A Discussion on the Renaissance Art and Its Influences Essay Example for Free

A Discussion on the Renaissance Art and Its Influences Essay 1. The Renaissance style is considered as a collective movement related to the reawakening of art – particularly drawing, painting, sculpture, and architecture – that centered in Italy from 1300-1600 (Cunningham and Reich, 2009, p. 265-266).   This movement evolved over the years as people – tired of the medieval life of poverty and sickness – started to develop new world views.   These world views centered on essential and profound questions related to human beings, their lives, and their purposes in lives.   They formed striking similarities to the Greco-Roman intellectual discourses, which were overshadowed during the dark times of the medieval age but rediscovered during the reawakening period of the Renaissance. Experts agreed that the Renaissance movement started in Florence, Italy, then a trading center between Europe and the rest of the world and a platform for exchange of ideas, purchase of arts, and commissioning of literary works (Cunningham and Reich, 2009, p. 267).   In Italy, people began to question tradition and authority, focus on life on earth, shape their own destinies, educate their selves and revisit the classical teachings from Greece and Rome.   Teachings from Italy were then dispersed elsewhere in Europe and the world through the printing press, a revolutionary invention during the Renaissance (Cunningham and Reich, 2009, p. 265). See more: Homelessness as a social problem Essay One example of a Renaissance art that is a symbol of the inner health of the people during that era was Raphael’s School of Athens (Cunningham and Reich, 2009, p. 315).   This painting pictured the great minds who existed in the city of Athens in Greece – Socrates, Plato and Aristotle – who were gathered in what appeared to be a school.   In the painting, the great minds seemed to be enthralled in a lively exchange of ideas.   Experts said that School of Athens attempted to show that the ancient greats of Greece were as good as the Renaissance men of Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo.   In fact in the painting, the three Renaissance artists were supposed to be Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Another example of a Renaissance art that embodied the dynamism and transformation peculiar to the period was the sculpture of Michelangelo of David when the artist was at a relatively young age of 26 (Cunningham and Reich, 2009, p. 286). David was depicted as a civilized and a thinking individual who contemplates on challenges without immediately resorting to unnecessary brute.   David was said to represent the brightness of the Renaissance man.   It was also said to epitomize the confidence that the people then were feeling in influencing their destinies in terms of trouncing evil and gaining victories. Renaissance humanism is a notion that sprang during this period.   This notion placed emphasis on the capacity of human beings to manipulate their future without overreliance on the church (Cunningham and Reich, 2009, p. 287).   Although much of the art works had religious themes, the works portrayed religious icons as humans.   Such portrayal made light of the religious canons imposed by the church.   Instead, the portrayal highlighted the human spirit and its capacity to elevate to great heights.   One example of an art work that displayed humanism was Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, which depicted the goddess as an innocent woman with the use of pastel colors.   Another example is Simone Martini’s Annunciation, where an angel painted in realistic human dimensions and appearance appeared to tell Mary that she will bear God’s son. The rebirth of the artistic movement in Italy was largely attributed to the successful businessmen in the city of Florence who fed, trained, educated and provided for the basic needs of the artists (Cunningham and Reich, 2009, p. 268).  Ã‚   These patrons commissioned works based on clear-cut agreements. The powers of these businessmen from the Medici family stretched all the way to Rome, allowing many artists to secure contracts to accomplish religious works of arts for the Catholic Church.  Ã‚   The patronage of the Medici family for the artists was crucial to the Renaissance as artists were elevated to a stature important to the beautification and strengthening of the culture of Florence.   When the Medici family declined, artists went to Rome where they received the patronage of the pope (Weekly Lectures, n.d.). 3. Prior to the Protestant Reformation, there had been a fierce and widespread sentiment about the perceived abuses of the Catholic Church (Cunningham and Reich, 2009, p. 240).   People felt that the leaders of the church were leading extravagant lives that contrasted with the generally modest, if not poor, living of the majority of the people.   There were classes within the population that wanted to lead  Ã‚  Ã‚   towards positive change.   People were also weary of being caught in the cross-fire of conflicts between the Catholic Church and Kings, both desired power and wealth. To top these off, people were staring to change their beliefs about the capabilities of human beings during the Renaissance. These situations were the precursors to the ushering of the Protestant Reformation, which was set off by German monk Martin Luther.   