Journal articles on the topic 'French tapestry'

Abstract This article discusses the literary and visual symbolism in Armand Point’s The Princess and the Unicorn. Point composed several versions of this mysterious legend in pastel, enamel, and bas-relief. Under the artistic influences of the medieval tapestry of the Lady and the Unicorn, the French painter Gustave Moreau, and the Italian Renaissance painter Alessandro Botticelli, Point unveils a spiritual creation that in its form, content, and medium seeks to evoke the ‘soul’ in a work of art.

To Mr Thomas Neale and his wife, my loving son and daughter, for a poor token of remembrance, a pair of great French candlesticks and one great brass pot… a fair table of walnut tree standing in the great parlour… two pieces of Arras wrought in pictures with silk and gold, six tapestry cushions and the bedstead of walnut tree wherein I used to lie at Warnford … To Joan Knight, daughter of my son Mr John Knight, my diamond ring of gold and a pair of bracelets of gold which were given unto me by my … husband.

The Canadian Language Museum creates exhibits to introduce the public to Canada’s rich linguistic heritage: over 60 Indigenous languages, the official languages of French and English, and hundreds of languages brought by immigrants from around the world. To create these exhibits, the curators grapple with the challenge of making exhibits about languages interesting and accessible, both to those who speak the language described and to those who have no familiarity with it. This article focuses on three traveling exhibits: Cree: The People’s Language; Speaking the Inuit Way, and A Tapestry of Voices: Celebrating Canada’s Languages. It outlines topics broached and techniques used to simplify complex linguistic issues and to involve audiences of various ages and backgrounds.

Abstract The prominence of chiaroscuro in late eighteenth-century French oil painting posed significant challenges for tapestry weavers, which led artisans and chemists to seek chemical solutions for replicating in textiles the style’s high contrast between light and dark. Textile manufacturers struggled to reproduce the intense gradations of painters like Jacques-Louis David, and innovations in dye technology were driven by the need to match the naturalism and Enlightenment symbolism of contemporary paintings. Napoleon’s investment in dye chemistry and the establishment of a dyeing school aimed to standardize colorants and rebrand traditional arts with political imagery. The integration of scientific expertise in the decorative arts led to advancements that laid the groundwork for future developments in synthetic colorants.

The author published different short studies and stories about József Rippl-Rónai’s biography and his works. An obscure document was also published about the origin of his house which known in Kaposvár as Róma villa. It is the first time to compile Lazarine’s biography, French-born wife of the painter in which her tapestry of artistic activities was reviewed. Due to the modern style innovations, „Fifty draw-ings” titled and published by Rippl-Rónai in 1913 was also reported. In these studies, the English Fenella Lowell ap-peared as a model, who inspired nude women oil-paintings of Rippl-Rónai. An unknown letter from Rippl-Rónai’s daughter, the German-born Amélie Feigl was documented. An Rippl-Rónai’s counterfeiting pastel was storied which was hap-pened at the end of the artist’s life (1927) during his illness.

Novelist Fatou Diome, Senegalese migrant to France, in 2019 reached the twenty-fifth year in her adopted country. Silver-anniversary motives encouraged the author to chart the quarter century of progress of this “megaphone of migritude,” as Lila Azam Zanganeh notably called her. Moving from the rich exegeses of the liminal, haunted, frequently abjected, migritude conditions of her fictional—and often autobiographical—heroines, Diome has now arrived inside the Hexagon, where her words harmonize with a sizable chorus of interior-left establishment voices. However, she has not abandoned her powerful interest in the complexities of migritude’s pains and difficult opportunities. On the contrary, in Marianne porte plainte! Identité nationale: Des passerelles, pas des barrières! (Marianne Complains! National Identity: Gangways, Not Barriers!) (2017), Diome takes up the many threads of the migritude tapestry so fully depicted in her novels and reweaves them into a portrait of an ideal new multicultural French identity.

For Paris, the 19th century is unique and precious. The changing regimes, the establishment of capitalism, and the progression of industrialization reshaped the city's landscape and society. As these changes led people into modern society, new challenges appeared accordingly, and the most significant one was the decline in birth rates. New lifestyles and issues altered people's thinking and focal points. Consequently, transformations in artistic expression emerged. In the vibrant tapestry of 19th-century French art, the new mother-child paintings, born to solve population problems of the industrialization process, witnessed the career paths of female artists and their feminine movements. Female artists like Berthe Morisot used this theme to gain professional recognition in the patriarchal society and to reflect and redefine their complex social roles as women in the transforming society, subtly challenging the conventional gender norms. This paper delves into how societal transformations influenced Berthe Morisot and the theme of her paintings, examining her works as a lens to explore her accomplishments.

