May 1986

MAY1986 RUPEES FO~R

1. Robert Almeida's Cottage in Scarsdale.

2. Fridays, The Singles Bar (37 cm X58 cm).

3. Sunday Morning Church in Harlem (33 cm x 53 cm).

4. View from the Terraces (34 cm x 74 cm).

5. Harlem Types (30 cm x 44 cm).

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s

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The maratho n continue s, and I come to noto~ious 42nd Street and take a quick peep at all the porno and the peep-sho ws.

Little India, as they call it, is not far away-no thing like the London Southall really. A few stray restauran ts with quaint names like "Cu rry in a Hurry"; and of course the occasion al smell of spices, which announc e that the Indians have arrived to stay.

Little Italy though is really something. It is, above all, entire ly Italian , not just the restauran ts with names like "Caruso' s" or "Antonc lli's Spaghett i House,'· but the inhabita~ts are th~ 0~1es w.ho give the whole area a "godfath er" look.

Sltck ?ents m silk suits and straw hats, enormou s sunglasses and beautifully greas~d, shiny sideburn s (a la Valentin o) , lounging along the roadside cafes decorate d with striped umbrella s advertisi ng Campari and Cinzano -and every now and then the New York: vibrant, vertical, enormou s, exciting and terribly strain~ of a l~c.al tenor, a budding Mario Lanza maybe , belting human. out his rendition of "O Sole Mio" or "Santa Lucia." ':"alking is the only way to get to know New York. My daily Greenwi ch Village is a place to be visited on a Saturday routine was to take the ferry from Staten Island to South Music, good food, people- an enormou s, exotic evening.

Manhatta n. The half-hou r trip is an experience in itself. The people: painters, terribly serious-looking psuedoof :ariety enormou s boat is usually filled with a lively crowd of colorful (the type we see in the avant-ga rde Bombay cockals m~ellectu peddlers, musicians, break dancers, shoe-shine boys and poets- there is one young poetess who is scene), party tail Japanese tourists, clicking · merrily away at the Statue of selling her poems for a dollar each; she will write a special ode Liberty, wh~ch is temporar ily envelope d in scaffolding. in your honor-a nd of course tourists, the Japanese in . The daylight approach to Manhatt an is breathtak ing, but at particula r, moving around to the staccato rhythm of their clicking 111ght the .New Yor~ skyline is even more beautiful , something cameras. out of fa 1r~land with thousand s of lights shining below gray Then Chinatow n! Chinese are everywh ere, cheerful , chatovercast skies. tering and full of smiles, merrily shopping . The smell of fish and !f1e marathon walk across downtow n Manhatt an usually fried prawns and lobsters is everywh ere. This is the right place begms at Central Park after a hot dog and a Coke at the nearest for a good meal of fried rice or noodles, or to be photogra phed stand; a bit of jazz from the roadside musicians and then I' m on telephon ing from one of the quaint pagoda-s haped telephon e my way to explore the Big Apple and get a taste of what it has booths painted in garish red, yellow and vivid green. Then to offer, worms and all. onward to the Jewish quarter near East Broadwa y and Canal The first stop is Broadwa y, the mecca of all that is great in Street where I am lucky enough to have as my guide my friend showbusiness. l used to dream about it when I was a kid and and local resident Israel "Izzy" Ginsberg . Over a fabulous now that I am here, I am not disappoi nted. There's the sou~d of Kosher meal,. Izzy tells me sadly that the Jews are moving music in the air as the brilliant young black kids dance giddily to away from this area toward more prospero us localities , like the vivacious music blaring from their powerful cassette players. Scarsdal e.

This in itself is real entertain ment and I'm not too disappoi nted to I walk southeas t, and come to the South Street Seaport miss getting in to see Cats or Death of a Salesman with Dustin experien ce, where the old warehou ses have been renovate d and Hoffman o r even A Chorus Line (which has been running for turned into beautiful shops, restauran ts and water-fro nt walks. years).

It is a great tourist attractio n .

A little farther and I come to Wall Street and a different world altogethe r, a very serious world of serious business men in dark suits and furrowed brows, carrying leather briefcases , walking briskly with no time to spare to contemp late the serene beauty of nearby Trinity Church.

Just a few blocks away are the requisite twin towers of the World Trade Center, looking like two sleek silver candles pointing to the sky. From the top , there is a magnificent view of the whole New York panoram a.

And then l go back to South Manhatt an and the ferry to Staten fsland. As the lights of Manhatt an fade away my attention turns once again to the music and laughter of the break dancers.

Mario Miranda' s people, My New York experien ce has to come to an end. The next places and things have been brighteninJ: up newspapers. morning on the PanAm flight to London. as I make myself magazines (including SP AN) comforta ble, my heart is full of pleasant memorie s and my sketchbo ok overflows. and books for 25 years.

•

Types on the Ferry to Staten Island SPAN MA y 1986

I

NEW YORK continued

"The first stop is Broadway, the mecca of all that is great in showbusiness.

I used to dream about it when I was a kid, and now I am here."

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2

SPAN MAY 1986

3

4

O'NEILL

.SA~ESMAN --=-DU~TIN HOFE MAN.

DEATH OF A

1. Basketball Practice in a Derelict Tenement (36 cm x 60 cm).

2. TypesatJFK

Airport (30 cm x 43 cm).

