Flexibility and the Contract of Employment Essay

Flexibility and the Contract of Employment - Essay Example 74). Most of the institution traditionally hire workers and require them to perform their duties during fixed time which are normally eight continuous working hours a day and in a specific places. In the modern society most of the employees and employers are shifting away from this tradition and are focusing on a variable working agreements to enable workers perform their duties according to their wishes. This has enabled workers to have time with their families and also be able to utilize their working time effectively since they only work when they are ready to work (Berndt & Hartmut 2005, p.191). This has result to gains from both parties in terms of productivity and convenience of discharge of the obligations. 1. Different Recruitment Techniques Every organization aims at acquiring the most efficient and effective workforce who are capable of improving organization’s performance and make it competent (Berndt & Hartmut 2005, p.198). Though there are many qualified job seeke rs who are ready and willing to work for such organizations, sometimes it is not easy for organizations to hire the most qualified workforce as they would wish (Lipsey & Mucchielli 2002, P.76). The approach taken by the human resource managers during recruitment and hiring of workers will determine the quality of their workforce hence the overall performance of the organization. Approaches for recruiting qualified workers Through recruiting agencies: there are numerous agencies who hire workers on behalf of the organizations (Lipsey & Mucchielli 2002, P.83). Those agencies are ran by qualified hiring personnel who have potential to establish what the organization requires in terms of manpower and look for job applicants with those particular requirements. The advantage of using agency is that agencies normally have time to scrutinize the potential workers unlike organizations which may rely on experience of busy managers with limited resources for recruiting workers. Also, agencies rarely engage in canvassing with job applicants hence there is possibility for getting the best candidates (Berndt & Hartmut 2005, p. 202). Agencies also maintain records of all job applicants hence they can easily trace the most qualified workers whenever they are required to do so hence providing a quick solution to the organizations’ needs of personnel. Also some trade associations encourage their member organizations to advertise their jobs through their websites. Therefore, job seekers can easily access the vacancies in various organizations and apply for them hence giving organizations an opportunity to select the best candidates from the list of applicants (Berndt & Hartmut 2005, p.217). The advantage of this approach is that it offers cheap method for the organization to acquire workforce since most of those association do not charge their members anything. Internal recruitment where organization selects existing workers to fill higher positions left vacant in the org anization (Lipsey & Mucchielli 2002, P.90). This approach is efficient because it enables organization to maintain its loyal workers. This instils trust and loyalty among workers because they have confidence that once chance occurs within the organization the existing employees have equal opportunity of being upgraded. This method further enables organization to save its expense they would otherwise incur in hiring workers from outside the organization. Another approach is use of eternal recruitment of employees approach to acquire workers for their organizations. This approach involves inviting job applicants from outside the

Benihana Company Essay Example for Free

Benihana Company Essay Helping our guests feel welcome is as important as our cooking. And it is just as great a skill. Ever striving for excellence in hospitality, it is truly our restaurant family who has built Benihanas success. Company History: Benihana, Inc. owns and licenses restaurants in the Benihana and Benihana Grill chain of Japanese dinnerhouses. The restaurants specialize in an exhibition-style of Japanese cooking called teppanyaki. Customers sit around a communal table at which a Benihana chef slices their seafood, steak, chicken, and vegetables with lightning speed, grills their meal right in front of them, and then tosses it accurately onto their plates. The restaurants are decorated with Samurai armor and valuable art, and Shoji rice paper screens partition the dining areas. For the fiscal year ending March 31, 1996, the company had sales of over $81 million, an all-time high. By December 1996, Benihana operated a total of 49 licensed and wholly owned restaurants in 20 states as well as in Bogota, Columbia, and Aruba, Netherlands Antilles. Early History, from Tokyo to New York The founder of Benihana, Inc. was a 25-year-old Olympic wrestler from Japan named Hiroaki Rocky Aoki. He got his start in the restaurant business by working after school in his familys coffee shop in downtown Tokyo. His mother named the family business Benihana after a red flower that survived the bombing of Tokyo during World War II. Rocky was a scrapper, defending himself in the streets and schoolyards against bigger boys. He got hooked on wrestling, became a national university champion, and earned a place on the 1960 Olympic team. Although he didnt compete because he was over his weight limit, he did fall in love with New York when the plane stopped there on the way to the Games in Rome. That fall he left Japan for the United States. In 1964, Aoki graduated from New York Community Colleges School of Hotel and Restaurant Management. During the summer he earned money driving the only ice cream truck in Harlem. The job was not easy, as he explained in an article in Management Review. Every time I robbed, I get up earlier the next day and work later to make up. Every time I lose money, I get more challenge. With that philosophy, he managed to save $10,000 during the summer, which, along with a loan, was enough to start his first restaurant, Benihana of Tokyo. Aokis concept for his new restaurant, derived from specialty restaurants he knew of in Japan, was part entertainment and part food service. He wanted to offer Americans food they were familiar with, such as chicken, steak, and shrimp, prepared in a novel setting. He chose the teppanyaki tablea stainless steel grill surrounded by a wooden eating surfacewhere customers could watch a knife-wielding, joke-telling chef prepare and serve their food. His parents and brothers came from Japan to help him get started. Unfortunately, New Yorkers equated Japanese food with raw fish and werent comfortable sitting at a table with strangers. They ignored the midtown Manhattan eatery until the restaurant critic of the New York Herald Tribune gave it a glowing review. Suddenly, everyone in New York, including the Beatles and Muhammad Ali, wanted to sit around one of Benihana of Tokyos four teppanyaki tables. Within six months after the review the restaurant had paid for itself, and Aoki quickly opened another restaurant in a larger, fancier building. The new location provided the same teppanyaki-style cooking but was decorated with valuable art, Samurai armor, heavy wooden ceiling beams brought from Japan by Aokis father, and sliding Shoji screens to provide some privacy. 