Biography of Matthew Henson

Life story of Matthew Henson In 1908 adventurer Robert Peary set out to arrive at the North Pole. His crucial with 24 men, 19 sledges and 133 pooches. By April of the next year, Peary had four men, 40 mutts and his generally trusted and steadfast colleague Matthew Henson. As the group walked through the Arctic, Peary stated, â€Å"Henson must go as far as possible. I can’t make it there without him.† On April 6, 1909, Peary and Henson turned into the primary men in history to arrive at the North Pole. Achievementsâ Credited with being the principal African-American to arrive at the North Pole with Peary voyager in 1909.Published A Black Explorer at the North Pole in 1912.Appointed to the US Customs House in acknowledgment of Henson’s Arctic goes by previous President William Howard Taft.Recipient of the Joint Medal of Honor by US Congress in 1944.Admitted to the Explorer’s Club, an expert association committed to regarding crafted by people directing field research.Interred in Arlington National Cemetery in 1987â by previous President Ronald Reagan.Commemorated with a US Postage Stamp in 1986 for his work as a pioneer. Early Life Henson was conceived Matthew Alexander Henson in Charles County, Md. On August 8, 1866. His folks filled in as tenant farmers. Following the passing of his mom in 1870, Henson’s father moved the family to Washington D.C. By Henson’s tenth birthday celebration, his dad likewise passed on, leaving him and his kin as vagrants. At eleven years old, Henson fled from home and inside a year he was chipping away at a boat as a lodge kid. While taking a shot at the boat, Henson turned into the mentee of Captain Childs, who showed him not exclusively to peruse and compose yet in addition route abilities. Henson came back to Washington D.C. after Childs’ passing and worked with a furrier. While working with the furrier, Henson met Peary who might enroll Henson’s benefits as a valet during movement undertakings. Life As an Explorerâ Peary and Henson set out on an endeavor of Greenland in 1891. During this timeframe, Henson got keen on finding out about Eskimo culture. Henson and Peary went through two years in Greenland, learning the language and different ingrained instincts that Eskimos utilized. For the following quite a long while Henson would go with Peary on a few undertakings to Greenland to gather shooting stars which were offered to the American Museum of Natural History. The returns of Peary and Henson’s discoveries in Greenland would subsidize undertakings as they attempted to arrive at the North Pole. In 1902, the group endeavored to arrive at the North Pole just to have a few Eskimo individuals kick the bucket from starvation. In any case, by 1906 with the monetary help of previous President Theodore Roosevelt, Peary and Henson had the option to buy a vessel that could slice through ice. Despite the fact that the vessel had the option to cruise inside 170 miles of the North Pole, softened ice hindered the ocean way toward the North Pole. After two years, the group took another risk at arriving at the North Pole. At this point, Henson had the option to prepare other colleagues on sled taking care of and other basic instincts gained from Eskimos. For a year, Henson remained with Peary as other colleagues surrendered.  And on April 6, 1909, Henson, Peary, four Eskimos and 40 mutts arrived at the North Pole. Later Years Despite the fact that arriving at the North Pole was an incredible accomplishment for all colleague, Peary got credit for the campaign. Henson’sâ was nearly overlooked in light of the fact that he was an African-American. For the following thirty years, Henson worked in the US Customs office as an assistant. In 1912 Henson distributed his diary Black Explorer at the North Pole. Further down the road, Henson was recognized for his work as a pioneer he was allowed enrollment to the tip top Explorer’s Club in New York. In 1947 the Chicago Geographic Society granted Henson with a gold award. That equivalent year, Henson worked together with Bradley Robinson to compose his life story Dark Companion. Individual Life Henson wedded Eva Flint in April of 1891. Be that as it may, Henson’s consistent voyages made the couple separate from six years after the fact. In 1906 Henson wedded Lucy Ross and their association went on until his passing in 1955. In spite of the fact that the couple never had youngsters, Henson had numerous sexual associations with Eskimoâ women. From one of these connections, Henson bore a child named Anauakaq around 1906. In 1987, Anauakaq met the relatives of Peary. Their get-together is very much reported in the book, North Pole Legacy: Black, White, and Eskimo. Passing Henson kicked the bucket on March 5, 1955, in New York City. His body was covered in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. After thirteen years, his better half Lucy additionally kicked the bucket and she was covered with Henson. In 1987 Ronald Reagan respected the life and work of Henson by having his body re-buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Power and Control in Hawk Roosting Essay

Evaluation G In Shakespeare’s play a man called Macbeth murders the lord to get his capacity. Ted Hughes’s sonnet ‘Hawk Roosting’ is about a bird of prey who thinks he is amazing. Evaluation F In _Macbeth_ Shakespeare expounds on Macbeth and Lady Macbeth who have an arrangement to execute the ruler and dominate. â€Å"Hail, King thou shalt be.† Ted Hughes expounds on a falcon and how incredible he is: â€Å"My habits are detaching heads.† Evaluation E Shakespeare demonstrates that Lady Macbeth needs to be an incredible character since she needs to murder the lord with the goal that Macbeth can turn into the new ruler: ‘You can putt this night’s extraordinary business into my dispatch.† Ted Hughes additionally expounds on power, however from the perspective of a bird of prey. We realize that the falcon has a high assessment of itself: ‘I execute where I please on the grounds that it is all mine.’ Evaluation D The subject of intensity/aspiration is investigated in _Macbeth_ and ‘Hawk Roosting.’ Shakespeare centers around Lady Macbeth’s relationship with Macbeth. At the point when Lady Macbeth finds out about the witches’ prescience that Macbeth will become lord, she brings forth an arrangement to get it going. Ted Hughes additionally expounds on aspiration in light of the fact that the bird of prey in the sonnet needs to be the best: â€Å"Now I hold Creation in my foot.† A distinction between them is that the falcon is exceptionally sure about his own capacity, however Macbeth is tooâ loyal to the ruler to have the option to arrive at his desire.: â€Å"We will continue no further around here. He hath respected me of late.† Lady Macbeth is more aspiring than her better half. Evaluation C Ted Hughes’s sonnet ‘ Hawk Roosting’ shows the world as observed from a hawk’s perspective. The bird of prey appears to be exceptionally decided and incredible. Shakespeare likewise presents the subject of intensity and assurance, however the thing that matters is that he presents is with a couple who plot to kill the lord and take his crown. The bird of prey likewise has considerations of homicide: ‘in rest practice impeccable kills’. The word ‘rehearse’ recommends that the falcon appreciates slaughtering, and practices to make himself impeccable †in any event, when sleeping. This additionally proposes he is glad for himself. Additionally, in _Macbeth_ Lady Macbeth is glad for her yearning nature: ‘O never/Shall sun that morrow see.’ She has lethal contemplations and she will slaughter the lord that night. Evaluation B _Macbeth_ and ‘Hawk Roosting’ both appear to be about force and desire. In ‘Hawk Roosting’ the speaker is a falcon who depicts his perspective on the world: ‘The earth’s face upward for my inspection.’ This picture recommends how the bird of prey is extremely sure that the world is there to suit his needs. It is as an announcement, which adds to the sentiments of the hawk’s certainty. Woman Macbeth is additionally ground-breaking toward the start of the play. She needs Macbeth to engage the visitors while she gets ready to slaughter King Duncan. When incubating the arrangement, she says to her significant other, ‘Leave all the rest to me’. This infers she feels that she is more competent to perpetrate the wrongdoing than Macbeth. The crowd will consider her to be increasingly eager now. Evaluation A Despite the fact that _Macbeth_ and ‘Hawk Roosting’ contrast in structure, there are unmistakable connections that can be drawn between them. The two of them concern power and ambitionâ and how a character’s persona is framed by their self-conviction, and what they are set up to do to accomplish their points. In the two writings we are given a knowledge into the characters’ deepest contemplations. In ‘Hawk Roosting’, on the grounds that the sonnet is written in the primary individual, as an emotional monolog, we increase an incredible understanding into the speaker’s certainty. The bird of prey unmistakably depicts how he feels that the world is there for his ‘convenience’. He presumptuously portrays how the ‘air’s buoyancy’ and ‘sun’s ray’ are ‘of advantage’ to him. So also, Lady Macbeth at first accepts that the crown is her right, and gives her craving for accomplishing it: ‘Take my milk for nerve, you murd’ring ministers.’ The way that she is approaching spirits to invigorate her the to demonstration suggests that she will remain determined to accomplish her point. A crowd of people may see this as a stunning, insidious and savagely goal-oriented act. Evaluation A* _Macbeth_ and ‘Hawk Roosting’ share some shared conviction in that they are worried about the undesirable side of intensity and desire. The fundamental characters in the two writings give off an impression of being excessively sure and guaranteed. ‘Hawk Roosting’ is an emotional monolog spoken by a non-human voice, a falcon. We are given a progression of pictures which portray the hawk’s haughtiness and pride. Without a doubt. The falcon is overflowing with predominance: ‘It took the entire of Creation/To deliver my foot, my each feather.’ The bird of prey is apparently boasting and thoroughly enjoying how eminent it shows up. This can be legitimately contrasted with Lady Macbeth. The manner in which she disparages her better half, alluding to him as ‘afeard’ and ‘a coward’ uncovers her unfeeling desire to become sovereign. She, similar to the bird of prey, feels that she has the right to be ‘great’, and needs her significant other to share the force; he calls her ‘My dearest accomplice of greatness.’ Contrasting _MACBETH_ AND _HAWK ROOSTING_ †SAMPLE ANSWERS (THEME = POWER AND AMBITION) 1. Despite the fact that _Macbeth_ and ‘Hawk Roosting’ contrast in structure, there are particular connections that can be drawn between them. The two of them concern force and aspiration and how a character’s persona is shaped by their self-conviction, and what they are set up to do to accomplish their points. In the two writings we are given an understanding into the characters’ deepest contemplations. In ‘Hawk Roosting’, on the grounds that the sonnet is written in the main individual, as an emotional monolog, we increase an incredible knowledge into the speaker’s certainty. The bird of prey distinctly depicts how he feels that the world is there for his ‘convenience’. He egotistically depicts how the ‘air’s buoyancy’ and ‘sun’s ray’ are ‘of advantage’ to him. So also, Lady Macbeth at first accepts that the crown is her right, and gives her longing for accomplishing it: ‘Take my milk for nerve, you murd’ring ministers.’ The way that she is approaching spirits to invigorate her the to demonstration infers that she will persevere relentlessly to accomplish her point. A group of people may see this as a stunning, underhanded and savagely goal-oriented act. 2. The topic of intensity/aspiration is investigated in _Macbeth_ and ‘Hawk Roosting.’ Shakespeare centers around Lady Macbeth’s relationship with Macbeth. At the point when Lady Macbeth finds out about the witches’ prescience that Macbeth will become lord, she brings forth an arrangement to get it going. Ted Hughes additionally expounds on desire in light of the fact that the bird of prey in the sonnet needs to be the best: â€Å"Now I hold Creation in my foot.† A contrast between them is that the falcon is exceptionally certain about his own capacity, yet Macbeth is excessively faithful to the ruler to have the option to arrive at his aspiration: â€Å"We will continue no further around here. He hath respected me of late.† Lady Macbeth is more eager than her better half. 3. _Macbeth_ and ‘Hawk Roosting’ both appear to be about force and desire. In ‘Hawk Roosting’ the speaker is a bird of prey who depicts his perspective on the world: ‘The earth’s face upward for my inspection.’ This picture proposes how the falcon is exceptionally certain that the world is there to suit his needs. It is as an announcement, which adds to the sentiments of the hawk’s certainty. Woman Macbeth is additionally ground-breaking toward the start of the play. She needs Macbeth to engage the visitors while she gets ready to murder King Duncan. When incubating the arrangement, she says to her significant other, ‘Leave all the rest to me’. This infers she feels that she is more skilled to perpetrate the wrongdoing than Macbeth. The crowd will consider her to be progressively aggressive now. 4. Shakespeare demonstrates that Lady Macbeth needs to be an incredible character since she needs to slaughter the lord with the goal that Macbeth can turn into the new ruler: ‘You can putt this night’s extraordinary business into my dispatch.† Ted Hughes additionally expounds on power, yet from the perspective of a falcon. We realize that the falcon has a high assessment of itself: ‘I execute where I please in light of the fact that it is all mine.’ 5. _Macbeth_ and ‘Hawk Roosting’ share some shared opinion in that they are worried about the upsetting side of intensity and aspiration. The fundamental characters in the two writings have all the earmarks of being excessively sure and guaranteed. ‘Hawk Roosting’ is an emotional monolog spoken by a non-human voice, a bird of prey. We are furnished with a progression of pictures which delineate the hawk’s self-importance and pride. In reality. The bird of prey is overflowing with prevalence: ‘It took the entire of Creation/To deliver my foot, my each feather.’ The falcon is apparently boasting and having a great time how radiant it shows up. This can be legitimately contrasted with Lady Macbeth. The manner in which she disparages her significant other, alluding to him as ‘afeard’ and ‘a coward’ uncovers her hardhearted desire to become sovereign. She, similar to the falcon, feels that she has the right to be ‘great’, and needs her better half to share the force; he calls her ‘My dearest accomplice of greatness.’ 6. In _Macbeth_ Shakespeare expounds on Macbeth and Lady Macbeth who have an arrangement to execute the ruler and dominate. â€Å"Hail, King thou shalt be.† Ted Hughes expounds on a falcon and how ground-breaking he is: â€Å"My habits are detaching heads.† 7. In Shakespeare’s play a man called Macbeth executes the ruler to get hisâ power. T

