensationalism that he felt were overshadowing the real music. Gene thought the craziness was just basic showmanship. Although I tended to agree with Gene, I stayed out of it."
On April 16, 1938, a crowd of 4,000 listeners gathered in the Marine Ballroom on Atlantic City's Union Pier to hear the newly formed Gene Krupa Orchestra. Following this triumphant debut, Krupa's band recorded several instrumentals, including "Wire Brush Stomp" and "Blue Rhythm Fantasy," for the Brunswick label. Among the Orchestra's talented members were trumpeters Shorty Sherok and Corky Cornelius, saxophonist Sam Donahue, and singer Irene Daye. In 1941 the band enjoyed even greater fame with the addition of trumpeter Roy Eldrige and singer Anita O'Day, who together gave the band its most legendary hit, "Let Me Off Uptown."
In 1943 Krupa was arrested in San Francisco for the possession of marijuana. Out on bail after an 80-day period of incarceration, Krupa returned to New York. Although the case was finally dropped, it caused the break-up of his orchestra. Leaderless, Krupa decided to accept an offer to rejoin Benny Goodman's band. In 1944 he joined Tommy Dorsey, and, despite his condemnation by the media concerning his drug charge, was voted best drummer in the Down Beat Readers' Poll.
In re-forming his orchestra, Krupa made an effort to explore the new modernist trends rooted in the bebop jazz movement. Between 1945 and 1949 his band featured such arrangers as George Williams, Neal Hefti, Eddie Finkel, and saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, who brought the band the instrumental score "Disc Jockey Jump." Krupa's musical line-up featured a number of contemporary jazzmen, including saxophonist Charlie Ventura, clarinetist Buddy DeFranco, trombonist Frank Rosolino, and trumpeter Red Rodney. Describing Krupa's artistic commitment to the new styles of jazz, Rodney explained in From Swing to Bop, "Gene was a modern, progressive-type person who, unlike most of the big-name bandleaders of the era, decided change was important, necessary, and right."
With the demise of big bands during the 1950s, Krupa began performing in small combos and toured internationally with Norman Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic. In 1959 his career was honored with the biographical film The Gene Krupa Story, starring Sal Mineo as the famous drummer. After suffering a heart attack in 1960, Krupa became limited to sporadic performances. During 1972 and 1973 he played several reunion concerts with Goodman's band--one of which resulted in the 1972 live album Jazz at the New School.
On October 16, 1973, Krupa died at his home in Yonkers, New York. Though he had been under treatment for leukemia for several years, the official cause of death was heart failure. Attending a requiem mass held at St. Dennis Roman Catholic in Yonkers, Goodman, Freeman, McPartland, and Teschmaker gathered to pay their last respects to a man known by millions of listeners as "The Chicago Flash"--the most charismatic and innovative drum legend of the Swing Era.
by John Cohassey
Gene Krupa's Career
Drummer and swing band leader. Studied drums and performed with local Chicago groups, c. 1920; performed with the Austin High Gang, late 1920s; recorded with Red McKenzie's and Eddie Condon's Chicagoans and performed in jam sessions at the Three Deuces, 1927; worked with commercial groups, such as Red Nicols' Five Pennys, and free-lanced with the bands of Bix Beiderbecke, Benny Goodman, and saxophonist Adrian Rollini, 1930-34; joined Goodman's band and played on NBC-Radio's Let's Dance, 1934; left Goodman to form Gene Krupa Orchestra, 1938; drug charge led to disbanding of first group, 1943; briefly rejoined Goodman, 1943; joined Tommy Dorsey, 1944; organized own big band, 1944-51; toured with own trio/quartet, 1950s; played on soundtrack of film The Gene Krupa Story, 1959; led big band in Hollywood, 1963; came out of semi-retirement to lead own quartet at Plaza Hotel, 1967; performed at Newport Jazz Festival, 1972; appeared at the last reunion of original Goodman Orchestra, 1973.
Gene Krupa's Awards
Voted best drummer, Down Beat Readers' Poll, 1944.