1965-80: Building a Company The Benihana concept combined reasonable prices with good food, and, by preparing what was eaten right at the table, held waste to a minimum. Profits were good, and, in 1968, Aoki opened his first Benihana of Tokyo outside New York Cityin downtown Chicago. That location made $700,000 in its first year and continued to be one of the companys top earning outlets. Between 1969 and 1972, the company opened six more of its own restaurants and licensed franchisees to open another ten. In a joint venture with the Las Vegas Hilton, the company developed Benihana Village, a 38,000-square-foot complex of restaurants, bars, and other entertainment venues. In 1972, the company grossed $12 million and the Harvard Business School selected Benihana of Tokyo as a case study of an entrepreneurial success story. With business going so well, Rocky Aoki could devote time to his other interests which included racing balloons and powerboats, collecting items ranging from vintage cars to slot machines and learning backgammon. Rocky wanted to play, Joel Schwartz, the companys president, explained in a 1989 Forbes article. To help oversee the chains operations and expansion, Aoki brought in a management company, Hardwicke Cos., as a partner in 1976. The relationship lasted only four years and, in 1980, Aoki ended the partnership, paying $3.7 million to break the contract. As Rod Willis of Management Review explained in a 1986 article, He [Aoki] felt the companys management style clashed with his predominately Oriental workforce, and he wanted to maintain control over each restaurants quality. The following year Aoki settled, without admitting any guilt, a Securities and Exchange Commission charge that he had improperly traded in Hardwicke stock while serving as vice-president of Hardwicke. The 1980s: Ups and Downs To help pay off the debt incurred in the split with Hardwicke, Aoki decided to take part of the company public. He accomplished this by having Benihana of Tokyo (BOT) form Benihana National Corporation (BNC) in 1982 and then taking the latter company public the following year. Investors paid the Miami-based BNC $11 for a unit consisting of two common shares and a warrant to buy another at $6. With the $5.5 million raised by selling half a million of these units, BNC bought 11 restaurants from Aoki in exchange for 60 percent of the BNC common stock and $2.5 million to pay BOTs debt. Later in the year, BNC bought another three restaurants from BOT for $7 million. In spite of the new corporate structure, Benihana of Tokyo and Benihana National Corporation remained under the management of the same group of executives. As corporate president, Joel Schwartz continued to oversee the day to day operation of both companies. Aoki, who served as chairman of both entities, retained 51 percent of the common stock in BNC and kept about 30 restaurants in the privately held BOT. Aoki developed new concepts for the Benihana food chain but he also continued to play hard, becoming a championship-level backgammon player and setting a world record in off-shore powerboat racing. The Double Eagle V, a 400,000 cubic-foot gas balloon, displayed the Benihana logo as it became the first crewed balloon to successfully cross the Pacific Ocean, with Aoki as one of the crew members. One of Aokis new concepts was Benihana National Classics, a line of Chinese gourmet frozen foods, introduced in 1984 and sold in supermarkets. Chinese cuisine was chosen when the company found that Japanese food didnt freeze well. Within a year the Classics were the best-selling Oriental frozen foods in the United States, with sales in one quarter alone reaching more than $40 million and profits climbing to over $4 million. The companys stock took off, going as high as $21.50 in 1985. In December of that year, Restaurant and Institution magazine named Benihana of Tokyo the most popular family-style restaurant in America. At that time, Benihana of Tokyo and Benihana National together operated or franchised restaurants in 60 locations, from Seattle to New Jersey, serving a total of 25,000 customers a day. Benihana Nationals frozen food success quickly attracted the attention of major food companies. When Campbell Soup and Stouffers began offering their own lines of Oriental frozen foods, however, Benihana couldnt compete. The company lost $11 million on frozen foods between 1985 and 1987 and finally sold the business, for $4.5 million, to the small company that had been producing the dinners for them. Frozen food, however, was not Aokis only new idea. In 1985, Benihana National opened its first seafood restaurant, The Big Splash, just north of Miami. Aoki believed the sea would be the primary supplier of food in the future, and, borrowing an idea from a Malaysian fish market, came up with the concept of a seafood marketplace/restaurant. Customers could choose from hundreds of varieties of fresh seafood, decide how they wanted it cooked, and watch it being prepared. The idea was so popular initially that a second Big Splash was opened. The seafood restaurants soon experienced difficulty, however, registering losses of $2.7 million during 1987. The wide variety of options ran completely counter to the tight focus and minimal waste of the Benihana steakhouses. At the Miami location, the majority of customers were retirees who resented the high prices and preferred to eat fish they were familiar with. All we sold was salmon and red snapper, Aoki told Eric Schmukler in a March 1989 Forbes article. The company closed its Big Splash outlets in March 1988. The 1988 fiscal year was a hard one for Benihana, as the company recorded a loss of nearly $7 million. Despite the companys financial problems with Classics and Big Splash, the Benihana restaurants themselves were still popular. By the end of fiscal 1989, the publicly owned Benihana National Corp. reported profits of some $1.8 million on sales of $34 million at its 20 restaurants, with Aokis privately-held Benihana of Tokyo taking in similar revenues. 