The Salk Institute :: essays papers

The Salk Institute Dr. Jonas Salk commissioned Louis Kahn to design the Salk Institute of Biological Research near La Jolla, California. Salk believes that medical research should not be confined to science alone. In response to Salk's view, Kahn saw the possibility of uniting art and architecture with the functional aspect of the design. He agrees with Salk that someone with a mind in art, like himself, could contribute in creating a mental environment of scientific research. Kahn's pursue of this vision is apparent in his design process. The earliest massing strategy was to place a linear group of vertical towers parallel to the face of the cliff (diagram 1a). In the second version, a year later, the towers were replaced by four rectilinear, two-storey blocks set perpendicular to the sea (diagram 1b). In this version, the four blocks of laboratories were made up of clear span spaces, made possible by five box girders running across each rectangle, with a 'V'-shaped folded plate system perpendicular to the girders, spanning between them. Later, Kahn simplified the configuration of the laboratories, from four rectangular blocks to two, upon Salk's request (diagram 1c). In the process, Kahn kept he basic idea of the scheme, which was to place scientists' studies away from the laboratories in the central garden and to place auxiliary spaces in vertical towers on their external walls. However, he increased the number of floors to three, including the basement, and replaced the 'V'-shaped folded plates above each of the three floors with concrete Vierendeel beams. Stringent seismic criteria related to construction in the San Diego area made it difficult for Kahn's structural engineer to convince local building officials, who wanted him to use steel frame, that concrete, Vierendeel truss system would have the required flexibility. They agreed only after a 400 page report of undoubtedly integrated deflection computations that shows how post-tensioned columns would provide the main resistance to lateral seismic forces. These columns absorb both dead and live load compression plus vertical post-tensioning forces. They were also designed to maintain zero tension if subjected to lateral movements by earthquake. The trusses are 9 ft deep, spaced 20 ft on center and have a clear span of 65 ft (diagram 2). He made use of the 9 ft high resultant space as service area, allowing pipe chases to be dropped to the 65x 245 ft floor below with more latitude than before.

Response to Country Lovers Essay

The first thing that captured my interest about the story â€Å"Country Lovers†, by Nadine Gordimer was the first line. â€Å"Right from the opening sentence it is clear that this will be a story about inter–racial relationships. † ( Claxton, 2010). This sentence caught my attention because it gave me mixed emotions, first of hoping that this forbidden love would have a happy ending, and also a sense of foreboding that this would not be the case due to the inter-racial theme and the setting of the story. The analytical approach that I choose to evaluate this story would be a reader- response approach. â€Å"Reader-response criticism encompasses various approaches to literature that explore and seek to explain the diversity (and often divergence) of readers’ responses to literary works. † (Bedford, 1998). The reader- response approach is best described as connecting with a piece of work, and finding a personal or creative way to engage with the story. It will most likely come from a personal connection to a character or theme and the emotions that they elicit. In reader-response critical approach, the primary focus falls on the reader and the process of reading rather than on the author or the text. Theoretical Assumptions: Literature is a performative art and each reading is a performance, analogous to playing/singing a musical work, enacting a drama, etc. Literature exists only when it is read; meaning is an event (versus the New Critical concept of the â€Å"affective fallacy†). The literary text possesses no fixed and final meaning or value; there is no one â€Å"correct† meaning. Literary meaning and value are â€Å"transactional,† â€Å"dialogic,† created by the interaction of the reader and the text. According to Louise Rosenblatt, a poem is â€Å"what the reader lives through under the guidance of the text. † Varying Emphases: How readers interpret texts: Sometimes called â€Å"subjective. † May deal with published â€Å"readings† of texts and/or study nonprofessional readings (e. g. , students). These critics explain similarities in readings in varying ways: â€Å"styles† or â€Å"identity themes† of readers are similar (Norman Holland–psychoanalytic approach): cf. George Dillon’s classification of students’ responses to Faulkner’s â€Å"A Rose for Emily†: â€Å"Character-Action-Moral Style† (â€Å"connected knowers†)–treat literature as coextensive with experience â€Å"Diggers for Secrets†Ã¢â‚¬â€œfind hidden meanings in literature, psychoanalyze motives of characters, etc. â€Å"Anthropologists†Ã¢â‚¬â€œlook for cultural patterns, norms, values [e. g. feminists, New Historicists]. Readers belong to same â€Å"interpretive communities† (Stanley Fish) with shared reading strategies, values and interpretive assumptions (i. e. shared â€Å"discourse†); concept of the â€Å"informed reader. † readers are situated in a common cultural/historical setting and shaped by dominant discourses and ideologies (New Historicist emphasis). â€Å"Reception theory/aesthetics† studies the changing responses of the general reading public over time. How texts govern reader: Focus on how texts guide, constrain, control reading; often use linguistic, stylistic, narratological methods of analysis. Wolfgang Iser argues that the text in part controls the reader’s responses but contains â€Å"gaps† that the reader creatively fills. There is a tension between â€Å"the implied reader,† who is established by the â€Å"response-inviting structures† of the text; this type of reader is assumed and created by the work itself â€Å"the actual reader,† who brings his/her own experiences and preoccupations to the text. † (McManus, 1998). For this particular piece of work, I find the reader- response approach to be the most appropriate. I do not feel that there are many people that could not connect to this story on some level. The setting and the inter-racial love story excluded, there are still the aspects of first loves, and first sexual experiences that most people can identify with. Further into the story you have the aspects of horror at the thought of an innocent baby being murdered, much less at the hands of the babe’s own father. I personally felt outrage at the lack of justice for this lost soul and the knowledge that it is all too common a reality. It would seem that my sense of foreboding at the start of this story was well justified.