Abstract: Wool from the Massina sheep was used to create a dozen or so kinds of textiles patterned by extra (supplementary) weft and tapestry weave in the Niger Bend region. This constellation makes the region the foremost center of technical and visual diversity in West African treadle-loom weaving traditions. Two major categories of wool textiles can be identified: kaasa and arkilla , both heavy covers of different sizes. Whereas the visual appearance of kaasas changed greatly over the twentieth century, that of the ceremonial marriage covers, arkilla, stayed the same. A third category, with wool ornamentation on a cotton ground, was woven in the northeastern part of Burkina Faso. The history of these woolen textiles is intimately linked to the social system of the Fulani people who own the sheep. Highly specialized male weavers called maabuuɓe, who form a kind of “caste,” made the kaasas and arkillas. The wool-cotton covers were made by weavers of enslaved status. The abolishment of slavery by the French in their West African territories in 1905 had profound consequences. A generation or more later, weaving traditions started to change in the Niger Bend: formerly enslaved weavers versed in traditional techniques started their own weaving businesses supported by women who bought industrial threads. New cover types came into being, with new combinations of colors and patterns, which were woven in the same techniques as with handspun wool. This is how extra-weft patterns and tapestry weave were slowly introduced to the huge region to the east, stretching from the eastern part of the Niger Bend to Lake Chad, and also how the rich Zarma weaving of the Republic of Niger came into being and Hausa weavers in Nigeria “discovered” tapestry weaving. Another, albeit much older, line of influence goes straight into Ewe weaving of Togo and Ghana. For several hundred years, these so-called wool covers were traded to the Akan kingdoms of southern Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, 1000 kilometers to the south, where they were called nsaa : there, they were reused and attained great ritual significance. This article seeks to correlate loom and weaving technologies with terminology to better reveal this diffusion of pattern weaving throughout important parts of West Africa. As most weaving was originally done with cotton—but mostly without extra weft—the tradition of wool weaving might shed new light on ornamentation in other West African weaving traditions.

On the afternoon of 7 July 1610, two petitions of grievance, one temporal and one spiritual, were presented to James I. According to the French ambassador, he received them with ‘un assez mauvais visage’ and uncharacteristically few words, although later the king permitted himself the tart comment that the petition of temporal grievances was long enough to be his chamber tapestry. Although James exaggerated its size, politically it was a weighty document, for among its complaints it set out the Commons' view that the new impositions, already bringing in around £70,000 per annum, were illegal. ‘With all humility’, they presented ‘this most just and necessary petition unto your Majesty, that all impositions set without assent of parliament may be quite abolished and taken away.’ To answer the grievance, on 10 July James turned to his lord treasurer, Robert Cecil earl of Salisbury, for a full statement. The speech which he then gave formed the basis for all future defences of the royal power to impose on trade made by crown spokesmen up to 1640. Salisbury described how, early in 1607, his friend and predecessor, Lord Treasurer Dorset, had proposed new impositions to help fill the empty royal coffers. The privy council, after discussion, decided instead to raise money on loan; but in October 1607 renewed rebellion in Ireland rendered the situation more urgent, and by spring 1608 it was apparent that loans could not meet the king's necessities.

The French Symbolist painter Gustave Moreau often used the motifs of fantastic beings and animals in his works, amongst which the unicorn found its place. Moreau got the inspiration for the unicorn motif after a visit to the Cluny Museum in Paris, in which six medieval tapestries with the name "The Lady and the Unicorn" were exhibited. Relying on the French Middle Age heritage, Moreau has interpreted the medieval legend of the hunt for this fantastic beast (with the aid of a virgin) in a new way, close to the art of Symbolism and the ideas of the cultural and intellectual climate of Paris at the end of the 19th century. In the Moreau's paintings "The Unicorn" and "The Unicorns", beautiful young nude girls are portrayed in the company of one or multiple unicorns. Similarly to the lady on the medieval tapestry, they too gently caress the animal, showing a close and sensual relationship between them. Although they were rid of their clothes, the artist donned lavish capes, crowns and jewellery on them, alluding to their privileged social status. Their beauty, nudity and closeness with the unicorns ties them to the theme of the femme fatal, which was often depicted in the Symbolist art forms. Showing the fairer sex as beings closer to the material, instinctual and irrational, Moreau has equated women and animals, as is the case with these paintings. Another important theme of the Symbolic art forms which can be seen on the aforementioned paintings is nature, wild and untouched. The landscape in the paintings shows a harmony between the unrestrained nature and the heroes of the painting, freed from strict moral laws of the civil society, or civilization in general. Putting the ladies and the unicorns in an ideal forest landscape, Moreau paints an intimate vision of an imaginary golden age, in this case the Middle Age, through a harmonic relationship of unicorns, women and nature. In that manner, Moreau's unicorns tell a fairy tale of a modern European man at the end of the 19th century: a fairy tale of harmony, sensuality and beauty, hidden in the realms of imagination and dreams.

