Art Michelangelo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Art Michelangelo - Essay Example Sculpture and painting are both beautiful forms of expression that have enchanted the viewers for centuries. However both are different in the ways they are created by the artists and perceived by the viewers. Personally I prefer that both have equal merits and one should not be held above the other. Painting involves colors, light, shades which provides more meaning and life to the artist’s idea. As opposed to painting, sculpting is done on something much more substantial than a canvas and therefore it has a greater presence and feels much more real to the viewers. Also the sculptures are three dimensional which give them power and make them appear more realistic. Even though the lack of dimension is considered a demerit in painting, the effect is quite easily achieved by ‘relievo’ which can be done through adequate modeling and shaping. Both are equally expressive and it only depends on person

Microsoft Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Microsoft - Essay Example The products are critical in improving communication and management of data in institutions. The company’s production processes follow strict guidelines as apparent in the application of conventional techniques. The techniques facilitate the quality aspect of the products. It is imperative to note that the company has risen from a small in-house business outsourcing institution to a renowned supplier of electronic items. This was achievable through its noble and development oriented strategies. The strategies have been instrumental in its growth. For example, they provide the relevant operating framework with performance ideals. The company enjoys a wide market share and plans to expand further to new market segments. Findings based on strengths and weaknesses Microsoft Corporation displays strengths that has steered its growth. The company has diversified revenue base, ability to customize products to the locals, strong product brands that includes Ms Dos Microsoft windows, P Cs, basic interpreters and operating systems (Wilke 2003, p. 3). Further, it has effective distribution channels, good infrastructural set up, expansive market share and qualified personnel. Its weaknesses and threats include possibility of new entrance, limited network and diminishing raw materials. The opportunities and strengths present the company with lucrative prospect that seeks to leverage its international competitiveness. The analysis enables an institution to understand its current position and design viable strategies for improvement and sustainability. Concepts and theories The corporation is a multinational institution with a wide network. It is credited for adopting conventional human resource practices. The administration of company values its employees and treats them with decorum. This has contributed to the institution’s exemplary growth through development of viable teamwork groups. The groups enhance cohesiveness and participation in decision-making (Wilk e, 2003, p. 4). This has facilitated the development of innovative and creative ideas that focus on growth. The company adopts the international human resource management (IHRM) that ensures effective allocation of resources, utilization of human capital, hiring of diverse group of individuals, avoidance of regional disparities and cultural risks. The company through ethical principles and guidelines manages a huge number of staff who contributes to its success. The ethical principles are relevant because they promote cohesiveness and execution of activities based on mutual understanding (William. 2005, P, 3). The company offer favourable remuneration and terms of work that facilitates employee retention and motivation. This advances their performance capacity. This is vital in ensuring optimal production of the electronic items including software that meet the global demand. Analysis As noted, the company was established with the core mission to become the global consumer product a nd be the leading distributor of electronic items and software’s. Its fundamental values focus on quality enhancement, timely delivery of services and effective personnel administration. This propels the realization of the core values and institutional vision based on sound HR policies that are internationally relevant. Achieving exemplary performance and competitive advantage requires adoption of viable HR policies and formulation of acceptable objectives

Land Art Movement and Artists

Land Art Movement and Artists Land Art was mainly developed during the late 1960s. It is also known as Earthworks. Land art was the revolutionary side of the artists, which were trying to escape from the traditional painting and sculpture, as well as their ecological concerns. According to Robert Smithson, this revolutionary approach, was also an attempt to escape from galleries and museums; this led to environmental consciousness and objection. †¦The ecologist tends to see the landscape in terms of the past, while most industrialists dont see anything at all. The artist must come out of the isolation of galleries and museums and provide a concrete consciousness for the present as it really exists, and not simply present abstractions or utopias†¦[1] This had as a result, for artists to create their art directly into the landscape. The work was made mostly with huge scale ‘sculptures directly in nature, using natural materials. Land art is about ‘real life and embodies the