Luther questioned the corruption and moral degradation in Rome and in the whole of the Catholic Church through his writings in The 95 Theses.   The Church however was not willing to change its ways.   It then financed the Counter-Reformation (Cunningham and Reich, 2009, p. 297). Immediately, art became the medium of propagating the beliefs of the Protestants, who had their bailiwicks in northern Europe, and Catholics, whose strongholds were in the south.   For the Catholics, art must focus on religious contents with certain symbolisms that magnify the holiness of the contents.   The Catholic art was similar to the art that had prevailed in the Middle Ages.   For the Protestants, Catholic religious contents in arts were idolatrous that must be destroyed through iconoclastic movements during the Protestant Reformation. The Protestant art was similar to the art of the humanist Renaissance artists who depicted contents in realistic settings. As a response to the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Church introduced a Counter-Reformation.   It instituted a few changes within the church but became more austere in regulating heresy.   Regulations covered the arts, sending Catholic painters to produce religious contents similar to those done during the Middle Ages. Content in arts was the distinguishing factor between the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation.   For the Protestants during the Reformation, paintings centered on mundane activities of everyday existence.   Occasionally, paintings drawn out of scenes from the Bible were made.   However, these paintings depicted the religious contents in a humanistic manner.  Ã‚   Simple scenes found in regular occasions were also contained in paintings.   Generally, the contents did not attempt to glorify contents through symbols. For the Catholics during the Counter-Reformation, paintings focused on idealized religious contents that contained symbolisms of holiness, omnipotence, and great glory.   These religious contents were idealized in terms of appearance and the environment in which they were depicted to move.   Painters did not paint flaws.  Ã‚   They likewise veered from common scenes experienced by common people.   Some of the religious contents depicted in the Counter-Reformation included Catholic saints, sacraments, traditions, and codes of belief taught by the Catholic Church. The arts during Protestant Reformation and Counter-Reformation were divergent largely because of the opposing world views espoused by the Protestants and the Catholics.   On one hand, the Protestants believed that man could shape his destiny and approach God because the sacrifices of Christ were enough to save human souls.   On the other hand, the Catholics believed that intermediaries like saints and the Virgin Mary were needed to help Catholics approach God and enter the gates of heaven. Because intermediaries were needed, Catholics created relics where divine powers were supposed to reside.   A form of these relics is a typical painting created during Reformation.   Catholics worshipped the relics and sought from these relics intervention in order to get the graces of God. Because Protestants believed in the value of man and Christ’s sacrifices, they loathed these relics and called these relics channels of idolatry.

Study on the Industrial Abandoned Lands

Study on the Industrial Abandoned Lands Industrial abandoned lands, ruins, eyesores, voids, derelict, urban deserts, dead zones, silent spaces, landscapes of contempt, and squats are just a few of the words that have been used to figure out the fragments of transformation within our urban spaces. They are terms that refer to spaces such as post-industrial landscapes, abandoned environments, and empty spaces in the peripheral parts of a city. Linked to the processes of decay, the terms also refer to the cultural entropy and social of our city spaces, their loss and ruin. By virtue of their neglect, ruinous state, and marginal place in the urban landscape, recent architectural and urban planning discourse has defined these spaces as contingent, interstitial, and spaces of indeterminacy. Throughout the second half of the twentieth century, many cities have witnessed the unused of significant industrial landscapes and their eventual abandonment. Urban societies, cultural and architectural history, these landscapes of indetermi nacy remain a part of the urban palimpsest. Using the metaphor of city as palimpsest and extending the notion of indeterminate spaces. It is explored the nature of contemporary city phenomena in relation to the transformation of abandoned urban spaces. Since the fall of the Nazis colonization, Oswiecim has struggled with using former factories. Under Communist force, the citys main employer, who a chemical worker, failed to develop continue with modern technology, and since 1989 over 10,000 work places have been lost at the plant. With seemingly no other choice to cultivating a grizzly tourist trade, Oswiecim is finding its past increasingly difficult to escape. In other words, Oswiecim is urban decay city falls into irrecoverable and aged, with falling population or changing population, economic restructuring, abandoned buildings, high local unemployment, separated families, and inhospitable city landscape where whole city area as fragments which is contained city memories and space qualities. trauma and discontinuity are fundamental for memory and history, ruins have come to be necessary for linking creativity to the experience of loss at the individual and collective level. Ruins operate as powerful metaphors for absence or rejection, and hence, as incentives for reflection or restoration.