Author: Jurgen Brockmoller
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889740293
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 145
Book Description
Around one third of all biologically relevant small molecules are organic cations. These include endogenous substances like catecholamines and other neurotransmitters, toxins and drugs designed to affect signaling processes. The organic cation transporter 1 (OCT1) is among the strongest expressed membrane transporters at the sinusoidal (blood-facing) side of liver cells and contributes substantially to the clearance of the blood from numerous organic cations. A most striking feature of OCT1 is its pronounced genetic diversity. Between 1 and 10% of all human populations have little to no OCT1 activity. With several of the OCT1 substrates up to 10% of Europeans are functionally OCT1 deficient. Apparently, the lack of OCT1 do not lead to apparent substantial pathological changes in these individuals. It thus appears that this transporter is not essential to human life, but does it means that OCT1 is irrelevant? In the last 25 years since the first cloning of this transporter, data on its pharmacological and physiological relevance is steadily accumulating. Numerous clinically relevant drugs (e.g. metformin, morphine, fenoterol, sumatriptan, tramadol and tropisetron) have been shown to be substrates of OCT1, and OCT1 deficiency has been shown to affect the pharmacokinetics, efficacy, or toxicity of these drugs. Also vitamin B1 has been shown to be a substrate of OCT1, and in genetically modified mice OCT1 substantially modulated hepatic lipid metabolism, total body fat and systemic glucose and lipid concentrations. Still, numerous important questions remain unsolved: For which drugs, toxins, or other endogenous or exogenous substances is OCT1 relevant? How can we predict the relevance of OCT1 from in vitro studies? What determines the substrate selectivity of OCT1 in comparison to other transporters or transport processes for organic cations? What regulates the expression of OCT1 in the liver and possibly in other tissues? What is the impact of OCT1 variation in different areas of medicine, including the therapies for cancer as well as for pulmonary, cardiovascular, or neurological diseases? How can evolutionary biology contribute to a better understanding of the roles of OCT1? And, importantly, what types of research are likely to significantly further the knowledge on OCT1 in the next decades?
Muntognas
Author: Alma Zevi
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780993084348
Category : Art, Swiss
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Muntognas, meaning 'Mountains' in the Swiss language of Romansch, the native tongue of the artist, presents eight marble, 'Dali stone' sculptures made by Vital in 2013. Mined in the Yunnan province of China, the marble has been sliced open to reveal the hidden landscapes within, inextricably linking these striking sculptures to Vital's birthplace of Sent, a tiny village in the Engadin valley of the Swiss Alps.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780993084348
Category : Art, Swiss
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Muntognas, meaning 'Mountains' in the Swiss language of Romansch, the native tongue of the artist, presents eight marble, 'Dali stone' sculptures made by Vital in 2013. Mined in the Yunnan province of China, the marble has been sliced open to reveal the hidden landscapes within, inextricably linking these striking sculptures to Vital's birthplace of Sent, a tiny village in the Engadin valley of the Swiss Alps.
Organic Cation Transporter 1 (OCT1): Not Vital for Life, but of Substantial Biomedical Relevance
Author: Jurgen Brockmoller
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889740293
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 145
Book Description
Around one third of all biologically relevant small molecules are organic cations. These include endogenous substances like catecholamines and other neurotransmitters, toxins and drugs designed to affect signaling processes. The organic cation transporter 1 (OCT1) is among the strongest expressed membrane transporters at the sinusoidal (blood-facing) side of liver cells and contributes substantially to the clearance of the blood from numerous organic cations. A most striking feature of OCT1 is its pronounced genetic diversity. Between 1 and 10% of all human populations have little to no OCT1 activity. With several of the OCT1 substrates up to 10% of Europeans are functionally OCT1 deficient. Apparently, the lack of OCT1 do not lead to apparent substantial pathological changes in these individuals. It thus appears that this transporter is not essential to human life, but does it means that OCT1 is irrelevant? In the last 25 years since the first cloning of this transporter, data on its pharmacological and physiological relevance is steadily accumulating. Numerous clinically relevant drugs (e.g. metformin, morphine, fenoterol, sumatriptan, tramadol and tropisetron) have been shown to be substrates of OCT1, and OCT1 deficiency has been shown to affect the pharmacokinetics, efficacy, or toxicity of these drugs. Also vitamin B1 has been shown to be a substrate of OCT1, and in genetically modified mice OCT1 substantially modulated hepatic lipid metabolism, total body fat and systemic glucose and lipid concentrations. Still, numerous important questions remain unsolved: For which drugs, toxins, or other endogenous or exogenous substances is OCT1 relevant? How can we predict the relevance of OCT1 from in vitro studies? What determines the substrate selectivity of OCT1 in comparison to other transporters or transport processes for organic cations? What regulates the expression of OCT1 in the liver and possibly in other tissues? What is the impact of OCT1 variation in different areas of medicine, including the therapies for cancer as well as for pulmonary, cardiovascular, or neurological diseases? How can evolutionary biology contribute to a better understanding of the roles of OCT1? And, importantly, what types of research are likely to significantly further the knowledge on OCT1 in the next decades?
