Search Results (813)

The concept of awareness in the visual arts has become an ethical, professional, and social imperative. Adopting a sustainable approach to creative practice is no longer a trend but an established and necessary field of inquiry. Within this context, awareness has been expressed not only through eco-branding and design campaigns but also through artworks and contemporary artistic practices that embody sustainable values both aesthetically and philosophically. Visual arts thus function as a reflective and critical tool, capable of reassessing past and present paradigms, encouraging more responsible uses of resources, promoting environmental sustainability, and shaping public attitudes through conscious and critical forms of expression. This study adopts a qualitative approach to examine transformations in contemporary art practices within the Saudi Arabian art scene. Selected artworks are analysed to explore historical and conceptual narratives shaping artistic production. The research is based on a bibliographic and documentary review that includes academic literature, exhibition catalogues and press sources related to the Saudi cultural context. Data are gathered through observing artworks and, where possible, through interviews with artists. A comparative analysis was developed, with the study framed by art practices, their concepts, and their ecological contributions, leading to a sustainable awareness and their potential role in encouraging social change. The comparative study among artists provides an innovative research framework and initiates a broader dialogue on sustainable creative practices rooted in Saudi cultural contexts. The findings highlight how visual arts contribute to ecological awareness and climate activism through art installations, recycled materials, and digital practices, reinforcing sustainability as a core value within contemporary Saudi society. Full article

Contemporary cultural infrastructure globally faces a critical architectural challenge: balancing the demand for spatial adaptability (e.g., flexible layouts, interactive technologies) with the absolute necessity of inclusive access for diverse demographics. This tension is particularly acute in rapidly urbanizing environments. However, current research lacks integrated methodologies to systematically evaluate these intersecting issues. This paper addresses this gap by developing a systematic, multi-method framework for post-occupancy evaluation (POE). To empirically illustrate and test the applicability of this framework, a comparative multi-case study was conducted in Wuhan, China, focusing on two distinct exhibition hall typologies within the Hubei Science and Technology Museum and the Qintai Art Museum. Grounded in environmental psychology, the methodology systematically triangulates spatial mapping, behavioral observation, and semi-structured interviews. The empirical application reveals that while highly adaptive elements enhance curatorial flexibility, they frequently introduce unintended cognitive barriers that disproportionately exclude vulnerable visitor groups. For the international research community, this study contributes a culturally responsive evaluation protocol, providing researchers with operational tools to systematically decode the socio-spatial frictions between adaptable exhibition design and universal inclusivity. Full article

This paper examines the influence of Aldous Huxley’s dystopian vision—particularly Brave New World—on Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet, arguing that Smith’s post-Brexit novels can be read as contemporary, politically embedded responses to the dystopian tradition Huxley helped establish. While Smith’s fiction is rarely labelled dystopian in genre, the Quartet is deeply informed by a dystopic sense of cultural, ecological, and political decay in 21st-century Britain. I propose that Smith adopts and adapts key dystopian motifs from Huxley but repurposes them through a radical humanist lens that privileges relationality, art, and memory as sources of resistance and repair. The paper will be structured in three sections. The first outlines Huxley’s dystopian framework, with a focus on Brave New World’s criticism of technological control, emotional appeasement, and the suppression of dissent through pleasure. The second analyzes Smith’s Seasonal Quartet as a world not governed by totalitarian regimes but by apathy, misinformation, and ideological fragmentation. The final section traces Smith’s divergence from Huxley: where Huxley’s world often excludes hope in favor of bleak satire, Smith inserts gestures of resistance, particularly through intergenerational friendships, the presence of art and literature, and the recurrence of seasonal cycles as metaphors for renewal. Although Autumn explicitly references Huxley’s Brave New World, sustained critical comparisons between the two authors remain relatively rare. Most scholarship approaches Huxley through the tradition of twentieth-century dystopian fiction, while Smith’s Quartet is typically discussed within the context of Brexit literature and contemporary narrative experimentation. Reading the Quartet alongside Huxley, therefore, reveals an unexpected dialogue between early twentieth-century dystopian critique and twenty-first-century literary responses to political crisis. Full article