In the autumn of 1958, the Danish artist Asger Jorn (1914-1973) received a commission for a large, coloured tapestry to be installed at the Statsgymnasium in Aarhus, Denmark. Jorn drew in his friend, the French artist Pierre Wemaëre (1913-2010), as a collaborator in this initiative. In this article, I shed light on Jorn's and Wemaëre's effort to push boundaries when producing the work. These included a challenge to disciplinary boundaries - that is, between art, craft, design and architecture - as well as social hierarchies between the artist as the creator and the weavers as the executors. The attempt was also to challenge institutional boundaries between high art and popular art, as well as professional boundaries - that is, between a spontaneous production method versus one that is based on planning combined with a division of labour. But, as I reveal through an exploration of the making of the weaving, these ideals were of necessity compromised during the process of production and, while resulting in an impressive and memorable work, the project did not ultimately challenge existing norms of creating large-scale weavings.

RESUMO Nesse encontro pretende-se apresentar algumas dúvidas que ficaram ao final da dissertação “As Tramas dos Tapeceiros Narradores: Técnica e Criação” e alguns tópicos assinalados pela orientação naquela ocasião. Nos últimos quatro anos, relendo e ampliando o repertório bibliográfico, surgiram novos enfoques para discutir essas interrogações e principalmente nortear uma possível continuação da pesquisa. Esta tem por objetivo analisar um conjunto de imagens de tapeçarias de diferentes períodos da história juntamente, quando possível, com as pinturas ou desenhos e os cartões que lhe deram origem. Implica ainda em perceber essa sequência de atividades e assim poder avaliar se o cartão carrega consigo a memória da pintura, e por outro lado se a tapeçaria tem sua própria potência para que esta obra se torne o acontecimento. Inicialmente o conjunto de imagens que servirão como referência para analisar as demais tapeçarias contemporâneas é uma série produzida entre 1370/80 denominada O Apocalypse. A outra série de tapeçarias, produzida a partir de desenhos do artista francês Jean Lurçat, em meados do século XX, denominadas Le Chant Du Monde também será um importante referencial. No Brasil a pesquisa buscará as tapeçarias feitas a partir de pinturas do paisagista Roberto Burle Marx. Os tapeceiros contemporâneos Archie Brennan, Sarah Swett e Jean Pierre Larochette foram escolhidos pela relevância de seu trabalho, diferentes formações e processos de produção. Como se relacionam com os eventos de arte contemporânea e quais as preocupações com a produção da tapeçaria na contemporaneidade. Palavras ChaveTapeçaria, imagem, cartão, potência/acontecimento. Abstract In this paper is intended to show some doubts that remained in the end of the dissertation “As Tramas dos Tapeceiros Narradores: Técnica e Criação” and some topics signed by counseling at the time. In the last four years, reading and amplifying my bibliographical repertory, new approaches appeared to discuss these questions and mostly to map a possible research construction. This study aims to analyze a set of tapestries’ images from different periods of history altogether, along to paintings or drawings and the cards that originated them. It implicates still perceiving this sequence of activities and thus be able to analyze if the card brings the painting’s memory, and on the other hand if tapestry has its own potential so this work can become the happening. Initially the set of images that will serve as reference to analyze the other contemporary tapestries is a series produced between 1370/80 named “The Apocalypse”. The other series of tapestries, produced from drawings of the French artist Jean Lurçat, in the mid-twentieth century, named Le Chant Du Monde will also be an important referential. In Brazil the study will serch the tapestries made from the landscaper paintings’ Roberto Burle Marx. The contemporary tapestry weavers Archie Brennan, Sarah Swett and Jean Pierre Larochette were chose by the relevance of their works, different backgrounds and production processes. The way they relate to contemporary art events and which are the worries towards the tapestry’s production in the contemporary. Key wordsTapestry, image, card, potential/ happening.

