Moving Into Performance

This volume offers transdisciplinary perspectives on the study of acting and performance in moving image forms. It assembles 26 international scholars from dance, theatre, film, media and cultural studies, art history and philosophy to investigate the art of acting and the presence of the human body in analog and digital film, animation and video art. The volume includes classical case studies and essays devoted to acting history and acting and genres, but its particular emphasis is on introducing a wide range of groundbreaking theoretical approaches - from continental and analytic philosophy to new media theory and cognitivist research - all of which interrogate the fundamental conceptions of »act« and »actor« that underwrite both popular and academic notions of performance in moving image culture.

With reference to recent neurological research into Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) using new imaging technologies and models of implicit and explicit memory systems developed from this research, The Performance of Trauma in Moving Image Art examines the capacity of an artist’s cinema of experimental and avant-garde film to perform and communicate traumatic experience. De Bruyn analyses key films from the 1940s to the present that perform aspects of overwhelming experience through their approach, structure, content and perceptual impact, mapping a trajectory from analogue to contemporary digital moving image practice. He argues for the inclusion of Peter Gidal’s 1970s conception of ‘materialist film’ into the genre of ‘trauma cinema’ through its capacity to articulate un-locatability and perceptually perform dis-orientation and a flashback effect, all further identified here as key characteristics of digital moving image practice. The discussion explores the following questions. Can ‘materialist film’ model traumatic memory and perform the traumatic flashback? Does the capacity to articulate trauma’s un-speakability and invisibility give this practice a renewed relevance in digital media’s preoccupation with surface and the impact of information overload? De Bruyn’s phenomenological ‘traumatic’ reading of materialist film steps beyond Gidal’s original anti-illusionist rationale to incorporate critiques effectively mounted against it by the founders of a ‘70s feminist psychoanalytic counter-cinema. This contemporary re-reading further re-evaluates the Minimalist turn in painting and sculpture after the Second World War, arguing that this development is not essentialist or visionary but makes visible the implicit mechanisms of denial and erasure at the core of traumatic remembering. For de Bruyn, the initial traumatic impact of industrialization on the body’s perceptual apparatus, traceable through the advent of cinema and train travel, is communicated by such moving image art. The development of digital technology marks a new cycle of such perceptual re-balancing for which materialist film is uniquely positioned and which it critically addresses.

Consultants Dana and James Robinson work with clients to define performance requirements, determine performance gaps and training needs, and ensure that the work environment will support expected performance. Their new book is designed to help organizations move away from focusing on what employees need to learn, to a focus on performance to meet key organizational needs.

The traditional training process confuses training activity with performance improvement by focusing on employees' learning needs, rather than on their performance needs. Traditional programs focus on developing excellent learning experiences, while failing to ensure that the newly acquired skills are transferred to the job. Thus, to be effective, training professionals must become ""performance consultants, "" shifting their focus from training delivery to the performance of the company and its individual contributors. Dana & Jim Robinson describe an approach suitable for use in any organizational setting or industry and with any content area. Dozens of useful tools, illustrative exercises, and a case study that threads through the book show how the techniques described are applied in an organizational setting.

Do you supervise people? If so, this book is for you. One of a manager’s toughest—and most important—responsibilities is to evaluate an employee’s performance, providing honest feedback and clarifying what they’ve done well and where they need to improve. In How to Be Good at Performance Appraisals, Dick Grote provides a concise, hands-on guide to succeeding at every step of the performance appraisal process—no matter what performance management system your organization uses. Through step-by-step instructions, examples, do-and-don’t bullet lists, sample dialogues, and suggested scripts, he shows you how to handle every appraisal activity from setting goals and defining job responsibilities to evaluating performance quality and discussing the performance evaluation face-to-face. Based on decades of experience guiding managers through their biggest challenges, Grote helps answer the questions he hears most often: • How do I set goals effectively? How many goals should someone set? • How do I evaluate a person’s behaviors? Which counts more, behaviors or results? • How do I determine the right performance appraisal rating? How do I explain my rating to a skeptical employee? • How do I tell someone she’s not meeting my expectations? How do I deliver bad news? Grote also explains how to tackle other thorny performance management tasks, including determining compensation and terminating poor performers. In accessible and useful language, How to Be Good at Performance Appraisals will help you handle performance appraisals confidently and successfully, no matter the size or culture of your organization. It’s the one book you need to excel at this daunting yet critical task.

Job Aids and Performance Support in the Workplace gives us everything we’ve ever wanted to know about these invaluable tools and techniques! Allison Rossett and Lisa Schafer have created a comprehensive, pragmatic, and very readable guide. The authors don’t exaggerate when they claim it’s ‘knowledge everywhere.’

Are your employees meeting their goals? Is their work improving over time? Understanding where your employees are succeeding—and falling short—is a pivotal part of ensuring you have the right talent to meet organizational objectives. In order to work with your people and effectively monitor their progress, you need a system in place. The HBR Guide to Performance Management provides a new multi-step, cyclical process to help you keep track of your employees' work, identify where they need to improve, and ensure they're growing with the organization. You'll learn to: Set clear employee goals that align with company objectives Monitor progress and check in regularly Close performance gaps Understand when to use performance analytics Create opportunities for growth, tailored to the individual Overcome and avoid burnout on your team Arm yourself with the advice you need to succeed on the job, with the most trusted brand in business. Packed with how-to essentials from leading experts, the HBR Guides provide smart answers to your most pressing work challenges.

The 5th International Symposium on High Performance Computing (ISHPC–V) was held in Odaiba, Tokyo, Japan, October 20–22, 2003. The symposium was thoughtfully planned, organized, and supported by the ISHPC Organizing C- mittee and its collaborating organizations. The ISHPC-V program included two keynote speeches, several invited talks, two panel discussions, and technical sessions covering theoretical and applied research topics in high–performance computing and representing both academia and industry. One of the regular sessions highlighted the research results of the ITBL project (IT–based research laboratory, http://www.itbl.riken.go.jp/). ITBL is a Japanese national project started in 2001 with the objective of re- izing a virtual joint research environment using information technology. ITBL aims to connect 100 supercomputers located in main Japanese scienti?c research laboratories via high–speed networks. A total of 58 technical contributions from 11 countries were submitted to ISHPC-V. Each paper received at least three peer reviews. After a thorough evaluation process, the program committee selected 14 regular (12-page) papers for presentation at the symposium. In addition, several other papers with fav- able reviews were recommended for a poster session presentation. They are also included in the proceedings as short (8-page) papers. Theprogramcommitteegaveadistinguishedpaperawardandabeststudent paper award to two of the regular papers. The distinguished paper award was given for “Code and Data Transformations for Improving Shared Cache P- formance on SMT Processors” by Dimitrios S. Nikolopoulos. The best student paper award was given for “Improving Memory Latency Aware Fetch Policies for SMT Processors” by Francisco J. Cazorla.