[3] Decay Industrial ruins are an intersection of the visible and the invisible, for the people who managed them, worked in them, and inhabited them are not there. And yet their absence manifests itself as a presence through the shreds and silent things that remain, in the objects we half recognize or surround with imaginings. In ruins we can identify that which appeared to be not there, a host of signs and traces which let us know that a haunting is taking place. The ghosts of ruins do not creep out of shady places unannounced, as they do in highly regulated urban spaces, but are abundant in the signs which haunt the present in such a way as to suddenly animate the past. Rather than being exorcised through redevelopment, these ghosts are able to haunt us because they are part of an unfinished disposal of spaces and matter, identified as rubbish but not yet cleared. Such things suddenly become animated, when the over and done with comes alive the things you partly recognize or have heard about provoke familiar feelings, an imaginative and empathetic recouping of the characters, forms of communication, and activities of factory space. In these haunted peripheries, ghosts rarely provoke memories of the epochal and the iconic but recollect the mundane passage of everyday factory life. The past isnt dead. It isnt even past.[4] The decay resides at the conceptual intersection of the individual parts of the analogy that zone created by the superimposition and superposition of essentially translucent entities. The active light of interpretation shines through these layers, as it were, illuminating significant shapes and figures. Meaning actively happens here; it is constructed as images overlap each other, aligning themselves momentarily, and then shifting slightly, encouraging reevaluation and reinterpretation. As a layered figure of depth in architecture, complexity occurs in both plan and section. As a site, the zone of meaning in the analogical system is often ambiguous. Yet, also as a site, this area has boundaries or, rather, a set largely unquantifiable of all available meanings, which is different than a boundless field of all-inclusiveness or unregulated interpretations. Trace and Time Layers with Derridas Theory The resonance of a knock on a door uncovers its density. The tactile of a wall describes its materiality. The texture of a floor may invite us to sit or lay down. The smoothness of a handrail comforts our ascent. Human skin is a powerful material that enables us to perceive and understand our surroundings. Skin is highly expressive; based on its color, texture, wear and plasticity we can read it, gathering information concerning culture, ethnic background, age, abuse, health and the tasks it performs on specific body parts. Skin itself reads as it is readable. Our skin can gather data through tactile perception and read our spatial surroundings. Architecture is an expressive act and the only discipline that stimulates all of our senses. An architect designs spaces that foresee and celebrate the bodily interaction of the inhabitant. According to Derrida, phenomenology is metaphysics of presence because it unwittingly relies upon the notion of an indivisible self-presence, or in the case of Husserl, the possibility of an exact internal adequacy with oneself. In various texts, Derrida contests this valorisation of an undivided subjectivity, as well as the primacy that such a position accords to the now, or to some other kind of temporal immediacy. For instance, in Speech and Phenomena, Derrida argues that if a now moment is conceived of as exhausting itself in that experience, it could not actually be experienced, for there would be nothing to juxtapose itself against in order to illuminate that very now. Instead, Derrida wants to reveal that every so-called present, or now point, is always already compromised by a trace, or a residue of a previous experience, that precludes us ever being in a self-contained now moment. Memory Whenever I distrust my memory, writes Freud in a note of 1925. I can resort to pen and paper. Pater then becomes an external part of my memory and retains something which I would otherwise carry about with me invisibly. When I write on a sheet of paper, I am sure that I have an enduring remembrance, safe from the possible distortions to which it might have been subjected in my actual memory. The disadvantage is that I cannot undo my note when it is no longer needed and that the page becomes full. The writing surface is used up. Memory-autobiographical and collective, each integral to the other-exists as the foundation upon which meaning is built. Memory affords our connection to the world. Every aspect of experience becomes enveloped in the process of memory. It forms our identity as individuals and it coheres individuals together to form the identity of social groups. Memory is also the thread which links the lived-in now with the past and the future: what I remember of my past cont ributes to who I am now (at this very moment) and in many ways affects what I will do in the future. Without memory, meaning building cannot happen.