15 Productivity Hacks Successful CEOs and Founders Use to Get More Done

15 Productivity Hacks Successful CEOs and Founders Use to Get More Done When was the last time you made a list of New Year resolutions? How did that work out for you? Most people, break a significant number of these resolutions by the time the first quarter of year ends.This is because goals are easy to set but very hard to keep. Motivation is usually high at the outset, but it has a way of dwindling down with progress of a project. Picture this: You have set yourself the goal of doing 50 pushups every day before you hit the shower. Let’s split those pushups into bunches of 10 pushups. Which bunch is the most difficult one? The first one between 1 and 10, the middle one between 20 and 30, or the last one between 40 and 50?If you are like most people, you will agree with me that the last 10 pushups are the most difficult. Let’s make this more interesting. Supposing you set a goal of 30 pushups daily instead of 50. Would the third bunch of pushups be as easy as the third bunch in the first case when you had a target of doing 50 pushups? Absolutely not. If your goal is doing 30 pushups, the last 10 will be just as difficult as they would have been if you had set a target of 50 pushups.The point is, every goal will appear easy at first, but it will get more and more difficult as time goes. To achieve the goal, you need to find a way of staying productive no matter the circumstances. You will not have a problem staying productive in the early days when you are highly motivated. The real problem comes during those low-motivation spans.In this discussion, we are going to look at some of the most effective productivity tasks that you can use to get the productivity that you need to accomplish any goal. These are hacks that have been used by successful CEOs and founders to get more work done out of the limited time that we all have. WHAT IS PRODUCTIVITY?First things first. Let’s start with first understanding what productivity is. In economics, as defined by Investopedia, productivity is “a measure of output per unit of input”. The inputs mentioned here include labor and capital while the outputs are the revenues achieved or other gross domestic product components like business inventories.The simple definition is that productivity is a measure of the efficiency of production. The goal here being to produce more output from as little input as possible. For you as an individual, the goal is to get as much work done as possible in the time when you are working.Most people confuse productivity with being busy. You can look busy, and still be unproductive. The catch here is to do work that produces results. Work that contributes positively to your end goal or target as an individual.For example, you could be busy on your work computer reading your email when your job is to edit an article for publication. Alth ough you look busy, you are really not productive because your pile of work is not reducing and you are not producing any relevant output.So for you to be productive, you need to be producing something.FACTORS AFFECTING PRODUCTIVITYTaking Breaks: No matter who you are or how much you love your job, your body can only take so much. This is to mean that there will come a time when you will need to take a break. Failure to do that will see your productivity suffer a hit and if you are not careful, you might end up doing more harm than good on your projects. Breaks help your work in many ways. Studies have shown that people who take a break once an hour perform better than those who just keep going without resting.Satisfaction: This is about how happy you feel with your job. A study was done to determine how satisfaction affected the productivity of employees and they found out that employees who are more satisfied with their work were more productive than those who were doing it becaus e they don’t have another way out.Stress: Stress is another factor that affects productivity. However, unlike satisfaction and regular breaks, this one affects your productivity negatively. Workers who are stressed are not able to stay focused hence they are not able to process new information effectively. It also makes it hard to remember things you already know hence the whole process becomes long and inefficient. This leads to distractions that could easily end up in expensive mistakes that further reduce productivity.Technology Applied: This is usually beyond the power of the employees, but if you have a position in management, it is something worth considering. It’s not too early to start embracing automation. There are software and machines that when used correctly can significantly improve the productivity of employees in organizations. This doesn’t only apply to big companies. Even at an individual level, you can make use of technology to improve your productivity. For example, if you want to send five emails at different times during the day, rather than logging in to your email mailbox five times in the day, you can schedule and forget using tools like Boomerang and have each email sent at the most opportune time without having to go back to your mailbox.Team Spirit: When every employee feels as a valuable member of a system that depends on his output, they will be well motivated to keep producing good results even when they are not very well motivated. If you know that your output directly affects the results that the department or organization will have as a whole, you are more likely to do all you can to ensure that your results are the best possible results that you can produce.PARKINSON’S LAWAn important aspect of human nature is shown by Parkinson’s Law. The law states that work will expand to fill the time available for its completion.Let’s take a minute to think about this law. Remember your days in college? What would happen when your professor told you to write a paper and said that it had to be completed in two days? More likely than not, despite your frowns and unhappiness, you would still complete the assignment in the two days.What happens if you are given two weeks to complete the task? You will find that in one way or the other, the work required to complete the assignment will fill up the two weeks that you have to complete it.If you have ever been in charge of assigning tasks to people, you will agree with me that this law is true almost all the time. Give someone a month to finish the work, it will be done in a month despite the fact that it could easily be done in two weeks or less.Even simple tasks will increase in complexity until they fill up the time that is allocated to them. On the flip side, if you reduce the time allocated to a task, the task will become simpler and easier to solve so as to fit in the limited time available.With this understanding, we can tune ourselves to become more pro ductive in our jobs. If you need a week to finish a project, give it a week. Setting tight deadlines ensures that you avoid distractions and that you get straight to the point when you get to work. This way, you will get more done faster, hence you will have more time to do even more.Here are some things you can do to make the Parkinson’s Law work to your advantage:If you work on a laptop, unplug it and have a list of tasks that you must complete before the battery runs out of power.Use the Pomodoro Technique to break down big tasks into smaller chunks and assign time to each chunk. Your job here will be to ensure that every chunk fits in the time allocated.Be more specific on your goals. Rather than saying that you want to write 1,000 words every day, aim at something more specific like I’ll do research on the topic before 10am, I’ll create the outlines by noon etc.If circumstances allow, you can set a goal like Sean Ogle to never work after noon. This will push you to do as much work as possible in the morning hours since you are trying to fit a whole day’s work into the first half. It will encourage you to wake up early and best of all, you will be rewarded with more free time.Blackmail yourself with punishment. Find an accountability partner who will make you pay up every time you break a rule that you have set. For example, if you decide to stop working at noon, you can set a penalty and have a partner enforce it every time you work beyond noon. This will give you the kick you need to actually walk the talk.Set hard deadlines. Set specific goals and have specific timelines for each of the goals. Have a reward for achieving that goal and a penalty should you fail to achieve it. You can lose 10 pounds in 5 months, but you can also do it in 8 weeks if you set that as your target.If you find that you are struggling with a task which seems to always go above the allocated time, force yourself by doing it in an environment beyond your control. For examp le, if you find that you always take more than the 30 minutes allocated to checking and responding to email, find a place with a strict timetable like a coffee shop or public library. If they close at 9pm, go there at 8.30pm and start checking your email. Stop working when they close and wait until the next day to resume. After the first few days, you’ll find that you naturally find a way of getting it all done in the available time.PRODUCTIVITY VS. ACTIVITYThere’s no denying the fact that we are in a day and age where we have the ability to get more done than we could ever have been able to do in the past. With email, text messaging, social media and the internet, we are able to do many things that seemed impossible a couple of decades ago.This ability brought with it new problems. One of them is the large number of distractions that we are constantly exposed to every single day. It’s no longer a question of what we can do, but more of what we actually end up doing. Are you d oing the right things with the immense power that modern technology has given you?This brings an interesting question: is what you are doing helping you get closer to where you want to go? Of course, you need to first know where you are going before you can ask yourself if you are heading there, but that’s a story for another day. To answer this, we’ll look at the difference between productivity and activity and what makes the difference between busy people and productive people.Busy people have a constant stream of activity surrounding them, most of which is not relevant to their goal. Although activity ensures that you are not dormant, it’s important to make sure that you spend your time doing the right activities.I’m not saying that it is bad to be busy. However, it’s important to note that it is dangerous to be busy without being productive. Just because you are doing something, doesn’t mean that you are really getting anywhere. Let’s dive in and identify some of t he differences between these two people.Busy people want to look like they have a goal and a mission. Productive people on the other hand actually have a goal and mission for their lives. Busy people will act confident and fill their lives with a lot of things so as to hide their doubt about the destination. Productive people on the other hand know exactly where they are going and they have no problem trying different paths.Busy people have many priorities while productive people have fewer priorities. There is no such thing as being too busy. If you care enough about something, you will make time for it. It’s a question of priority. If you have 5 priorities, you have priorities. But if you have 25 of them, you have a mess. Henry Ford built one of the biggest car makers not by building better cars, but by developing better systems for making cars.Productive people are careful about the promises they make. As a result, they say no to most things. Busy people on the other hand, say yes to most things and will usually end up swamped with work and that’s where the stress and frustrations kick in. Saying yes to many things is really just splitting your life into hundreds or thousands of little pieces, each of which will require your attention.Busy people are quick to point out all the tasks they have to do while productive people will allow their results to speak for them. Busy people always have a long list of pending tasks. They are the people who have so much to do that they end up doing very little. Productive people will remove all unnecessary tasks and focus only on what is needed. As a result, they end up achieving more and having results to show at the end of the day.Busy people multitask while productive people focus. A study has shown that you reduce your efficiency by as much as 40% when you multitask. The brain needs time to refocus on a task after a distraction. Sometimes it could take as much as 15 minutes before you are fully focused again. Multi tasking costs you time. It also overloads your brain, which explains why you will feel tired faster when you multitask. It doesn’t have to be multiple large projects. Even chatting on an IM app as you work on your report qualifies as multi-tasking so make the change and notice the effect on your work productivity.As you can see, it’s really simple to be more productive in your job. It may not be easy at first, but when the results start streaming in, you will be happy that you started. Start with the small things like making a conscious decision to stop multitasking and focusing on one goal at a time and work your way up until you are operating at peak performance.The following list contains hacks that have been proven to boost productivity in the workplace. Although they are very effective, trying to use them all at once will not help you. Remember what we said about multi-tasking. So pick one hack, use it for a week, note the difference and see if you can accommodate another. Keep doing this until you are at peak performance.1. THE POMODORO TECHNIQUEhttps://www.shutterstock.com/de/image-photo/mechanical-tomato-shaped-kitchen-timer-cooking-658270489?src=Ld_EZOdc6uYs5BtgURu_jA-1-32The Pomodoro technique can help you plan your workday effectively and get rid of distractions throughout the day. It was invented in the early 90s by an Italian entrepreneur known as Francesco Cirillo. He named the technique Pomodoro after the tomato-shaped timer