1990-94: Making a Turnaround Rocky Aoki kicked off the new decade by opening a gallery in one of the Miami Benihana restaurants to display a portion of what was becoming known in the art world as the Rocky Aoki Collection. Having spent more than a year consolidating his diverse collections, Aoki told Antiques Collecting, I think its a natural to have a gallery here. More than 90,000 people eat in this restaurant every year; why not provide them with something beautiful to look at, not to mention buy, if they so desire. In a 300-square-foot space that had been the restaurants gift shop, diners could view etchings by Icarts, lamps by Tiffany and Handel, and bronzes by Remington. The publicity about Aokis collection helped generate business for the restaurant, and overall company revenues continued to grow. Profits, however, were less than a million dollars a year, and BNC stock fell below $1 a share. Angry at the situation, some shareholders sued. As Marilyn Alva reported in a 1992 Restaurant Business article, the shareholders claimed Aoki and his management team were in a conflict of interest by managing the two companies. The complainants further maintained that Benihana management had misappropriated the assets of Benihana National Corporation, passing them through Benihana of Tokyo for their personal benefit. The shareholders, however, were ultimately unsuccessful in trying to take control of the company away from Aoki. Meanwhile, Benihana management took advantage of a health-conscious American publics growing interest in Japanese food and entertainment. With the tag line, We have been the restaurant of the 90s since the 60s, Aoki and Schwartz instituted a major advertising campaign stressing the fact that Benihana had always offered healthful food. Soon afterwards, in 1993, the Atlanta Benihana of Tokyo restaurant added an 18-seat sushi bar and 35-seat Karaoke dining room to draw more customers on weekday nights. Despite the higher labor and food costs associated with sushi, the company reported an increase in beverage sales, and a lot of sampling of the $.99 sushi pieces by people waiting to eat at the traditional teppanyaki tables. Learning from its experience a decade earlier, in 1994 Benihana National Corp. decided to get into the frozen food business again. This time, however, by entering into a licensing agreement with Campbell Soup Co., the company hooked up with a major marketer rather than trying to compete with the big names. The new product was a line of frozen stir-fry kits featuring the Benihana trademark. The dinners served six people and sold for about $8.00. As Peter McMullin, an analyst with Southeast Research Partners, told Florida Review.Net, This time the strategy makes sense because it is linking with a high profile food company to help strengthen the distribution side and offsetting the razor-thin margins of retail by manufacturing with a low cost producer like Campbell. By the end of the fiscal year, revenues were over $70 million, with profits up 41 percent to $2.4 million. 1995 and Beyond: A New Company At the beginning of 1995, Benihana National announced it would buy Aokis 21 Benihana of Tokyo restaurants on the U.S. mainland, along with the U.S. rights to the Benihana trademark, for about $6.15 million. On May 16, a newly created subsidiary, Benihana Inc., acquired the BOT restaurants and, through a merger, simultaneously acquired Benihana National. BNC shareholders received one share in the new holding company for each of their shares of Benihana National. Aoki continued to serve as chairman of the new company and Schwartz as president. Benihana Inc. now owned or licensed the 43 Benihana restaurants in the continental United States along with a franchise in Honolulu. It also had the rights to develop or license Benihana restaurants in Central and South America and the Caribbean Islands. Aoki kept private his Benihana of Tokyo restaurants in Hawaii, Britain, and Thailand. During 1995, the new company took several steps to attract more customers. Benihana introduced weekend luncheon service and, following the success in Atlanta, opened sushi bars in seven locations. The company also instituted a national Karaoke contest for its patrons. In the fall, the company opened its first smaller format unit, called the Benihana Grill, in Sacramento. At 3,800 square feet, the Grill format was less than half the size of the traditional Benihana, and enabled the company to open units in smaller locations, particularly in urban areas. Schwartz had been refining this format since 1989 as an alternative to the companys more common free-standing, special use restaurant buildings. The Benihana Grill was designed to accommodate 10 to 12 teppanyaki tables, compared to the 18 tables in the typical Benihana. Analyst Peter McMullin remarked, Initial indications are encouraging even before the grand opening. With the lower capital costs of approximately $500,000 versus a stan d-alone restaurant cost of $2 million, this could become an enormous growth vehicle for Benihana. The new hours and offerings helped increase guest counts in existing restaurants by 8.7 percent and same store sales by an average of 7.7 percent for fiscal 1996. This rise, plus the addition of the Benihana of Tokyo restaurants and the new Benihana Grill, resulted in annual revenues of over $81 million. Benihanas growth came primarily from increased traffic in its existing restaurants, and the company continued to support that strategy. Early in 1996, in an effort to gain a larger share of the ethnic market, the company launched Spanish-language television advertisements in Miami and Los Angeles. In May, Benihana kicked off a two-year, $5 million ad campaign, focusing on the entertainment value of teppanyaki cooking. We want to bring the Benihana name to a different audience, company president Joel Schwartz told Nations Restaurant News in a May 6, 1996 article. The ads show that Benihana is a place the entire family can come to and have a good timea place they will see the chef perform and flip shrimp. Individual restaurants also developed innovative marketing techniques. A visit and meal at the Benihana in Bethesda, Maryland, for example, is one of the activities in the countys social studies curriculum for third graders learning about Japan. The company did not depend entirely on its existing restaurants for growth. During 1996, it also signed leases for several more Benihana Grills and expanded its franchise operations, including restaurants in Bogota, Columbia, and Aruba, Netherlands Antilles. Benihanas track record of steady growth in same store sales, rising customer count, and profitability appeared to be continuing into the late 1990s as revenues for the first half of fiscal 1997 were up over eight percent from the year before. Further Reading: Alva, Marilyn, Very Rocky Business: Aoki Besieged by Shareholder Suits, Restaurant Business, February 10, 1992. Benihana Buying Founder Aokis Units, Nations Restaurant News, January 16, 1995, p. 14. Benihana Profits Rise 67% for First Nine Months of Fiscal 95, Nations Restaurant News, February 12, 1996, p. 12. Benihana Testing Stir-Fry Kits, Supermarket News, October 17, 1994, p. 28.