Within the intricate narrative of emergency medical services (EMS), there lies a rich and evolving history of innovation and strategy, a saga that weaves through the fabric of prehospital emergency care. At the heart of this narrative is a compelling dichotomy, often whimsically encapsulated as the “stay and play” vs. “scoop and run” philosophies. These seemingly polar approaches to emergency care represent a tapestry of diverse opinions and practices, each tailored to its unique environmental context, clinical demands, and the relative availability of prehospital and hospital resources. Our comprehensive review delves into the historical evolution of these notions, tracing their roots from the ancient world to the present day. We cast a particular focus on the French model of “prehospital medicalization” and the Anglophone “Scoop and Run” approach, exploring their distinct trajectories and influences. Additionally, we turn our gaze to the Israeli system, a unique hybrid shaped by the American prehospital framework yet distinctively molded by the region's enduring conflict. By drawing on an array of interviews, historical records, and scholarly discourse, this document presents an in-depth exploration of the development of prehospital emergency medicine and its pivotal role in contemporary healthcare. Through this investigation, we aim to elucidate the historical tensions surrounding these concepts, shedding light on their implications for the landscape of modern emergency medical services and the intricate web of factors that shape their organization.

Peyronie's disease (PD) stands as a distinctive pathology within the realm of urology, presenting a multifaceted clinical panorama characterized by the development of fibrous plaques in the tunica albuginea of the penis. Named after the 18th-century French surgeon François Gigot de la Peyronie, this disorder engenders penile deformities, pain, and psychological distress, underscoring the need for a nuanced understanding and comprehensive management approach. This article endeavors to provide an exhaustive exploration of PD, delving into its intricate etiology, pathophysiological underpinnings, clinical manifestations, and the far-reaching implications on psychosocial well-being. The disease's genesis intertwines genetic predispositions, microtrauma during sexual activity, and inflammatory responses, culminating in dysregulated wound healing processes marked by the excessive deposition of collagen. From a clinical standpoint, PD transcends beyond its physical manifestations, adversely impacting patients' mental and emotional states. The altered penile morphology and compromised sexual function pose not only physical challenges but also unravel a complex tapestry of psychological consequences. As such, this article scrutinizes the dual facets of PD, advocating for a holistic approach that addresses both the physical and psychosocial dimensions of the disease. Diagnostic modalities, ranging from clinical evaluation to imaging techniques, form a pivotal aspect of our discourse, providing clinicians with a comprehensive armamentarium for accurate and timely diagnosis. Moreover, an exhaustive review of treatment modalities, encompassing conservative measures, pharmacotherapy, and surgical interventions, aims to distill evidence-based insights guiding therapeutic decision-making. This comprehensive analysis seeks to contribute substantively to the existing body of knowledge, fostering a deeper understanding of PD within the medical community. By amalgamating clinical insights with emerging research trends, this article endeavors to illuminate the path toward refined diagnostic strategies and novel therapeutic interventions, ultimately striving for improved patient outcomes and an elevated standard of care in the management of Peyronie's disease.

Puducherry, one of India's storied historic cities, is the custodian of a vast collection of ancient paintings, miniatures, sculptures, historical artifacts and more. These treasures are meticulously preserved within government offices, museums, art galleries and hotels. This research project narrows its focus to a select group of Mughal period miniatures drawn from this rich and diverse cultural reservoir.The Ecole Francaise d'Extrême-Orient, a renowned French research institute, is located on Rue Dumas Street in Puducherry and is fully dedicated to the thorough investigation of Indian culture, history and society. The institution was established in Puducherry in 1950 and it houses paintings, miniatures, sculptures and antiques in its basement. It is believed to contain about 35 priceless paintings. This amazing collection includes a wide range of artistic genres and materials, from paper and ivory to wooden frames, metal plates and even terracotta surfaces. Among these artworks, the most notable are the ivory miniatures dating back to the Mughal period."The researcher's objective is to examine five specific portraits featuring three-quarter busts of women and love scenes within these ivory Mughal miniature paintings. These artworks offer a concise yet profound glimpse into the rich tapestry of Indian culture and heritage. The depiction of women's attire showcases the diversity and elegance inherent in Indian fashion, while the portrayal of love scenes celebrates the cultural significance of romance and emotional connections, thus emphasizing India's deep-rooted cultural traditions. The meticulous detailing within these works underscores the exceptional artistry of Indian artisans, while the expressions and postures of the depicted characters provide valuable insights into the societal norms and values of the era. In essence, these miniature paintings encapsulate the multifaceted essence of Indian heritage."Employing a rigorous combination of fieldwork and historical research methodologies, this research endeavor seeks to illuminate the origins, historical contexts, aesthetic attributes, stylistic intricacies and technical craftsmanship inherent in these Mughal era miniatures. Additionally, this study aspires to unveil the intricate tradition, dynamic evolution and profound cultural significance embodied by this cherished art form.