he was using to track time. Pomodoro is the Italian name for a tomato.The technique is very simple to understand. When you are given any huge task, break it down into small timed intervals known as Pomodoros. These intervals are separated by short breaks to give your brain some breathing space before going back to razor focused work.The main aim of this technique is to train your brain to give full concentration for short periods and also to give you time to rest. When correctly implemented, it can help improve your atte ntion span and consequently increase your concentration.It works well because the intervals are short enough to focus on only one task at a time, thus eliminating any temptation to multitask, and at the same time, it allows you to take regular breaks to keep you motivated and creative.How it WorksThe Pomodoro technique is one of the simplest productivity hacks around. All you need is a timer and some work and you will be ready to go. Cirillo wrote a book, The Pomodoro Technique about this method, but you won’t need to read it to be able to use the technique. However, it is a helpful read if you want to get more done from your time using this technique.Here’s how you do it:Choose a task that you would like to work onSet the timer to countdown from 25 minutesWork on the task until the timer rings then mark the first Pomodoro as completeTake a 5 minute break. You can use the same timer to time your break. Don’t be tempted to take the break without timing. You might be tempted to stay longer and end up wasting time, or you could come back before the 5 minutes and not reap the full benefit of the break.One Pomodoro is 25 minutes of work and a 5 minute break. After 4 Pomodoros, take a 15 or 30 minute break before going back to work.That’s all there is to the Pomodoro technique. It may sound simple but it is very powerful when it comes to improving productivity. Just one day following this technique will prove to you how much you need it. The best thing about it is that the results come immediately when you start using it.For best result, you need to make sure that you are focused on the task at hand in each Pomodoro. You can’t divide a Pomodoro. When you are distracted before the Pomodoro ends, you have to either stop working there with the intention of starting a new Pomodoro later, or you can postpone the distraction.For obvious reasons, it will be better if you can postpone the distraction. To do this, Cirillo suggests a strategy where you inform the ot her party that you have your hands full, negotiate a time when you can get back to them about the distracting issue and to schedule that follow-up immediately then you can call back the other party after your Pomodoro is complete or at the scheduled time. This time, you will make sure that there are no Pomodoros going on hence it won’t be a distraction.While this is not possible at all times, a big chunk of the distractions that we get do not need our immediate attention. Those are the distractions that should be postponed. It will keep you focused and you will take control of your workday.Getting StartedAs mentioned above, all you need is a timer and some work. This means that any phone with a timer can easily do the job. You can even use the countdown timer on a digital watch or the old egg timer. Cirillo used a manual timer. He prefers the manual timer because according to him, winding it confirms that you are determined to work.If you don’t have access to a manual timer, her e are some apps that can do the job:Tomighty: This is a desktop Pomodoro timer that has all the traditional Pomodoro rules programmed into it. You only need to download it and fire it up whenever you have some work that needs doing. It has the timer and four dots that serve as counters to help you keep track of the number of Pomodoros that you have completed so far. It is a free-to-use cross platform app that will work on Windows, Linux or Mac.Pomodorable: This is a 2-in-1 productivity app that can function both as a Pomodoro timer and a to-do list app. It works on the Mac OS X so Windows and Linus users will have to make do with other apps. This one integrates with the Reminders app on OS X to bring you notifications about your Pomodoros and your upcoming tasks. It allows you to estimate the number of Pomodoros you will need for a task and then use this number to check whether you are on track.Marinara Timer: This is a web app that runs as a tab on your browser. It enables you to t rack your sessions at the end of the day with a history of all the sessions that you have had. You can configure the length of the work sessions or breaks to suit your individual preferences. The good news is that it all runs on any web browser so you don’t have to install anything.Simple Pomodoro: This is a free, open source Android timer. It doesn’t have a lot of the fancy graphics, but it has everything you need to effectively use the Pomodoro Technique. It follows the traditional Pomodoro rules and doesn’t give you the power to change the time in the work or break periods, but it has notifications that tell you when to take a break and when to get back to work. At the end of the day, you can go back to the app and see how many Pomodoros you were able to accomplish. It can also integrate with Google Tasks.Focus Timer: This is a feature-rich iOS app for your iPhone and iPad. If you feel that 25 minutes are too short for a Pomodoro, you can adjust the time accordingly to suit your unique preferences. You can also adjust the breaks. This app also gives you the ability to review your work history so that you can see if you are making progress or not. You can rate each Pomodoro using stars to keep you motivated. It also has a variety of sounds to pick from, with the option of hearing the clock tick as you work to ensure that you are not distracted.The Pomodoro technique is a very effective productivity hack for many industries. Regardless of whether you work in a creative environment where you are expected to produce something for review, or if you have an in tray where all your work is sent, you can use it to get more organized.Despite its benefits, it’s important to note that the technique is a system that tries to make your workday more productive. It is not a pair of handcuffs. So when the timer goes off when you are in the zone, it is okay to pause the timer, finish your breakthrough, and then you can take a break. The main aim is to keep you focuse d throughout the day, but also to remind you to take breaks because they are vital in keeping you productive.2. THE FIVE SECOND RULEThe five second rule was invented by Mel Robbins in 2009 in a bid to beat the habit of hitting the snooze button. She invented this rule to fight with the temptation to hit snooze and stay in the warmth of the bed for just another 15 minutes.Although it was intended to get you out of bed in the morning, it works like a charm in many other aspects of our lives. Basically, it will work in anything that you need to do but your body wants to remain in the comfort zone.How it WorksTo use the 5 second rule, you only need to have a goal that you are working towards. As Mel Robbins puts it in her website, “the moment you have an instinct to act on a goal, you must physically move within 5 seconds or your brain will stop you.”Watch this video of Mel Robbins introducing the five second rule in front of a live audience.The rule is useful when your instincts fi re up and you know that you should do something. There is always some resistance that makes us hesitate and start second guessing our abilities, the timing or our preparedness for the action.That resistance, according to Mel Robbins, is what you will overcome with the 5 second rule. If you don’t move in 5 seconds, you have a higher chance of not making any move and your self-doubt will kick in and kill the idea.When you act in 5 seconds, you will not overthink and all the focus will be on you taking a new action hence you will not have to deal with the self-doubt that comes with overthinking. You will actually be thinking about how you are going to do it as opposed to whether or not you are able to do it.The best thing about the five second rule is the fact that it is applicable in all the times when we hold ourselves back because of fear. Whether it is talking to an attractive guy or girl at the bar, or speaking your mind in a meeting or waking up in the morning, the five second rule will help you fight doubt and take action.This rule is important and effective because thinking about change alone anything. Without taking action, everything else is wishful thinking. However, to take action, you will need to find courage to make the first move. If you find yourself saying that you can wait and do it tomorrow or that you are not yet ready to take the plunge, then you should consider the five second rule.When you take the plunge, you will realize that the move really isn’t fatal no matter how bad it turns out to be. That realization is where you start to build confidence and momentum. It is a simple idea, but it is very powerful.3. THE PARETO PRINCIPLEThis principle is has caused a number of people disagree with the popular cliché that there is no shortcut to success. I’m not going to argue about whether or not this rule is a shortcut to success, but since it is quite effective at improving productivity, I think it’s worth discussing.Also known as the 80 -20 rule, the law of the vital few or the principle of factor sparcity, the Pareto Principle is the reason why some students who studied day and night still ended up scoring less than those who started studying a day or two before the exams. Want to hear an interesting fact? About 80% of the wealth lies with about 20% of the population. Anyway, today we are talking about productivity so we won’t look into that.Here’s what it states:The Pareto Principle states that 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort or 20% of the inputs produce 80% of the outputs.What does that mean? In simple terms, it means that a minority is responsible for causing the majority. The principle was named after Vilfred Pareto who was an Italian economist. He was doing a study in 1897 when he discovered this interesting trend. The study was about land ownership in Italy and he noted that almost 80% of it was owned by about 20% of the population.The interesting thing about this ratio was that the same w as noticed when looking at other spheres of life. Pareto even noticed that 20% of the pea pods in his garden produced 80% of the peas. Further research found even more areas.While the ratio does not strictly apply in all situations, it is the general rule of thumb in many aspects of our life. Here are a few examples:80% of the sales come from 20% of the clients80% of software failure comes from 20% of the bugs80% of a company’s profits come from 20% of its investments80% of the customer complaints come from 20% of the customers80% of your output comes from 20% of your timeWe are going to focus on the last one: 80% of your output comes from 20% of your time. Think about it. If 80% of your results will come from only 20% of your inputs, doesn’t it make sense, then to at least start with the 20% that create the best results? This way, you will still be able to get a big chunk of the results even if you don’t manage to do everything that you had planned.How it WorksTo improve your productivity using this principle you only need to do one thing: scheduling. Proper use of the Pareto Principle involves good understanding of the importance of each task on your to-do list. How much does each task contribute to the end result?Once you have sorted the tasks in order of importance, allocate time on the ones that have the biggest effect. Start with those. The others that don’t have a direct impact on the results can be outsourced or postponed unless they are mandatory before the important ones can be done.If you are working on a tight deadline like in the case of a student studying for exams, starting with the significant 20% will see to it that he has enough to pass the exam even if there isn’t enough time to study for everything.Let’s finish with a story.Once upon a time, an ordinary guy challenged a professional fighter in Chinese Kickboxing Championships. The guy admits that he was not good at kickboxing, but he went ahead with the challenge. For an ordinar y person, there’s only one way this would have ended. The guy would get a decent beating in the first match and serve as an example.However, that’s not what happened. The guy won the match, and went ahead to walk away as a gold medalist. How did it work, you ask? The Pareto Principle.The ordinary guy in our story is Tim Ferris and as he writes in his book The Four Hour Workweek, he only needed to win and since he didn’t have the advantage of having trained for years like his competition, he had to find a different way of winning.He analyzed all rules and found two loopholes that helped him win without the years of training.First, he discovered that all participants were weighed one day before the competition so he dehydrated his body and lost 28 pounds. He weighed in at 165 pounds and after weighing he hyper hydrated back to 193 pounds. This means that he got opponents who were three classes below him, which allowed him to beat them easily.The other loophole one involved winni ng automatically if your opponent fell off the platform three times in a single round. He exploited this in all his games, working to push his opponents off the platform as opposed to fighting like it’s supposed to be. Granted, his games may not have been the most entertaining to watch, but he knew what he wanted and he had found a way of getting it.In other words, to win the championships at that time only required mastery of these two and you could have saved yourself years of training. But that’s only if you are interested in winning and winning alone.In the same way, it’s important to choose how we allocate our time. You could be going a long way when you can achieve the same results in a fraction of the time using a fraction of the effort.4. START RIGHTThe way you start your day determines how you are going to live for the rest of the day. If you begin your day with things that you know are going to make you hate yourself, it’s highly likely that you will spend a signif icant portion of that day sulking.On the other hand, if you start your day with things that you are confident in, you will start your day feeling that you are in the right place hence you will be more confident in yourself and that will show in your results.Before we even start talking about what you do in the morning, let’s talk about something that is commonly overlooked. The best way to start your day is