The Manhattan Transcripts by Bernard Tschumi

The Manhattan Transcripts by Bernard Tschumi The Manhattan Transcripts proposed to show an architectural understanding of reality. Each point Tschumi aims to get across, is made through a series of three square panels, where photographs direct the action, plans, sections, etc. reveal the architectural construct, and diagrams indicate the movements of the main characters. The Transcripts are first and foremost a device with their explicit purpose being to transcribe things normally removed from conventional architectural representation, namely the complex relationship between spaces and their use; between the set and the script; between type and program; between objects and events. Their implicit purpose has to do with the twentieth-century city. The Transcripts try to offer a different reading of architecture in which space, movement, and events are separate, but standing in a new relationship with one another. This is meant to break down and rebuild the standard components of architecture along different axes. Tschumi takes th e Manhattan Transcripts program to formulate a plot based around a murder. MT 1 (Manhattan Transcripts 1) The Park is the first episode composed of twenty four sheets illustrating the drawn and photographed notation of a murder. The formula plot of the murder the lone figure stalking its victim, the murder, the hunt, the search for clues building up to the murderers capture. While the origin of MT 1 is in New Yorks Central Park, MT 2 The Street (Border Crossing) is based on 42nd street, from the Hudson to the East River. There are over a dozen different experiences along 42nd street by MT 2 does not represent these worlds, but the borders that describe them. Each border becomes a space with the events that it contains, with the movements that transgress it. In MT 3 The Tower (The Fall): This program proposes to highlight the fall of someone inside a common denominator like a home, office, prison, hotel or asylum. The set of drawings portrays someones flight and the preceding fall through the full height of a Manhattan tower block, its cells and its yards. The drastic change of perceptions caused by the fall is used to explore different spatial transformations and their typological distortions. In MT 4 The Block describes five inner courtyards of a simple city block witness contradictory events and programmatic impossibilities: acrobats, ice-skaters, dancers, soldiers, and football players all congregate and perform high-wire acts, games, or even the re-enactment of famous battles, in a context usually alien to their activity. Disjunctions between movements, programs, and spaces inevitably follow as each pursues a distinct logic, while their confrontations produce the most unlikely combinations. The Transcripts present three disjoined levels of reality at the same time: (i) The world of objects, composed of buildings abstracted from maps, plans, photographs; (ii) The world of movements, which can be abstracted from choreography, sport, or other movement diagrams; and (iii) The world of events, which is abstracted from news photographs. At first, the importance of each level depends only on how each is interpreted by the viewer, since each level can always be seen against the background of another. It appears to be the Transcripts argument that only the striking relationship between the three levels makes for the architectural experience. So entangled are these levels with one another that at any moment they are perfectly interchangeable. Making the Transcripts never attempt to rise above contradictions between object, man and event in order to bring them to a new synthesis; but instead, they aim to maintain these contradictions in a dynamic manner. Tschumi states, In their i ndividual state, objects, movement, events are simply discontinuous. Only when they unite do they establish an instant of continuity. Such disjunction implies a dynamic conception posed against a static definition of architecture, an excessive movement that brings architecture to its limits. Tschumis purpose of the tripartite mode of notation (events, movements, spaces) was to introduce the order of experience and the order of time (moments, intervals, sequences) for all inevitably intervene in the reading of the city. It is also seen as a need to question the modes of representation generally used by architects: plans, sections, axonometrics and perspectives. The insertion of movement into the overall architectural scheme meant that Tschumi had to breaking down some of the traditional components of architecture which permitted the independent manipulation of each new part according to narrative or formal considerations. For example, the plans of the Park, the section of the Street, the axonometrics of the Tower, the perspectives of the Block all follow (and sometimes question) the internal logic of their modes of representation. The compositional implications of an axonometric (an abstract projection according to the rules of descriptive geometry) are, as a result, widely different from those of a perspective with a single vanishing point. A particular case is explored in the forth episode of the Transcripts. As opposed to the plans, maps, or axonometrics used in the early episodes, the perspectiv al description of buildings is concomitant with their photographic record; the photograph acts as the origin of the architectural image. The perspective image is no longer a mode of three dimensional drawing, but the direct extension of the photographic mode of perception. The same applies to the movement notation. An extension from the drawn conventions of choreography, it attempts to eliminate the preconceived meanings given to particular actions so as to concentrate on their spatial effects: the movement of bodies in space. The early MTs introduce the idea of movement in general by freely improvising movement patterns, from the fugitives to the street-fighters. The last MT analyzes highly formalised movement diagrams of dancers, football players, skaters, army tacticians and acrobats. Rather than merely indicating directional arrows on neutral surface, the logic of movement notation ultimately suggests real corridors of space, as if the dancer had been carving space out of pliabl e substance; or the reverse, shaping continuous volumes , as if a whole movement had been literally solidified, frozen into a permanent and massive vector. Each event with in the Transcripts is represented by a photo, in an attempt to get to get the viewer closer to an objectivity which is often missing from architectural programs. Tschumi describes