The degradation of works of art constitutes a significant problem for the preservation of cultural heritage. In the case of paintings, the observed alterations can be physical, chemical, or visual, affecting both the integrity and appearance of the artworks. Degradation compromises the authenticity, aesthetic legibility, and historical value of paintings, making the early monitoring of such issues, as well as the development of appropriate conservation and restoration strategies, essential. For an effective approach, the characterisation of the materials and techniques used by the artist, as well as the degradation processes inherent in the materials used, proves to be crucial. In this context, the application of artificial intelligence (AI) emerges as a non-invasive solution capable of detecting and predicting degradation in works of art. This bibliographic review aims to explore existing studies in this field in depth, with special attention to contemporary paintings considered as case studies. The methodology involved a systematic review of peer-reviewed studies, theses, and interdisciplinary databases, using keywords related to the topic under investigation (e.g., “degradation detection,” “artificial intelligence,” “craquelure segmentation”). The results indicate that artificial intelligence enables the early detection of degradations that may not yet be visible to the naked eye while also improving objectivity and consistency in the analysis of complex and irregular patterns typical of paintings. It became evident that there is a significant gap in the literature, regarding studies addressing the potential of AI for degradation detection specific to contemporary paintings. However, these could be a valuable case study given their potential material and technical heterogeneity, as well as their differences from traditional easel paintings. Full article

The history of pictorial space can be understood as a history of visual artifice, perceptual constructions, and material illusions inscribed on the painted surface. This article examines some fundamental milestones in the relationship between pictorial surface and space through a comparative analysis spanning from the modern tradition to contemporary painting, with special attention to the work of Claude Monet and Mark Rothko. It studies those pictorial strategies capable of generating perceptual ambiguity and uncertainty in the observer as a source of aesthetic and emotional experience. Starting from the conical perspective as a historical device for representing space on a two-dimensional surface, the work analyses its progressive dissolution at the end of the 19th century and the emergence of new spatial resources based on colour, matter and the organisation of the pictorial surface. In this context, painting abandons traditional optical illusion to explore forms of perceptual spatiality that can be as tangible as constructed architecture. Taking an interdisciplinary approach that links art theory, the history of painting and visual analysis, the article contributes to our understanding of the ways in which materials, pictorial methods and compositional strategies shape spatial experiences in modern and contemporary painting. Full article

Contemporary art conservation increasingly relies on digital technologies capable of delivering accurate, non-invasive documentation across multiple scales. Within this framework, the study addresses the challenges of documenting and monitoring artworks integrated into historical architectural contexts, proposing an interdisciplinary and need-driven approach where conservation requirements guide technological choices. The methodology combines four survey techniques (static and mobile laser scanning, photogrammetry, and structured-light acquisition) to evaluate their effectiveness within a multi-scale workflow supporting conservation-oriented documentation. The workflow is tested on the Centro per la Scultura Contemporanea in Cagli, Italy, a museum where contemporary installations are structurally and conceptually connected within the historical architectural space. The paper presents a comparative assessment of the four sensors, considering both qualitative and quantitative parameters. Comparative analyses of the resulting point clouds was carried out using cloud-to-cloud distance measurements with a terrestrial laser scanning dataset as reference. Error distribution and geometric deviations are assessed to evaluate the performance of each sensor according to the scale and purpose of the survey. The results demonstrate that accessible and portable instruments can produce datasets targeted at conservation processes, when integrated within coherent digital workflows, in which architectural, spatial, and object-scale models are combined to create a digital documentation framework. Full article