Introduction Explorations of the multimedia game format within cultural studies have been broadly approached from two perspectives: one -- the impact of technologies on user interaction particularly with regard to social implications, and the other -- human computer interactions within the framework of cybercultures. Another approach to understanding or speaking about games within cultural studies is to focus on the game experience as cultural practice -- as an activity or an event. In this article I wish to initiate an exploration of the aesthetics of player space as a distinctive element of the gameplay experience. In doing so I propose that an understanding of aesthetic spatial issues as an element of player interactivity and engagement is important for understanding the cultural practice of adventure gameplay. In approaching these questions, I am focussing on the single-player exploration adventure game in particular Myst and The Crystal Key. In describing these games as adventures I am drawing on Chris Crawford's The Art of Computer Game Design, which although a little dated, focusses on game design as a distinct activity. He brings together a theoretical approach with extensive experience as a game designer himself (Excalibur, Legionnaire, Gossip). Whilst at Atari he also worked with Brenda Laurel, a key theorist in the area of computer design and dramatic structure. Adventure games such as Myst and The Crystal Key might form a sub-genre in Chris Crawford's taxonomy of computer game design. Although they use the main conventions of the adventure game -- essentially a puzzle to be solved with characters within a story context -- the main focus and source of pleasure for the player is exploration, particularly the exploration of worlds or cosmologies. The main gameplay of both games is to travel through worlds solving clues, picking up objects, and interacting with other characters. In Myst the player has to solve the riddle of the world they have entered -- as the CD-ROM insert states "Now you're here, wherever here is, with no option but to explore." The goal, as the player must work out, is to release the father Atrus from prison by bringing magic pages of a book to different locations in the worlds. Hints are offered by broken-up, disrupted video clips shown throughout the game. In The Crystal Key, the player as test pilot has to save a civilisation by finding clues, picking up objects, mending ships and defeating an opponent. The questions foregrounded by a focus on the aesthetics of navigation are: What types of representational context are being set up? What choices have designers made about representational context? How are the players positioned within these spaces? What are the implications for the player's sense of orientation and navigation? Architectural Fabrication For the ancient Greeks, painting was divided into two categories: magalography (the painting of great things) and rhyparography (the painting of small things). Magalography covered mythological and historical scenes, which emphasised architectural settings, the human figure and grand landscapes. Rhyparography referred to still lifes and objects. In adventure games, particularly those that attempt to construct a cosmology such as Myst and The Crystal Key, magalography and rhyparography collide in a mix of architectural monumentality and obsessive detailing of objects. For the ancient Greeks, painting was divided into two categories: magalography (the painting of great things) and rhyparography (the painting of small things). Magalography covered mythological and historical scenes, which emphasised architectural settings, the human figure and grand landscapes. Rhyparography referred to still lifes and objects. In adventure games, particularly those that attempt to construct a cosmology such as Myst and The Crystal Key, magalography and rhyparography collide in a mix of architectural monumentality and obsessive detailing of objects. The creation of a digital architecture in adventure games mimics the Pompeii wall paintings with their interplay of extruded and painted features. In visualising the space of a cosmology, the environment starts to be coded like the urban or built environment with underlying geometry and textured surface or dressing. In The Making of Myst (packaged with the CD-ROM) Chuck Carter, the artist on Myst, outlines the process of creating Myst Island through painting the terrain in grey scale then extruding the features and adding textural render -- a methodology that lends itself to a hybrid of architectural and painted geometry. Examples of external architecture and of internal room design can be viewed online. In the spatial organisation of the murals of Pompeii and later Rome, orthogonals converged towards several vertical axes showing multiple points of view simultaneously. During the high Renaissance, notions of perspective developed into a more formal system known as the construzione legittima or legitimate construction. This assumed a singular position of the on-looker standing in the same place as that occupied by the artist when the painting was constructed. In Myst there is an exaggeration of the underlying structuring technique of the construzione legittima with its emphasis on geometry and mathematics. The player looks down at a slight angle onto the screen from a fixed vantage point and is signified as being within the cosmological expanse, either in off-screen space or as the cursor. Within the cosmology, the island as built environment appears