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889740293
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 145
Book Description
Around one third of all biologically relevant small molecules are organic cations. These include endogenous substances like catecholamines and other neurotransmitters, toxins and drugs designed to affect signaling processes. The organic cation transporter 1 (OCT1) is among the strongest expressed membrane transporters at the sinusoidal (blood-facing) side of liver cells and contributes substantially to the clearance of the blood from numerous organic cations. A most striking feature of OCT1 is its pronounced genetic diversity. Between 1 and 10% of all human populations have little to no OCT1 activity. With several of the OCT1 substrates up to 10% of Europeans are functionally OCT1 deficient. Apparently, the lack of OCT1 do not lead to apparent substantial pathological changes in these individuals. It thus appears that this transporter is not essential to human life, but does it means that OCT1 is irrelevant? In the last 25 years since the first cloning of this transporter, data on its pharmacological and physiological relevance is steadily accumulating. Numerous clinically relevant drugs (e.g. metformin, morphine, fenoterol, sumatriptan, tramadol and tropisetron) have been shown to be substrates of OCT1, and OCT1 deficiency has been shown to affect the pharmacokinetics, efficacy, or toxicity of these drugs. Also vitamin B1 has been shown to be a substrate of OCT1, and in genetically modified mice OCT1 substantially modulated hepatic lipid metabolism, total body fat and systemic glucose and lipid concentrations. Still, numerous important questions remain unsolved: For which drugs, toxins, or other endogenous or exogenous substances is OCT1 relevant? How can we predict the relevance of OCT1 from in vitro studies? What determines the substrate selectivity of OCT1 in comparison to other transporters or transport processes for organic cations? What regulates the expression of OCT1 in the liver and possibly in other tissues? What is the impact of OCT1 variation in different areas of medicine, including the therapies for cancer as well as for pulmonary, cardiovascular, or neurological diseases? How can evolutionary biology contribute to a better understanding of the roles of OCT1? And, importantly, what types of research are likely to significantly further the knowledge on OCT1 in the next decades?
Engadin Art Talks
Author: Cristina Bechtler
Publisher: Jrp Ringier
ISBN: 9783037643501
Category : Architecture, Modern
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
This volume compiles ideas and projects from well-known artists, architects, designers, filmmakers and researchers on mountainous regions not only in Switzerland, but worldwide. It includes writings by Vito Acconci, Doug Aitken, Ron Arad, Nairy Baghramian and Jan von Brevern, as well as a discussion on architect Bruno Taut's "Crystal Chain Letters."
Publisher: Jrp Ringier
ISBN: 9783037643501
Category : Architecture, Modern
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
This volume compiles ideas and projects from well-known artists, architects, designers, filmmakers and researchers on mountainous regions not only in Switzerland, but worldwide. It includes writings by Vito Acconci, Doug Aitken, Ron Arad, Nairy Baghramian and Jan von Brevern, as well as a discussion on architect Bruno Taut's "Crystal Chain Letters."