Famous Works
(With Charlie Ventura) The Krupa-Ventura Trio, Commodore, 1950.
Hey! Here's Gene Krupa, Verve, 1951.
Gene Krupa Trio, Clef, 1953.
Gene Krupa Trio at JATP, 1953.
Gene Krupa Sextet #1, Clef, 1954.
Gene Krupa Quartet, Clef, 1955.
Drummin' Man, Columbia, 1955.
(With Lionel Hampton and Teddy Wilson) Selections From "The Benny Goodman Story", Clef, 1956.
Krupa's Wail, Clef, 1956.
Sing, Sing, Sing, Verve, 1957.
The Exciting Gene Krupa, Verve, 1957.
Gene Krupa Plays Gerry Mulligan's Arrangements, Verve, 1958.
The Gene Krupa Story (film soundtrack), 1959.
Percussion King, Verve, 1961.
The Original Drum Battle, Verve, 1962.
Drummer Man, Columbia, 1962.
The Great New Gene Krupa Quartet Featuring Charlie Ventura, Verve, 1964.
Let Me off Uptown: The Essential Gene Krupa, Verve, 1964.
Gene Krupa, Metro, 1965.
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On which of the Great Lakes does the city of Milwaukee lie? | Great Lakes travel guide - Wikitravel
Do[ edit ][ add listing ]
Many boaters use the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence Seaway and their connection points as a travel route. There are many marinas and public boat ramps available for this purpose. Also, the Great Lakes Cruising Company [1] and the American Canadian Caribbean Line [2] provide cruises on the Great Lakes.
Zebra mussels
Swimmers have the invasive species of zebra mussels from the Caspian Sea to thank for the clear waters—each one of the billions, the size of a fingernail, filters nearly a liter per day. They have been enormously disruptive to local ecosystems, and their sharp shells are a terrible hassle for anyone trying to clean the hull of their boat, but they have had a couple pleasant side effects. In addition to making the waters such a lovely clear crystal blue, their filtering efforts have increased population and size of smallmouth bass in Lake Erie and yellow perch in Lake St. Clair.
Great Lakes Beaches are something most of the world has overlooked. While yes, for most of the year, it's too cold to swim, the southern coasts actually boast some fantastic beaches in the summer months. The lakes are big enough to make you feel like you are at the ocean, with waves to boot, but without the annoying salt and jellyfish. And throughout much of the water system, the water is actually clean enough to drink (not recommended) and certainly clear enough where you can freely open your eyes underwater. Some of the most famous beaches include the Great Lakes' longest at Wasaga Beach in Central Ontario , the beach volleyball hub of the Midwest at Lincoln Park Beach in Chicago , the beautiful beaches along the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore , and the affluent beach communities along Chicago's version of the Hamptons in Harbor Country , Michigan . And even when it's too cold for swimming, several beaches throughout the region are actually known for surfing.
Buy[ edit ][ add listing ]
There isn't any one sort of souvenir or good associated with the Great Lakes (aside, perhaps, from American automobiles), but there are plenty of great places to go shopping. Chicago 's Magnificent Mile is renowned as one of the world's truly great retail strips. Yorkville serves much the same purpose in Toronto . A smaller retail location is in Detroit 's Renaissance Center, which is probably worth a visit regardless of whether you want to shop at its many stores and souvenir shops. Tower City Center in Cleveland is another major shopping complex, with retail running the gamut from high end boutiques to low-end national franchises and back again.
Eat[ edit ][ add listing ]
Rugged coast line at Cave Point County Park, Wisconsin .
What could possibly unite the disparate culinary regions of the Great Lakes? Oh right, fish. Lake trout, wild salmon, chubs, smelt, perch, walleye, and whitefish are all very popular both among recreational and commercial fishers throughout the region. Smoked fish and shrimp is especially popular in small "shacks," particularly along the industrial shores of southwestern Lake Michigan, and you should jump at the chance to try some.