direct and instinctive relations with the landscape, the nature and the environment. It covers the approach of the location and the experience of the observer attaching special importance to the landscape. Land art works were mainly exhibited with written or photographic documentations. [2] Land art also provides the social and cultural conditions of that time. During 1968 there was a fundamental change of revolution in both continents, United States and Europe. In United States there was a pacifist and human rights expression, mainly caused by the Cold War and the American attachment in Vietnam. In Europe, one factor for that revolutionary change was the rebellious activities of the ‘Situationist Internanionale (Guy Debord) in France. Also the warning of danger caused by the nuclear war (global extinction), had a result to emphasize the importance of ecological issues. The first images from space, published the same year, changed the way we perceive our world. Land art reveals the clash positions of that period, in the direction of land and the environment. It desires a radical change and the recovery of the ecological disaster on land caused by the industrialisation. Through Land art we can reconsider our relationship with the landscape and with nature. The massive unexploited land of America played a major role in the development of Land art in the United States during that period. Many American artists performed their works, using those unexplored deserts of the American landscape. Those deserts embodied a mainly American approach towards landscape. They also proposed the success of American culture and technology over nature. They rejected the historic fine art traditions of Europe and they started to reference towards the significant national American idioms.[3] One main American artist is Robert Smithson, which he considers being the most important theoretical artist among all land artists. Many of his activities were located in the geological and culturally rich of Western America in desert locations. Smithson was interested in natural history from an early age. The year 1964 was a crucial year for his career as he began to develop his themes and interests. Blood, decay, geological strata and theories about time and history, were some of the artists interests that were developed through the paintings that he made on that period. In the same year he created a series of ‘crystalline sculptures, like The Eliminator 1964. He also developed a friendly relationship with a number of artists, which were associated with Minimalism. One of them was Donald Judd. When he exhibited those sculptures, they were perceived as Minimalist. This was mainly because he was known for his connection with those artists and due to the fact that for this work he used industrial materials. But Smithsons work deals and represents the multipart conceptual ideas. This multipart conceptual ideas include crystalline growth, decompose and the dilemma of perspective. He rejects clarity, unlike Minimalism, in which objects are standing themselves and are symbolising the external. [4] Smithson, as well as other artists, played their part in transforming the perception of nature. He has seen landscape as a place in continuous transformation, revealing entropy. He is associated with a natural landscape and he emphasizes the relationship between man and natural powers. Smithson also provides a powerful image for the contemporary position. In Smithosns writings the concept that emphasizes much on his work is the principle of energy loss-entropy. In 1968 he started to think about the scale and how artworks can be positioned and viewed in the landscape. He explored these ideas in a series of works called Site and Nonsite. Smithson described this work as ‘an indoor earthwork. In 1969 he started to produce his work directly into landscape, as he was interested in making art outdoors, away from galleries. He produced photographic work using mirrors. [5] In 1970 he made his major work on the landscape called Spiral Jetty, (1) which was made at Rozel Point on Great Salt Lake, in Utah. Spiral Jetty was made from rocks, mud and precipitated salt crystals. Smithson documented the creation of the sculpture. He learned that Great Salt Lake in Utah carried micro bacteria that coloured the water red and he developed an interest in the symbolic possibility of a red saline lake. He created the spiral form, as he was inspired with the location, the natural characteristics and the historical contexts. Smithson linked the red salt water with blood. Through Smithsons own writings, Spiral Jetty is presented as a particular clear example of his association between artwork and location and he is emphasizing its entropic qualities.