3. Portuguese Fado Singer in Newark (36 cm x 50 cm).

4. Down Broad· way After the Late Show (41 cm x 64 cm).

3

A LE l"l'ER FROM THE PUBLISHER On August 1, 1946, President Harry S. Truman signed into law a bill sponsored by a young U.S. Senator named J. William Fulbright. Meant to open a scholarly dialogue among nations after the devastation of World War II, the Fulbright Act continues to facilitate visits, for various periods of time, of foreign scholars to the United States and of American scholars to foreign lands for research and higher studies. Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, the program has benefited more than 150,000 scholars in 121 countries. ~ The eminent British historian Arnold Toynbee once called it "one of the really generous and imaginative things that have been done in the world since World War II." The Fulbright scholarships began in India when the U. S. Educational Foundation in India (USEFI) was established under an agreement signed by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and U.S. Ambassador Loy Henderson in February 1950. Since then , some 3,500 Indian artists, scholars, professors and students have gone to the United States, and about 4,600 Americans have come to India to teach, study and learn about this ancient culture.

As elsewhere, USEFI is organizing a number of celebrations in connection with the anniversary in India. This month, Ambassador John Gunther Dean is hosting the first of a series of seminars with Indian Fulbright alumni to build on the unique Indo-American relationship.

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Last month, Dr. John P. McTague , adviser to President Reagan on scientific matters, visited India to further strengthen bilateral cooperation in science and technology, a process that began during Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's visit to Washington in 1982, and received a second boost during Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's meetings with President Reagan last June. During his week-long visit, Dr. McTague held dis c ussions with senior government officials and scientists in Delhi, Bombay, Bangalore, Mysore and ltadras.

In Delhi, he also addressed a select gathering at the India International Centre, where he paid tribute to India's progress in various fields. Here are excerpts: "Although this is my first trip to India, I have had the privilege to learn a great deal about your country's history and culture over the past few years. Your country has made enormous strides. During the 40 years since independence, India has established a major agricultural industry and a significant industrial base and developed substantial technological and scientific manpower.

"This is a tremendous ¡ record of advance--one that is virtually unmatched throughout the world. Indeed, you have done in a quarter century what it takes most countries three times as long to do. You have become a major world power--in industry, agriculture, education, science and diplomacy.

"But as a scientist, I have been most impressed with India's contributions to humanity'¡s base of scientific and technological understanding. From the Vedic accomplishments in pure mathematics, astronomical observation and metallurgy, to the visionary role 19th- and 20th- century Indian industrialists played in establishing your premi er research facilities, India's achievers do credit to history's best scientific pioneers and explorers.

"The most important element of India-U.S. scientific and technological cooperation is the ongoing and highly successful science and technol ogy initiative, or the STI. This agreement was the most important accomplishment of the meeting in July 1982 between your late Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, and President Reagan. Last year, in recognition of the accomplishments under the program, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and President Reagan agreed to renew the ¡ STI for another three years. On tha t occasion, President Reagan expressed his strong support for the STI concept when he stated that 'new technologies will provide solutions to maladies that today seem insurmountable. Free people, free minds and free markets will ensure a more prosperous and peaceful tomorrow.'"

--J.A.M.

May 1986

SPAN VOLUME XXVIl NUM BER 5

1

New York

by Marro M iranda

5 Toward an Effective GATT }011

Schaf/tr and }tannt Holdtn 1111tn·itw Cla.1·1011 Ytulter

8

Lighthouse Resorts

10

The Technicalities of Arms Control

by Paul H. Nitu

14

When Strangers Meet

by Aruna Vasudt•

17

Keeping Count

by Zick Rubi11

18

Medicine's New Triumphs

24

Making Friends with the Computer

by Brian Dumai11t

28

American Art at the Triennale

by Sha11ta Strbjttt Si11gh

32

On the Lighter Side

33

Video Versatility

by Mmo Krish11an

37

The Community Spirit

by Nick Th1mmtsch

40

Focus On .. .

42

'This Is M) Letter to the World'

by K.S Vtnkotaram11

45

Film Art-An Introduction A Re1•iew by Chida11an da Da:i Gupta

46

The Iron Aesthetic bJ Danit/ Fendrick

Publisher James A. McGinley Editor

Warren W. McCurdy

Managing Editor

Himadri Dhanda

Assistant Managing Editor

Knshan Gahrani

Senior Editor

Aruna Dasgupta

Copy Editor Editorial Assistant

A~sociate

Nirmal Sharma Rocque Fernandes Pa~richa

Photo Editor

Avinash

Art Director

Nand Katyal

Art Duector

Kanti Roy

As\istant Art Director

Bimanesh Roy Choudhury

Chief of Production

Awtar S Marwaha

Circulation Manager

Y.P. Pandh1

Photographic Service

USIS Photographic Services Unit

Photographs· Inside front cover, 2, 3-Avinash Pasricha. 1-R. K. Sharma. 4-1 hstorical Picture Service Harm & E"" ing. 8-9ChriMopher Springmaon. I0-11-USIA 14-16-courtesy Aruna Vasudcv 18-19-eourteS) latermed1cs, Inc.. except 19 center courte!>) Narco Bio Systems. 21 top-© 1985 Hank Morgan; bottom-John Moss/Medichrome. 24-25-Erich HartmanntMagnum. 34- Avinash Pasricha. 37 Barry Fitzgerald. 38 top-Skeeter Hagler; bottomcourtesy Metropolitan Life. 39-Boh Eginton. 40-R. K. Sharma. 41 top-City College of N. Y.; bottom-U.S. Department of Agriculture.

46-Back cover-Walter Smalling Jr. Published by the United States Information Service. American Center, 24 Kasturba Gandhi Marg. New Delhi 110001, on behalf of the American Embassy. New Delhi. The op1mons expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the view!> or policies of the U.S. Government Printed at Thomson Pres~ (India) Limited, Faridabad.

Haryana.

U•c of SPAN an1clc< ino1hcrpubltca1iom iscnco11111~cd , c•ccp1 "'hen ropyrigh1cd. For permission v.ruc 10 the ~d11or Pntc of magazine. one year"• <uM<:npuon (12 issucs) Rs. 25; single copy, R• 4. l'or change of address send an old addrcu lrom a rccen1 SPAN envelope along w11h new addrc1s 10 C'1rcula1ion M,magcr, SPAN magazine. 24 KMlurho (landhi Marg, New Delhi 110001 Sec change 1>f •ddre« fom1 on p<l8C 441>.