by ensuring that you get enough rest. If you don’t get enough sleep, don’t expect to wake up feeling fresh and energetic. So make sure you get 7-9 hours of sleep every night.Once you have that, you can now focus on habits that energize you. One common way to build your momentum in the morning is to make your bed immediately after you wake up. It might sound meaningless, but it does give you a sense of achievement and control. It also makes you eager to take on the next item on your schedule.Unless you are a night owl, try and begin your day as early as possible. This is the time for doing your most important assignments. There are fewer distractions and you will be able to focus better because you are energetic and generally more enthusiastic.You can start with a simple resolution like saying that for the next 60 days, you are going to spend the first 60 minutes of your workday doing just one important task. The one thing that you know will have a big impact on your work if done religiously for 60 days.If you are trying to get a beach body for summer, spend the first 60 minutes working out. If you are trying to build traction for your blog, spend the first 60 minutes writing. Make sure you go to bed knowing exactly what this task is so you don’t find yourself stuck trying to figure out what you are going to do.5. HANG AROUND LIKE MINDED PEOPLEWe all unconsciously adopt feelings, beliefs and behaviors of the people we spend time with. Think about your time in high school. Chances are your group of friends shared the same opinion about most things in life. This is the reason why you were quick to defend your friends any time they were attacked because you agreed with them on the matter that caused them to be attacked in the first place.Behavioral scientists call this emotional contagion. According to this phenomenon, we will unconsciously adopt the behaviors and feelings of the people we spend time with. Isn’t it also true that our feelings and behaviors will ultimately control our moods?With this in mind, it will help if you can hang around people who are headed in the same direction as you are. If you are trying to save to buy a house, spend time with people who are also saving for a house. When sharing experiences, you will learn a lot of new things and at the same time, they will keep you motivated towards your goal.So if you have a sales or revenue target that you want to hit, don’t hang around the colleague who is tired with the company and is looking for a way out. This colleague will show you all the bad things about your company and you will leave feeling used. At the end of the day, you will end up not giving your job as much as you should and as a result, you will not reach your target.6. GO ON A SOCIAL MEDIA AND NEWS DIETThink about it. How often do you see an interesting news headline and click through? How often do you see that email from Facebook about an interesting post by an interesting friend and you click through to view it? How many times did you see a Facebook notification pop up on your phone and you had to stop everything and check it out? What happens after that? Usually, you will end up wasting about 10-30 minutes before you can get back to work.This simply makes you a prisoner of these news and social websites. It makes it that you will only work when there are no interesting things happening around you. Let’s face it: interesting things will never stop happening. What you need to do is to watch or read about them on your terms.According to the New York Times, the average p erson spent about 50 minutes every day on Facebook in 2016. That was Facebook alone. If you count the time spent on all the other news and social websites, you’ll find that you are losing a lot of time. If we take a minimum of 2 hours every day, that is 14 hours every week and about 60 every month. That’s enough time for exercise, meditation or even learning a new skill like playing a music instrument.I’m not saying that you cut yourself off from all news sources. That will not do you any good. You also need to be informed. However, this doesn’t need to come at the expense of your work. That’s why it’s called a diet.Disable notifications and turn off news feeds that send news updates and social media updates constantly to your computer or mobile phone. Then focus on your work. During working hours, keep off these distractions. You’ll find that you are able to focus more on your work and that will produce better results.7. JUST STARTNewton’s first law of motion states that “A body will remain at rest or move at a constant velocity in a straight line unless it is acted upon by an external unbalanced force”That makes sense in physics, but what does it have to do with productivity? Well, when you are procrastinating or doing all the other seemingly important things that are keeping you from doing what you are supposed to do, you are at rest. This is a pleasant state that is hard to come from. This is where you need a kick.Get yourself to start. It’s not going to be easy, but once you have given yourself that kick and started the progress, it will become easier to continue since you are already in motion.A good example is getting out of bed in the morning. The act of leaving the warm, comfortable bed is very hard. However, the moment you are out of bed, everything becomes easier because you are now in motion.So remember this every time you face the resistance that comes with starting something new. If it helps, use the 5 Second Rule discussed above to give yourself the kick before your brain starts questioning your ability to complete the job.8. LIMIT DISTRACTIONSDistractions tend to drive you away from your current task and before you are back and focused again, you will have lost a lot of time. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to say no to all distractions because some of them are important and need your immediate attention. However, most of them aren’t. The good news is that you can achieve more by limiting the distractions that aren’t urgent.So close all those tabs with holiday destinations, articles that you are going to read when you get time, your gmail inbox, and pretty much everything that is not related to your current task. Tackle work one tab at a time and you will be rewarded with more efficiency.9. IF YOU HAVE TO EAT TWO FROGS, EAT THE UGLIEST ONE FIRSTMany people have talked about eating frogs. Brian Tracy said that “if you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first”. Mark Twain also talked a bout this, saying that if you start your day by eating a live, frog, you can go through your day knowing that the early morning frog is probably the worst thing that will happen to you all day.Of course, we are not saying that you should go out and start catching frogs.The frog here represents your biggest, hardest, most important task. The task that is most likely to cause you to procrastinate every time you think about doing it. When you do this, everything else you do that day will be easier and simpler. You will have no problem finding motivation because if you were able to eat the big frog, the small frog will not be as tough.10. AVOID UNNECESSARY MEETINGSTruth be told, most meetings are not needed, and a majority of those that are needed need less than 30 minutes to accomplish their mission. Since you can’t do away with meetings altogether, you need to figure out how to get the most out of them without compromising on anything else.First, manage time by the clock. Start on t ime and more importantly, end on time. Secondly, have the agenda sent out before the meeting. This will ensure that you hit the ground running when you start. Next, limit the time to a maximum of 30 minutes unless the agenda is too long. You can try stand up meetings if they are appropriate in your business.Finally, set apart a day of the week when you will have no meetings. For example, you can set Tuesday to be the day when you will not schedule any meetings and communicate it effectively. If someone asks for a meeting on a Tuesday, tell them that your schedule is full on Tuesday and reschedule to another day.11. DELEGATE, SYSTEMIZE AND AUTOMATETrust your employees. IF you hired them, they must be good. There is no point hiring someone if you will spend three quarters of the time looking over their shoulder. Train them, and trust them to make decisions. Cultivate a sense of ownership and they will surprise you with the results. Let them feel like they are the boss and they will ac t in the company’s best interest.Create systems for your main processes and automate the work. Systemizing the work ensures that there doesn’t come a time when you are not sure what they are supposed to do next. Each process should lead to the next one until the task is complete.12. FIGURE OUT YOUR GOLDEN HOURS AND PROTECT THEMFind out when you are most productive. Those are your golden hours and protect them at all costs. List any interruptions that come during this time to be dealt with later. Try to get as much ground covered during this time.13. SET FIXED DEADLINESWhen you have a task, set yourself a deadline for it. We all have an inner perfectionist who will always want us to keep checking if the work is perfect enough to be released to the next department. Silence this perfectionist and send it out when it’s due regardless of whether it’s perfect or not.14. STAY ORGANIZEDIn addition to making it easy for you to plan your workload, staying organized helps make big prob lems appear smaller. If you have a plan for doing something, it somehow looks easier and manageable as opposed to only having the end in mind.Start by de-cluttering your desk. A messy work desk will make you feel anxious and overwhelmed. Throw away what needs to go to the trash and keep everything else neat and organized. Then break down your projects into small, time sensitive and measurable victories.15. EISENHOWER BOXThe Eisenhower Box was used by Dwight Eisenhower, who was the 34th President of the United States. He served two terms between 1953 and 1961. He had many achievements even before he became president and during his two terms in office. Some of these achievements include development of the US Interstate Highway System, launch of the internet, space exploration and the use of alternative sources of energy.He was able to do all these by making very good use of his time.   The Eisenhower Box is his famous productivity tool that you can start using right away and start see ing benefits. Let’s take a closer look at how it works.Basically, the Eisenhower Box is a decision making matrix that helps you decide which tasks you are going to tackle and what to do with the rest. The matrix has four boxes as shown below.URGENTNOT URGENTIMPORTANTDO Work on these tasks nowDECIDEDecide when to do itNOT IMPORTANTDELEGATEFind someone to do the task for youDELETEEliminate themAs you can see above, separate your tasks into four categories:Urgent and important tasks: These ones you will work on them immediately.Important, but not urgent tasks: These are the tasks that you will schedule for laterUrgent, but not important: These are the tasks that will be delegated to someone elseNeither urgent nor important tasks: These are the tasks you do away withThis matrix helps you decide how you are going to spend your time and also in managing your assignments. It is very easy to find yourself stuck with a lot to do yet you don’t see results in your bottom-line. You could be spending too much time on tasks that you don’t need to spend time on because they can be delegated, or tasks that can be eliminated altogether.Start with eliminating tasks until you have no more tasks that can be eliminated. As Kevlin Henney once said about computer programming, there is no code faster than no code. What this means is that the smaller the number of tasks you have to work on, the faster you’ll finish.Remember, don’t be busy. Be productive instead. Spend time on tasks that help you advance towards the goal or target you are shooting at.

Feminist Theory in Music Free Essay Example, 2500 words

In 1970, numerous female historians acquired professional training in musicology in the United States of America and along with reviving feminism, produced a new discipline called â€Å"women’s studies† (Pendle, 2000). By 1980, ‘women in music’ courses started being taught at American universities and the demand for sound recordings and scores increased. Leonarda (founded by Marnie Hall, 1977) was one of the recording companies which started specializing in historical and contemporary work by women in the 1970s. Furore Verlag (founded in 1986) was the first publishing house to seriously print books about and music by women composers. The comprehensive â€Å"New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers (1994)† contains over 900 entries (Hopper, 2006). Although women’s choruses played an important role in festivals and rituals of ancient Greece and Rome, music-making by women aroused a lot of commentary by Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle and they differentiated respectable women from female musicians and entertainers. This is notion is supported by Karin Pendle (2000). Authors such as Plato, Aristotle, Clement, Basil, and Boethius associated manly music with reason, restraint and order, whereas music associated with women or effeminacy was though to give rise to sensuality, excitement, passion, or madness. We will write a custom essay sample on Feminist Theory in Music or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now Socrates warned that music in the Mixolydian and â€Å"intense Lydian† modes, which were associated with women and goddess worship, would give rise to drunkenness, softness, and sloth. He preferred a harmony that â€Å"would fittingly imitate the utterances and the accents of a brave man who is engaged in warfare or in any enforced business. (qtd in: Hopper 2006)† Aristotle claimed that professional musicians were vulgar, that performing music was unmanly, except when the performer was drunk or just having fun. He stated that the Phrygian mode, associated with the great goddess Cybele, should not be allowed, â€Å"for the Phrygian harmony has the same effect among harmonies as the aulos among instruments – both are violently exciting and emotional. (qtd in: Rodintzky, 1999)† Some songs, which date back to before the feminist movement, carry out the same function as the feminist movement does nowadays, for example, warn young women against the dangers of deceptive men, getting involved with wrong partners before birth control was available, or getting married. Such songs include â€Å"Omie Wise†, â€Å"Careless Love†, and â€Å"Beautiful, Beautiful Brown eyes†. â€Å"Omie Wise† is a song about an American murder victim.