The Ancient Indus Valley Civilization

When 19th-century explorers and 20th-century archaeologists rediscovered the ancient Indus Valley civilization, the history of the Indian sub-continent had to be rewritten.* Many questions remain unanswered. The Indus Valley civilization is an ancient one, on the same order as Mesopotamia, Egypt, or China. All these areas relied on important rivers: Egypt relying on the annual flooding of the Nile, China on the Yellow River, the ancient Indus Valley civilization (aka Harappan, Indus-Sarasvati, or Sarasvati) on the Sarasvati and Indus rivers, and Mesopotamia outlined by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Like the people of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China, the people of the Indus civilization were culturally rich and share a claim to the earliest writing. However, there is a problem with the Indus Valley that doesnt exist in such pronounced form elsewhere. Evidence is missing elsewhere, through the accidental depredations of time and catastrophes or deliberate suppression by human authorities, but to my knowledge, the Indus Valley is unique among major ancient civilizations in having a major river disappear. In place of the Sarasvati is the much smaller Ghaggar stream that ends in the Thar desert. The great Sarasvati once flowed into the Arabian Sea, until it dried up in about 1900 B.C. when the Yamuna changed course and instead flowed into the Ganges. This may correspond with the late period of the Indus Valley civilizations. Mohenjo-Daro - From Archaeology at About.com The mid-second millennium is when the Aryans (Indo-Iranians) may have invaded and possibly conquered the Harappans, according to a very controversial theory. Before then, the great Bronze Age Indus Valley civilization flourished in an area greater than one million square km. It covered parts of Punjab, Haryana, Sindh, Baluchistan, Gujarat and fringes of Uttar Pradesh. On the basis of artifacts of trade, it appears to have flourished at the same time as the Akkadian civilization in Mesopotamia. Indus Housing If you look at an Harappan housing plan, youll see straight lines (a sign of deliberate planning), orientation to the cardinal points, and a sewer system. It held the first great urban settlements on the Indian subcontinent, most notably at the citadel cities of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa. Indus Economy and Subsistence The people of the Indus Valley farmed, herded, hunted, gathered, and fished. They raised cotton and cattle (and to a lesser extent, water buffalo, sheep, goats, and pigs), barley, wheat, chickpeas, mustard, sesame, and other plants. They had gold, copper, silver, chert, steatite, lapis lazuli, chalcedony, shells, and timber for trading. Writing The Indus Valley civilization was literate -- we know this from seals inscribed with a script that is now only in the process of being deciphered. [An aside: When it is finally deciphered, it should be a big deal, as was Sir Arthur Evans deciphering of Linear B. Linear A still needs deciphering, like the ancient Indus Valley script.] The first literature of the Indian subcontinent came after the Harappan period and is known as Vedic. It doesnt appear to mention the Harappan civilization. The Indus Valley civilization flourished in the third millennium B.C. and suddenly disappeared, after a millennium, in about 1500 B.C. -- possibly as a result of tectonic/volcanic activity leading to the formation of a city-swallowing lake. Next: Problems of the Aryan Theory in Explaining Indus Valley History *Possehl says that prior to the archaeological investigations starting in 1924, the earliest reliable date for the history of India was spring of 326 B.C. when Alexander the Great raided the northwestern border. References Imaging River Sarasvati: A Defence of Commonsense, by Irfan Habib. Social Scientist, Vol. 29, No. 1/2 (Jan. - Feb., 2001), pp. 46-74.Indus Civilization, by Gregory L. Possehl. The Oxford Companion to Archaeology. Brian M. Fagan, ed., Oxford University Press 1996.Revolution in the Urban Revolution: The Emergence of Indus Urbanization, by Gregory L. Possehl. Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 19, (1990), pp. 261-282.The Role of India in the Diffusion of Early Cultures, by William Kirk. The Geographical Journal, Vol. 141, No. 1 (Mar., 1975), pp. 19-34.Social Stratification in Ancient India: Some Reflections, by Vivekanand Jha. Social Scientist, Vol. 19, No. 3/4 (Mar. - Apr., 1991), pp. 19-40. A 1998 article, by Padma Manian, on world history textbooks gives an idea of what we may have learned about the Indus Civilization in traditional courses, and debated areas: Harappans and Aryans: Old and New Perspectives of Ancient Indian History, by Padma Manian. The History Teacher, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Nov., 1998), pp. 17-32. Major Cities All the textbooks Manian examines mention the cities of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro, their urban features of ordered streets, sewers, citadels, granaries and the bath at Mohenjo-Daro, artifacts, including seals in a yet undeciphered language. Some authors mention the area of civilization was more than a million square kilometers. One author mentions another excavated city, Kalinagan, and most of the books mention the surrounding villages. Dates Most date the Indus Valley civilization from 2500-1500 B.C., although there is an alternative, 3000-2000. The year 1500 is listed as the year of the Aryan (or Indo-Iranian) invasion. Decline of the Indus Civilization Some attribute the fall of the Indus civilization to the Aryans, destroyers and enslavers of the Indus people. Others say environmental changes caused the fall. Some say both. Identification of the Aryans The books call the Aryans pastoral nomads. Their origins include grasslands of Eastern Europe/Western Asia, the Caspian Sea, Anatolia, and south-central Asia. The books also claim they came with cattle and some say they already had iron weapons, while others say they developed them in India. One claims they crossed the Himalayas in horse-drawn chariots. Victory Over the Indigenous People All the textbooks assume the Aryans were victorious and regard the Vedas as written by these invaders. Caste There are various interpretations of the caste system. In one, when the Aryans arrived on the scene there were already 3 castes in India. In another interpretation, the Aryans brought and imposed their own tripartite system. The dark-skinned people are generally considered the conquered people and the lighter skinned ones, the Aryans. Problems With the Aryan Theory in the Typical Presentations Chronology The idea that Harappan civilization fell as a result of the arrival of the Aryans. Harappa had lost its urban character by 2000 B.C., 500 years before the Aryan arrival. Traces of Harappa Elsewhere Indicators of refugees, including lustrous Red Ware, until about 1000 B.C. Refugees fled north-eastward; some residents east to the Gulf of Cambay. Lack of Aryan Traces Painted Grey Ware pottery formerly attributed to the Aryans has not been found along their possible courses, but appears to be an outgrowth of earlier Indian styles. Linguistic Historical linguistic reasoning about the origin of the Aryans is faulty. (This is a complicated topic summarized by Kris Hirst.) Nomad Status Questionable Archaeologist Colin Renfrew denies that there is any evidence in the Rig Veda that Aryans were invaders or nomads. Sarasvati Chronology Since the Rig Vedas refer to the Sarasvati as a large river, they must have been written before 1900 B.C., so the people mentioned in it must have already been there.