Front cover : Mario takes a gentle look at Central Park, New York. See also inside front cover and pages 1-3.

Back cover : Albert Palev's unique craft~manship sho~s m this four-meter-high steel, hronze and brass gate to the New York State Senate Chamber. See also page 46.

Toward an Effective

JON SCHAFFER and JEANNE HOLDEN interview CLAYTON YEUTIER

QUESTION: It's no secret that some of the large developing countries perceive a new multilateral round of trade negotiations as exactly counter to their national interests. First, can you briefly outline what are the objectives of the United States for a new round, and second, what benefits the new round might offer to the developing countries?

ANSWER: Our objectives are not completely refined yet by any means. We have from now until July 15 to do that as a part of the preparatory committee process. Certainly we see the need for negotiations in some new areas. One is services, and we hope between now and July 15 we will be able to be more specific about what we would like to emphasize in the negotiations. This issue has, of course, stimulated some expressions of concern among some developing countries. We don't happen to agree with those, because we believe that there are lots of good reasons why it would be important to these nations to agree to a negotiation on services.

Another is in the area of trade-related investment. We can't solve all the investment problems of the world in the new GAIT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) round , but it seems to us that it ought to be feasible to carve out an area that would be construed as trade-related investment issues and begin to deal with those.

This is an area of negotiations that could be extremely important to the developing countries, because they need to attract foreign investment and to the degree that trade-related barriers are impeding the investment flow , they are the ones who suffer.

A third new area is what we call intellectual property. That one was touched a bit in the Tokyo Round when negotiations were begun on a counterfeit code. We would like to bring a

counterfeit code to a satisfactory conclusion . But we need to go beyond it to patent protection and protection of copyrights and trademarks.

So those are the three new topics for a GATT agenda.

Agriculture has been debated in the GAIT for many years with very little success, and it seems to us that we have now reached the point in agricultural trade where the issue must be confronted in a satisfactory way. There are a lot of agricultural trade problems in the world today, some of them nearing crisis proportions. So we would add that as a high-prioriJy objective as well .

We also believe it will be important to polish a number o( the nontariff measure codes that were negotiated in the Tokyo Round. Foremost on that list would probably be the subsidy code. GATT members need to find ways to improve significantly the functions of the GATT subsidy code so that it provides a substantially higher level of international discipline than it does today. We need to work on a number of the other codes too, adding to their breadth and providing clarifications and interpretations that will make them more effective.

There is a concern that the United States may be overloading these negotiations with all it wants to do and that the developing countries will react with a great deal of resistance. Does the United States have a priority list of issues in which it most wants to achieve progress?

In my personal judgment dispute settlement may well be the highest priority of all for the new round insofar as the future of the GAIT is concerned. The present dispute settlement system has major shortcomings as a device for resolving trade disputes in a timely and decisive way, and it simply must be improved. If

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade provides a framework for international negotiations and a Geneva-based consultative mechanism within which governments seek to minimize violations of rules. On the eve of a new round of multilateral talks, U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter says that the GATT must be strengthened as an institution and it must play a more assertive role than it has so far.

SPAN MAY1986

5

TOWARD AN EFFECTIVE GATI continued

it is not improved significantly . business firms that e ngage in international trade will continue to lose confidence in the GA TT as an institution a nd the GATT will ultimately fade into oblivion.

Let me say on the overloading factor that it is important to surface all of the issues and have full-scale discussions wi th all of the members of the GA TT between now and July 15. It may be that we cannot do everything. But my judgment is that we can do most of it because it is not necessary to conduct all negotiations simultaneously. Some of them will have to be conducted consecutively rather than simultaneously. By that I mean negotiating on one issue for two weeks and sending people home for a while to ponder what they have done, and then negotiating another issue for a couple of weeks before coming back to the first issue two weeks later. We need to look at some creative ways of conducting the negotiations. If we do that, it might well be possible to include more subjects on rhe agenda this time than we have in previous rounds of talks.

Specifically, what can 1'1ese negotimions offer 1'1e developing cou111ries?

Market access. Just as simple as that. lf a develo ping country wants to be a major participant in world trade, market access is the key, and the principal objective of every developing country engaging in the next round ought to be additional sales opportunities in the markets of their fellow GAIT partners. This is a negotiation, a proposition that involves giving if you want to get. And clearly the developing countries are going to have to give on some areas that a rc important to us. some of which I have already articulated, if they are going to get additional access 10 the U.S . market in any meaningful way.

If certain developing countries con1inue 10 resist trade liberaliza1ion measures, would di e Reagan Adrninistr01io11 consider applying such pressures as review of 1heir CSP (General Sys1em of Preferences) benefits or reconsideration of support for their i111ema1ional deb/ posi1ion as a means 10 hri11g 1hem around?

Clearly, our attitude in conducting GSP review over the next 12 months will be affected by the conduct of the recipient nations during that period-whether it be conduct related to the GAIT round o r bilateral issues th at arise between us during that time fram e.

One major concern of ll1e de11eloping cou111ries flt(/( you haven't me/1/ioned ye1 is safeguards-1'1e rig/11 of a co11111ry 10 wke an action to protect its dome.\¡fic industry. The European Co111m1111i1y would like to apply ll1ese measures seleClively. Is there any kind of selecliviry that the United S1a1es mig/11 be willing to accept, such as a per capila income level tlia1 would exemp1 1he poore.w co11111ries or li111i1i11g safeguard ac1ions 10 co11111ries engaged in 11nfair 1rade pmc1ices?