Facilitating The Adoption Of Ifrs - 869 Words

Facilitating the Adoption of IFRS/IAS International financial reporting standards (IFRS) are the attempt of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) to globally harmonize accounting standards and financial reports (Doupnik Perera, 2014). Such standards are principles developed by the IFRS foundation and the IASB whose goal are to implement international accounting standards (IAS) which promote transparency, accountability, and efficiency of financial reporting to ensure organizations draft financial reports that are comparable internationally (IFRS Foundation, 2015). In an effort to facilitate the adoption of IFRS, accounting professional bodies worldwide such as the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) have implemented initiatives to guide and train their members in understanding the new standards adopted within their espective country. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) is the Scottish professional body of accountants established by Royal Charter in 1854. The purpose of the ICAS is to educate and regulate accountants, provide examinations and audits of organizations, maintain professional standards of accountants, and provide research for changes in the accounting profession worldwide (ICAS, 2015). The ICAS is governed by a council, oversight board, operation boards, qualification, technical policy, and member engagement board who monitor the strategy, budget andShow MoreRelatedGlobalization And Convergence Of Us.gaap Ifrs Standard As Prescribed By The Security And Exchange Commission ( Sec )1120 Words   |  5 PagesThere is a clear roadmap to social globalization and convergence of US.GAAP – IFRS Standard as prescribed by the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) for users that set up financial statements in accordance with IFRS as issued by IASB. 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So, the benefit behind the conceptual framework is increasing users’ understanding of financial reporting. Second, IASB cannot be alone without the implementation of IFRS. Also, IASB made it easy for companies to compare financial statements due to the procedural of IASB. However, it will enable auditors to quickly resolve financial

Why did the Tamburlaine plays have such extraordinary appeal for sixteenth-century audiences Free Essays

string(56) " of entertainment at the time of the Tamburlaine plays\." The Tamburlaine plays are two works written by Christopher Marlowe. In this essay I will discuss why the plays were so appealing to audiences in Marlowe’s time and whether they are still as appealing to a modern audience and why. The character of Tamburlaine can be compared to some historical characters the most accurate being Timur the Lame, a historical ruler over most of central Asia. We will write a custom essay sample on Why did the Tamburlaine plays have such extraordinary appeal for sixteenth-century audiences? or any similar topic only for you Order Now Richard Wilson compares him to Tsar Ivan IV, commonly known as Ivan the Terrible, the 16th Century Emperor of Russia, whose tyrannical rule, may well be replayed in Tamburlaine. (pp.51, R. Wilson, 1996.) The first of the two Tamburlaine plays was performed in 1587, following Marlowe’s graduation from Cambridge. The second was most probably written and performed later following the success of Tamburlaine Part 1 in the theatres. Some critics however believe that the two plays were written and performed together; ‘in November 1587†¦Philip Gawdy describes how in a piece recently presented by the Lord Admirals Men an actor, called onto fire a gun at one of his fellows tied to a stake, missed his aim killing a pregnant woman, a child and maiming others. This has often been taken to refer to Tamburlaine’s execution of the governor of Babylon in the final act of Part II, but the assumption cannot be verified.’ (pp. 69, V. Thomas and W. Tydeman, 1994) Also ‘in 1588 Robert Greene†¦could allude to Marlowe ‘daring God out of heaven with the Atheist Tamburlan’, a far less ambiguous reference to the scene in which Tamburlaine†¦orders the destruction of the Koran and defiantly daring Mahomet to come down and punish his impiety.’ (pp. 69, V. Thomas and W. Tydeman, 1994) Conversely it may be possible that in the eyes of a 16th Century audience, Tamburlaine’s actions would not be considered heretical because the Elizabethans knew Tamburlaine to be an infidel and would be not see the Qu’ran as a Holy book compared to their own Bible. Had he burned the Bible the case would have been very different. The issues of holy texts were hotly debated during this time as in each English church there had now been placed a new English language bible, which was in many parishes regarded as an alien book. The emphasis on holy text would have resonance for an Elizabethan audience having suffered over the last 40 years the changes between English and Latin Bibles and the Catholic and Protestant religion. Tamburlaine often refers to God as Jove, the Roman divine ruler, but only when he is expressly defying God. ‘Tamburlaine: The God of war resigns me to his room, Meaning to make me general of the world; Jove viewing me in arms looks pale and wan, Fearing my power should pull him from his throne.’ (Act V, scene ii, line 388.) This quote shows Tamburlaine referring to God as Jove while believing he has the power to overthrow god, he says God fears him. This could show a certain awareness of the heretical nature of his deeds. He would rather refer to a God that he does not believe in than use the one he does. A part of him does fear God but Tamburlaine does not want to recognise it. To show fear is weakness. Weakness is not acceptable in a man in Tamburlaine’s position of power and his self-importance. Tamburlaine although essentially Muslim, seems to be indecisive in his religious beliefs. In the first play he refers extensively to the way of Mohammed or Mahomet as he is called in the text, then nearing the end of the second play he denounces him as ‘not worthy of being worshipped’ and burns the Qu’ran. This act which would cause uproar today especially to British Muslims, if not Muslims of all nationalities, would not have had the same effect on a sixteenth-century audience, in 1587 there were few if any British Muslims, they were thought of and referred to as infidels, ungodly and wicked. A recent production of Tamburlaine at the Barbican in London in 2005, directed and adapted by David Farr, censored this part of the text in order to not incite religious reprisals, ‘key references’ to Mohammed were also cut from the play especially from the book burning scene; ‘Simon Reade, artistic director of the Bristol Old Vic, said that if they had not altered the original it â€Å"would have unnecessarily raised the hackles of a significant proportion of one of the world’s great religions†. The burning of the Koran was â€Å"smoothed over†, he said, so that it became just the destruction of â€Å"a load of books† relating to any culture or religion. That made it more powerful, they claimed.’ (D. Alberge, 2005) In my opinion the final sentence of this quote is inappropriate because I feel that the burning of the Qu’ran is an incredibly important part of the play, without it being the Qu’ran it completely changes what the scene means and how controversial it would be to modern audience. The Qu’ran is a holy text, burning just ‘a load of books’ renders the scene completely unnecessary and irrelevant to the play and takes Tamburlaine’s death, completely out of context, if indeed his death is an act of God, for him burning the Qu’ran, as many interpretations claim. Terry Hands the director of Tamburlaine by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1992 and Charles Nicholl, the author of The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe, opposed this censoring as did Inayat Bunglawala, the media secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, who said ‘In the context of a fictional play, I don’t think it will have offended many people.’ Brit ain was a wholly and strongly Christian nation in 1587; no one would oppose the destruction of a book of another holy order, which they believed to be blasphemous. Violence and the disorder of war was part of contemporary Elizabethan England. Public execution and punishment in gruesome manners was a form of entertainment at the time of the Tamburlaine plays. You read "Why did the Tamburlaine plays have such extraordinary appeal for sixteenth-century audiences?" in category "Papers" As was making an example of those executed, as Tamburlaine’s victims are hung on the city walls, many beheaded criminals had their head displayed on spikes to warn others. Many plays performed at this time used war or famous historic heroes of war as a basis for their storylines and often had what is to a modern eye grotesque and appalling episodes of violence. This is shown in Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus (1584), without doubt his most bloody play. ‘Marlowe achieved far greater fame and popularity than Shakespeare at the same point in their theatrical careers (both born 1564).’ (pp.95, C. Breight, 1996) With the exception of Titus Andronicus Shakespeare did not really come into his own until the early 1590’s and was not recognised as great playwright until his later life, whereas Marlowe was celebrated through his early life before he died at the age of 29. Marlowe was genius and his work was well known and widely performed by the time of his death. The language in much of Shakespearean text is very elaborate and although a sixteenth-century audience may have been able to understand it better than a modern audience, Marlowe’s language is much more direct. This gives much more impact and ‘says what it means’ leaving the dramatic potential for the delivery. ‘Tamburlaine: Your fearful minds are thick and misty then, For there sits Death, there sits imperious Death, Keeping his circuit buy the slicing edge. But I am glad you shall not see him there. He now is seated on my horsemen’s spears, And on their points his fleshless body feeds, Techelles, straight go charge a few of them To charge these dames, and show my servant Death Sitting in scarlet on their armà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½d spears.’ (Act V, scene ii, line 47) This quote shows how Marlowe uses a straightforward and more direct form of language than Shakespeare’s and this is and was part of his appeal to contemporary and modern audiences. The aggressive and ego-centric speech is impossible to perform in a retiring and introverted manner and the stage presence of the actor is larger than life. In accordance with modern audiences, sixteenth-century audiences loved a character that they can hate, Tamburlaine can be compared to more modern comedic characters such as Flashheart in Blackadder and Jafar in Disney’s Aladdin. These words and others in the play need to be performed to understand the full effect of what Tamburlaine is saying. He is teasing the virgins, he is making a joke out of the fact that they begged for mercy and he is still going to kill them. This ruthless and cruel nature is what makes Tamburlaine the man he is, it makes him such a loathsome character. Despite being a dislikeable character Tamburlaine is also a very passionate character, his determination and victory in all his conquests, his love for Zenocrate, his mercy shown in sparing her father after conquering Egypt almost make him a worthy role model for the 16th century man. ‘Audiences were not necessarily intended to understand Tamburlaine; such was his shock value and his capacity to break through the very fabric of society with his ceaseless conquests and unquenchable thirst for power. (novelguide.com, 2009)’ This quote describes Tamburlaine as shocking character which he is; he is designed to shock and inspire an audience, his inspiration may not be as noticeable today in a less barbaric and more modern way of life, but to a 16th Century audience it would have been obvious, Tamburlaine’s enthusiasm for war was what England at the time wanted from its people for the impending war with Spain. He is a ruthless, power hungry, slaughterer who does not give the audience a chance to see how he would cope with defeat. Defeat is not an option for Tamburlaine, just as defeat was not an option for Queen Elizabeth I when she launched the fire ships against the Spanish Armada just a year later in 1588. Tamburlaine shows determination but it also shows him going too far, he forgets that he’s mortal and he is still down here on the ground. He is still subject to God, although he heretically believes himself to be more powerful. All Elizabethans knew that a strong sometimes even aggressive leader was essential for their safety in the 16th Century. Their experiences in the reigns of Edward VI and Mary Tudor both weaker monarchs in their capacities of leadership and war must have been unsettling and remembered by theatre goers. Strong dynamic leaders such as Henry VIII and the later Elizabeth I gave a sense of peace and safety to at least part of the nation although there were still dissidents. The appeal of Tamburlaine as play could be partly because people could discuss him and his activities without fear of being thought treasonable. His strength as leader would have been commendable. ‘A Prince ought to have no other aim or thought, nor select anything else for his study, than war and its rules and discipline; for this is the sole art that belongs to him who rules, and it is of such force that it not only upholds those who are born princes, but it often enables men to rise from a private station to that rank.’ This quote from Machiavelli’s The Prince was a European view on how a prince or other leader should be, it states how a person of a lower status can raise himself up from private to Prince as Tamburlaine has done from shepherd to King. It states that a prince’s sole study should be the art of war in his role as protector. Tamburlaine is a strong leader, his subjects are safe from any surrounding forces as shown in the way that Tamburlaine has fought off two advances from Callapine, the son of Bajazeth the former Turkish ruler whom Tamburlaine tortured and humiliated. His knowledge and performance in war is unmatchable. In conclusion the Tamburlaine plays would have appealed to a 16th century audience for a number of reasons. Mainly for the various ways in which the character of Tamburlaine presents himself, as villain but also as an inspiration, as a man who has become drunk with power, but also a strong leader who knows what he is doing on the battlefield. Tamburlaine’s self contradictions are endless. A 16th Century audience would have enjoyed the build up to ultimate power then the anti-climatic downfall of their ‘hero’! How to cite Why did the Tamburlaine plays have such extraordinary appeal for sixteenth-century audiences?, Papers

