Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, 20th-Century Design Pioneer

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, 20th-Century Design Pioneer Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (born Laszlo Weisz; July 20, 1895 - November 24, 1946) was a Hungarian-American artist, theorist, and educator who strongly influenced the aesthetic development of industrial design. He taught at Germanys famed Bauhaus school and was a founding father of the institution that became the School of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Fast Facts: Laszlo Moholy-Nagy Occupation: Painter, photographer, filmmaker, industrial designer, and educatorBorn: July 20, 1895 in Bacsborsod, HungaryDied: November 24, 1946 in Chicago, IllinoisSpouses: Lucia Schulz (divorced 1929), Sibylle PietzschChildren: Hattula and ClaudiaSelected Works: Collage with Black Centre (1922), A 19 (1927), Light Space Modulator (1930)Notable Quote: Designing is not a profession but an attitude. Early Life, Education, and Military Career Born in Hungary as part of the Weisz Jewish family, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy grew up with his mother as a single parent when his father abandoned the family of three sons. She was a second cousin of noted classical music conductor Sir Georg Solti. Moholy-Nagys maternal uncle, Gusztav Nagy, supported the family, and the young Laszlo took the Nagy name as his own. He later added Moholy in recognition of the town Mohol, now part of Serbia, where he spent much of his early life. The young Laszlo Moholy-Nagy originally wanted to be a poet and published some pieces in local newspapers. He also studied law, but service in the Austro-Hungarian military during World War I changed the direction of his life. Moholy-Nagy documented his service with sketches and watercolors. Upon discharge, he began attending the art school of Hungarian Fauve artist Robert Bereny. Collage with Black Centre (1922). Heritage Images / Getty Images German Career German architect Walter Gropius invited Moholy-Nagy to teach at his famed Bauhaus school in 1923. He taught the foundation course with Josef Albers and also replaced Paul Klee as Head of the metal workshop. Moholy-Nagys ascendancy marked the end of the schools association with expressionism and movement in the direction of industrial design. While he considered himself primarily a painter, Moholy-Nagy was also a pioneer experimenting with photography and film. In the 1920s at Bauhaus, he created abstract paintings influenced by dadaism and Russian constructivism. The impact of Piet Mondrians De Stijl work is also apparent. Some of Moholy-Nagys collages demonstrated influences from Kurt Schwitters. In photography, he experimented with photograms, exposing photo-sensitive paper directly to light. His films explored light and shadows like much of the rest of his art. By combining words with photography in what he called Typophotos, Moholy-Nagy created a new way of looking at the potential of advertising in the 1920s. Commercial designers adopted his approach in ways that resonate today. Light Space Modulator (1930). Sean Gallup / Getty Images In 1928, while under political pressure, Moholy-Nagy resigned from the Bauhaus. He established his own design studio in Berlin and separated from his wife, Lucia. One of his key works of the early 1930s was the Light Space Modulator. It is a kinetic sculpture using reflective metal and recently invented Plexiglas. Standing almost five feet tall, the object was initially intended for use in theaters to create light effects, but it functions as an art piece on its own. He created a film called Light Play Black-White-Grey to show what his new machine could do. Moholy-Nagy continued to develop variations on the piece throughout his career. American Career in Chicago In 1937, with a recommendation from Walter Gropius, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy left Nazi Germany for the U.S. to direct the New Bauhaus in Chicago. Unfortunately, after only a single year of operation, the New Bauhaus lost its financial backing and closed. A 19 (1927). Sailko / Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons 3.0 With support from ongoing benefactors, Moholy-Nagy opened the School of Design in Chicago in 1939. Both Walter Gropius and celebrated American education philosopher John Dewey served on the board. It later became the Institute of Design, and in 1949 became a part of the Illinois Institute of Technology, the first higher education institution in the U.S. to offer a Ph.D. in design. Some of Moholy-Nagys later career work involved creating transparent sculptures by painting, heating, and then shaping pieces of Plexiglas. The resulting pieces often appear playful and spontaneous compared with the artists industrial-influenced work. After receiving a leukemia diagnosis in 1945, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy became a naturalized U.S. citizen. He continued to work and teach until his death from leukemia on November 24, 1946. A II (1924). Sailko / Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons 3.0 Legacy Laszlo Moholy-Nagy impacted a broad array of disciplines, including industrial design, painting, photography, sculpture, and film. He helped bring modern aesthetics to the industrial world. With his combination of typography and photography in collage work, Moholy-Nagy is considered one of the founders of modern graphic design. Source Tsai, Joyce. Laszlo Moholy-Nagy: Painting after Photography. University of California Press, 2018.