the Manhattan Transcripts as not an accumulation of events; they display a particular organisation. Their chief characteristic is the sequence, a composite succession of frames that confronts spaces, movement, and events, each with its own structure and inherent set of rules. The narratives implied by these composite sequences may be linear, deconstructed, or dissociated. MT 1 is linear, while MT 2 only appears to be so; MT 3 depicts two unrelated moments, while MT 4 exhausts the narrative, meaning it deconstructs programs in the same way that it deconstructs forms and movements. The Transcripts share a similarity to films. Both share a frame by frame technique, spaces are not only composed, but it is also developed from shot to shot so that the final meaning of each shot depends on its context. The relationship of one frame to the next is indispensable insofar as no analysis of any one frame can accurately reveal how the space was handled altogether. The Transcript s are thus not self-contained images. They establish a memory of the preceding frame, of the course of events. Their final meaning is cumulative; it does not depend merely on a single frame (such as a facade), but on succession of frames or spaces. In any case, the Transcripts always display at least two conflicting fields: first, the framing device square, healthy, conformist, normal and predictable, regular and comforting, correct. Second, the framed material, a place that only questions, distorts, compresses, displaces. Both are necessary. Neither is inherently special; neither communicates by itself. It is the play between them that does their distance and its occasional transgression, when the frame itself becomes the object of distortions. The frame permits the extreme formal manipulation of the sequence, for the content or congenial frames can be mixed up, superposed, faded in, cut up, giving endless possibilities to the narrative sequence. The last Transcript eliminates al l that is inessential to the architecture of the city. Spaces, movements, events are contracted into only fragments absolutely necessary to outline the overall structure. Since each frame is isolated from the next, architecture can begin to act as a series of surprises, a form of architectural jump-cut, where space is carefully broken apart and then reassembled at the limits. Tschumi records his classification of a number of words; two of them stand out, while researching the Manhattan Transcripts: Event: an incident, an occurrence; a particular item in a programme. Events can encompass particular uses, singular functions or isolated activities. They include moments of passion, acts of love and the instant of death. Events have an independent existence. Rarely are they purely the consequence of their surroundings. In literature, they belong to the category of the narrative (as opposed to the descriptive). Movement: the action or process of moving (In a poem or narrative: progress or incidents, development of a plot). Also: the inevitable intrusion of bodies into the controlled order of architecture. Entering a building: an act that violates the balance of a precisely ordered geometry (do architectural photographs ever include runners, fighters, lovers?); bodies that carve unexpected spaces through their fluid or erratic motions. Architecture, then, is only an organism passively engaged in constant intercourse with users, whose bodies rush against the carefully established rules of architectural thought. In the early days of developing and drawing The Manhattan Transcripts, Tschumi arrived at the tripartite notation of space, event, and movement and literally introduced the idea of movement as a separate term in the equation. Tschumis first assumption was that architecture begins with movement. For example, one enters a building, one passes through it, one climbs stairs, one goes from one space to another, and that network of routes being what really forms architecture. Even through architecture can be made of static spaces, the interaction between the static and the dynamic is what really constitutes it. This allowed Tschumi to take the argument to the next level and introduce and advance the notion of program, and then at a later stage to develop it more precisely. Traditional means of architectural representation (plans, sections, perspectives, axonometrics) have a number of limitations. Tschumi believed the idea of the event which evolved out of his theoretical work couldnt be re presented through these means. But it had been extensively documented in other disciplines such as dance, certain sports, and film theory, as well as in the work of a number of performance artists. Artist like Dan Graham, Bruce Nauman and Bruce McLean, all show an extensive representation of events and movement within their work. In the 1970s, Dan Graham worked with performance, film and video to explore changes in individual and group consciousness and the limits of private and public space. His video surveillance Time Delay and Present and continuous Past(s) installations create an event space that transforms the audience into part of the performance while also allowing interaction with the performer. The film Body Press show two filmmakers standing within a completely mirrored surrounding, without moving their bodies, hands holding and pressing a cameras back-end flush to, while slowly rotating it about, the surface cylinder of their individual bodies. One rotation goes around the bodys contour, spiralling slightly upwards with the next turn. This continues up and down the body and then the camera is exchanged and the process repeated. The cameras film the image reflected on the mirror, the body of the performer and possibly his eyes on the mirror. This movement of the camera tries to act or be seen as an extension of the bodys identity. The events created through the experience of his work are further highlighted through his built forms. The architecture of Dan Grahams own pavilions acknowledges the fantasy of the significance of the viewer in a space in culture. His structures are precisely designed for specific situations. People entering or observing them are able to look at these situations and their place within them. Any change in the lighting provokes a change in the relative reflectivity or transparency of the pavilions two-way mirror glass, putting the relationships between people and their surroundings into constant flux. People look at nature, at themselves superimposed on it, at others looking at them, at others looking at others looking at them: an endless equivalence directed at the possibility of acute social (self) consciousness