[6] Michael Heizer was an American artist who was considered being very important to the development of land art. He felt that a sculpture needed to express the character and the scale of the great Western American landscape. He believed that artworks were valued as products and he provided the differences between those works of the urban marketplace and the works in the landscape. He stated that: ‘†¦the position of art as malleable barter-exchange items falters as the cumulative economic structure gluts. The museums and collections are stuffed, the floors are sagging but the real space exists†¦'[7] Heizer used the desert spaces as a laboratory. His first landscape work began in 1967, and it was called North and South. Through out this work we can perceive his interest in void and negative spaces. He rejected European traditions, as he wanted to make art that was ‘American. Heizer most famous and most debatable work is Double Negative (2), built in 1969. It is located at the Mormon Mesa, near Overton, Nevada. This work was made at the edge of the sandstone cliff and it is composed of two deep cuts creating a huge channel. Double Negative is composed of space itself. Heizer said that: In Double Negative, there is the implication of an object or form that is actually not there†¦ [8] Heizer believes that the work is not about the landscape but it is about the sculpture. He also believes that the importance of his work in not in what ‘it rejected but in what ‘it offered instead. Heizer through his work kept his primary purposes for his art in the landscape. In England the Land art started to develop as well in the late 1960s. England presented fewer opportunities for impressive gestures than United States. One main British artist was Richard Long. Long mostly gave emphasis to the simplicity on his work, giving the attention to his common skills and the materials he used. Walking was the principal form of Long. [9] But beneath this simplicity we can perceive the conceptual and the imaginative aspects that highlight Longs art. He explored ideas about time, space and experience. From an early age he started also to explore the traditional subject of landscape. In 1969 he aimed to ‘create an open and exploratory environment during his studies on the ‘Advanced Sculpture Course at St Martins School of Art in London. Other artists shared the same interest with Long about landscape as a subject for contemporary art. During his studies he developed a very different way of reaching the landscape, as through his work, he involved space and scale. His achievement on that period was the work titled with: A Line Made by Walking, 1967. (3) He simply walked along a line, across a field, in order to create a visible path in the grass. The path was photographed. We can split the work into two parts. Part one is the making of the work and part two is the documentation. After this work he continued to explore this conceptual aspect by creating two more works, Bicycle Sculpture 1967 and A Ten Mile Walk, England 1968. Because this kind of works couldnt exhibit into a gallery, Long started to use documentary materials such as texts, maps and photographs. We can separate Longs sculptures into two categories. Sculptures that were made by walking in the landscape, and the documentation of it, and sculptures which were made in the gallery as a reaction to space and locality. This separation on Longs works (the work made in the landscape and the work made for the gallery space), can be compared with Robert Smithsons works Site and Nonesite . We can find many similarities and differences between artists in the two continents. Longs work is considered being practical opposing to the work of Smithson, which is considered being theorised. Both artists used natural materials in order to accomplish their motivations. Long was using in his work, forms such as lines and circles expanding the modernist development. On the other hand, Smithson, had the obsession with ‘ destruction, decay, decomposition and dissolution. Both artists shared the same interest in order to find the place (landscape) to construct their works. Mapping was also a significant concern for Long, as well as for Smithson, not only for the documentation of their work but also to find a specific location. Equally through their works, they demonstrated cultural and artistic concerns. [10] Land art emphasizes the importance between nature and culture. Through Land Art, artists provided that the landscape is one of the original places of cultural expression, like social and environmental are clearly marked. Bibliography: Land Art: A Cultural Ecology handbook, ed. by Max Andrews, London: RSA, 2006. Beardsley, J. Earthworks and beyond: contemporary art in the landscape, 3rd edn. New York: Abbeville, 1998. Malpas, W. Land art, earthworks, installations, environments, sculptures, Kidderminster: Crescent Moon, 1998. Tufnell, B. Land Art, London: Tate Gallery Publications, 2006. [1] Land Art: A Cultural Ecology handbook, ed. by Max Andrews.p.22 [2] Tufnell, B. Land Art, London: Tate Gallery Publications, 2006, pp.12-19 [3] Tufnell, B. Land Art, pp.12-19 [4] Tufnell, B. Land Art, pp 35-42 [5] Beardsley, J. Earthworks and beyond: contemporary art in the landscape, 3rd edn. New York: Abbeville, 1998, pp. 19-23 [6] Tufnell, B. Land Art, pp 43-45 [7] Beardsley, J. Earthworks and beyond: contemporary art in the landscape, p.13 [8] Tufnell, B. Land Art p.51 [9] Beardsley, J. Earthworks and beyond: contemporary art in the landscape, pp.41-46 [10] Tufnell, B. Land Art, pp 32-35

Parallels Between The Grapes of Wrath and the Life of John Steinbeck Es