I have not been persuaded thus far that there is a viable case to be made for selectivity in the safegua rds area. J am certainly prepared to listen to whatever argumen ts might be articulated because we al l ought to enter these negotiations with an open mind. But o ur immediate view would be that the members of the GA TT ought to handle safeguards on a broad-based, multilateral basis rather than through sckctivity. That's an

6

SPAN M1\ Y 19R6

importa nt a rea of the negotiations. It' ll certainly be on our priority list. It seems to me that we ought to be able to negotiate the existing differences and bri ng the safeguards negotiation to a successful conclusion, perhaps even fairly early in the new GATT round.

Could you clarify wlta1 we're looki11g for i11 negr>fi{l(ions 011 safeguards?

We ll . we fee l quite comfortable with the kind of safegua rd system we have in the United States. That is, we handle such cases in a very o pen way. We provide opportunity for the entire world to comment on whatever procedures we propose to take.

We have a process with several steps in which participation is possible . It is a nondiscriminatory system, without selectivity.

We believe it is a system that has proven itself over time.

Whal about the idea of ow/awing quo1as and orderly marke1ing arrangeme111s (OMA~). and only having wriffs as a way 10 deal wi1h safeguards? Would 1'1e U11i1ed Slates Javor 1'1a1 1ype of sy.Hem? I would simply say that the GA TI needs to confront the question of OMAs in the new round. There was a lot of discussion about how to handle OMAs back in the Tokyo Round . Nothing ever happened and OMAs a nd VRAs (voluntary restraint arrangements) arc becoming a major element in the conduct of world trade. Certai nly the issue mcrirs serious and comprehensive consideration.

The Uni1ecl Sta1es j1.1s1 recently enacted a neiv farm bill that

will move U.S. farm programs toward grealer market orientation. European Commw1i1y effons in the same direction haven't been as successful. Fir.sf, how do you think 1he new farm law will affect 1/te U.S. position in 1he mullilateral trade negotiations?

And might ii entrench d~fferences between 1'1e two trading par111ers or might it encourage change?

We ll , I would hope it wou ld increase change. A number of provisio ns in the farm bill have trade dimensions. and clearly some of those will not be greeted with enthusiasm by our trading partners. For example, the sugar provisions obviously will have a significant impact o n a lot of sugar exporters to the United States, and there's a rice export subsidy program that will trouble the rice-producing nations. And of course the export "payment-in-kind " program. with the mandatory $2.000-million expenditure over three years to counter foreign export subsidies, will certainly get the attention of the European Community and perhaps a number of other narions who might be indirectly affected.

We hope, all of this will serve as a catalyst for change and as a stimu lus for intensive negotiations on agriculture in the relatively near future. I believe that will be the likely result. and that opinion is based no t on ly on the provisions of the law but on conversations that I had in Western Europe during my trip there in December.

It will be imperative to develop a negotiating agenda on agriculture very soon.

Perhaps 1he most contellfious area in 1/te new round is services. Some of the developing countries ob11iously fear tlic11 it'll strengthen 1he role of the n111l1inarionals in some of 1heir newer indus1ries. What is your response 10 their concerns?

Well, there arc trade-offs in everything. Obviously those risks are there, because at least some of the firms participating in the service sectors are multinationals. But there are also a lot of firms in these sectors that are not multinationals. Look at the computer industry as an example, and the whole communications arena- if one were lo d e fin e it broadly-which includes a lot of new entrepreneurial ventures in the United States and around the world.

In fact, many of the developing countries have firms that can compete very effectively in a whole host of the services areas.

So I would say that resistance to negotiations on services wi ll be counterproductive fro m the standpoint of the developing countries. It will deprive their own firms of opportunities to grow and expand internationally and it risks depriving their economies of services they need to expand economic growth.

Resistance to the development of sane and sensible rules for the transfer of technology in the area of data processing 'vvill turn out lo be a "shoot yourself in the foot" decision by any nation , whether it be a developed nation o r a deve loping nation. These countries must have computer capabi lities. and they must be compatible with hardware and software being developed in countries like the United States and Japan. lf not, the developing countries will fall farther be hind in manufactu ring and in service functions essential to fostering export trade.

ls it possible that a clearer definition of what it is the United States wants will help overcome the developing countries' objections?

Certainly, and it's imperative that we p rovide that relatively soon. One could probably articulate at least 25 or 50 service sectors in which negotiations could take place . It's impossible to negotiate all of those areas in a new GA TT round. We wouldn't wish to do so, and we wouldn't wish to foist that burden on our trading partners .

So it's imperative that the members of the GATT narrow this agenda in a significant way, to perhaps no more than three or fou r sectors of the services economy in which intensive negotiations could be undertaken. That alone could he lp a great deal in alleviating some of the concerns. because if we only negotiate in three or four areas, that ought to take away everybody's worries about what might happen in the other 30 or 40 areas.

If some kind of genera{ agreem e111 can "t be reached on services, would the United Stares consider signing a similar agreement with a snw/Ler group of nations?

Well. assuming that a numbe r of the negotiations in the ne w GA1T round will involve codes of conduct- and certainly that will like ly occur in services- I assume that the preparatory committee will recommend that natio ns not be r~quired to participate in those discussions or become signatories of any codes that are negotiated. That was the modus operandi for the Tokyo Round and I suspect it wi ll be the modus operandi for this round , although that decision wi ll have to be made by the ministers at their meeting in September. Assuming such a result, no developing country will be obligated to sign a se rvices code or any other code that is negotiated in the new round. At the same time , if a country chooses not to be a signatory of a particular code and we consider that to be important to us in terms of our negotiations with that particular nation , then the

trade-off is that the nonsignatory nation will achieve fewer benefits in the way of access to the U.S. marke t than might otherwise be the case.