Future Of American Democracy Essay Example For Students

Future Of American Democracy Essay The American democracy is one of the most peaceful kinds of government in the world although it is a long way from utopia. The democracy in which we live has many strengths and weaknesses. Neither strengths or weaknesses out weigh one another, but it is necessary to have both due to the varying definitions. A democracy is a government that is run by the people. The politicians that we elect to run our government are human and they are susceptible to mistakes based on their own strengths and weaknesses. The strengths and weaknesses they possess are reflected into our government but at least we the people elect them and they are not chosen for us. We live in a representative democracy that means we the people are given the right to elect those who represent our beliefs and values. The political campaigns of the politicians allows us the freedom of who to elect by selling us their views on how they feel our government should function. Many of the campaigns seem to dispute the candidate running against the other(s) but it normally ties into what they believe is wrong. Sometimes a candidates campaign will run according to one of the candidates mistakes that they have made in office or in life. The candidate may then promise they would never make a mistake of that sort. The campaigns now days tend to be more on the negative side but negativity sells in this country. While positive campaigns reflect more on the positive goals of the campaignee it would cost more to promote than negative campaigns. The negativity tends to stick in our minds more than the positive. It is kind of like a relationship, you tend to remember the bad more than the good. The same applies to campaigning. When some of us go to the ballot box we remember certain commercials either on the television or radio. And nine times out of ten, we remember the negative commercials over the positive. The campaigns are suppose to educate us and negative campaigns is not a good way to do that. The positive campaigns are the ones that should educate us. Positive campaigns promote the will of the people. The will of the people want trust, security, someone they can relate to. But with positive campaigns there is a drawback, it costs more money. Now you have those people who want to reform campaign finance. They feel we already spend too much money on campaigning. If you have the money supporting you, then you should be allowed to spend the money in whatever way it best suits your campaigning. More money does not mean a victory, just ask Ross Perot. More money could mean more positive campaigns and better education about the politicians for we the peopl e. Some people feel we should let the newspapers and media inform us about candidates, but the media is the worst critic of all. Journalists are paid big bucks to see who can find the dirtiest secret one person has done. So, what positive influences could the media possibly provide to us? Our media in this country is out of control and they inform us of issues we do not need to know about. While there are some Americans who want to hear these types of issues, many of us could not care less. In order to make positive campaigns more affective we need to get back to the basics. Politicians should serve their term limit and during their time they should do for the constituents and not spend so much time and money worrying about their next campaign. We the people elect those who represent certain issues and sometimes when they are sworn in to do their duty, they change their view on the issues. When politicians do this, it makes those who voted for him or her disappointed and cause them to lose faith in our democracy. The political system has succeeded but I believe it has little to do with religion. The founding fathers may have had God in mind but in todays society when dealing with our democracy, religion has nothing to do with it. There are way too many diversities of religion in this country and we the people do not agree upon them. In conclusion the American political system has about as many strengths and as many weaknesses, but it evens out in the long run. If our democracy consisted of all strengths it would not be fair and equal to all citizens. We are all different and have different beliefs and values so a utopian democracy is not possible. We live in a democracy that has succeeded mainly because it has changed with society. We the people have the right to run the government and if we are not satisfied with the government, we have the power to change it, because we are a democracy. .u76fa52c3e00cc9f618f1891c6644052a , .u76fa52c3e00cc9f618f1891c6644052a .postImageUrl , .u76fa52c3e00cc9f618f1891c6644052a .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u76fa52c3e00cc9f618f1891c6644052a , .u76fa52c3e00cc9f618f1891c6644052a:hover , .u76fa52c3e00cc9f618f1891c6644052a:visited , .u76fa52c3e00cc9f618f1891c6644052a:active { border:0!important; } .u76fa52c3e00cc9f618f1891c6644052a .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u76fa52c3e00cc9f618f1891c6644052a { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u76fa52c3e00cc9f618f1891c6644052a:active , .u76fa52c3e00cc9f618f1891c6644052a:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u76fa52c3e00cc9f618f1891c6644052a .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u76fa52c3e00cc9f618f1891c6644052a .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u76fa52c3e00cc9f618f1891c6644052a .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u76fa52c3e00cc9f618f1891c6644052a .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u76fa52c3e00cc9f618f1891c6644052a:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u76fa52c3e00cc9f618f1891c6644052a .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u76fa52c3e00cc9f618f1891c6644052a .u76fa52c3e00cc9f618f1891c6644052a-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u76fa52c3e00cc9f618f1891c6644052a:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Sex education -- EssayBibliography:

Van Doesburg and the International Avante

Introduction The Tate Exhibit, by assembling international works and works in many media, demonstrates, to the less enthusiastic, the exhibit designer’s message that the Avante-Garde was a legitimate and wide ranging movement, and one which reverberates in its effects even today. Styles such as Neo-Plasticism, are Elementarism are examined, but the most colorful is Dada.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Van Doesburg and the International Avante-Garde: Constructing a New World specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Dadaism elicits different responses from different viewers, from the trivial, irritating, or enraging, to the profoundly liberating, and has done so since it was launched on the world. Given its anti-establishment history, and the continuing debate over whether it is really art, its glorification at the Tate is ironic. The Tate show can help demonstrate Dada’s impact on today’s design and our definitions of art. Some examples from real life include: the teaching of art to kids, stained glass in contemporary sacred spaces, home furnishings, music teaching and making. A sampling of the styles the show features includes De Stijl, Dadaism, Elementarism, and Neo-Plasticism. The multi-national selection of artists range from the biggies such as Arp and Mondrian, and obscure ones as well, with a strong Dutch presence and funding support. The media displayed are wide ranging, and reflect the intention of the Avant-Garde’s proponents to overturn old art norms and make art and design accessible to the masses. Works are arranged such that the orthogonals and diagonals are sited at either end, and artists, crafts, and disciplines affected by the Avante-Garde are on display in between. Van Doesburg’s drawings of exploded architectural detail are missing from the exhibit. Photos of the artists enrich our understanding of the human background to the art. Merchandise i n the stores is well-displayed and offers customers a chance to wear their intellectual bona fides on their blouse. The Tate has offered a selection of lectures and other fora for viewer education. The arrangement of the exhibit helps to make the point that the Avant-Garde was more than artistic crankiness or mental disorder. Conclusion: The ongoing debate over whether the works of the Avante-Garde are really art is not by any means resolved. However, the ideas of the Avante-Garde certainly liberated the making of art to our benefit today.Advertising Looking for essay on architecture? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The design ideas we see around us are deeply affected by their work. The exhibit reveals the international scope of the Avante-Garde, and highlights the connections between the Avante-Garde and what we see around us on a regular basis. Van Doesburg’s legacy is worth remembering. This Section is not Part of t he Assigned Project The following is the list of questions originally posed by the instructor for consideration, not an essay. This is set up as a checklist to allow the customer to reassure themselves that all the questions have been addressed, and to facilitate communication across the language barrier with the customer. Since the topic is an art exhibit, and secondary sources are not exhaustive, many of these answers are inferences rather than based on direct personal observation, which would have been the ideal way of responding to the questions Who organized the exhibition? Vicente Toldi, Tate Director Who curated it? Gladys Fabre, independent curator Who sponsored it? Tate Patrons, Tate International Council, The Van Doesburg Exhibition Supporters Group, The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Dedalus Foundation, Inc, Mondriaan Foundation, Prince Bernhard Cultural Foundation (Straver Foundation), SNS Reaal Fond Who designed it? Vicente Toldi, presumably, since no other person is mentioned. Who is it intended audience? Possibly anyone who may not have thought very much about the impact of the Avante-Garde, or who is not an avid art fan is the target. What are the aims of the exhibition? Based on the artists and works chosen; the aim is to display works not often seen, to display works by lesser known artists, and to show a wide range of media that were affected by the ideas of the Avante-Garde. What is its central argument? You can see evidence of how these artists succeeded in overturning much of what went before when you look around you at design, art, and art instruction today, and see their influence. What current debates or topical issues does the exhibition engage with? Is this stuff truly ART? What underlying assumptions are communicated by the choice of exhibits and form of display? The form of display seems to assume mostly non-disabled viewers assumes that people walking on their own two feet and looking with good vision are viewing the works. It also assumes that the viewer has not seen previously ephemera and crafts from the same period, objects which reflect similar design ideas. Is it successful in terms of fulfilling the aims of the organizers? It has been well reviewed for the most part in terms of demonstrating why lesser known names in the Avante-Garde should be studied and remembered, and documenting the enduring influence of these ideas. What if anything is excluded from its central narrative? Not sure – maybe politics, but not sure, but one reviewer mentioned the absence of certain Van Doesburg architectural drawings. How is the exhibition organized (by theme, designer, chronologically, other)? Orthogonals are sited at one end and diagonals at the other, with other materials in between that were influenced by the artistic dialogue going on at the time. How are the artifacts contextualized (i.e., through info panels, labels, graphics, catalogue, etc.)? Not sure, but there seem to be labels with sub stantial information. There are lectures and talks as well, and a workshop for a hand-on project. Is the design of the exhibition appropriate for its subject matter? It sounds like it, but not sure. Does the Tate exhibit provide an educational experience, and how does it achieve this? Lectures, talks, hands-on projects, contribute to background education. Is there a shop specifically devoted to merchandise supporting the exhibition, and how much space does it occupy in relation to the exhibits? Yes, but not sure how much space is allocated – the interactive map did not seem to specify the shop footage. What kinds of products does the shop sell, and how are they merchandised? Typical, not terribly innovative; items meet the need for items to signal the consumer’s intellectual identity, or â€Å"brand†. End of explanatory notes to customer Outline Van Doesburg and the International Avante-Garde: Constructing a New World 1. Introduction: The Tate Exhibit, by assem bling international works and works in many media, demonstrates, to the less enthusiastic, the exhibit designer’s message that the Avante-Garde was wide ranging and reverberates in its effects even today. 