In the 1970s, Bruce McLean changed the medium of his natural mode of expressive performance, from art, to live performance and pose. On his return to painting, the experience played a big role is his later work. He made a series of large works on paper inspired by some magazine photographs of Chinese acrobats. These were extremely simple and direct but where the first to exploit the possibilities of emblematic colour in relation to political symbolism. The acrobats of politics were depicted as engaged in their self-absorbed feats in arenas of performance suspiciously uncomplicated, against backgrounds that signified, in the way that flags do, certainties of value and allegiance; such certainties came in different colours. Even though simple these paintings expressed movement across a plane and the idea of event, a space where this movement is being enjoyed. Among many which represent some form of event and movement, McLeans Ambre Solaire painting highlights how well this medium captu res the movement and activity. Presented on a black background with neon orange figures and brushed bodies in bronze, the light green and white that represent the splash, perfectly brings it to life. It feels bright and inviting. The Transcripts represent a collects of drawings which proposed a new way of architectural interpretations. These try to also propose new ways to present movement and event. The Transcript achieves this is some areas, the event is only clearly represented within the photographs but fail to be clear within the drawings. Some photos also dont give a clear idea of the scene proposed. Where as representation of movement and event highlighted by the artist Dan Graham and Bruce McLean show with little interpretation what the main goal they are trying to present. The Manhattan Transcripts do portray is interesting and unique way for looking at a set of drawings with a very interesting program to follow which is hard to tie together but enjoyable to research.

An Analytical Essay on the Duality of Man in Hamlet :: The Tragedy of Hamlet Essays

An Analytical Essay on the Duality of Man in Hamlet    Day after day on television, in the movies, and even in some modern literature we see characters falling within those same old categories of "good guy" or "bad guy".   Life would be much easier to figure out if human beings were so definitely good or bad, but we're not.   Four hundred years ago William Shakespeare wrote a play that presented characters how human beings truly are, neither all good nor all bad.   Hamlet is a play twisting and turning so much in human emotion that at times it almost seems to come alive and give us an accurate depiction of inner-torment, death, and humanness. In such scenes as the one where we see Claudius praying for forgiveness for the murder he has committed, guilt is seen in who would be the easy-to-hate "villain" in other stories.   He is depicted as a human being with the capacity to be sorry for what he has done.   The good and bad qualities of characters in Hamlet makes it harder for the audience to know who is right or who they want to see succeed.   This duality is seen in many other Hamlet characters and it is most interesting to examine this mix of good and bad in Hamlet, because he is the play's supposed "good guy".   Since Claudius wronged Hamlet and his father the audience wants to sympathize with Hamlet and see him triumph over Claudius.   When his decency and moral appeal are seen as questionable Hamlet becomes a story immersed in the positive and negative qualities of character and the ambiguity of life. In the beginning of the play the audience sees Hamlet struggling with his father's death and his sincere mourning appeals to us; it is something that makes us feel for him.   After his encounter with the ghost we are given a Hamlet with a horrible mission, to murder.   Anyone can imagine how being faced with the truth of his father's death would anger Hamlet, but to murder in cold blood is something that wouldn't come easily to a young man.   The audience longs to see Hamlet find a way to make better what has happened, because he is innocent, young, and a man who lost someone he loved.   To deal with the murder of his own father and then being asked to murder are things that make us pity him and his confusing situation. An Analytical Essay on the Duality of Man in Hamlet :: The Tragedy of Hamlet Essays An Analytical Essay on the Duality of Man in Hamlet    Day after day on television, in the movies, and even in some modern literature we see characters falling within those same old categories of "good guy" or "bad guy".   Life would be much easier to figure out if human beings were so definitely good or bad, but we're not.   Four hundred years ago William Shakespeare wrote a play that presented characters how human beings truly are, neither all good nor all bad.   Hamlet is a play twisting and turning so much in human emotion that at times it almost seems to come alive and give us an accurate depiction of inner-torment, death, and humanness. In such scenes as the one where we see Claudius praying for forgiveness for the murder he has committed, guilt is seen in who would be the easy-to-hate "villain" in other stories.   He is depicted as a human being with the capacity to be sorry for what he has done.   The good and bad qualities of characters in Hamlet makes it harder for the audience to know who is right or who they want to see succeed.   This duality is seen in many other Hamlet characters and it is most interesting to examine this mix of good and bad in Hamlet, because he is the play's supposed "good guy".   Since Claudius wronged Hamlet and his father the audience wants to sympathize with Hamlet and see him triumph over Claudius.   When his decency and moral appeal are seen as questionable Hamlet becomes a story immersed in the positive and negative qualities of character and the ambiguity of life. In the beginning of the play the audience sees Hamlet struggling with his father's death and his sincere mourning appeals to us; it is something that makes us feel for him.   After his encounter with the ghost we are given a Hamlet with a horrible mission, to murder.   Anyone can imagine how being faced with the truth of his father's death would anger Hamlet, but to murder in cold blood is something that wouldn't come easily to a young man.   The audience longs to see Hamlet find a way to make better what has happened, because he is innocent, young, and a man who lost someone he loved.   To deal with the murder of his own father and then being asked to murder are things that make us pity him and his confusing situation.