Theatre of the Unimpressed
Author: Jordan Tannahill
Publisher: Coach House Books
ISBN: 177056411X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 161
Book Description
How dull plays are killing theatre and what we can do about it. Had I become disenchanted with the form I had once fallen so madly in love with as a pubescent, pimple-faced suburban homo with braces? Maybe theatre was like an all-consuming high school infatuation that now, ten years later, I saw as the closeted balding guy with a beer gut he’d become. There were of course those rare moments of transcendencethat kept me coming back. But why did they come so few and far between? A lot of plays are dull. And one dull play, it seems, can turn us off theatre for good. Playwright and theatre director Jordan Tannahill takes in the spectrum of English-language drama – from the flashiest of Broadway spectacles to productions mounted in scrappy storefront theatres – to consider where lifeless plays come from and why they persist. Having travelled the globe talking to theatre artists, critics, passionate patrons and the theatrically disillusioned, Tannahill addresses what he considers the culture of ‘risk aversion’ paralyzing the form. Theatre of the Unimpressed is Tannahill’s wry and revelatory personal reckoning with the discipline he’s dedicated his life to, and a roadmap for a vital twenty-first-century theatre – one that apprehends the value of ‘liveness’ in our mediated age and the necessity for artistic risk and its attendant failures. In considering dramaturgy, programming and alternative models for producing, Tannahill aims to turn theatre from an obligation to a destination. ‘[Tannahill is] the poster child of a new generation of (theatre? film? dance?) artists for whom "interdisciplinary" is not a buzzword, but a way of life.’ —J. Kelly Nestruck, Globe and Mail ‘Jordan is one of the most talented and exciting playwrights in the country, and he will be a force to be reckoned with for years to come.’ —Nicolas Billon, Governor General's Award–winning playwright (Fault Lines)
Publisher: Coach House Books
ISBN: 177056411X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 161
Book Description
How dull plays are killing theatre and what we can do about it. Had I become disenchanted with the form I had once fallen so madly in love with as a pubescent, pimple-faced suburban homo with braces? Maybe theatre was like an all-consuming high school infatuation that now, ten years later, I saw as the closeted balding guy with a beer gut he’d become. There were of course those rare moments of transcendencethat kept me coming back. But why did they come so few and far between? A lot of plays are dull. And one dull play, it seems, can turn us off theatre for good. Playwright and theatre director Jordan Tannahill takes in the spectrum of English-language drama – from the flashiest of Broadway spectacles to productions mounted in scrappy storefront theatres – to consider where lifeless plays come from and why they persist. Having travelled the globe talking to theatre artists, critics, passionate patrons and the theatrically disillusioned, Tannahill addresses what he considers the culture of ‘risk aversion’ paralyzing the form. Theatre of the Unimpressed is Tannahill’s wry and revelatory personal reckoning with the discipline he’s dedicated his life to, and a roadmap for a vital twenty-first-century theatre – one that apprehends the value of ‘liveness’ in our mediated age and the necessity for artistic risk and its attendant failures. In considering dramaturgy, programming and alternative models for producing, Tannahill aims to turn theatre from an obligation to a destination. ‘[Tannahill is] the poster child of a new generation of (theatre? film? dance?) artists for whom "interdisciplinary" is not a buzzword, but a way of life.’ —J. Kelly Nestruck, Globe and Mail ‘Jordan is one of the most talented and exciting playwrights in the country, and he will be a force to be reckoned with for years to come.’ —Nicolas Billon, Governor General's Award–winning playwright (Fault Lines)
On Not Dying
Author: Abou Farman
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 1452961905
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 443
Book Description
An ethnographic exploration of technoscientific immortality Immortality has long been considered the domain of religion. But immortality projects have gained increasing legitimacy and power in the world of science and technology. With recent rapid advances in biology, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence, secular immortalists hope for and work toward a future without death. On Not Dying is an anthropological, historical, and philosophical exploration of immortality as a secular and scientific category. Based on an ethnography of immortalist communities—those who believe humans can extend their personal existence indefinitely through technological means—and an examination of other institutions involved at the end of life, Abou Farman argues that secular immortalism is an important site to explore the tensions inherent in secularism: how to accept death but extend life; knowing the future is open but your future is finite; that life has meaning but the universe is meaningless. As secularism denies a soul, an afterlife, and a cosmic purpose, conflicts arise around the relationship of mind and body, individual finitude and the infinity of time and the cosmos, and the purpose of life. Immortalism today, Farman argues, is shaped by these historical and culturally situated tensions. Immortalist projects go beyond extending life, confronting dualism and cosmic alienation by imagining (and producing) informatic selves separate from the biological body but connected to a cosmic unfolding. On Not Dying interrogates the social implications of technoscientific immortalism and raises important political questions. Whose life will be extended? Will these technologies be available to all, or will they reproduce racial and geopolitical hierarchies? As human life on earth is threatened in the Anthropocene, why should life be extended, and what will that prolonged existence look like?