John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas, California. He had a pretty average childhood with a supportive family and a decent education. While growing up his mother, Olive Hamilton, was a major factor in his education, since she was a schoolteacher and made it her duty to educate him. His mother most likely was the reason he developed a love of reading and literature and ended up going to Stanford. In his child there were only two major events that affected his writing. These were when he worked on a ranch with migrant workers, and when his father’s business failed and the family was temporarily thrust into poverty. These two events most likely sparked his interest in the poor lives of the migrant workers. His experiences on the ranch taught him about the harsh and impoverished lives of the migrant workers and his experience of being in poverty enabled him to understand what life is like when one is poor, as the migrant workers were. This understanding inspired some of his most famous writings such as: Of Mice and Men, In Dubious Battle and The Grapes of Wrath. These experiences also allowed him to add a sense of realism to the stories. After graduating from his public high school in 1919 Steinbeck went to Stanford. He went there for 5 years before dropping out without a degree and moving to New York. The following years were highly tumultuous for Steinbeck and he held many odd jobs while trying to get his writing published. In 1935 he finally got his first big break when his critically acclaimed novel, Tortilla Flats, was published. After this he became quite successful and well known although the skill in his writing seems to fall after WWII. After researching his life I decided to focus on using his most famous n... ... read and his beautiful and descriptive style allow me to say with absolute certainty that Steinbeck has developed into being my favorite author over the past few months. Yet, as I bring this paper to a close, I know that I have barely skimmed the surface of who this man was and why he wrote what he did the way he did. Works Cited "Dust Storm." University of Washington. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 June 2015. . "John Steinbeck." Notable Biographies. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 June 2015. . Parini, Jay. John Steinbeck. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1995. Print. Steinbeck, John. Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin Books, 1985. Print. "Turtle." Stuff Point. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 June 2015. .

Medical Paternalism or Patient Autonomy

Medical Paternalism or Patient Autonomy At issue in the controversy over medical paternalism is the problem of patient autonomy. Medical paternalism can be defined as interfering with a patient’s freedom for his or her own well-being; patient autonomy means being able to act and make a decision intentionally, with understanding, and without controlling influences (Munson, 38 & 39). The principle of informed consent has come to be essential to any philosophical analysis of the tension between medical paternalism and patient autonomy in healthcare decision-making.However, despite the obligatory duties physicians have to their patients, patient involvement and informed consent should be valued in certain medical cases. Consider, for example, the case of Monica, a 49-year-old woman who was admitted to the hospital for acute respiratory insufficiency. As a heavy smoker, she had been experiencing dyspnea. Upon examination it appeared she had several abnormalities in the chest. Follo wing this she became cyanotic and nearly lost all consciousness.Furthermore, a bronchoscopy revealed a large, tumor-like mass in her trachea. Upon further examination it was determined by a multidisciplinary treatment team that Monica was so advanced in the tumor, removing it would not be possible, either by surgery or laser. In addition, chemotherapy and radiation therapy would not have helped and implanting a stent would have been difficult. Monica had at most three more months to live.With such factors taken into consideration, the team devised four possible alternatives: remove life-sustaining measures, continue mechanical ventilation and heavy sedation without treating any complications, implant a stent without Monica’s consent, or wake Monica and inform her on the diagnosis and possible alternatives while giving her the final choice. However, the team does not believe that Monica will have the full autonomy to make a rational decision on her own.Furthermore, the team wo rry that reducing sedation while Monica is being intubated will induce tremendous physical pain. The question therefore remains whether they should wake her and inform her diagnosis and prognosis and allow her to make the decision or make a medical paternalistic decision on her behalf. Because each possible alternative presented in this case have a similar unfortunate end result, it appears that the medical ethics issue at most concern is the failure to respect the patient’s autonomy.The principle of autonomy clearly dictates that Monica should have the opportunity to decide about her future. There are limits to imposing suffering on patients in order to grant them autonomy in decision-making, but only patients themselves can know exactly what those limits are. Therefore the caregivers must ask if Monica would prefer to be awakened from sedation at all. If so they must then consider whether she would want to participate in the difficult decision about her treatment options.Bu t despite these considerations, Monica has a right to be informed to a degree that she herself decides her medical fate. Therefore, the team should wake her. The harm done to her by waking her, however, should be kept to a minimum. She should know her diagnosis and prognosis, and that she can at any time delegate the decision-making power to another person and receive sedating medication. The question for Monica's caregivers, then, is whether autonomy becomes overvalued when it conflicts with other values.When the possibility was discussed of waking Monica so that she could decide what to do next, the multidisciplinary treatment team