Similarities end at fish, however. The Chicagoland area is a culinary delight, from high end contemporary American in Chicago , to low end regional fast food like Chicago-style pizza, hot dogs, etc., and cuisines brought their via the tides of immigration from the American South , Greece , Middle East , Mexico , Vietnam , etc. Toronto rivals Chicago for international cuisine, both high and low end, with enormous immigrant populations from all over Asia especially.
Drink[ edit ][ add listing ]
There is one city in this region synonymous with drinking, and that is Milwaukee . Brew City was for a long time the world's leading beer producer, and remains firmly associated with the drink both in the popular culture ideal and the reality of the city's great nightlife. While none can rival that of Milwaukee, the cities and towns lining the Great Lakes largely share its affection for the drink, particularly in can form, accompanied with cheap shots of liquor.
High end nightlife in the Great Lakes congregates in both Chicago and Toronto . Live music, however, is much more widespread, with vibrant independent music scenes throughout all the major cities, especially in Chicago and Detroit .
Get out[ edit ]
Where next? Perhaps the obvious choice would be to head deeper into the American Midwest perhaps down the Mississippi River towards St. Louis , Memphis , and New Orleans or down through the cornfields to Indianapolis .
Following the waterways east takes you along the St. Lawrence River towards Montreal , Quebec City , and on to Canada 's Atlantic Provinces . Or you could turn south from the St. Lawrence towards Lake Champlain to get to Lake George and the Adirondacks .
Keep following I-90 west to get deep into the American Interior. It will eventually take you into the Black Hills and Badlands region of South Dakota , home to Mount Rushmore (and a lot of bison), and on to Wyoming .
Alternatively one might find great intrigue in the pristine Muskoka by driving roughly 2.5 hours North from Toronto, where a unique culture of multiple small-medium sized towns ( Bracebridge , Gravenhurst ) are situated amongst a landscape of many thousands of small lakes and interconnecting roads. It's a great place to see the stars and listen to wildlife without the constant roar of a highway in the distance and also while not forfeiting any convenience.
This is a usable article. It gives a good overview of the region, its sights, and how to get in, as well as links to the main destinations, whose articles are similarly well developed. An adventurous person could use this article, but please plunge forward and help it grow !
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What farming disease was reported in 2011 to have virtually disappeared, 25 years after its emergence and scary projection? | Waukesha fights for a share of Lake Michigan's water
Waukesha fights for a share of Lake Michigan's water
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Waukesha, Wisconsin, wants to tap Lake Michigan for its water supply. - Jeffrey Phelps
My hometown of Waukesha, Wisconsin, used to be famous for its refreshing, clear spring water. In the late 19th century, people flocked to Waukesha to drink water at mineral springs and hang out at fancy summer resorts and mud baths. But those good water days are past. The water from the city's deepest wells is tainted with radium and salts, so it is looking to ditch those underground wells and permanently get its drinking water from Lake Michigan, 15 miles to the east. That proposal is neither cheap, nor without controversy.
Waukesha’s deep well water exceeds federal limits for radium in drinking water. Radium occurs naturally, but lifetime exposure is a cancer risk. And the deeper you go in the sandstone aquifer underneath the region, the more radium.
Waukesha is abiding by a consent order to fix the problem. It's taken temporary steps to address the issue, including using radium filters and blending water from deep wells with radium-free water from shallow wells. But the city says that's not a sustainable solution. It wants to build a pipeline to tap Lake Michigan. Some other radium-challenged communities, including Green Bay, have done just that.
“Really, it’s a no-brainer of a decision,” says Dan Duchniak, general manager of the Waukesha Water Utility. “The Great Lakes is the best, most reliable and only reasonable alternative for the city of Waukesha.”
Certainly it’s the simplest and most direct solution. But Waukesha would be the first city outside the Great Lakes basin to apply for Great Lakes water under a restrictive law called the Great Lakes Compact, signed in 2008. The compact was enacted, in part, out of fears that drought-prone cities in the Southwest might someday make a bid for Great Lakes water. So the compact’s framers made it difficult for cities beyond the Great Lakes basin to use water from the lakes, even cities as nearby as Waukesha.