as though viewed through an enlarging lens, creating the precision and coldness of a Piero della Francesca painting. Myst mixes flat and three-dimensional forms of imagery on the same screen -- the flat, sketchy portrayal of the trees of Myst Island exists side-by-side with the monumental architectural buildings and landscape design structures created in Macromodel. This image shows the flat, almost expressionistic trees of Myst Island juxtaposed with a fountain rendered in high detail. This recalls the work of Giotto in the Arena chapel. In Joachim's Dream, objects and buildings have depth, but trees, plants and sky -- the space in-between objects -- is flat. Myst Island conjures up the realm of a magic, realist space with obsolete artefacts, classic architectural styles (the Albert Hall as the domed launch pad, the British Museum as the library, the vernacular cottage in the wood), mechanical wonders, miniature ships, fountains, wells, macabre torture instruments, ziggurat-like towers, symbols and odd numerological codes. Adam Mates describes it as "that beautiful piece of brain-deadening sticky-sweet eye-candy" but more than mere eye-candy or graphic verisimilitude, it is the mix of cultural ingredients and signs that makes Myst an intriguing place to play. The buildings in The Crystal Key, an exploratory adventure game in a similar genre to Myst, celebrate the machine aesthetic and modernism with Buckminster Fuller style geodesic structures, the bombe shape, exposed ducting, glass and steel, interiors with movable room partitions and abstract expressionist decorations. An image of one of these modernist structures is available online. The Crystal Key uses QuickTime VR panoramas to construct the exterior and interior spaces. Different from the sharp detail of Myst's structures, the focus changes from sharp in wide shot to soft focus in close up, with hot-spot objects rendered in trompe l'oeil detail. The Tactility of Objects "The aim of trompe l'oeil -- using the term in its widest sense and applying it to both painting and objects -- is primarily to puzzle and to mystify" (Battersby 19). In the 15th century, Brunelleschi invented a screen with central apparatus in order to obtain exact perspective -- the monocular vision of the camera obscura. During the 17th century, there was a renewed interest in optics by the Dutch artists of the Rembrandt school (inspired by instruments developed for Dutch seafaring ventures), in particular Vermeer, Hoogstraten, de Hooch and Dou. Gerard Dou's painting of a woman chopping onions shows this. These artists were experimenting with interior perspective and trompe l'oeil in order to depict the minutia of the middle-class, domestic interior. Within these luminous interiors, with their receding tiles and domestic furniture, is an elevation of the significance of rhyparography. In the Girl Chopping Onions of 1646 by Gerard Dou the small things are emphasised -- the group of onions, candlestick holder, dead fowl, metal pitcher, and bird cage. Trompe l'oeil as an illusionist strategy is taken up in the worlds of Myst, The Crystal Key and others in the adventure game genre. Traditionally, the fascination of trompe l'oeil rests upon the tension between the actual painting and the scam; the physical structures and the faux painted structures call for the viewer to step closer to wave at a fly or test if the glass had actually broken in the frame. Mirian Milman describes trompe l'oeil painting in the following manner: "the repertory of trompe-l'oeil painting is made up of obsessive elements, it represents a reality immobilised by nails, held in the grip of death, corroded by time, glimpsed through half-open doors or curtains, containing messages that are sometimes unreadable, allusions that are often misunderstood, and a disorder of seemingly familiar and yet remote objects" (105). Her description could be a scene from Myst with in its suggestion of theatricality, rich texture and illusionistic play of riddle or puzzle. In the trompe l'oeil painterly device known as cartellino, niches and recesses in the wall are represented with projecting elements and mock bas-relief. This architectural trickery is simulated in the digital imaging of extruded and painting elements to give depth to an interior or an object. Other techniques common to trompe l'oeil -- doors, shadowy depths and staircases, half opened cupboard, and paintings often with drapes and curtains to suggest a layering of planes -- are used throughout Myst as transition points. In the trompe l'oeil paintings, these transition points were often framed with curtains or drapes that appeared to be from the spectator space -- creating a painting of a painting effect. Myst is rich in this suggestion of worlds within worlds through the framing gesture afforded by windows, doors, picture frames, bookcases and fireplaces. Views from a window -- a distant landscape or a domestic view, a common device for trompe l'oeil -- are used in Myst to represent passageways and transitions onto different levels. Vertical space is critical for extending navigation beyond the horizontal through the terraced landscape -- the tower, antechamber, dungeon, cellars and lifts of the fictional world. Screen shots show the use of the curve, light diffusion and terracing to invite the player. In The Crystal Key vertical space is limited to the extent of the QTVR tilt making navigation more of a horizontal experience. Out-Stilling the Still Dutch and Flemish miniatures of the 17th century give the impression