[5] Memory of architecture, therefore, seems to depend more on our ability to perceive the embodied situation. Moreover those situations are subject to particular catalytic moments in time-those instances in which the energies of both the container and the contained become virtually indistinguishable. The timing of those moments is uneven, poetic, and anisotropic. It would be impossible for the constituent elements of a place memory to sustain a constant equilibrium or frequency of resonance in time. It needs to be emphasised that remembering is a thoroughly social and political process, a realm of contestation and controversy. The past is constantly selected, filtered and restructured in terms set by the questions and necessities of the present. Memories are selected and interpreted on the basis of culturally located knowledge and this is further constituted and stabilised within a network of social relationships, consolidated in the `common sense of the everyday. Although practices of inscribing memory on space are enormously varied, there are undoubtedly tendencies to fix authoritative meanings about the past through an ensemble of practices and technologies which centre upon the production of specific spaces, here identified as monumental `memory-scapes, heritage districts, and museums. It is within the contingent spaces of the city where ephemeral gestures resonate, drawing our attention to the residue of the past, enticing us to rediscover their temporal value. And for me at least, ruins, like palimpsests, are traces by which we discover our urban history, and the soul of a space. As all historical narratives are subjectively woven Tapestries of pieced historical facts and events, new Histories often reveal striking discrepancies in the linear conventions of previously inscribed histories. The intention here is to piece together discrepant theoretical notions, to produce an archaeological investigation, which is consistent with the theoretical and ideological approach of Aldo Rossi. The most evocative works of Aldo Rossi are exemplary of the process of building meaning as we engage memory in our everyday experiences, thinking analogically and understanding the world tacitly by doing and making. Whether stated explicitly or not, Rossi must have sensed the necessity to temper his early polemics about a theory of design with a commitment to architecture of intense poetry, of non-quantifiable artistry, and an architecture conscious of its autobiographical significance. Underlying the rationalist tendencies of Rossis theoretical ork is a deeply felt reverence for the power of memory, both his own as well as the collective memory of a particular culture or society that is embodied in key architectural types. And the force of memory permeates his entire oeuvre to such an extent that it is almost pathological, or cultish, or verging on nostalgia, to say the least. For Rossi, the process of memory analogically suggests the evolution and morphology of the physical form of the city; and a formal language based on a typology of architecture; and, as a matter of necessity, the repetitive, obsessive, and dynamic nature of his own creative practice. However, Rossis poetic was not as self-absorbed as it may seem-or, at least, it was not ultimately meant to turn in on itself in the creation of a restrictive, self-indulgent reverie. He expected his obsession with memory to translate into his buildings in such a way that it would invigorate architecture with a new liberty, a freedom of experience and meaning similar to so many of those buildings he had discovered and cited in his early treatise, The Architecture of the City: the Palazzo della Ragione in Padua, the Roman amphitheater-turned-market square in Lucca, the tiny fishing huts along the Po River valley-buildings that, while displaying characteristics of specific types, transcended the program of those types by accommodating changing activities and uses. By analogically relating the transposition of a rchitectural types with the process of memory, Rossi was privileging meaning building with his architecture as an integral part of the built environment, especially as it governed the evolution of cities. It is how Rossi engaged the profound memories of his past. It is how he anticipated people would live with and within his buildings, seeing in those forms their own memories of an architectural past, encouraging them to reactivate those connections, those relationships in his buildings. The emergence of relations among things, more than the things themselves, always gives rise to new meanings, wrote Rossi. Perhaps, like this: Confront the built form-it reminds you of other buildings and other experiences you have had before-this new building feels familiar and established in your understanding of the given-yet, you experience this building as something different, its meaning has changed from what you thought it should be because of the change in how you use the architecture-the given is expanded, enriched with new meaning meaning building. It is how Rossi practiced architecture-by working analogically from drawings to buildings to