worried that she would not be in any position to make an autonomous decision on any possible issue when faced with physical suffering and a horrible prognosis, Consider, however, Kant’s Metaphysical Principles of Virtue. In this article Kant states that everyone is worthy in making his or her own decisions as human beings (Korsgaard). Therefore, Kant would argue that Monica’s physicians are obligated to let her make her own treatment decision.He would even go far enough to say that the caregivers are in no position to judge her level of competence. Accordingly, Monica's willingness to make a decision will depend on her individual level of pain and ability to learn that she is near death; it will not depend on the physicians’ judgments. Of course, not respecting Monica's autonomy would represent a decision that could be characterized as paternalism. Oftentimes, the word paternalism is associated with physicians telling patients what is good for them, without regard to the patient’s own needs and interests.In the larger sense, however, the relationship between physicians and patients is a paternalistic, beneficent relationship: the physicians are expected to do what is medically best for the patient, according to Dworkin (Munson, 60). According to the principle of beneficence, physicians have a responsibi lity to act in ways that promote the well-being of their patients (Munson, 892). Monica faces so short a life expectancy, and the quality of that life can be presumed to be so miserable, that the caregivers may ask whether waking her just for the purpose of letting her choose among her horrible options will in fact cause more harm than good.So when deciding about Monica's participation in the treatment decision, the caregivers are right to be concerned about whether she will truly be competent when woken up. But if the underlying concern is competency, we can make the case that she is more than capable of making a treatment decision: since there is no â€Å"best† alternative among the treatment possibilities, Monica will not be in a position of asking the caregivers to do something that will inflict harm upon herself, and thus will not have to â€Å"prove† her competency on the highest standards.Therefore, paternalism and beneficence from this perspective is essentiall y irrelevant overall. The caregivers are not at a position to provide what is medically best for Monica because all options lead to about the same unfortunate outcome. In such case there is ultimately no reason why the caregivers cannot respect Monica’s autonomy at the very least. One valid argument against the respect for Monica’s autonomy is that reducing sedation in an intubated patient like Monica in order to allow her to be informed about her situation and to communicate her preferences will induce significant physical pain.And learning in such a difficult moment that she is going to die soon of lung cancer is likely to be very painful psychologically. However, as stated previously, Monica's willingness to accept this suffering will depend on her individual level of pain and her ability to cope with both pain and learning that she is near death. Perhaps even more importantly, it will depend on whether there are important things in her life that she would like to a ccomplish before she dies.Many patients would like at least to say goodbye to their loved ones or clarify a relationship after a recent dispute. Monica might want to make a will or indicate how and by whom her affairs should be handled after her death. Such factors are extremely important to consider upon the last few months of a patient’s life. Works Cited Korsgaard, C. M. , Autonomy in Kant’s Moral Philosophy. 1990 Munson, R. Intervention and Relfection. Boston: Clark Baxter, 2012. Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

‘Closing the Gap’ for Indigenous Australians Essay

The issue of ‘Closing the Gap’ for Indigenous Australians is addressed through each aspect of the 1986 Ottawa Charter as it provides a framework upon which to base numerous policies and procedures which tackle the implementation of social justice principles in relation to health promotion. Developing personal skills enables individuals to access information and become empowered to claim their rights. Education of this sort can happen informally and formally. Many Indigenous Australians are disengaged at school, as evident by the overall low rates of attendance of the major schools, as well as markedly lower levels of academic achievement. Indigenous students are also less informed about higher education opportunities than non- Indigenous students, which in turn have detrimental effects on their occupational opportunities later in life. In order to improve the responsibility of Indigenous student’s participation in learning, the Literacy and Numeracy NP Agreement aims to improve literacy and numeracy outcomes of students in schools with low levels of achievement. This partnership demonstrated particularly strong improvements. For example, the proportion of Indigenous students at or above the national minimum standard improved by 11. 