of being viewed from above and through a focussing lens. As Mastai notes: "trompe l'oeil, therefore is not merely a certain kind of still life painting, it should in fact 'out-still' the stillest of still lifes" (156). The intricate detailing of objects rendered in higher resolution than the background elements creates a type of hyper-reality that is used in Myst to emphasise the physicality and actuality of objects. This ultimately enlarges the sense of space between objects and codes them as elements of significance within the gameplay. The obsessive, almost fetishistic, detailed displays of material artefacts recall the curiosity cabinets of Fabritius and Hoogstraten. The mechanical world of Myst replicates the Dutch 17th century fascination with the optical devices of the telescope, the convex mirror and the prism, by coding them as key signifiers/icons in the frame. In his peepshow of 1660, Hoogstraten plays with an enigma and optical illusion of a Dutch domestic interior seen as though through the wrong end of a telescope. Using the anamorphic effect, the image only makes sense from one vantage point -- an effect which has a contemporary counterpart in the digital morphing widely used in adventure games. The use of crumbled or folded paper standing out from the plane surface of the canvas was a recurring motif of the Vanitas trompe l'oeil paintings. The highly detailed representation and organisation of objects in the Vanitas pictures contained the narrative or symbology of a religious or moral tale. (As in this example by Hoogstraten.) In the cosmology of Myst and The Crystal Key, paper contains the narrative of the back-story lovingly represented in scrolls, books and curled paper messages. The entry into Myst is through the pages of an open book, and throughout the game, books occupy a privileged position as holders of stories and secrets that are used to unlock the puzzles of the game. Myst can be read as a Dantesque, labyrinthine journey with its rich tapestry of images, its multi-level historical associations and battle of good and evil. Indeed the developers, brothers Robyn and Rand Miller, had a fertile background to draw on, from a childhood spent travelling to Bible churches with their nondenominational preacher father. The Diorama as System Event The diorama (story in the round) or mechanical exhibit invented by Daguerre in the 19th century created a mini-cosmology with player anticipation, action and narrative. It functioned as a mini-theatre (with the spectator forming the fourth wall), offering a peek into mini-episodes from foreign worlds of experience. The Musée Mechanique in San Francisco has dioramas of the Chinese opium den, party on the captain's boat, French execution scenes and ghostly graveyard episodes amongst its many offerings, including a still showing an upper class dancing party called A Message from the Sea. These function in tandem with other forbidden pleasures of the late 19th century -- public displays of the dead, waxwork museums and kinetescope flip cards with their voyeuristic "What the Butler Saw", and "What the Maid Did on Her Day Off" tropes. Myst, along with The 7th Guest, Doom and Tomb Raider show a similar taste for verisimilitude and the macabre. However, the pre-rendered scenes of Myst and The Crystal Key allow for more diorama like elaborate and embellished details compared to the emphasis on speed in the real-time-rendered graphics of the shoot-'em-ups. In the gameplay of adventure games, animated moments function as rewards or responsive system events: allowing the player to navigate through the seemingly solid wall; enabling curtains to be swung back, passageways to appear, doors to open, bookcases to disappear. These short sequences resemble the techniques used in mechanical dioramas where a coin placed in the slot enables a curtain or doorway to open revealing a miniature narrative or tableau -- the closure of the narrative resulting in the doorway shutting or the curtain being pulled over again. These repeating cycles of contemplation-action-closure offer the player one of the rewards of the puzzle solution. The sense of verisimilitude and immersion in these scenes is underscored by the addition of sound effects (doors slamming, lifts creaking, room atmosphere) and music. Geographic Locomotion Static imagery is the standard backdrop of the navigable space of the cosmology game landscape. Myst used a virtual camera around a virtual set to create a sequence of still camera shots for each point of view. The use of the still image lends itself to a sense of the tableauesque -- the moment frozen in time. These tableauesque moments tend towards the clean and anaesthetic, lacking any evidence of the player's visceral presence or of other human habitation. The player's navigation from one tableau screen to the next takes the form of a 'cyber-leap' or visual jump cut. These jumps -- forward, backwards, up, down, west, east -- follow on from the geographic orientation of the early text-based adventure games. In their graphic form, they reveal a new framing angle or point of view on the scene whilst ignoring the rules of classical continuity editing. Games such as The Crystal Key show the player's movement through space (from one QTVR node to another) by employing a disorientating fast zoom, as though from the perspective of a supercharged wheelchair. Rather than reconciling the player to the state of movement, this technique tends to draw attention to the technologies of the programming apparatus. The