writings, discovering relationships, exploring the sp ace where meaning happens, in between those things which can be explicitly articulated, patently expressed. Sampling to make music, people need sounds and when people cant make them yourself you find them somewhere else: in appearance there is nothing more simple.The sampler is an electronic memory that is virtually infinite, which enables sounds to be stored, from a single note to a symphony. This fund constitutes a sort of personal library, where works are reduced to an anthology of chosen pieces drawn flora the vast reservoir of musical culture. The work ceases to function as a closed opus or a melody and becomes a sum of harmonies and pre existing sounds. The sampler is thus the centre of sound memory, a centre where all metamorphoses are possible. It is an abstract place where all the sounds of the world are classified and subjected to changes. This tool simplifies the work of the DJ, who then needs only to physically manipulate the vinyl records in order to modify sounds, slowing them down, warping them or passing them into a loop. These manipulations are necessary to the construction of a du rable rhythm by the mixing of short breaks. The re-appropriation of knowledge has always been pre sent in human activity, in different forms, but the advent of the sampler has upset the pre existing metaphysical relationship between creation and memory. Indeed, by faithfully retrieving recorded pieces ready to be recombined, the memory no longer works as a catalyst. The combined effect of the dormant memory/recall binomial implements internal re-composition, a metabolism that plays on memory by default. But the sampler, on the contrary, pushes the process of fabrication to the surface, turning it into a conscious act, like collage, thus relating it to an aesthetic of superposition, medley and fusion. References Leatherbarrow. D, Mostafavi. M, Surface Architecture Skin+Bones ; Parallel Practieces in Fashion and Architecture, Thames Hudson, London, 2007 McLuhan. M, Understanding Media; The Extensions of Man, 2002 Bru E, New Territories New Landscapes, ACTAR, 1997 Herausgeber, Atlas of Shrinking Cities, HATJE CANTZ, 2004 Juhani. P, The eyes of the skin; architecture and the senses, London:Academy Editions,1996 Morphosis, Architecture and Urbanism, A+U, 1994 This quote was taken from Walter Benjamins Paris: Capital of the Nineteenth Century, cited in Sexuality and Space, ed. Beatrize Colomina (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1992) 74. Matthew Goulash, 39 Micro Lectures in Proximity of Performance (London and New York: Routledge, 2000) 190. Salvator Settis, forward, Irresistable Decay: Ruins Reclaimed, by Michael S. Roth (Los Angeles, CA: The Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1997) vii. William Faulkner making meaning out of the memory of architecture

Free Siddhartha Essays: Finding the Truth :: Hesse Siddhartha Essays

Finding Truth in Siddhartha In Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha, a classic novel about enlightenment, the main character, Siddhartha, goes on a lifelong journey of self-discovery. Along the way, Siddhartha encounters many who try to teach him enlightenment, undoubtedly the most important being the Buddha himself. Although Siddhartha rejects the Buddha's teachings, saying that wisdom cannot be taught, we can see, nevertheless, that along his journey for understanding Siddhartha encounters the Four Noble Truths that are a central theme in Buddhism: suffering, the cause of suffering, the end of suffering, and the middle path. The First Noble Truth is The Truth of Suffering. If people examine their own experiences, or look at the world around them, they will see that life is full of suffering. In the novel, Siddhartha experiences the two forms of suffering - physical and mental. Physical suffering can come in many forms - disease, ageing, injury. Siddhartha experiences physical suffering as a young man when he joins the ascetics or Samanas. As a Samana, Siddhartha learns to fast, to tolerate extreme heat and cold, and to endure pain through meditation. Siddhartha's life as a samana is bitter, and he learns that "life [is] pain" (p.11). Siddhartha experiences mental pain in the second half of his life when he begins a contrasting existence of pleasure, and then again when he meets his only son. After leaving the Samanas, Siddhartha begins a life of decadence in the house of a wealthy merchant and in the company of a beautiful courtesan. Though at first Siddhartha remains apart from their daily troubles, as the years go by Siddhartha himself begins to value money, fine wine, and material possessions. Because of this "a thin mist, a weariness [settles] on Siddhartha," (p. 63) and he is engulfed in mental pain. Later, after ridding himself of the pain of the life of a wealthy merchant by becoming a simple ferryman, Siddhartha again experiences mental anguish when he meets his son. Siddhartha immediately falls in love with his arrogant 11-year-old son, whom he has never seen before. But the son despises his father and his simple life, and after a short time runs away. Siddhartha becomes restless and worried, again experiencing great mental anguish. As he goes along his journey, Siddhartha realizes The Second Noble Truth - that the direct cause of suffering is desire.