Native Americans in the United States Essay

Dentify the economic, political, and/or social causes of the Civil War assess the influence of individuals and groups in the U. S. government on Reconstruction assess the influence of individuals and groups in the South on Reconstruction distinguish and analyze the freedoms guaranteed to African Americans in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution analyze the various components of Jim Crow legislation and their effects on Southern minorities describe efforts by the U. S. Government to assimilate Native Americans into American culture identify significant events that impacted the relationship between the government, Native Americans, and American citizens identify settlement patterns in the American West, the reservation system, and/or the tribulations of the Native Americans from 1865–90 After completing this lesson, you will be able to evaluate the causes and consequences of the Civil War identify the economic, political, and/or social causes of the Civil War assess the influence of individuals and groups in the U. S. government on Reconstruction assess the influence of individuals and groups in the South on Reconstruction distinguish and analyze the freedoms guaranteed to African Americans in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution analyze the various components of Jim Crow legislation and their distinguish and analyze the freedoms guaranteed to African Americans in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution effects on Southern minorities describe efforts by the U. S. Government to assimilate Native Americans into American culture identify significant events that impacted the relationship between the government, Native Americans, and American citizens identify settlement patterns in the American West, the reservation system, and/or the tribulations of the Native Americans from 1865–90After completing this lesson, you will be able to evaluate the causes and consequences of the Civil War identify the economic, political, and/or social causes of the Civil War assess the influence of individuals and groups in the U. S. Government on Reconstruction assess the influence of individuals and groups in the South on Reconstruction distinguish and analyze the freedoms guaranteed to African Americans in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution analyze the various components of Jim Crow legislation and their effects on Southern minorities describe efforts by the U. S. government to assimilate Native Americans into American culture identify significant events that impacted the relationship between the government, Native Americans, and American citizens identify settlement patterns in the American West, the reservation system, and/or the tribulations of the Native Americans from 1865–90.

Compare and Contrast Essay Sample on Hinduism and Buddhism

Compare and Contrast Essay Sample on Hinduism and Buddhism From egotism, force, pride,// Desire, wrath, and possession// Freed, unselfish, calmed,// He is fit for becoming Brahman (Bhagavad Gita XVIII.53). Hinduism and Buddhism are two of the worlds greatest and most influential religions. Both of these religions arose in South Asia, and thus stem from a similar philosophy and culture. While contrasting greatly with the monotheistic religions of the West, Hinduism and Buddhism also contrast greatly with each other. Although similar in respect to general philosophy, Hinduism and Buddhism differ greatly on matters of social structure. The two religions also contrast because Hinduism omits and Buddhism emphasizes individual freedom to progress spiritually and socially in the current life. By comparing the two religions, one can easily see why it is that Hinduism has proved the more stable and Buddhism the more humanitarian philosophy. Both Hinduism and Buddhism are more philosophical than religious. Both describe an all-encompassing philosophy and define existence itself. For instance, the essential Hindu concept defining the individual and his responsibilities is dharma. A convoluted term, dharma is a sense of obligation. One must fulfill his roles in society and the world. Such responsibilities include reproduction and caste duties, but extend into the philosophical realm of peaceful and humble acceptance of ones position. Dharma defines correct living for a Hindu. Buddhism has a similar concept, dhamma (note even the linguistic similarity). Dhamma does not imply specific biological or social obligations, but maintains a comparable philosophical construct. The Buddhist definition of right conduct and personal obligation, dhamma is the path which must be taken to escape the suffering of worldly life. Other similarities between Hinduism and Buddhism are more apparent. Both religions maintain a broad perspective of religious worship. Hinduism is polytheistic while Buddhism maintains no structured belief in an independent, sentient god-like entity (especially in human form). Either of these concepts yields a malleable religion which can adjust and conform to local tradition and fluctuations in intellectual and spiritual thought. Both religions believe in a system of reincarnation, and both religions emphasize the community over the self. The major rift between the two religions seems to stem from the role of social structure in the two religions. Hinduisms caste system perpetuates a fatalism and apathy toward social rights and advancement while reinforcing the ruling establishment. Buddhism concentrates on the individuals release from suffering, implying no overriding social definition. The outstanding example of Hinduisms establishment tendencies is the caste system. The caste system divides the Hindu people into four major classes, Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra, and untouchables, or people outside of all the classes. Members of certain castes have certain duties. Caste is determined by birth, allowing no social advancement, career choice, or individual freedom. The castes are socially ranked, forming an upper social division as well as lower ones. Caste, then, determines ones profession, ones potential education, ones social position, even defining these limitations for your children. These social limitations are reinforced by the concept that caste is determined by sins or virtues in a previous life: how well one fulfilled his dharma in the past. The responsibilities of ones current caste also constitute the dharma which will further advance or punish one in your next life. In other words, exceeding ones dharma in not only unnecessary, but in all probab ility will hurt your dharma, causing you to fall into a lower caste in your next life. This intertwining of social strata with