This article examines the context and aims of We Feed the UK: a multi-site series of arts projects and exhibitions, organised by the Gaia Foundation, that were exhibited at venues across the United Kingdom from February 2024 to June 2025. These aims were to celebrate and advocate for diverse regenerative food production businesses and community initiatives through poetry and photography. The featured enterprises combine food production with objectives such as biodiversity renewal, community development, mental health support and social justice, and the article proposes that this combination of environmental advocacy and affective social issues appeals to a wide and diverse audience. It supports this proposal through an examination of the first photography project in the series: Johannes Pretorius’s Intervention and Renewal, that engaged with a Cumbrian dairy farm that successfully combines biodiversity regeneration, organic agriculture and educational initiatives. Drawing upon Actor–Network Theory and notions of time as they pertain to the photograph, this examination reveals a project that offers both familiar imagery of British pastoral tropes, and the contemporary realities of the British food production system. As such it offers multiple points of engagement for audiences, and an effective entry point for the We Feed the UK programme. Full article

Contemporary studies of religious modernity tend to view faith systems as static traditions that resist secularization. Although it has recently been acknowledged that local religions may be resilient, scholars often overlook the internal creativity of action that enables such faiths to actively navigate secular constraints. To address this gap, this study investigates a shamanistic folk religion, the Moed faith, to answer a critical question: How can a marginalized religious system innovate to survive within a strict secular order without compromising its spiritual principles? This paper proposes Performative Adaptation as a mechanism of religious creativity by combining historical analysis and ethnographic data through the lens of Actor-Network Theory. It argues that the Moed faith reassembles itself as a dynamic ritual-art continuum rather than remaining a fixed entity. The findings reveal that practitioners actively separate ritual form from function, transforming sacred exorcism chants into the secular performing art of Modlaenz to secure Intangible Cultural Heritage status. Furthermore, this adaptation fosters a transnational Pan-Tai spiritual community, turning rigid geopolitical borders into zones of cultural contact. Ultimately, this research challenges the view of religion as merely a repository of tradition, demonstrating that faith systems can actively engage in institutional innovation and identity construction. Full article

This article examines Mike Kelley’s Educational Complex (1995) and his culminating public artwork, Mobile Homestead (2005–2013), as speculative architectures that negotiate the fraught intersections of pedagogy, memory, and public engagement. While Educational Complex mobilizes the language of architectural models and dioramas to materialize “blanks” as forms of pedagogical repression and institutional affiliation, Mobile Homestead extends this inquiry into public space through a community-oriented artwork that simultaneously invites access and withholds subterranean, private zones. Situating these projects within discourses of socially engaged and public art, the article argues that Kelley stages a productive paradox: his sustained skepticism toward public art’s political agency is folded into works that nonetheless generate collective encounters, informal pedagogies, and disaffiliated publics. Read together, these speculative architectures reconceptualize failure, disobedience, and disaffiliation not as negations of public engagement, but as critical strategies for exposing institutional complicity while constructing alternative architectures of memory, play, and social relation. By repositioning Kelley—often read primarily through psychoanalytic frameworks—as a pivotal yet overlooked figure in the histories of socially engaged and public art, the article unsettles prevailing narratives of community, resistance, and the public good. Full article