Influenza, Avian Influenza, and the Impacts of Past and Looming Pandemi

Influenza, Avian Influenza, and the Impacts of Past and Looming Pandemics Avian influenza is a disease that has been wreaking havoc on human populations since the 16th century. With the recent outbreak in 1997 of a new H5N1 avian flu subtype, the world has begun preparing for a pandemic by looking upon its past affects. In the 20th Century, the world witnessed three pandemics in the years of 1918, 1957, and 1968. In 1918 no vaccine, antibiotic, or clear recognition of the disease was known. Killing over 40 million in less than a year, the H1N1 strain ingrained a deep and lasting fear of the virus throughout the world. Though 1957 and 1968 brought on milder pandemics, they still killed an estimated 3 million people and presented a new problem of vaccine manufacturing and production. The new avian flu in Asia now claiming 54 lives has the world rushing to find a vaccine and prevent another, even more deadly pandemic Influenza is a pathogenic virus that has been the cause deadly pandemics throughout recorded history. Influenza is caused by an A or B virus, the more deadly of the two is influenza A which derives from the avian species and initiates pandemics in the human population (Levison, 2004). The genomes in influenza viruses are divided into eight parts of RNA. Influenza A viruses are named by the two sets of proteins that protrude from the surface of the cell. The first protein is haemaglottin, or HA, which determines binding and cell entry. There are fifteen HA subtypes with H1, H2, and H3 most common in human infection (WHO, 2005). The second of the two proteins is neuraminidase (NA) that presides over the release of virus DNA from infected cells into host cells. There are nine subtypes of the NA protein (WHO, 2005). The ... ...ration of international health organization on vaccine development, education of medical professionals on safety and protection, and increase of public awareness on basic prevention. Though H5N1 Impacts of Past and Looming Pandemics 7 has only claimed 54 lives, science must compete with nature to assure the lives of millions more. Impacts of Past and Looming Pandemics 8 Bibliography CDC. (2005, May). General Information On Avian Flu. Center of Disease Control and Prevention. July 7, 2005, http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/gen-info/facts.htm Levison, M. (2004). Infections of Leisure. Washington D.C.: ASN Press Ruben, F. (2005). Influenza: Getting Our Attention. Clinical Infectious Diseases, (40), p. 1697. World health Organization. (2005, June). Avian Influenza: Assessing the Pandemic Threat. WHO. July 5, 2005, www.who.int/csr/disease/influenza/H5N1-9reduit.pdf.

Problem With Human Cloning Essay -- Human Cloning Essays

Cloning by definition taken from the Oxford Dictionary is a plant or an animal that produced naturally or artificially from the cells of another plant or animal and so the same as it. The first cloned adult mammal is a sheep named Dolly. The aim of research into human cloning has never been to clone people, or to make babies. The original aim of human cloning research is to get stem cell to cure a disease. It is inevitable that one day this knowledge of human cloning would be abused. As time goes by, the scientist started to think deeply and this is how the concept of cloned human being introduced. There are a few reasons why the human cloning is illegal by the laws. Human cloning research faces with many problems since it first announced in public such as it is an unethical process, increases the mortality of infants and producing a mutant product. Background Paragraph First human cloning ideas introduced into public consciousness in the Future Shock, the book written by Alvin Toffler in 1970. He was quoted as written â€Å"One of the more fantastic possibilities is that man will be able to make biological carbon copies of himself†¦Cloning would make it possible for people to see themselves anew, to fill the world with twins of themselves† (Amy Logston, 1999). On February 24, 1997, the using of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) in 1996 to produce the first cloned adult mammal, Dolly, the sheep, by the scientist was announced into public (Judith A. Johnson, 2006) had improved what Alvin has written in his book. Today, scientists are still learning and searching the correct ways and method in human cloning process in order to open the public minds to accept it. Dolly was a popular symbol of both the great possibilities of scie... ...l do not approve the human cloning processes. What will happen if the laws start to approve it? People will have their own identical cloned and world will full with the cloned human. If cloning were your only possible chance to have a child, would you use this kind of method and agree with this treatment? Try to think the advantages and disadvantages of human cloning, you will find the answer with your own reason. Perhaps in the future, all the disadvantages of human cloning process can be fixed and the public will able to accept the role of human cloning. Works Cited Arlene Judith Klotzko, 2004. A Clone of Your Own?. Oxford University Press.New York. Hwa A.Lim. 2002. Genetically Yours Bioinforming.Biopharming.Biofarming. World Scientific Publishing. London. Louis-Marie Houndebine. 2003. Animal Transgenesis and Cloning. John Wiley & Sons Ltd. England.