The M11lrifiber Arrangement (MFA) expires in July. indications so far are that the Reagan Administration will seek a more restrictive international agreement, in part to preFent resurgence of the type of protectionist legislation we have seen in the U.S. Congress. What types of changes might the United States support?

We will d eve lop our negotiating strategy within the next two or three weeks, and will follow through on that strategy between now and July 30, which is the expiration date for the MFA. Certain ly we are determined to re negotia te successfully the Multifiber Arrangement.

Mexico has indicated a desire 10 join the GA TT and there are published reports that China also may wa111 ro rejoin after a long absence. How do you interpret the importance of these events?

Our feel ing for many years has been that Mexico , as one of the major trading nations of the world, ought to be a GArr member, a nd the sooner, the better. I believe it will become increasingly more cost ly in the future for major trading nations to be outside the GAIT system. That provides, of course, a negative incentive for a country like Mexico to join the syste m .

China is a different story. The GA TT rules were basically designed for marke t economies. Although there are nonmarket economy countries within the GATT, those are relatively small nations . China mises a much larger question of a nonmarket economy that is potentially an overwhelming influence on the conduct of inte rnationa l trade. lf China is to become a member of the GATT- and the United States has not yet taken a position on the issue- a lot of time will have to be spent in negotiating terms of accession. It might even be necessary to negotiate a whole new set of rules under which the GATT would deal with the trade practices of nonmarket economies.

We've talked about a grea1 1111mber of issues that you' ve indicated are impor/a/11 to the 1rade 11eg01iario11s. OJ all of these, could you say which one or two are likely to be ol the most crucial importance in determi !ing whether a new round 1vill succeed or fail?

Well, in te rms of the pr!.!pa ratory comm ittee, clearly we have to get over the services hurdle, and investment. We believe that can be done because there are a mple reasons why a new GA TT round is clearly in the interest of everybody.

A ll th is d e bate over services and other issues seems to have as its th rust the proposition that if the United States gains, the developing countries lose, o r vice ve rsa. l don' t subscribe to that theory at all. In my o pinion , a new GATT round will provide pluses for both the United States a nd the deve loping nations. So what we have to look for is accommodations that will make it possible for all of us to gain.

The GA TT has to be strengthened as an institution. As an institution it must play a more assertive role in inte rnational trade than it has traditionally followed.

D About the Interviewers:

./011

Schaffer a11d .lea1111e lfolde11 ttre SPllN D. C.

correseonde111.1¡ in Washi11g1011.

SPAN MAY 1986

7

PHOTOGRAPI IS BY CHRISTOPHER SPRlNGMANN

Lighthouse Resorts For centuries, lighthouse keepers stood watch by the sea, guiding ships away from rocky coasts and into safe harbor. Now, with modem technology, most of America's lighthouses have been automated, their powerful beacons controlled by computers. Almost all lighthouse keepers arc gone, and their living quarters are being boarded up.

Preservationists, admirers of old buildings and lovers of lighthouses are trying to find new uses for these historic structures. California has opened a group of hostels along its magnificent 1,350-kilometer coastline. They dot the chain from Oregon to Mexico, spaced 30 to 50 kilometers apart so travelers can walk or bicycle between them in a day.

Two such hostels already are in renovated lighthouses: the Point Montara Lighthouse Hostel, about 40 kilometers south of San Francisco, and the Pigeon Point Lighthouse Hostel, about 50 kilometers south of Point Montara. They provide low-cost accommodation for travelers of all ages who don't mind sleeping in separate men's and women's dormitories with other travelers and who agree to work for a short time each morning to help maintain the hostel and its surrounding area.

Each hostel has a community living room, bathing and laundry facilities, a fully equipped kitchen and dining room, and dormitories with bunk beds (travelers must rent sheets for a small additional fee or bring their own). Since the hostels are small and very popular, guests can stay no more than three days at a time.

Fortunate visitors to California's lighthouse hostels may catch a glimpse of seals or whales (whose migrations bring them to the area) and enjoy swimming, fishing, hiking, or watching 0 the ocean crash into the rugged coast.

Old lighthouses are being converted into low-cost holiday resorts, offering scenic beauty and a picnic atmosphere.

A condition that these resorts insist on is that visitors must mop the floors and keep the surroundings clean.

In an address to the U.S. Foreign Service Institute on March 13, the special adviser to the American President on Arms Control spelled out the United States' policy on arms control and contended that the Soviet Union, "rather than engaging in specific discussions directed toward narrowing remaining qualitative and numerical differences between us, has emphasized public rhetoric."

The Technicalities ofArms -Control

by PAUL H . NITZE

After last November's Summit meeting between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, we thought that the Summit and the events leading up to it might well foreshadow the possibility for a fresh start in the U .S.-Soviet relationship.

We were fully aware, however, of the substantial barriers to agreement which remained to be surmounted.

On March 4, American negotiators concluded the fourth round of NST, the Nuclear and Space Arms Talks, in Geneva. This was preceded by Mr. Gorbachev's January 15 announcement of a new Soviet arms control proposal. Jn late February, after extensive consultations with American allies, President Reagan authorized our negotiators in Geneva to present a comprehensive response to Mr. Gorbachev's announcement.

It is appropriate to recall the main outlines of Mr. Gorbachev's proposal and those of the President's response, as well as such clarifications as our negotiators have been able to obtain from the Soviet negotiators in Geneva.