2. Background of Dadaism as a confusing off-shoot of the Avante-Garde a. The meaning of the word b. The reaction of the contemporary gallery visitors c. How Dada was viewed at the time d. Irony of an anti-establishment movement being displayed in Tate 3. The Tate show can help demonstrate Dada’s impact on today’s design and definition of art: examples a. Teaching of art to kids b. Stained glass c. Home furnishings d. Music making 4. Sampling of styles the show includes a. De Stijl b. Dadaism c. Elementarism d. Neo-Plasticism 5. Artists included a. Many works from off-shore b. Strong Dutch representation and sponsorship support 6. Media included a. Wide range of artistic disciplines b. Reflect the intention to make art accessible even to the oppressed 7. Arrange ment of works a. Orthogonals and diagonals at either end b. Artists affected by these in display in between c. Crafts and disciplines affected on display in between d. Drawings of exploded architectural detail missing from exhibit e. Photos enrich understanding of the human background to the art Conclusion The ongoing debate over whether the works of the Avante-Garde are really art is not by any means resolved. However, the ideas of the Avante-Garde certainly liberated the making of art to our benefit today. The design ideas we see around us are deeply affected by their work. The exhibit reveals the international scope of the Avante-Garde, and highlights the connections between the Avante-Garde and what we see around us on a regular basis.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Van Doesburg and the International Avante-Garde: Constructing a New World specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The current exhibit at the Tate Mode rn brings a host of objects together from a variety of artists, countries, and media, and styles that fall under the general category of the Avante-Garde (Dadaism, Neo-Plasticism, Elementarism, Constructivism, and Art Concret). This impressive assemblage demonstrates the multi-national nature of the Avante-Garde in its time of inception. The exhibit also provides ample basis for considering (even by those who do not live and die by art ) the wide ranging and long lasting impact on the lives of people today of the ideas fermenting in the first decades of the 20th century, even the chaotic and self-negating ideas of Dadaism. Dada is a word that can be understood differently, depending on one’s role, and where one is standing. To a proud papa, it is, he hopes, the first word spoken by a beloved toddler. To a current music aficionado, it is the name of a band (dada home page). As pointed out by Tristan Tzara, a poet and essayist of the early 1900’, the word also describes the tail of a holy cow, among the  « Kru Negroes  » (an archaic and now offensive term for an indigenous tribe in what is today called Liberia ), mother and a cube in Italian dialect, and a nurse and hobby horse in Russian, as well as in his native tongue, Romanian. However, Tzara declares in his Dada Manifesto 1918,  « The magic of a word – Dada – which has brought journalists to the gates of a world unforeseen, is of no importance to us.  »(Tzara, Dada Manifesto 1918). This paradoxical statement, and so many others, is typical of the deliberately confusing, transgressive, and challenging utterances of Tzara, ne Samuel Rosenstock, a key articulator of Dadaism. To current enthusiastic visitors to museums of modern art, the name Dada is shorthand for a sidebar to the Avante-Garde, art as goofball antic, art as thumb to nose, but also, art as something that might be easily mistaken for a bin to accommodate one’s litter, or an attractively mounted fire ext inguisher. On the other hand, to those visitors who have been dragged along by their special art fan, Dada may very well be a reason they say they think that avant-garde art is a crock. Advertising Looking for essay on architecture? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Why, they ask plaintively, don’t we just bring our rubbish to the museum and leave it here in a neat pile – who would know the difference? What sort, they ask angrily, of prat would pay good money for such stuff? Doesn’t our kid draw something just as good? Where is the cafà ©, they ask in desperation, and, more importantly, how soon may we leave? These public reactions are not novel, nor, if we are to believe their own writings, would they necessarily have been unwelcome to the first promoters of the Dada movement. The Dadaists were in reaction against just about everything . In return, they were regarded with less than approval by their contemporaries, and they knew it, and made fun of this phenomenon. In light of how disparaged they were by the art world in the first decades of the 1900’s, and especially in light of how deeply they criticized the art establishment, they might be turning in their graves at the thought of the large current exhibit at th e Tate Modern (running through May). Or, perhaps, the thought might tickle them, especially the application of Theo Van Doesburg’s colorful geometries to towels, totes and magnets in the gift shop . If a Dadaist were resurrected today, he might gleefully pluck a tea towel from the gift shop and display it as art, not because of the pattern, but as an object chosen by him, placed out of its usual context as an article of clothing, titled with whatever whimsical thought occurred, put on display, and therefore constituting ART. There would certainly be ample precedent! The submission, without comment, of a fountain, to an art show, an act of artistic anarchy attributed to Marcel Duchamp, is practically legendary. But back to the weary, less than excited visitor, wondering why on earth they should be learning about this stuff. (The museum is indeed offering a lecture series, even for the deaf, curators’ talks, and an opportunity to create a hands-on project to help both the confused and the rapt). Why should he/ she be interested at all? Art historians, on one end of the interest spectrum, are the converted, the choir, to whom it is unnecessary to preach. In answer to this question, they can point to direct lines of influence from the Dadaism of the 1910s and 1920s to the Neo-Dadaism of the post-World War II period, and well known and important names like Robert Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns (Craft), and, it could be asserted, Andy Warhol. In another direction, connections can be drawn to Surrealism (Craft 4), a movement with its own flock of current artistic offspring, particularly in film, and animation. However, at the other end of the spectrum of interest and expertise, even the uninitiated among us can identify Dada’s impact in our lives. A swift peek into the chaos and happily self-defined art creations being crafted from re-cycled materials at the nearest grammar school would offer an answer to that question . Also of interest would be a tour of a suburban modern church building . Or take a walk-through of the wall and floor coverings department of a home store . Finally, check out GarageBand, a piece of software that allows kids to assemble music from a file of pre-recorded sound samples (Garageband). All these cultural phenomena seem to be influenced by the ideas of Dadaism. The show at the Tate may, in light of this, assist those who would preferentially spend at least some of their Sunday afternoons watching Manchester United rather than getting sore feet at galleries, to draw meaningful connections between Dadaism and current trends and manifestations of the arts, and design. The current Tate Modern show, taking up half of the fourth level of the museum, does not merely cover Dadaism. It also encompasses the movement that was one of Van Doesburg’s numerous other artistic life pursuits: among them, the ultimate in geometric abstraction, wherein any reference to the human body or realism of any sor t was anathema. Van Doesburg’s ideas on this and other isms of the day were expressed in his editorship of De Stijl, a magazine as well as the name of a style, and through peripatetic lectures and conferences (Mawer). He and Piet Mondrian espoused simplifying art to a series of geometric elements. Even this was subject to disagreement: the two colleagues split off into Elementarism (diagonals allowed) and the horizontal and vertical axes of Dutch Neo-Plasticism, a rarified movement (orthogonal horizontals and verticals only) of which Mondrian eventually found himself the only votary; (Darwent). The show includes many works on loan from elsewhere. This means that many pieces have never been seen in the UK, especially those by Theodore Van Doesburg. There is a largely Dutch roster of sponsors , which may have helped in the acquisition of so many Van Doesburg pieces. Alternatively, perhaps the inclusion of these rarely-seen works was a cunning appeal to Dutch chauvinism for r ecruiting support from Dutch funders. This strong representation from other collections may be the reason so many of the 350 items are not imaged digitally for later, more leisurely examination. In any case, the range of countries represented certainly highlights the message forcefully that the Avante -Garde was an international movement, with plenty of cross pollination among artistic communities. The Tate’s director, Vicente Todolà ­, has made a point of mounting several previous exhibits focusing on other features of Modernism (The Tate Modern Museum), perhaps as a means of ensuring the development of a future visitor base. If an audience is not raised up in the knowledge and appreciate of the arts, they will not support the arts. Gladys Fabre, an independent curator, has brought together works in a variety of media and genres. She has assembled the big names in Dada, De Stijl, and the Avante- Garde: Piet Mondrian, Constantin Brancusi, Jean Arp; names that even the uninf ormed might recognize. She has included, as well, less well known artists whose work was influenced, or had an influence on, De Stijl, such as Francis Picabia, Là ¡szlà ³ Moholy-Nagy, Gerrit Rietveld, Sophie Taeuber, and Kurt Schwitters. A full range of media are represented. They include traditional painting and drawings, and sculpture. This latter is defined, as in the case of the aluminum and wood robot-like Mechanical Dancing Figure, by the less familiar Vilmos Huszà ¡, or the chunky blue vaguely android figure Construction within a Sphere, by the equally under-exposed Georges Vantongerloo, by the whimsy of Dadaism. Ms. Fabre has also included less expected examples of designs that came out of the movement such as typeface, architectural interiors (for example, the explosion of color blocks on the ceiling of the University Hall, in Amsterdam, or the rocking Aubette dance space from Strasbourg), and furniture designs (such as the sculpturally limpid but uncomfortable-appearing Gerrit Reitvald chair, and the modern-looking leather and metal chairs). There are also publications, posters (one mysterious one features the letters HELI), stained glass (such as the emblematic and endlessly copied windows for the De Lange house), music, and film (The Tate Modern Museum). This assemblage of objects from all along the spectrum from utilitarian objects to fine, arts, is reminiscent of the vertical integration of some consumer products and manufacturers (the Apple company is one example, Mattel’s Barbie range could be another) wherein products for all uses and levels of complexity are produced under one corporate umbrella and with a solitary design vision. The wealth and diversity of material demonstrates that the Avante-Garde was a thoroughgoing attempt – utilizing art and design – to overturn everything that went before. Considering that in 1918 the world had just endured the soul-searing destruction of a global war, there was revolution abr oad, influenza stalked the world, and women were still wearing corsets, there was plenty to complain about. The devotees of De Stijl felt that the earlier century’s efforts to portray reality in an increasingly abstracted fashion (Impressionism, Cubism, and Expressionism, for example) never quite broke free of the reality that persisted as the subject. Somehow, even the gradual uncoupling of painting and sculpture from strict realism came in for withering scorn from the Van Doesburg cabal (Tzara, Lecture on Dada, 1922, reprinted in Tristan Tzara: Biography, DADAism, and Poetry). The proponents of De Stijl wanted to bring the healing and uplifting benefits of liberated and accessible art and design to the oppressed and the deracinated (Darwent) . In our own era, entrepreneurs such as Terence Conran, and corporations such as IKEA have adopted the notion of good-design-for-all to great and profitable effect. The exhibit is arranged such that Mondrian’s orthogonal stateme nts are at one end. These are largely color blocks, very familiar, unthreatening, in various sizes and proportions. They are so accustomed an idiom that one feels one has seen them before, even if the particular piece is clearly an import. Van Doesburg’s paintings in his Counter Proposal series are at the other end of the exhibit. These works, such as Simultaneous Counter-Composition, 1930, resemble Mondrians, but rotated by some 45 degrees, and sometimes disordered a bit. These paintings submit diagonals as an alternative to the grid (the â€Å"counter† proposal). They can remind the viewer of a close-up of the bathroom floor tiles, seen a bit too close for comfort during an episode of stomach upset. However, anyone who has ever installed floor coverings on the diagonal to stretch the visual space in a tiny room truly owes Van Doesburg a debt of gratitude for opening up a new direction and making the off-kilter seem like an inevitable option. These are serene painti ngs which add color and form without insisting on the viewer’s involvement, but they reward closer attention as well. The rooms in between bear testimony to the vast array of apparently unrelated design and craft specialties that De Stijl affected, and, by extension, the design ideas we see applied these days. As an example of lasting effect, the rationalized typography design that Van Doesburg innovated (letters fitting in a square, with no lower case letters), can be seen as enabling the development of machine readable typefaces today. The software called Wordle, which makes a graphic out of any block of text, highlighting words and phrases that repeat often, seems to be a direct descendant of Van Doesburg’s