The Social Penetration Theory & the Uncertain Reduction Theory

Uncertainty reduction theory This theory comes to explain the uncertainty among people who communicate with each other and how different types of communication will help to reduce the uncertainty. As a starting point, the developers of this theory (Charles Berger and Richard Calabrese) stated that uncertainty is an unpleasant feeling, which people prefer to avoid as much as they can. Every person has been confronted with the feeling of uncertainty, rather if it was when arriving to new a destination or more commonly when meeting a new person.In order to reduce the unpleasant feeling, people tend to seek information about the uncertain and by that creating more comfortable feelings, and more predictable relationships in case of communication with other people. â€Å"Coping with uncertainty is a central issue in any face-to-face encounter, whether interactants are conscious of this fact or not† (Uncertainty Reduction Theory Then and Now. Charles R. Berger), but when the uncertai nty is reducing automatically the feeling of attraction (not only physically) start to emerge.In the heart of this theory, Berger and Calabrese connected uncertainty with seven concepts that are in the base of communication: verbal output, nonverbal warmth, information seeking, self-disclosure, reciprocity of disclosure, similarity, and liking. On top of that, they stated that communication reduces uncertainty, and motivation to come over the unpleasant feeling of uncertainty will occur in three situations, and in those situations people will be more likely to reduce their uncertainty level: †¢There are incentives to one of the sides (What this person can do for me? . †¢Expecting future interaction (New unfamiliar roommate). †¢Unexpected / unusual behavior from the other side There is also three basic ways in which people seeking information about another person: †¢Passive strategies – observing the other person, without him knowing he being watched. †¢Active strategies – usually will be done through asking third parties for information about the person you are interested in. †¢Interactive strategies – direct contact and connection with the other person.Sales & the Uncertainty reduction theory â€Å"There are at least two ways uncertainty is relevant to interpersonal communication processes. First, in the broad sense, uncertainty reduction is a vital concern for the conduct of almost any communicative transaction. Second, uncertainty reduction’s impact on interpersonal relationships can be looked at in a more narrow sense; that is, the role-played by uncertainty reduction in the prediction of specific relationship outcomes.The broader role of uncertainty reduction concerns the interaction process itself, whereas the narrow sense concerns the outcomes of the interaction† (Charles Berger). The interpersonal communication process is crucial for any sales person in any kind of industry no matter what kind of products / services he or she trying to promote or sell. The essence of building relationship is the uncertainty reduction theory as the two sides (more important for the sales person) trying to discover the person who stands in front of him.Definitely being able to help to the other person to know more about yourself (the salesperson point of view), will help in the purpose of reducing his uncertainty and uncomfortable feelings he deals with, while developing relationship with the salesperson. Assuming I am a salesperson, first thing in the process of building relationship (before the first contact with a customer) is to use the passive and active strategies in order to gather as much information I can about my customer.Form the moment the first meeting was conducted, I will use the interactive strategy as I wish my customer will know everything he want to know about me (or about the product / service I wish to promote),and by that making him feel more comfortable and not vulnerable. The purpose of using this theory expressed best in the course book â€Å"SELL†, It was mentioned that â€Å"The more the sales person knows, the easier it is to build trust and gain the confidence of the buyer. Buyers have certain expectations of the salesperson and the knowledge that he or she brings to the table†.This quote reflects best why a salesperson must use the uncertainty reduction theory in order to achieve his goals. As a salesperson, I should adjust my content and tactic toward my customer habits; this is another reason why it is important to use the three ways for gathering information according to the uncertainty reduction theory (Active, Passive and Interpersonal). The Social Penetration Theory This theory takes the theory of Berger and Calabrese one step deeper, as it xamines more deeply the interpersonal relationship / communication between two or more parties. The theory developed by Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor (1973), in which they st ated that as relationship develop, it become deeper and deeper, from non-intimate levels through to more personal levels. This method also called ‘Onion analogy’, as the intimacy grows and time pass by, more layers of the personality revealed to the other side, that is also the way social penetration is being made, through self disclosure.According to this theory, the disclosure goes through few stages: Orientation stage, exploratory affective stage, affective stage, stable stage and de-penetration stage. Each stage reflects the level of intimacy / level of familiarity with another person. Number of studies examined this theory, all agreed that development of relationship between people come together with development from knowing peripherals aspects of personality into deeper aspects. The theory of social penetration provides a framework for describing the development of interpersonal relationship. These behaviors include exchange of information, exchange of expressions of positive and negative affect, and mutual activities† (The development of interpersonal relationship: social penetration processes). The salesperson should be aware both to his personality, together with the customer personality, and to understand to which level of intimacy the customer is willing to reach / or to which level he want to get with the customer. Sales & The Social Penetration TheorySalespersons should understand the implications of the social penetration theory on the best side in order to create long term relationship between them (or the company they are represent) and their consumers. These days any business, no matter how big it is, wishes to create base of loyal customers who had good experience with the business directly or through the business sales force. From that reason, the business sales force has to be skilled in the aspect of interpersonal relationship. For example, a salesperson who skips the levels / stages of disclosure (according to theory) w ill fail in his purpose of ‘capturing the customer’.On top of that, his self-disclosure should be done precisely as well and he should not give to much information about himself or the product / service in the early stages of the relationship. â€Å"Most service marketers today recognize the importance of keeping customers and making them into better customers (Berry 1983). In marketing whole life insurance (and, perhaps, similar services), the sales-person's ability to affect the customer's commitment and dependency on the provider may be determined largely by the interpersonal relationship he or she establishes with the customer.Likewise, in service contexts characterized by continuous exchange activity and considerable purchase uncertainty, the long-term interests of the customer may be best served by initiating and maintaining enduring relationships with salespeople† (Relationship Quality in Services Selling: An Interpersonal Influence Perspective). As mentio ned in the quote above, establishing good interpersonal relationship between the salesperson and the customer is crucial for any business these days.Moreover, in order to create good brand name for the business, the salesperson must have the ability to answer all the expectations of the customer, and to be trustworthy while doing so. The key issue for salesperson when he implicate the social penetration theory is not to hurry thing too much, for instance he can’t be intimate with the customer at the early stages of the relationship. He should be peaceful, and should have the ability to give the customer the opportunity to disclose himself and not to push him into the corner and by that scare him away.