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Health Benefits of Organic Food Essay Example

Health Benefits of Organic Food Essay Example Health Benefits of Organic Food Paper Health Benefits of Organic Food Paper Health benefits of organic food provided by various literatures may be categorized into benefits that prevent people from incurring certain health risks and benefits that improve the health and well-being of individuals. Sources on the preventive benefits of organic food focus on the lack of pesticides in organically grown food products while studies covering the health improvement benefits of organic food look into the various nutrient levels or components in organic food that contribute to the health of consumers. Baker et al. (2002) conducted a study on the pesticide residue of three classifications of fresh agricultural produce, particularly vegetables and fruits categorized into organically grown, conventionally grown, and integrated pest management grown. To determine pesticide residue levels, three measures used by three groups the Department of Agriculture, Department of Pesticide Regulation, and the independent Consumers Union. Aggregate results using the three tests showed that organically grown produce showed lower pesticide residue by as low as one-third of the residues in conventional produce and one half of the residues found in produced grown through integrated pest management. This means that organic food carries the lowest level of pesticide residue when compared to the other categories and conventional produce holds the greatest concentration of pesticide residues. Although, the study showed that organic food is not entirely free of pesticide residue, the results showed that organically grown fresh produce holds the least concentration of pesticide residue. By exposing consumers to negligible levels of pesticide residue, people enjoy the health benefit of not being exposed to the potential health risks of accumulating higher levels of pesticide residue in their bodies. Not being at risk constitutes a health benefit in itself. Hood (2003) provides that one health benefit of organic food is minimal exposure of children to organophosphorus (OP) pesticides. Based on a study of schoolchildren consuming organic and conventional food, children who consumed organic food had lower OP pesticide in their bodies relative to the children consuming conventional food. Lower OP pesticide exposure is due to the non-utilization of pesticides in organic food to prevent the actualization of health risks from pesticide exposure. By minimizing the level of OP pesticide exposure, organic food shifts the risk of pesticide exposure from uncertain to negligible. The OP pesticide exposure level of schoolchildren eating organic food was found to be below the chronic reference dose set out by the Environmental Protection Agency for various OP pesticides in the case of children. This means that consumption of organic food in the case of children significantly lowers the probability of exposing children to chronic levels of OP pesticides. Chronic levels of OP pesticide exposure, especially in the case of children, lower the probability of children developing health risks such as possible adverse effects on neurological development and functioning as well as growth. Avery (2006) propounds that children’s consumption of organic food reduces the probability of actualizing the potential risks of exposure to high levels of OP pesticide. The author cautions researchers to be careful about their language use in presenting the health benefits of organic food consumption, in response to a number of studies that point out that organic food decreases accrual of neurological and growth related health condition in children. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that the consumption of organic food contributes potential health benefits to children subject to further research to derive peer-reviewed results.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Online classes in the University of Dubai Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Online classes in the University of Dubai - Essay Example However, the demand for online degrees is dominant method of attaining knowledge in the world. Online degrees acquired from accredited universities are valuable as a degrees obtained from a campus. The University of Dubai should start offering accredited online courses in collaboration with other international institutions to allow students and working adults attain higher education in a convenient and flexible manner in line with the global education demands. However, the collaboration with other international institutions to offer online courses may expose most students to substandard and unaccredited academic programs since some overseas institutions do not meet the strict conditions for offering online courses in the UAE, which leads to the offering of untestable degrees to unsuspecting students (Swan 1). Indeed, the UAE government has been issuing warnings about substandard and unaccredited degrees where they request the students to confirm with the Ministry before registering for online studies since the ministry does not recognize online courses offered by overseas institutions (Swan 1). After all, the Ministry has established strict conditions for online study in the UAE, which include supervision by a UAE cultural attachà © or embassy staff thus complicating the process of offering online courses in UAE. As such, starting online courses will be a complicated and expensive case for UD that may jeopardize the university’s q uest to offer the  highest standards  in higher education. There are numerous economic hardships in Dubai where potential students focus on professional and personal activities to improve their lives. In fact, many students are either working part time or full time and thus cannot afford energy or time to devotedly study in a semester-like routine applied in the University of Dubai (GCC Scholarships 1). As such, although such students and working