experiments with poster art (Feinberg). As an example of how De Stijl helped to break down boundaries between artistic disciplines, and the constraints of any one medium, the exhibit includes film clips animating Plasticist and Elementarist painting (Darwent). S imon Mawer of The Guardian faults the exhibit for not including drawings of collaborative architectural projects created with Cornelis van Eesteren. These sound fascinating: the drawings are exploded into three dimensions. Contemporary architects prize such drawings as the best and highest journeyman examples of their craft – it would indeed have been interesting to see how Van Doesburg handled this technique. The exhibit has been reviewed with differing responses. The impersonality of De Stijl leaves some viewers unmoved (Sooke). However, there is agreement that this is a welcome chance to see works that are not often brought together. There is also agreement that the inclusion of art and design that was influenced by ideas promulgated by Van Doesburg opens up that period to our view, and the wealth of photographs put a human face on this often austere art. The photos document the relationships that underpinned the life of these artists, especially their lovers and wives. I t is interesting to learn, for example, that Nellie Van Doesburg participated in the performance art pieces that Kurt Schwitters and Van Doesburg mounted around Europe, and that Sophie Taueber was married to Jean Arp, and that they all collaborated on the design of Strasbourg’s Aubette building (Mawer). There has been an ongoing debate regarding the seriousness and validity of the Avante-Garde since it was born. The apparent simplicity and the lack of craft of some of its most famous products leave the impression that there is nothing going on artistically. This debate is not over. Viewers, especially hoi polloi are still asking whether this is really art. It is not clear that this exhibit will answer that question finally for everyone. However, the clever choices that have been made, and the co-location of works that are different in media but related in idea, help to make the point that the concepts of the Avante-Garde had an impact across Europe, and in many different fiel ds. The specifics of the style of De Stijl (austerity, abstraction, the straight lines of the Bauhaus, on which Van Doesburg aimed to have an impact) may still not be to everyone’s taste. The merchandising of the exhibit, on the other hand, is readily accessible. An exit shop, that relatively new marketing method of extracting funds from visitor wallets, imprints the cheerful Van Doesburg diagonals on any flat, or near flat, surface (tea towels, totes, key tags, mugs, magnets, notebooks, bags), and offers books documenting the exhibit, displayed tastefully against a sober, receding, industrial gray background. This venue is supplemented by offerings in the main museum shop. In a decade when the identity of self is defined by the brands one carries or wears, perhaps toting one’s trainers and exercise kit in a Van Doesburg-emblazoned bag, or drinking one’s cocoa from a similarly decorated beaker seems a legitimate means of proclaiming one’s intellectual be nt. â€Å"You should want to marry me (or hire me, or be friends with me) because I have slogged through this intellectually challenging exhibit â€Å", trumpets the merchandise. A much coveted related sales item is a set of Dadaist poetry generators: a pre-selected collection of individual words mounted on magnet backing whose arrangement ad libitum allows people to create their own Dada-style poem on their refrigerator door (Tzara, To Make A Dadist Poem, reprinted in Tristan Tzara: Biography, DADAism, and Poetry). Happily, the overturning of the 19th century insistence on an imitation of nature (which effectively excluded from the practice of art anyone who was not a good draftsperson), has spawned a whole new style of art teachers, whose young students joyously create something, anything; confident in their belief (directly attributable to Van Doesburg and his companions) that if they call it art, IT IS, by gosh, ART. Reflecting this same joyous anarchy, Catherine Craft notes that Robert Motherwell, the essential biographer of the Avante-Garde, observed that Dada had given health and new life to painting in Europe (Craft 3-4). There is also a practical inheritance, e.g., typefaces which even a computer can read. The geographic distribution and inter-connectedness of the Avante-Garde are presented forcefully in the exhibit, and it is accessible both to the fan and the less than rapt. Van Doesburg well deserves this resurrection from oblivion. I. The catalogue of ideas, institutions, religions, and behaviors, to name a few, that Dada revolts against, is expressed here by Tristan Tzara: â€Å"The beginnings of Dada were not the beginnings of an art, but of a disgust. Disgust with the magnificence of philosophers who for 3ooo years have been explaining everything to us (what for? ), disgust with the pretensions of these artists-God’s-representatives-on-earth, disgust with passion and with real pathological wickedness where it was not worth the both er; disgust with a false form of domination and restriction *en masse*, that accentuates rather than appeases man’s instinct of domination, disgust with all the catalogued categories, with the false prophets who are nothing but a front for the interests of money, pride, disease, disgust with the lieutenants of a mercantile art made to order according to a few infantile laws, disgust with the divorce of good and evil, the beautiful and the ugly (for why is it more estimable to be red rather than green, to the left rather than the right, to be large or small?). Disgust finally with the Jesuitical dialectic which can explain everything and fill people’s minds with oblique and obtuse ideas without any physiological basis or ethnic roots, all this by means of blinding artifice and ignoble charlatans promises. â€Å"(Tzara, Lecture on Dada, 1922, reprinted in Tristan Tzara: Biography, DADAism, and Poetry) (sic) II. This impatience with art as it used to be was verbalized by Tristan Tzara in the following almost lucid quote: â€Å"We don’t accept any theories. We’ve had enough of the cubist and futurist academies: laboratories of formal ideas†¦ Cubism was born out of a simple manner of looking at objects: Cezanne painted a cup twenty centimetres lower than his eyes, the cubists look at it from above, others complicate its appearance by cutting a vertical section through it and soberly placing it to one side. (I’m not forgetting the creators, nor the seminal reasons of unformed matter that they rendered definitive.) The futurist sees the same cup in movement, a succession of objects side by side, mischievously embellished by a few guide-lines. This doesn’t stop the canvas being either a good or a bad painting destined to form an investment for intellectual capital. The new painter creates a world whose elements are also its means, a sober, definitive, irrefutable work. The new artist protests: he no longer paints (symbo lic and illusionistic reproduction) but creates directly in stone, wood, iron, tin, rocks, or locomotive structures capable of being spun in all directions by the limpid wind of the momentary sensation. Every pictorial or plastic work is unnecessary†¦A painting is the art of making two lines, which have been geometrically observed to be parallel, meet on a canvas, before our eyes, in the reality of a world that has been transposed according to new conditions and possibilities. This world is neither specified nor defined in the work, it belongs, in its innumerable variations, to the spectator. For its creator it has neither cause nor theory. Order = disorder; ego = non?ego; affirmation = negation: the supreme radiations of an absolute art. Absolute in the purity of its cosmic and regulated chaos, eternal in that globule that is a second which has no duration, no breath, no light and no control. I appreciate an old work for its novelty. It is only contrast that links us to the pa st.(Tzara, Dada Does Not Mean Anything, reprinted in Tristan Tzara: Biography, DADAism, and Poetry) (sic) III. Tristan Tzara offered the following straightforward instruction, in poetic format. He could also have mentioned that choosing several different articles with different typefaces would add a certain decorative fillip to the randomly generated poem: To Make a Dadist Poem Take a newspaper. Take some scissors. Choose from this paper an article the length you want to make your poem. Cut out the article. Next carefully cut out each of the words that make up this article and put them all in a bag. Shake gently. Next take out each cutting one after the other. Copy conscientiously in the order in which they left the bag. The poem will resemble you. And there you are an infinitely original author of charming sensibility, even though unappreciated by the vulgar herd.† (Tzara, To Make A Dadist Poem, reprinted in Tristan Tzara: Biography, DADAism, and Poetry) (sic) Resources (Mod ern Dime Sized Coins of the World: Liberia) â€Å"I don’t have to tell you that for the general public and for you, the refined public, a Dadaist is the equivalent of a leper. But that is only a manner of speaking. When these same people get close to us, they treat us with that remnant of elegance that comes from their old habit of belief in progress. At ten yards distance, hatred begins again. If you ask me why, I won’t be able to tell you.† (Tzara, Lecture on Dada, 1922, reprinted in Tristan Tzara: Biography, DADAism, and Poetry) The size of gift shops has begun to rival exhibits in many museums; The Metropolitan has several and at least one off-site. This indicates just how tenuous are the traditional sources of support for museums’ operations, now seldom covered by admission sales. In an article assumed to be by Marcel Duchamp, the author defends the appropriateness for inclusion of a fountain in an art show, as follows: â€Å"He CHOSE it. He took an ordinary article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view – created a new thought for that object.†(Duchamp) This could be considered a summary statement of the criteria for Dadaist art. Observe how the teacher encourages the kids to call whatever they put together, whatever they create, whatever they assemble, ART. Look at the geometric stained glass which graces so many contemporary church windows; even decades after Van Doesburg and Mondrian are gone from the scene. Equally; the geometric Mondrianization of patterns is evident everywhere in home furnishings. Art is what you choose to call art; a Dada principle! It is hard not to imagine that a high fiber diet and some yoghurt, or an anti-depressant, might have soothed these anal-compulsive-seeming obsessions just as effectively. Tate Patrons, Tate International Council, The Van Doesburg Exhibition Supporters Group, The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherla nds, Dedalus Foundation, Inc, Mondriaan Foundation, Prince Bernhard Cultural Foundation (Straver Foundation), SNS Reaal Fond (The Tate Modern Museum). It should be noted that there was a distinct political (or sometimes anti-political) thread in the passions of the Avante-Garde, which did not always endear the movement to establishment institutions (Craft 3). Van Doesburg’s use of â€Å"solomite†, a building material made of straw, is a striking foreshadowing of the whole sustainability movement in home design today (Mawer). Bibliography Craft, Catherine. New York Dada? Looking Back After a Second World War, lecture given September 9, 2006. 2010. 10 March 2010 http://media.moma.org/audio/2006/pub_prog/spec_exhib/Dada/MOMA_RepresentingDadatalk.pdf. dada home page. 2010. 11 March 2010 http://dadatheband.com/. Darwent, Charles. Well-chosen works show how De Stijl – ‘The Style’ – movement led to a revolution in European art that still resonates today: Van Doesburg the International Avant-Garde, Tate Modern, London. 2010. 11 March 2010 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/van-doesburg–the-international-avantgarde-tate-modern-london-1891448.html. Duchamp, Marcel. â€Å"‘Dissent and Disorder’-Selected Essays on Dadaism.† Harrison, C. and Wood,P. Art in Theory. Trans. Ralph Mannheim. London: Blackwell Publishing, 2002. 250-275. Feinberg, Jonathan. Wordle: Beautiful Word Clouds. 2010. 12 March 2010 http://www.wordle.net/. Garageband. 2010. 10 March 2010 http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/. Mawer, Simon. Theo van Doesburg: Forgotten artist of the avant garde. 23 January 2010. 11 March 2010 http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/jan/23/theo-van-doesburg-avant-garde-tate. Modern Dime Sized Coins of the World: Liberia. 2010. 10 March 2010 http://dewardt.net/dimebook/Liberia.pdf. Sooke, Alastair. Tate Modern’s new exhibition about the Dutch art movement De Stijl leave s Alastair Sooke feeling a little cold: Van Doesburg and the International Avant-Garde at Tate Modern, review. 11 March 2010. 11 March 2010 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturecritics/alastairsooke/7130547/Van-Doesburg-and-the-International-Avant-Garde-at-Tate-Modern-review.html. Tzara, Tristan. Dada Does Not Mean Anything, reprinted in Tristan Tzara: Biography, DADAism, and Poetry. 2010. 11 March 2010 http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/dada/Tristan-Tzara.html. Tzara, Tristan. â€Å"Dada Manifesto 1918.† Motherwell, Robert, and Arp, Jean. The Dada Painters and Poets. Trans. Ralph Mannheim. New York: Wittenborn, Schultz, 1970. 76-82. —. Lecture on Dada, 1922, reprinted in Tristan Tzara: Biography, DADAism, and Poetry. 2010. 10 March 2010 http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/dada/Tristan-Tzara.html. —. To Make A Dadist Poem, reprinted in Tristan Tzara: Biography, DADAism, and Poetry. 2010. 11 March 2010 http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthis tory/dada/Tristan-Tzara.html. Van Doesburg and the International Avant-Garde: About the Exhibition. 2010. 10 March 2010 http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/vandoesburg/default.shtm. 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