The Pathology of Cryptology—A Current Survey

Abstract

“The Pathology of Cryptology” is the title of a chapter in David Kahn's book The Codebreakers. This chapter mainly deals with hidden messages, which amateur scientists claim to have discovered in the works of William Shakespeare and in other literary works. The present article picks up this subject and provides it with a theoretic framework under the name of “para-steganography.” Moreover, further case studies are added to those given by Kahn, including many examples that only became known after the publication of The Codebreakers. These considerations show that a hidden code can be found almost anywhere, provided that one looks for it in a suitable manner.     

Techniken der Vermittlung

  Techniques of Mediation. Chemistry as a Combination of Work, Teaching and Research: the Case of J. F. A. G?ttling A typical career of a chemist in Germany around 1800 consisted of being trained as an apothecary, followed by an occupation as a professor at a university or another institution of higher education. These conditions deeply influenced the concept and the practice of chemistry as a science. Johann Friedrich August G?ttling is an intriguing example for merging education and daily duties of teaching with the self-image of a scientific chemist. He linked chemical teaching, work, and research by using different hybrid media, such as the Almanach oder Taschenbuch für Scheidekünstler und Apotheker, a stove specifically designed for the narrow student’s room, portable laboratories, a pharmaceutical boarding school and textbooks. This allowed him to practice three different forms of chemistry as a science. A “socio-epistemological diagram” of German chemistry around 1800 shows that these forms neatly corresponded to the then predominant three-level epistemology. In particular, the concept of a chemical fact served to link pharmaceutical practice with teaching practice, while granting only the chemistry done by professors the status of a science.

     

巴洛克建筑师约翰·伯恩哈德·费舍尔·冯·埃尔拉赫和奥地利“中国风”(Chinoiserie)建筑

奥地利建筑师约翰·伯恩哈德费舍尔冯埃尔拉赫(Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach,1656-1723)是欧洲巴洛克时期哈布斯堡王朝(Habsburg Monarchy)的重要建筑师之一。令人感兴趣的是他的一些设计作品表现出与中国之间的明显联系。同时他也是欧洲最早公开出版的世界建筑史图册《历史性建筑的设计》(A Planof Civil and Historical Architecture,1721)的作者,此书第一次将中国和泰国作为世界建筑的一部分进行比较研究。本文介绍此位奥地利建筑师的生平和工作,并分析他和中国以及中国式风格建筑的关系。文章第一部分从西方建筑传统的大背景下讨论费舍尔的建筑成就。第二部分,研究在欧洲中国风背景下他的建筑活动,并介绍奥地利中国式建筑风格体系的构成。     

REVIEWS AND THINGS CRYPTOLOGIC

Abstract

This article presents a cryptographic method that Count Vergennes, Minister of the Interior of Louis XVI of France, used and refined in communication between the diplomatic representations abroad and Paris. After the visa applicants’ initial interview (and secret investigation of their backgrounds), they were given an ingeniously encoded “Letter of Recommendation” in the form of a personalized “Carte de Visite” (calling card) when they picked up such permits, which were, in turn, decoded by the count himself upon presentation at the Ministry. Vergennes could then keep such visitors under surveillance during their sojourn in France.     

Low Albedo: The Mathilde Project

It is hard to imagine anything more darkly moody than a slow-rotating, ultra-black asteroid lurking in deep outer space. Los Angeles-based practice Hirsuta's recent Mathilde project is directly inspired by such an object, turning it inside out in an inversion of space and form. Jason Payne , principal of this practice, which combines a focus on materiality and sensual stimulation with an exploration of emerging construction technologies, describes it.     