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 1452961905
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 443
Book Description
An ethnographic exploration of technoscientific immortality Immortality has long been considered the domain of religion. But immortality projects have gained increasing legitimacy and power in the world of science and technology. With recent rapid advances in biology, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence, secular immortalists hope for and work toward a future without death. On Not Dying is an anthropological, historical, and philosophical exploration of immortality as a secular and scientific category. Based on an ethnography of immortalist communities—those who believe humans can extend their personal existence indefinitely through technological means—and an examination of other institutions involved at the end of life, Abou Farman argues that secular immortalism is an important site to explore the tensions inherent in secularism: how to accept death but extend life; knowing the future is open but your future is finite; that life has meaning but the universe is meaningless. As secularism denies a soul, an afterlife, and a cosmic purpose, conflicts arise around the relationship of mind and body, individual finitude and the infinity of time and the cosmos, and the purpose of life. Immortalism today, Farman argues, is shaped by these historical and culturally situated tensions. Immortalist projects go beyond extending life, confronting dualism and cosmic alienation by imagining (and producing) informatic selves separate from the biological body but connected to a cosmic unfolding. On Not Dying interrogates the social implications of technoscientific immortalism and raises important political questions. Whose life will be extended? Will these technologies be available to all, or will they reproduce racial and geopolitical hierarchies? As human life on earth is threatened in the Anthropocene, why should life be extended, and what will that prolonged existence look like?
Vital Reenchantments
Author: Lauren Greyson
Publisher: punctum books
ISBN: 1950192075
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 278
Book Description
Not all charms fly at the touch of cold philosophy. Vital Reenchantments examines so-called cold philosophy, or science, that does precisely the opposite - rather than mercilessly emptying out and unweaving, it operates as a philosophy that animates. More specifically, Greyson closely examines how a specific group of "poet-in-scientists" of the late 1970s and 1980s directed attention to the "wondrous" unfolding of life, at a time when the counter-culture in particular had made the institution of science synonymous with technologies of alienation and destruction. In this vein, Vital Reenchantments takes up E.O. Wilson's Biophilia (1984), James Lovelock's Gaia (1979), and Carl Sagan's Cosmos (1980), in order to show how each work fleshes out scientific concepts with a unique attention to "affective wonder," understood as the experience of and attunement to novel effects. What is so unique about these works is that they reenchant the scientific world without pandering to what Richard Dawkins will later term "cosmic sentimentality." Carl Sagan may have said "We are made of starstuff," but he would never insist, as Joni Mitchell did in 1969, that "we've got to get ourselves back to the garden." Instead, they insist on a third way that does not rely on the idea of an ecological Eden - a vigorously vital materialism in which the affective trumps the sentimental. Further, the historical emergence of these works, all published within 5 years of each other, was no accident: each book responded to an ever deepening sense of environmental crisis, certainly, but along with it they responded to, perhaps more than marginally related, narratives of the large-scale disenchantment brought on by modernity or science, and more often than not a mixture of the two. Greyson argues that the persistence of these works and their affectively-charged scientific concepts in contemporary popular culture and ecological thought is no accident. As such, these works deserve recognition as far more than "popular science" and can be seen as essential contributions to more contemporary vital materialist thought and ecological theory. No doubt this talk of enchantment and wonder, so tied to immediate experience, can seem trivial in the face of any number of environmental crises (global warming first among these) that do not just appear ominously on the horizon, but loom as never before. The first task of this book thus to pose the same question that Jane Bennett does at the end of her own work on enchantment: "How can someone write a book about enchantment in such a world?" Does this approach really provide, as Latour phrases it, "a way to bridge the distance between the scale of the phenomena we hear about and the tiny Umwelt inside which we witness, as if it were a fish inside its bowl, an ocean of catastrophes that are supposed to unfold"? Ultimately, Vital Reenchantments argues that affective ecologies, properly attended to, point toward an open present, one that broadens the horizons of the "fish bowl" and allows us to imagine engendering futures that are neither naively hopeful nor hopelessly apocalyptic.