Pneumatic actuators are widely used components for industrial automation, primarily due to their high power-to-volume ratio, high speed, simplicity of use, and the ease with which they can satisfy applications’ motion requirements. The accurate evaluation of the energy consumption in pneumatic systems is a topic of increasing importance due to contemporary attention to sustainability. Actuators of the same size have different pneumatic energy needs depending on the specific function they must accomplish, in terms of displacement, force, operational speed, and motion time. The dedicated literature focuses either on the best practices for the configuration of the circuit or on the pneumatic energy consumption in specific sections of the system; when electrical energy consumption is treated, only steady-state conditions are considered. Starting from this state of the art, this paper proposes a new general procedure for the assessment of the electrical energy required to perform specific functions in industrial machinery that relies on pneumatic actuators. The procedure is based on the evaluation of the air mass consumption of the actuator considering its actual application requirements, either through experimental measurements performed on the machinery or through a numerical simulation of the system. Regarding the numerical approach, an experimentally validated dynamic multi-domain model of the pneumatic system is proposed to also properly analyse the relevant transient behaviour. Starting from the evaluation of the air mass consumption, the procedure outlines how to calculate the corresponding electrical energy requirements, considering the application requirements and the operating point of the compressor. To this end, the procedure also includes a method to tailor the ISO 1217 standard to the actual working conditions of the compressor. The procedure, which enables the accurate mapping of the requirements placed by the application on the pneumatic actuator to the ultimately required electrical energy inputs, is validated through several simulations of real cyclic application cases. The results in terms of electrical energy consumption are compared to those obtained with the traditional method based on the steady-state behaviour of the system; the comparison shows that the proposed procedure evaluates the energy consumption with greater accuracy in applications characterized by highly dynamic work cycles. Full article

Visual learning is not merely a form of visual memory—the ability to associate an object of learning with its spatial and temporal context—or simply an explanatory aid or instrumental support, as is often assumed. The kind of visual learning addressed here aligns, more broadly, with the notion of visual thinking as conceived in the 1960s by Rudolf Arnheim, the German psychologist and art historian, for whom art and expressive forms help us understand the world, generate active and creative comprehension, and organize one’s interpretative universe. The aim, therefore, is not to describe didactic practices that employ images, maps, videos, or simulations, but to go beyond the apparent familiarity of the topic and ask: When and how does the visual dimension foster learning? And, above all, what role does the image play within the educational process? Historically, the visual has been assigned an instrumental function—or so it was believed. Yet one might doubt that this fully captures the experiences of Leonardo, Giotto, or Michelangelo. Can we truly think that sketches or elaborated images have ever been mere mnemonic aids? In both art and education, images do far more than illustrate or serve as tools for remembering, orienting, or recognizing. Especially today, in the presence of technological interference, the visual covers broader horizons: it is used to generate information, explain complex concepts, and produce new experiences—and possibly even new forms of knowledge. In a world saturated with images, there emerges a growing risk of simplification and trivialization: images abound, yet meaning often escapes us. We distrust images, and perhaps we have never truly learned how to read them. Here lies a crucial anthropological fracture: between the mnemonic and the constructive functions of the visual, genuine visual literacy is often missing. A broad methodological approach is therefore needed—one that, through theoretical, historical, and pedagogical analyses, can problematize the educational use of images beyond their mere instrumental dimension. Such reflection must draw from aesthetic and philosophical traditions while acknowledging technological influences and maintaining a clear focus on the specific contexts of contemporary teaching and learning. Full article

Background: Minimally invasive aortic valve replacement (MIAVR) via transaxillary access, right anterior thoracotomy (RAT), and ministernotomy has matured from niche innovation to guideline-endorsed standard, yet comparative data remain heterogeneous and fragmented. Objectives: This state-of-the-art review synthesizes contemporary evidence to define the role of each approach within modern valve care pathways. Methods: A PRISMA 2020 systematic review with PROSPERO registration identified studies reporting outcomes of isolated AVR performed through transaxillary, RAT, or ministernotomy access. Primary endpoints were 30-day mortality, operative times, and length of stay; secondary endpoints included complications, long-term survival, learning curves, and patient-reported outcomes. Results: Forty-two studies encompassing 15,328 patients were included: transaxillary (n = 2156), RAT (n = 4892), and ministernotomy (n = 8280). All approaches achieved excellent perioperative safety (mortality 0.4–2.5%) and long-term survival comparable to full sternotomy, while consistently reducing blood loss, transfusion, ventilation time, and hospital stay. Ministernotomy offered the broadest anatomical applicability and the shortest learning curve (20–30 cases). RAT combined complete sternal preservation, the lowest bleeding rates, and superior cosmetic and functional recovery in anatomically suitable patients. Transaxillary access provided hidden scarring and attractive options in redo or sternum-avoidance scenarios, but higher reported stroke rates (2.0–6.3%) and greater technical demands limited its use to high-volume centers. Conclusions: MIAVR via ministernotomy, RAT, and transaxillary access now represents a mature, durable alternative to full sternotomy. A structured, anatomy- and center experience-driven selection strategy is essential to fully realize its benefits across diverse patient populations. Full article