I will first address the proposed initial steps as they have been set forth by each side. Agreements concerning the first steps and the manner in which they are executed will largely determine what is possible in subsequent stages. One of the features of Mr. Gorbachev's proposal was his attempt to trump the President's emphasis on the goal of the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons by offering a staged timetable to achieve that goal. But the second and third stages of his proposal can only be agreed to and implemented by a multilateral group of nations, including the United Kingdom, France, China and other industrial nations as well. Furthermore, for those steps to become pra~ti cable, with no diminution of the security of the United States and its allies, a number of changes must first take place in the world scene. There must be a correction in today's imbalances in nonnuclear capabilities, an elimination of chemical warfare capabilities, an improvement in the methods of handling conditions of

IO

SPAN MA y 1986

tension in the world, such as Afghanistan , Ethiopia and Angola , and a demonstration that the Soviet Union has reconciled itself to peaceful competition.

With regard to the first steps, there appeared to be some new elements in the position of the Soviet side.

On INF (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces), the Soviets appea red to have shifted their position somewhat on British and French nuclear forces . Because the INF proposals represent the most tangible movement resulting from Mr. Gorbachev's package, because the U.S. February initiative focuses on INF, and because these movements ultimately affect prospects in START (Strategic Arms Reduction Talks), I will later provide some elaboration of developments in this area. Mr. Gorbachev also expressed at least rhetorical support for more extensive ve rification measures than the Soviets have supported in the past. Finally, a first reading of the English text of Mr. Gorbachev's proposal indicated there might be a change in the Soviet position calling for a ban on strategic defense research; this, however, like several other indications of change, later turned out to be illusory.

ST ART: But before getting into such areas of change in the positions of the two sides, let me review the basic position of the United States in the three NST negotiating groups and the status of our discussions with the Soviets.

In START, the U.S. position reflects the commitment in the Summit Joint Statement toward "the principle of 50 percent reductions in the nuclear arms of the United States and the Soviet Union, appropriately applied": â&#x20AC;˘ Re-entry vehicles on ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles) and SLBMs (Submarine-launched Ballistic Missiles) wo uld be reduced to a limit of 4,500-about 50 percent below current levels. â&#x20AC;˘ Re-entry vehicles on ICBMs would be reduced to 3,000-about 50 percent below the current Soviet level and roughly halfway between our earlier proposal for a limit of 2,500 and a limit of 3,600 proposed by the Soviets. â&#x20AC;˘ The highest overall strategic ballistic missile throw-

Ambassador Nitze (extreme left) discusses arms control with reporters at a National Press Club lunch in Washington, D. C.

weight of either side would be reduced by 50 percent, in this case, from the Soviet level of about 5,500 tons. (By way of comparison, the United States has 2,000 tons.) â&#x20AC;˘ Contingent upon acceptance of RV (Re-entry Vehicle) and throw-weight limits, the United States would accept equal limits of 1,500 on the number of long-range ALCMs (Air-launched Cruise Missiles) carried by U.S. and Soviet heavy bombers-about 50 percent below planned U.S. deployment levels.

The United States cannot agree to one common limit on ballistic missile RVs and bomber weapons, as proposed by the Soviets. If one counted ALCMs, short-range attack missiles and gravity bombs as equivalent to Soviet ballistic missile RVs-despite the massive Soviet air defenses faced by U.S. bombers and the far lower readiness rate of bombers compared to ballistic missiles-the United States would be significantly penalized. But if the Soviets were to accept our proposed limit of 4,500 RVs along with our proposed limit of 1,500 ALCMs, it would result in reduction to a total of 6,000 ballistic missiles RVs and ALCMs on each side. This total constitutes the same number proposed by the Soviets for the overall limit on "nuclear charges," but would include a more appropriate definition of which systems reflect the strategic balance.

With respect to strategic nuclear delivery vehicles, the United States has proposed a reduction in strategic ballistic missiles to a limit of 1,250-1 ,450, or about 40-50 percent below the current higher Soviet level. In this context, the United States could accept further reduction of heavy bomber limits to 350 (compared with our earlier proposal of 400)-about 40 percent below the current U.S. SALT-accountable level.

For reasons similar to those applying to an RV and ALCM aggregate, the United States cannot agree to the Soviet proposal to include in a single aggregate of strategic ballistic missile launchers and heavy bombers. However,

if agreement were reached on a range of 1,250-1,450 for ICBMs and SLBMs, and on heavy bomber limits of 350, it would result in reduction of the total of strategic ballistic missile launchers and heavy bombers to between 1,600 and 1,800. ¡'Builddown" is our suggested means of implementing the agreed reductions. We are prepared to begin working out details of a reductions schedule as soon as agreement can be achieved on the endpoints to be reached al the completion of the first stage.

The U.S. proposal also coma ins a ban on the development and deployment of all new heavy strategic ballistic missiles and on the modernization of existing heavy missiles due to the destabilizing character of such systems. All mobile ICBMs would also be banned because of significant verification difficulties and inherent asymmetries in deployment opportunities between the two sides.

Round IV of the NST negotiations was not productive with respect to START. Mr. Gorbachev's January 15 proposal did not include any changes in the Soviet position regarding START, and the Soviet negotiators at Geneva neither responded adequately to the possibilities raised by the U.S. initiative at the end of the previous round nor did they introduce any new ideas of their own.

A large boulder on the path to progress in START has been the continuing Soviet insistence on defining strategic weapons as those systems capable of striking the territory of the other side. In addition to those central systems that the United States considers to be strategic, the Soviet definition of strategic delivery vehicles would also cover, on the U.S. side, all our LRINF (Long-range INF) missiles , 340 "medium-range'' dual-capable aircraft deployed in Europe and Asia, and 540 attack aircraft deployed on all 14 U.S. aircraft carriers, while 2,000 to 3,000 comparable Soviet nuclear delivery vehicles, including some 300 Backfire bombers, would not be so counted.