Business Law in Accounting

Accounting is the system of recording, reporting and verifying financial information for individuals and businesses, including income, expenses, value of assets, and so on. However, Business Law I, takes what is normally known of accounting and moves into another arena, one which includes civil and criminal liabilities, contract law, ethics and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. By establishing the basics in Business Law, accountants are able to understand the risks of their particular profession. Accountants are faced with civil and criminal liabilities which are based on the accountant’s ability to do his or her job effectively and legally. Accountants face civil liabilities when they do not complete the work satisfactorially to what was agreed to. Even â€Å"Codes of Ethics† urge accountants to not agree to do work that they know they do not have the knowledge or time to complete. Competency is a key element to being a successful accountant, and not meeting competency goals can cause problems for young accountants entering the field. By understanding the basics of contract law, it is easier for accountants to find the necessary information to allow them to do their jobs competently. If accountants know that it takes mutual consideration, or a â€Å"meeting of the minds,† to begin contract negotiations, then they can figure if they are reviewing a contract, some type of mutual consideration must have occurred, as well as a proposal and acceptance portion of the conversation. Also, if an accountant knows that the contract is for the sale of goods, then the accountant would know that the UCC Article 2 has to be used, instead of simple contract law. Knowing this would help the accountant understand how the asset or products purchased needed to be accounted for, because without detailed information in the contract, UCC Article I gap filling procedures take place. These procedures are an attempt to take vagueness and give it some detail, but the gap filling detail is not much better than the original, thus the accountant can still be stuck, lost, not knowing how to account for a particular product, and not knowing at which time responsibility and risk for the product exchanges hands. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was signed into law in 2002 by George W. Bush. The original thought behind SOX was to regulate the accounting profession, due to the greed that had resulted in huge economic crashes amongst top corporations such as Enron and WorldCom. SOX assisted in setting up regulatory organizations for each facet of the accounting process. These organizations are designed to ensure that accounting practices and auditing practices are ethical, legal and professional for public U. S. companies. Unfortunately, SOX does not regulate private companies, but private companies cannot create financial hardships for outside investors, so private companies are not in need of these type of regulations. Business Law I helped create an understanding amongst the students regarding what is actually expected of them once work as an accountant begins. A naive accountant would believe that all he or she needed to do was ensure that the data being entered in is correct and if not, fix it through a series of journal entries. However, after taking this class, it is apparent that this is an incorrect assumption. Understanding the civil and criminal liabilities that can be charged due to negligence or fraud, whether intentional or not, is incredibly important to accountants and CPA’s. Without understanding these potential problems, an accountant would not be able to understand the level of the problem, or be able to assess the gravity of the situation, whatever that situation may be. Even though accounting is a financial profession that takes the value of income, expenses, assets, and other items, and reports, analyzes, records and verifies these amounts, Business Law allows for the review of the profession in general. Accountants have to understand what is legally expected of them when working with client’s records and reports, and how these legal expectations can be brought upon them, and what their rights are. Without understanding the responsibility and risk that takes place for a company, an accountant would not understand why it is so important to establish ownership and when that particular ownership exchanges hands. Accountants also must understand what risks and responsibilities their particular profession run as well, and ensure that they are competently performing their jobs so that there is no question as to if an accountant was negligent, or was derilect in the performance of his or her duty.