4% for year 3 reading in Queensland, around 17% for year 7 Reading in Western Australia and approximately 16% for year 3 in the Northern Territory. These statistics portray the vital role education plays in developing personal skills, in order to enable individuals with equitable opportunities to other non-indigenous students across the country. Through access to education, individuals have greater advantages to enhanced occupational opportunities, and therefore becoming more active in their community, engaging health promotion actions and building healthy public policies. Encouraging and supporting an increase in the participation of Indigenous Australians in the health workforce is an important workforce development strategy, as well as an essential goal to pursue for equity reasons. By ensuring that non-indigenous health professions improve their knowledge of Indigenous health issues, the Government is not only creating more diverse informed opinions and experiences in health issues throughout communities, but also advocates greater community action. One way this is achieved is through the National Indigenous Health Workforce Training Plan, which provides mentoring and networking for young indigenous doctors and nurses, a network of indigenous community controlled training organisations for Aboriginal Health Workers, and the establishment of the new Aboriginal Health Worker Association. In addition to this, the Puggy hunter Memorial Scholarship Scheme encourages more indigenous Australians to enter health professions, and proves to be successful as the number of scholarships allocated in an academic year to support Indigenous Australians to study health-related disciplines increased from 215 in 2008 to 275 in 2012. This improvement depicts the importance of Indigenous participation in the health workforce, not only to enhance educational opportunities but also to provide a more comfortable and supportive environment for Indigenous individuals seeking medical advice and creating a stronger relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous practitioners. In order to create supportive environments, a level of community action must be attained to raise awareness of people’s rights, promote equity and facilitate participation by community members. One method of strengthening community actions is by implementing Community Justice Groups, working on local issues, in cooperation with police, courts, probation services and juvenile justice, and the prevention of crime through programs and activities. Since the establishment of the Kowanyama and Palm Island justice group in Queensland in 1994, as evident from police statistics, court records and community sources, there has been a significant reduction in juvenile crime. This, in turn creates a much more positive community surrounding, empowering the right to a supportive, and comfortable environment, by participating the community members to strengthen public action. This recognition of participation in community action and the importance of comfortable surroundings for the forward moving health promotion of Indigenous Australians are essential in the strategy of creating supportive environments. Poor housing is a major contributor to inadequate, unsafe living conditions that lead to the spread of infectious diseases, however many indigenous Australians live in insufficient, overcrowded houses, often in remote areas. A lack of access to health services, due to living in rural areas, results in the unavailability of essential health information on everyday living, such as safe and healthy housing. The Fixing Houses for Better Health development policy has implemented a series of projects, aiming to improve the health of the Indigenous Australians’ living in remote areas, by improving the physical environment in which they live and maintaining this overtime. A series of FHBH projects have assessed and fixed health hardware in 2 400 houses across Australia, improving health and reducing infectious diseases such as diarrhoea, skin infections and pneumonia, as well as protecting residents from electrocution, fire, gas leakage and exposure to contaminated waste-water. By employing more than 400 local indigenous people on the on-going work projects, and ensuring they receive ‘on the tools’ training on basic maintenance, this not only provides individuals access to healthy lifestyle information, but also supplies the community with a comfortable and familiar work environment. Another imperative concept that promotes equity and improves access to health services by supporting disadvantaged Indigenous Australians is reorienting health services. The Aboriginal Maternal and Infant Health Strategy targets pregnancy and postnatal programs for Aboriginal women and infants, providing a state-wide training and support program for midwives and Aboriginal health workers. Through the successful implementation of Indigenous care givers, developed partnerships with other organisations and using the multidisciplinary team approach, overall health improvements are clearly evident. For example, in relation to indigenous women, the births to women aged less than 20 years has decreased, the proportion attending their first antenatal care visit before 20 weeks development increased significantly and the proportion reported smoking in the second half of their pregnancy decreased. These measures suggest that with the access and support of healthy information and health professions, individuals are enabled to take the responsibility of using the knowledge provided by health services and develop the skills necessary to practice them. It is therefore clearly evident that with the assistance of the Ottawa Charter and social justice principles, the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian’s is narrowing. Greater health promotion and a deeper understanding of different cultures is enabling Australia to build towards a healthier nation.