“We have had some unbelievable policy and big programs designed to move water great distances, and now we’re starting to see there are problems with that,” says Peter McAvoy, counsel for the Great Lakes Compact Implementation Coalition, a watchdog group.
Under the compact, Waukesha has to prove it can’t find a reasonable alternative to Lake Michigan closer to home. All eight Great Lakes states, from Minnesota to New York, have to sign off on Waukesha’s diversion request. Two Canadian provinces, Quebec and Ontario, are allowed to comment.
Eric Ebersberger, chief of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ water-use section, says the burden of proof is heavy.“The administration here has been very clear that this should be very difficult,” Ebersberger says. “It should be difficult to prove up an application for a diversion.”
The city has already imposed water conservation measures. It would build a second pipeline to return the water to the lake after it's treated. The amount of water it's asking for is relatively trivial, but the state has asked the city for thousands of pages of documentation since Waukesha applied five years ago.
Not surprisingly, politics has also delayed the process. At first Waukesha wanted to buy the water from Milwaukee, but the two cities couldn't strike a deal. Peter Annin, author of “The Great Lakes Water Wars,” says underlying tension between Milwaukee and Waukesha counties played a role.
“The citizens of Milwaukee say, if you want to use Lake Michigan water, move to our great city and use it. We don’t want to see it leaving town and contributing to sprawl in the suburbs," Annin says.
Waukesha has since struck a deal to buy Lake Michigan water from Oak Creek, a Milwaukee suburb. But the city’s plans have ignited debate about what it means for a city to keep its water consumption within set limits. There's a persistence suspicion that Waukesha is designing its water plan to support continued economic growth, because its application asks for more water than the city currently uses and anticipates the need to supply water to areas outside of current borders.
“Their own studies show that they’re talking about industrial and business growth,” says McAvoy of the watchdog group. “Is that reasonable? Will that come at the expense of other communities in the Great Lakes?”
Waukesha officials say the compact isn't in place to limit growth. But it does require water applicants to account for future growth. And the city doesn't want to underestimate, its officials say, especially in the middle of an economic recovery. Waukesha Mayor Shawn Reilly says there isn't that much more land available for development anyway. "Development that happens in Waukesha is not a zero-sum game, where we take it away from Milwaukee," he says.
Some environmental groups have urged the city to consider drilling more shallow wells, along with stricter water conservation and higher water rates. They have also urged the city to consider riverbank inducement wells or a wastewater recycling plant. The city has ruled out many alternatives as either too short-term, environmentally problematic or too expensive.
They also point out that levels in the deep aquifer have rebounded modestly in the last decade, a change that probably won't solve the city's problem but may complicate its diversion request.
Doug Cherkauer, a hydrogeologist at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, says Waukesha's solution is "easy and direct" – so he understands why Waukesha chose it. “But the ultimate solution in the case of Waukesha and nationally is to treat our wastewater to the point that it’s not contaminated anymore," he says. "That’s technologically possible now. It’s not cheap.”
However Waukesha ends up fixing its water problem won’t be cheap. Duchniak, the utility manager, expects water rates to double, if not triple, in the future. Paul Vrakas, 87, a former mayor, says city leaders in the 1970s and 1980s thought water was “a bottomless pit.” Now he thinks otherwise.
“We’ve lived in our country with these important things that we need in our lives being very cheap,” Vrakas says. “Well, we’re going to have to spend more money on that important stuff than on an extra pair of jeans, do you know what I’m saying?”
Follow Sarah Gardner at @RadioGardner .
Sarah Gardner
Sarah Gardner is a reporter with Marketplace's Sustainability Desk. Her past projects include “We Used To Be China,” “Coal Play,” “Consumed,” “The Next American Dream,” “Jobs of the Future,” and “Climate Race,” among others. Sarah began her career at Marketplace as a...
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