Publisher: punctum books
ISBN: 1950192075
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 278
Book Description
Not all charms fly at the touch of cold philosophy. Vital Reenchantments examines so-called cold philosophy, or science, that does precisely the opposite - rather than mercilessly emptying out and unweaving, it operates as a philosophy that animates. More specifically, Greyson closely examines how a specific group of "poet-in-scientists" of the late 1970s and 1980s directed attention to the "wondrous" unfolding of life, at a time when the counter-culture in particular had made the institution of science synonymous with technologies of alienation and destruction. In this vein, Vital Reenchantments takes up E.O. Wilson's Biophilia (1984), James Lovelock's Gaia (1979), and Carl Sagan's Cosmos (1980), in order to show how each work fleshes out scientific concepts with a unique attention to "affective wonder," understood as the experience of and attunement to novel effects. What is so unique about these works is that they reenchant the scientific world without pandering to what Richard Dawkins will later term "cosmic sentimentality." Carl Sagan may have said "We are made of starstuff," but he would never insist, as Joni Mitchell did in 1969, that "we've got to get ourselves back to the garden." Instead, they insist on a third way that does not rely on the idea of an ecological Eden - a vigorously vital materialism in which the affective trumps the sentimental. Further, the historical emergence of these works, all published within 5 years of each other, was no accident: each book responded to an ever deepening sense of environmental crisis, certainly, but along with it they responded to, perhaps more than marginally related, narratives of the large-scale disenchantment brought on by modernity or science, and more often than not a mixture of the two. Greyson argues that the persistence of these works and their affectively-charged scientific concepts in contemporary popular culture and ecological thought is no accident. As such, these works deserve recognition as far more than "popular science" and can be seen as essential contributions to more contemporary vital materialist thought and ecological theory. No doubt this talk of enchantment and wonder, so tied to immediate experience, can seem trivial in the face of any number of environmental crises (global warming first among these) that do not just appear ominously on the horizon, but loom as never before. The first task of this book thus to pose the same question that Jane Bennett does at the end of her own work on enchantment: "How can someone write a book about enchantment in such a world?" Does this approach really provide, as Latour phrases it, "a way to bridge the distance between the scale of the phenomena we hear about and the tiny Umwelt inside which we witness, as if it were a fish inside its bowl, an ocean of catastrophes that are supposed to unfold"? Ultimately, Vital Reenchantments argues that affective ecologies, properly attended to, point toward an open present, one that broadens the horizons of the "fish bowl" and allows us to imagine engendering futures that are neither naively hopeful nor hopelessly apocalyptic.
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
Author: Anthony Marra
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1448130859
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 420
Book Description
*** Granta Best of Young American Novelists 2017 *** In a snow-covered village in Chechnya, eight-year-old Havaa watches from the woods as her father is abducted in the middle of the night by Russian soldiers. Their life-long friend and neighbour, Akhmed, has also been watching, and when he finds Havaa he knows of only one person who might be able to help. For tough-minded doctor Sonja Rabina, it’s just another day of trying to keep her bombed-out, abandoned hospital going. When Akhmed arrives with Havaa, asking Sonja for shelter, she has no idea who the pair are. But over the course of five extraordinary days, Sonja’s world will shift on its axis, revealing the intricate pattern of connections that binds these three unlikely companions together and unexpectedly decides their fate. 'A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is simply spectacular' Ann Patchett
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1448130859
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 420
Book Description
*** Granta Best of Young American Novelists 2017 *** In a snow-covered village in Chechnya, eight-year-old Havaa watches from the woods as her father is abducted in the middle of the night by Russian soldiers. Their life-long friend and neighbour, Akhmed, has also been watching, and when he finds Havaa he knows of only one person who might be able to help. For tough-minded doctor Sonja Rabina, it’s just another day of trying to keep her bombed-out, abandoned hospital going. When Akhmed arrives with Havaa, asking Sonja for shelter, she has no idea who the pair are. But over the course of five extraordinary days, Sonja’s world will shift on its axis, revealing the intricate pattern of connections that binds these three unlikely companions together and unexpectedly decides their fate. 'A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is simply spectacular' Ann Patchett
Not Vital
Author: Aitor Ortiz
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788494146237
Category : Engadine (Switzerland)
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Not Vital by Aitor Ortiz brings the two artists together in a unique publication in which Ortiz photographs Vital's art in the very landscape that inspired it. A single phrase runs through the publication, weaving through its pages as if guiding us through the mountainous Swiss terrain. With the harsh beauty of the Engadin Valley as backdrop, Basque photographer Aitor Ortiz's dramatic black-and-white images capture the stark contrasts inherent to Vital's work.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788494146237
Category : Engadine (Switzerland)
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Not Vital by Aitor Ortiz brings the two artists together in a unique publication in which Ortiz photographs Vital's art in the very landscape that inspired it. A single phrase runs through the publication, weaving through its pages as if guiding us through the mountainous Swiss terrain. With the harsh beauty of the Engadin Valley as backdrop, Basque photographer Aitor Ortiz's dramatic black-and-white images capture the stark contrasts inherent to Vital's work.