Were the United States to retain equality in strategic nuclear delivery vehicles under the Soviet definition, we would have to cut LRINF missiles and dual-capable aircraft at sea and on land to 430, 20 percent of the current Soviet global level. If the United States were to retain LRINF missi les and dual-capable aircraft at current levels, we would have to cut strategic nuclear delivery vehicles to less than half the allowed Soviet number. The Soviets proposed this inequitable definition of "strategic" during the early stages of the SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) and SALT II negotiations. In both cases, they eventually withdrew their definition and agreed to a "central systems" approach to defining the systems subject to limitations in the agreements, that is, to ICBMs, SLBMs and heavy bombers. We hope and expect that they will do so again. Until they do, prospects for progress on START will be severely encumbered.

I have mentioned the disputed issue of how bomber weapons should be handled. Another issue between the two sides concerns the handling of Sea-launched Cruise Missiles (SLCMs). The Soviets contend that all cruise missiles with ranges over 600 kilometers, including SLCMs, should be banned. Yet the Soviets do not answer

SPAN MAY 1986

11

ARMS CONTROL continued

"The United'States continues to stress the critical importance of agreeing to effective means of verification to assess compliance with provisions of any arms control agreements negotiated." our questions about how such a ban could be verified and do not acknowledge that such an outcome would leave the United States, much of whose population and industry is within range of shorter-range SLCMs, more vulnerable to attack from residual systems than the Soviet Union.

Another issue inhibiting progress in START is the Soviet demand for agreement to a ban on "space strike arms" as a prerequisite even to serious negotiation on measures to limit strategic offensive systems. We regard such a precondition as unacceptable on its merits; we also believe serious negotiations in all three groups should proceed concurrently. We do not dispute the interrelationship between strategic offensive and strategic defensive areas. 1n fact, it was the United States that first drew this connection during SALT I. With these considerations in mind, I will turn briefly to the Defense and Space negotiating group.

Defense and Space: With respect to defense and space, the United States has made clear that we are committed to the SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) research program, which is being carried out in full compliance with the ABM Treaty. We are seeking to explore with the Soviets how a cooperative transition toward a more defense-reliant regime could be accomplished, should new defensive technologies prove feasible, but the Soviet negotiators have resisted even discussing the subject with us. We are also proposing that the Soviets join us even now in an ·'open laboratories" arrangement under which both sides would provide information on each other's strategic defense research programs and provide reciprocal opportunities for visiting research facilities and laboratories.

As in START, there was no tangible progress during Round IV in Defense and Space. We initially thought it might be otherwise. The English text of Mr. Gorbachev's proposal at the opening of the round made no reference to "research"; the word "research" did not appear in it.

Later, however, we found that the Russian text uses the word "sozdaniye," which is generally translated as "create" and which they claim includes ''purposeful research." Soviet negotiators have explained that Mr. Gorbachev had intended no change whatsoever in the Soviet position on what they call "space-strike arms."

We have had great difficulty in the Defense and Space talks in even getting the Soviets to acknowledge indisputable facts. The Soviets refuse to admit the nature and extensive scope of their own strategic defense research and development activities; they deliberately distort the nature and scope of the U.S. SDI program. If there are grounds for encouragement in this area, they can only be found in the grudging admissions occasionally made by Soviet officials in informal discussions that the logic and coherence of official Soviet positions are flawed and/or inconsistent with the public statements of General Secretary Gorbachev.

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SPAN MAY 1986

INF: The commitment by both sides at the Summit toward early progress on an interim INF agreement, the inherent flexibility in the INF portion of the American proposal of November 1, 1985, and the apparent movement in the Soviet INF negotiating position heralded by Mr. Gorbachev in mid-January raised expectations about the possibilities for success in reaching an INF agreement.

The United States studied carefully the Soviets' January proposal and probed Soviet negotiators on the details behind this proposal. We also consulted intensively with allied governments in preparing an appropriate response.

Some elements in Mr. Gorbachev's proposal in INF seemed to be constructive. The Soviets appeared to have dropped their demand that British and French SLBM nuclear warheads be counted equally and along with U.S. LRINF warheads. The Soviets expressed willingness to accept an outcome involving reductions of all U.S. and Soviet LRINF missiles in Europe, including the SS-20s, to zero. The potentially positive impact of this proposal was negated, however, by a number of unacceptable conditions and omissions related to the offer. Among the conditions are: • A nontransfer provision calling on the United States to assume an obligation not to transfer strategic and medium-range missiles to third countries. This , of course, is aimed directly at long standing programs of cooperation the United States has with its allies and would signal the end of the U.K. Trident modernization program.

• A demand that the United Kingdom and France not "build up" their "corresponding nuclear arms" and declare their intent to begin to eliminate those forces in stage 2. The Soviets know that a ban on strategic modernization would sooner rather than later spell the demise of British and French SLBM forces.

Among the omissions are: • The absence of a provision for reductions in SS-20s in the eastern part of the Soviet Union until a subsequent stage and until after U.S. LRINF missiles in Europe have been reduced to zero.

• The absence of a provision limiting shorter-range INF (SRINF) missiles. If LRINF missiles were reduced to zero, the effect could be circumvented by SRINF deployments which can cover most of the important targets in NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) Europe when forward deployed in Eastern Europe.

The consequence of accepting the Soviet proposal would be the elimination of U.S. LRINF missiles from Europe and the probable deterioration of U.K. and French nuclear deterrents, but without elimination of the SS-20 threat which our friends and allies in both Europe and Asia face.

Our study of Mr. Gorbachev's proposal in detail and in its overall effect caused us to conclude, based on both the manner of presentation and the substance, that it had been designed primarily for its political and propaganda impact. We do not wish, however, to leave any stone unturned in the search for progress in Geneva. We take seriously the commitment undertaken in the Summit Joint Statement to accelerate efforts to find common ground between the positions of the two sides. It is for these

reasons that President Reagan authorized in late February the tabling of a new U.S. INF proposal.