Crystal Key sets up a meticulous screen language similar to filmic dramatic conventions then breaks its own conventions by allowing the player to jump out of the crashed spaceship through the still intact window. The landscape in adventure games is always partial, cropped and fragmented. The player has to try and map the geographical relationship of the environment in order to understand where they are and how to proceed (or go back). Examples include selecting the number of marker switches on the island to receive Atrus's message and the orientation of Myst's tower in the library map to obtain key clues. A screenshot shows the arrival point in Myst from the dock. In comprehending the landscape, which has no centre, the player has to create a mental map of the environment by sorting significant connecting elements into chunks of spatial elements similar to a Guy Debord Situationist map. Playing the Flaneur The player in Myst can afford to saunter through the landscape, meandering at a more leisurely pace that would be possible in a competitive shoot-'em-up, behaving as a type of flaneur. The image of the flaneur as described by Baudelaire motions towards fin de siècle decadence, the image of the socially marginal, the dispossessed aristocrat wandering the urban landscape ready for adventure and unusual exploits. This develops into the idea of the artist as observer meandering through city spaces and using the power of memory in evoking what is observed for translation into paintings, writing or poetry. In Myst, the player as flaneur, rather than creating paintings or writing, is scanning the landscape for clues, witnessing objects, possible hints and pick-ups. The numbers in the keypad in the antechamber, the notes from Atrus, the handles on the island marker, the tower in the forest and the miniature ship in the fountain all form part of a mnemomic trompe l'oeil. A screenshot shows the path to the library with one of the island markers and the note from Atrus. In the world of Myst, the player has no avatar presence and wanders around a seemingly unpeopled landscape -- strolling as a tourist venturing into the unknown -- creating and storing a mental map of objects and places. In places these become items for collection -- cultural icons with an emphasised materiality. In The Crystal Key iconography they appear at the bottom of the screen pulsing with relevance when active. A screenshot shows a view to a distant forest with the "pick-ups" at the bottom of the screen. This process of accumulation and synthesis suggests a Surrealist version of Joseph Cornell's strolls around Manhattan -- collecting, shifting and organising objects into significance. In his 1982 taxonomy of game design, Chris Crawford argues that without competition these worlds are not really games at all. That was before the existence of the Myst adventure sub-genre where the pleasures of the flaneur are a particular aspect of the gameplay pleasures outside of the rules of win/loose, combat and dominance. By turning the landscape itself into a pathway of significance signs and symbols, Myst, The Crystal Key and other games in the sub-genre offer different types of pleasures from combat or sport -- the pleasures of the stroll -- the player as observer and cultural explorer. References Battersby, M. Trompe L'Oeil: The Eye Deceived. New York: St. Martin's, 1974. Crawford, C. The Art of Computer Game Design. Original publication 1982, book out of print. 15 Oct. 2000 <http://members.nbci.com/kalid/art/art.php>. Darley Andrew. Visual Digital Culture: Surface Play and Spectacle in New Media Genres. London: Routledge, 2000. Lunenfeld, P. Digital Dialectic: New Essays on New Media. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT P 1999. Mates, A. Effective Illusory Worlds: A Comparative Analysis of Interfaces in Contemporary Interactive Fiction. 1998. 15 Oct. 2000 <http://www.wwa.com/~mathes/stuff/writings>. Mastai, M. L. d'Orange. Illusion in Art, Trompe L'Oeil: A History of Pictorial Illusion. New York: Abaris, 1975. Miller, Robyn and Rand. "The Making of Myst." Myst. Cyan and Broderbund, 1993. Milman, M. Trompe-L'Oeil: The Illusion of Reality. New York: Skira Rizzoli, 1982. Murray, J. Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997. Wertheim, M. The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Cyberspace from Dante to the Internet. Sydney: Doubleday, 1999. Game References 7th Guest. Trilobyte, Inc., distributed by Virgin Games, 1993. Doom. Id Software, 1992. Excalibur. Chris Crawford, 1982. Myst. Cyan and Broderbund, 1993. Tomb Raider. Core Design and Eidos Interactive, 1996. The Crystal Key. Dreamcatcher Interactive, 1999. Citation reference for this article MLA style: Bernadette Flynn. "Towards an Aesthetics of Navigation -- Spatial Organisation in the Cosmology of the Adventure Game." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 3.5 (2000). [your date of access] <http://www.api-network.com/mc/0010/navigation.php>. Chicago style: Bernadette Flynn, "Towards an Aesthetics of Navigation -- Spatial Organisation in the Cosmology of the Adventure Game," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 3, no. 5 (2000), <http://www.api-network.com/mc/0010/navigation.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Bernadette Flynn. (2000) Towards an aesthetics of navigation -- spatial organisation in the cosmology of the adventure game. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 3(5). <http://www.api-network.com/mc/0010/navigation.php> ([your date of access]).