Why Race Still Matters
Author: Alana Lentin
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509535721
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 161
Book Description
'Why are you making this about race?' This question is repeated daily in public and in the media. Calling someone racist in these times of mounting white supremacy seems to be a worse insult than racism itself. In our supposedly post-racial society, surely it’s time to stop talking about race? This powerful refutation is a call to notice not just when and how race still matters but when, how and why it is said not to matter. Race critical scholar Alana Lentin argues that society is in urgent need of developing the skills of racial literacy, by jettisoning the idea that race is something and unveiling what race does as a key technology of modern rule, hidden in plain sight. Weaving together international examples, she eviscerates misconceptions such as reverse racism and the newfound acceptability of 'race realism', bursts the 'I’m not racist, but' justification, complicates the common criticisms of identity politics and warns against using concerns about antisemitism as a proxy for antiracism. Dominant voices in society suggest we are talking too much about race. Lentin shows why we actually need to talk about it more and how in doing so we can act to make it matter less.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509535721
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 161
Book Description
'Why are you making this about race?' This question is repeated daily in public and in the media. Calling someone racist in these times of mounting white supremacy seems to be a worse insult than racism itself. In our supposedly post-racial society, surely it’s time to stop talking about race? This powerful refutation is a call to notice not just when and how race still matters but when, how and why it is said not to matter. Race critical scholar Alana Lentin argues that society is in urgent need of developing the skills of racial literacy, by jettisoning the idea that race is something and unveiling what race does as a key technology of modern rule, hidden in plain sight. Weaving together international examples, she eviscerates misconceptions such as reverse racism and the newfound acceptability of 'race realism', bursts the 'I’m not racist, but' justification, complicates the common criticisms of identity politics and warns against using concerns about antisemitism as a proxy for antiracism. Dominant voices in society suggest we are talking too much about race. Lentin shows why we actually need to talk about it more and how in doing so we can act to make it matter less.
Vital Voids
Author: Andrew Finegold
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 1477323287
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 185
Book Description
The Resurrection Plate, a Late Classic Maya dish, is decorated with an arresting scene. The Maize God, assisted by two other deities, emerges reborn from a turtle shell. At the center of the plate, in the middle of the god’s body and aligned with the point of emergence, there is a curious sight: a small, neatly drilled hole. Art historian Andrew Finegold explores the meanings attributed to this and other holes in Mesoamerican material culture, arguing that such spaces were broadly understood as conduits of vital forces and material abundance, prerequisites for the emergence of life. Beginning with, and repeatedly returning to, the Resurrection Plate, this study explores the generative potential attributed to a wide variety of cavities and holes in Mesoamerica, ranging from the perforated dishes placed in Classic Maya burials, to caves and architectural voids, to the piercing of human flesh. Holes are also discussed in relation to fire, based on the common means through which both were produced: drilling. Ultimately, by attending to what is not there, Vital Voids offers a fascinating approach to Mesoamerican cosmology and material culture.
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 1477323287
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 185
Book Description
The Resurrection Plate, a Late Classic Maya dish, is decorated with an arresting scene. The Maize God, assisted by two other deities, emerges reborn from a turtle shell. At the center of the plate, in the middle of the god’s body and aligned with the point of emergence, there is a curious sight: a small, neatly drilled hole. Art historian Andrew Finegold explores the meanings attributed to this and other holes in Mesoamerican material culture, arguing that such spaces were broadly understood as conduits of vital forces and material abundance, prerequisites for the emergence of life. Beginning with, and repeatedly returning to, the Resurrection Plate, this study explores the generative potential attributed to a wide variety of cavities and holes in Mesoamerica, ranging from the perforated dishes placed in Classic Maya burials, to caves and architectural voids, to the piercing of human flesh. Holes are also discussed in relation to fire, based on the common means through which both were produced: drilling. Ultimately, by attending to what is not there, Vital Voids offers a fascinating approach to Mesoamerican cosmology and material culture.