The accelerating pace of global urbanisation is reshaping planning agendas toward integrating urban nature, yet dominant approaches continue to rely on designed or controlled interventions to produce engineered approximations of spontaneity. This study presents Rome as a striking example of spontaneous urban nature, where wild flora has reclaimed ruins, walls, and neglected spaces for centuries without planned intervention. By “wild” or spontaneous vegetation, this paper refers to unmanaged, self-seeding flora that establishes itself without deliberate planting, irrigation, or maintenance, colonising ruins, walls, abandoned lots, and urban margins through autonomous ecological processes. The paper adopts a critical narrative synthesis methodology, integrating historical–cultural evidence, contemporary ecological data drawn from peer-reviewed biodiversity surveys within Rome’s urban boundary, and a spatial analysis of georeferenced historical cartographic sources to build an interpretive framework for what is here called passive coexistence. The key findings demonstrate that Rome’s sub-Mediterranean climate and centuries of aesthetic conditioning through visual arts, literature, and film have together produced a tacit social acceptance of spontaneous vegetation, effectively substituting for the deliberate education campaigns and designed interventions required in comparable cities. The study proposes an alternative narrative of spontaneous urban nature, guided by ecological monitoring and grounded in heritage planning frameworks. Despite context-specific limits, Rome’s passive coexistence paradigm offers a provocation and existing proof for more-than-human cities that seek resilience without the resource burden of engineered green infrastructure. Full article

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) presents unique clinical and biological characteristics that distinguish it from other head and neck malignancies. It poses a great therapeutic challenge for many specialists. It is associated with Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) infection, genetic predisposition, and environmental risk factors. With advancements in radiotherapy and systemic therapy, new treatment options have emerged. We want to focus on contemporary therapeutic strategies for NPC, emphasizing breakthroughs in intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), chemoradiotherapy, targeted therapy, immunotherapy, and emerging cellular therapies. By integrating recent discoveries with clinical evidence, we aim to provide state-of-the-art information, along with a comprehensive understanding of current best practices, emerging treatments, and critical prognostic determinants in NPC. Full article

The conventional classification of multiple sclerosis (MS) into relapsing–remitting, secondary progressive, and primary progressive phenotypes has long guided diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutic decision-making. However, accumulating evidence indicates that disability accumulation frequently occurs independently of clinical relapses, challenging relapse-centric and phenotype-based models of disease evolution. The concept of progression independent of relapse activity (PIRA) has emerged as a clinically relevant framework capturing this phenomenon across MS phenotypes. In this state-of-the-art narrative review, we propose a spectrum-based reinterpretation of MS, integrating PIRA with concepts of smouldering-associated worsening and neurologic reserve. We highlight the heterogeneity of relapse-independent worsening, distinguishing transient from persistent PIRA, and discuss how ageing-related decline in compensatory capacity contributes to the clinical unmasking of progression over time. Within this framework, secondary progressive MS is redefined as the clinically recognizable accumulation of persistent relapse-independent worsening, while primary progressive MS is conceptualized as early predominance of clinically manifest progression due to limited reserve rather than a distinct disease entity. Finally, we examine diagnostic and therapeutic implications of a spectrum-based model in the contemporary era, emphasizing the limitations of relapse-centric treatment strategies and unmet needs in addressing progression-related biology. By reframing MS as a dynamic continuum shaped by the interaction between ongoing pathology and evolving neurologic reserve, this review aims to support earlier recognition of clinically meaningful progression and to inform more biology-aware approaches to disease monitoring and therapy. Full article