An album of seascapes by Gustave Le Gray

Abstract

In 1856 Ernest Lacan, a journalist and early critic in the field of photography, advanced a prediction which only recently has been confirmed, that Gustave Le Gray (1820–c. 1882) ‘s'est fait un nom qui restera dans l'histoire des progrès de la photographie’¹. There is little doubt that in the 1850s Le Gray was considered at least the equal of contemporary luminaries such as Nadar, owing to the following activities and accolades: his highly advanced technical experiments, discoveries and improvements; his several treatises and short notes in journals which dealt with such; his extensive and consistent exhibition record which was accompanied by almost exclusively positive and enthusiastic reviews; persistent application of and investigation into nearly every photographic technique and iconographic theme popular at the time; his informal or professional training of photographers of note such as Henri Le Secq, Charles Nègre, Charles Marville, Maxime Du Camp, Roger Fenton, and Adrien Tournachon; and the ultimate approbation, the grant to him in c. 1858–1859 of the title ‘Photographe de S. M. L'Empereur’. Accordingly, one finds in the histories and photographic journals of his day repeated references to the exceptional quality of Le Gray's prints and the widespread influence of his writings and instruction. Nadar, in his Quand j'étais photographe of c. 1900, included extensive remarks relating to Le Gray's personal life and photographic career, but because of a span of 40 or more years between original events and recollections, Nadar's account of his subject's endeavours is at best superficial, and tends to emphasize anecdote as opposed to factual history. Short treatments dealing primarily with the technical aspects of Le Gray's photography do appear in most 20th-century surveys (Freund, Lécuyer, Gernsheim, Newhall, etc.), but neither these brief synopses nor Nadar's reminiscences constitute what may even faintly be construed as a serious attempt at a reconstruction of the photographer's career and accomplishments2 For essentially revisional biographical information concerning Le Gray, see the author's dissertation¹, especially pp. 1–20, 41–42, 52–53, and 63–47. . In recent years, however, photographic historians, art historians, and to some extent the general public, have witnessed a renaissance of interest in Le Gray's life and works, a revival which has led to more detailed and accurate textual inforinntion, and the attendant availability of a wider range of examples of his works and writings³. It therefore seems propitious to add to this rapidly expanding corpus of Le Gray studies an intensive discussion of what may well be the photographer's most distinguished technical and aesthetic achievement, the Vistas del Mar album of scascapes, here dated c. 1857–1859, now housed in the Art Institute of Chicago.     

Joachim Friedrich Wohlwill (1928–1987).

Joachim (Jack) F. Wohlwill was a well known developmental psychologist who spent some time at Clark University as director of its graduate program in developmental psychology. Jack's concern with the environment became manifest in 1963 when he accepted an invitation to spend the year as a Fellow in the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. Jack's contributions to the study of environment and behavior are extensive, varied, and creative. With Irwin Airman and others, he edited books covering the environment in relation to children, elderly people, culture, the social sciences, and transportation behavior, as well as the impact of the natural environment on behavior. Jack's concern for developmental psychology remained as a potent force. In 1979, while still at Pennsylvania State, he became Professor of Human Development in the Programs on Individual and Family Studies and Man-Environment Relations. Related to his interests in developmental and environmental psychology was Jack's long-standing interest in the psychology of the arts and in the work of Daniel Berlyne on exploration, curiosity, and affective arousal, along with their roles in both the creation of and response to artistic stimuli. This interest in the psychology of the arts brought him back in formal contact with Clark University's Heinz Werner Institute for Developmental Analysis in 1986. Here he helped initiate a conference on "Development and the Arts," in which he was scheduled to present his work on "Effects of Media on the Creativity of Children's Art." Sadly for all, Jack died on July 10, 1987, in State College, just 10 weeks prior to the Clark conference. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Collective Cognition: Neural Fabrics and Social Software

For decades, the MIT Media Lab has been a centre of innovative and highly influential research on emerging technologies, including responsive and interactive sensing systems, software programming and forms of artificial intelligence, and robotic design and communication systems for new forms of knowledge production and distribution. Therese Tierney writes about several aspects of the Media Lab's research, including the current work of John Maeda, as well as the work of collaborators such as CEB Reas and Ben Fry, who she argues are developing work in new and sophisticated directions. She positions this work within the larger thematic of collective intelligence by addressing the particularly social forms of practice and the necessary connection to intelligent software and sensing technologies. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.