religion creates a fatalism derived from inevitable destiny, guilt complexes of past life caste determination, a philosophy of acceptance, and fear of punishment for transcending ones dharma. In this light, Hinduism becomes a tremendous force for stagnation, eliminating the initiative for progress in a philosophy of acceptance which breeds an apathy for social justice. Such a pervasive philosophy becomes an asset to the status quo and ruling stratum, stabilizing the social structure at the expense of individuals. Buddhism, on the other hand, plays little role in the social or political structure of a society. Buddhism actually began as a reaction to the violence of Hindu society, including the brutality of the caste system. Buddhism concentrates not on the society, but on the individual, thus divorcing religion from the interests of the ruling stratum. The pessimism of Hindu reincarnation is replaced by a more optimistic and less fatalistic cycle. One is no longer born into a position due to past inequities. Although Buddhism does see life as pain and suffering and reincarnation as a renewal of this suffering, there is a potential escape. If one renounces his attachment to desire and self, Nirvana, or escape from the cycles of suffering, is possible. The most important aspect of Nirvana, however, is its unrestricted access to people of any social background. In other words, although a Hindu untouchable cannot possibly advance in this life through any extraordinary effort of his own, any Buddh ist can achieve Nirvana through the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, realizations of the essence of suffering and the methods to remove all suffering. Buddhism also seems to be less ritualistic and deity-dependent than Hinduism. Cultures across the world have created man-shaped gods to emphasize the dignity and purpose of human existence. In my opinion, this shows an emotional dependency which flaws a religious philosophy. If a religion is created to emotionally satisfy its followers, it seems to contain less truth or philosophical rightness. I believe this is the case with Hinduism. While Hinduism has man shaped gods to emphasize human dignity, Buddhism manages to instill a respect for humanity through the intellectual and spiritual capacity of man. This is evidenced by the supreme respect Buddhist have for those who achieve Nirvana, quasi-deifying these men, recognizing their superhuman wisdom and spirit while refusing to attribute them supernatural properties. The lack of an artificial diety to instill purpose in a religions followers makes Buddhism significantly different, and more advanced, than Hinduism. An especially important indicator of the contrast between Hinduism and Buddhism arises in their historical relationship. Buddhism, of course, arose as a reform movement out of Hinduism. This in itself tends to put Buddhism in a more positive light as the religion that integrated Hindu beliefs while excluding the most negative aspects of Hinduism. This turns out to be the case when the caste system is examined. While Hinduism not only perpetuates, but is itself the caste system, Buddhism utterly rejects any system of caste. Buddhism actually reached high levels of support during the rule of Ashoka, who adopted the Buddhist concept of ahimsa, or non violence, and its tendency toward greater equality. The attractiveness of a philosophy/religion of peace and general freedom, including a rejection of the social stigmas of caste for untouchables and lower caste members, brought thousands of converts. Again, however, the historical relationship of Hinduism and Buddhism shows the inherent ma lleability and strength of Hinduism. In order to integrate the Buddhist movement into Hinduism, the Buddha was made an avatar of Vishnu. Now even if one claimed to be a Buddhist, one could easily be dismissed as a Hindu. By erasing the demarcation between the two religions, Hinduism managed to absorb the Buddhist movement. This result shows the power of a religion so closely tied to the social structure. Because Hinduism pervaded the very fabric of society, it was able to stifle and absorb threatening philosophies. Buddhism, on the other hand, has no interest in the structural model of a society to effect similar results. Between Hinduism and Buddhism, I believe that Buddhism is more positive religion. The myths and history of Hinduism create a field of immensely greater interest than that of Buddhism. The culture of Hinduism also seems more captivating, although this is only by virtue of its distinct difference with Western class systems. Despite the draw Hinduism holds upon outsiders, Buddhism remains the more advanced religion. Whereas Hinduism represses others through caste, Buddhism projects ultimate acceptance. Both religions maintain an emphasis upon the community and a rejection of selfishness that is refreshingly different from Western religions. Although both of these religions instill respect and a genuine concern for others, Hinduism does so in a forced, repressive manner while Buddhism is more liberal. The relationship between Hinduism and Buddhism is much the same as between Catholicism and Protestantism. One can equate Catholicism with Hinduism and Protestantism with Buddhism. Protestantism grew as a reform movement out of Catholicism. The corruption, immorality, and restrictive power structure of the Catholic Church became so intolerable that Protestantism, a religion emphasizing the individuals personal relationship with the deity, was created. Protestantism offered more freedom and dignity to the people than did Catholicism. Although the religions are vastly different, Buddhism also grew out of the corruption, immorality, and restrictive power structure of Hinduism to give the people more freedom and dignity. Unfortunately, the comparison stops here since the philosophy of Protestantism did not support a selfless, dignified religion, while the very essence of Buddhism supports a selfless and dignified view of humanity. This again results from Buddhisms deemphasis on social ord er. Hinduism and Buddhism are very similar religions in comparison to the monotheistic religions of the West. On a direct comparison, however, the differences between Buddhism and Hinduism are great. Although the general tendencies of both religions lean toward the family and community, Hinduism does so at the expense of women and the lower castes while Buddhism remains more universally accepting. Both religions seem to have elements which would do the West good to learn, but only Buddhism lacks any large scale negative repercussions for its followers. On the basis of these criteria, Buddhism seems to have more positive character as a general life philosophy.