The United States continues to believe that the best solution in INF remains the global elimination of the entire class of U.S. and Soviet LRINF missiles. When we first proposed this idea at the opening of the INF negotiations in 1981, the Soviets accused us of wanting something for nothing, of offering to destroy paper missiles in exchange for the destruction of real missiles.

But by the end of 1985, the United States had deployed 236 LRINF missiles in Europe. Absent an INF agreement, that number will continue to grow until the full operational capability of 572 missiles is reached by the end of 1988. All five NATO-basing countries are acting in accordance with the commitments made in the 1979 NATO Dual-Track Decision. Thus contrary to Soviet criticism, the plan offered by the United States in February 1986 to eliminate all LRINF missiles worldwide by the end of the decade is both new and significant.

The United States has proposed a detailed, phased approach for reaching its objective which would achieve balance at the earliest possible time while maintaining stability throughout the reductions process.

By the end of 1987, the United States and the Soviet Union would reduce their LRINF missile deployments in Europe to 140 launchers each, with the Soviet Union making concurrent proportionate reductions in Asia.

Within the following year, both sides would further reduce the numbers of LRINF missile launchers remaining in Europe and Asia by an additional 50 percent.

Finally , both sides would move to the total elimination of this category of weapons by the end of 1989.

Associated with this plan, there would be a parallel series of global LRINF missile warhead ceilings under which the United States would retain the right to global warhead equality. As Soviet SS-20 launchers were reduced, the launchers and their associated missiles and agreed support equipment would be destroyed. U.S. systems in excess of the launcher limits cited above could be withdrawn to the continental United States unless or until they were also in excess of the equal global warhead ceiling associated with the launcher reductions then being implemented, in which case they would be destroyed.

These reductions and limits would involve U.S. and Soviet systems only. There would be no agreed constraints on the forces of the United Kingdom or France.

These reductions would also be accompanied by constraints on SRINF, either establishing an equal ceiling at current Soviet levels, or at the levels both sides had on January 1, 1982. This ceiling would enter into effect by the end of 1987.

By insisting that Soviet reductions to 140 LRINF missile launchers in Europe would have to occur before the U.S. would reduce below that level, we seek to avoid near-term military and political problems, and to ensure that at no point during the reduction process would the Soviets be able to achieve a lasting advantage.

I have dealt with lNF issues in some detail because an agreement in this negotiating group could precede and influence an agreement in START. Likewise, Soviet

willingness to make arms control progress before the next summit and to fulfill their commitment toward early progress focused on the principle of 50 percent reductions may be manifested first or perhaps only in INF. Verification: The United States continues to stress the critical importance of agreeing to effective means of verification so as to be able to assess with confidence compliance with provisions of any arms control agreements which are negotiated. Thus, Mr. Gorbachev's positive statements on verification in his January 15 article were welcomed throughout the West. However, past Soviet reluctance to agree on measures necessary to verify compliance provided grounds for some skepticism as well.

Round lV provided little evidence that Soviet attitudes on verification have undergone fundamental change. The Soviets neither agreed to nor proposed specific verification measures in either the START or INF groups. We expect that Soviet sincerity regarding verification will be put to a clear test when the negotiations resume this month. At these talks our INF negotiators will continue presentation of specific verification procedures tailored to the specific weaponry limits we seek. These details are being presented in the context of a comprehensive verification regime which includes the use of national technical means of verification and cooperative measures between the two governments, such as on-site inspection and data exchanges.

My analysis here has reflected the lack of constructive activity by the Soviet START delegation during Round IV of the Nuclear and Space Arms Talks. I do not wish to imply by this negative report that I cannot imagine significant START progress in the months to come. The Soviets have abandoned their current definition of strategic systems before. They can do so again.

We also believe that reductions in strategic offensive systems would be mutually advantageous whether or not strategic defenses are deployed, and that there are considerable opportunities for equitable offense-offense trade-offs. Despite the significant differences in the two sides' application of the 50 percent reductions principle, the United States sees a potential for convergence on several issues, including reductions in ICBM warheads, total ballistic missile warheads, ballistic missile throwweight, and the total number of ballistic missiles and heavy bombers to be permitted.

However, the Soviet side, rather than engaging in specific discussions of these issues directed toward narrowing remaining qualitative and numerical differences between us, has emphasized public rhetoric, rather than taking concrete steps at the confidential negotiating table where the Soviets have elected to restrict themselves to abstractions and generalities. The Soviets have turned aside our efforts to expand areas of commonality. As long as they remain frozen in this approach no significant progress is possible.

The primary missing element in the Soviet negotiating formula for START is a willingness to take into account Western interests and not just their own. Were that attitude to change, major progress toward a START agreement would not be far behind.

D

SPAN MAY 1986

13

When

StraÂľgers Meet

by ARUNA VASUDEV

The Hawaii International Film Festival is unusual in that it is always woven around a theme and gives debate on films as much importance as to tlie films themselves. The Sixth Hawaii International Film Festival in December last year held a retrospective of Indian films and discussed Indian cinema.

As film festivals multiply around the world, they tend to follow the same basic pattern. Some look upon the director as the star, others woo the stars themselves for the luster they shed; all vie for the best of the preceding year's crop of films, all have retrospectives in addition to the competitive and information sections.

Cannes, Venice and Be rlin retain their pre-eminence. Abandoning hope of competing with these Big Three, others seek to establish an identity by concentrating on a particular geographical a rea from which to choose the films they show, by adopting a re latively radical approach or focusing on a specific genre.

Few festivals, however, build themselves around a theme, or place as much e mphasis on discussion and intellectual exploration as the Hawaii International Film Festival, e ntering now into its sixth year. H ere cine ma becomes the medium through which an understanding of other cultures can be achieved, helping sometimes to clarify values a nd ways of being that had long been accepted unthinkingly. The festival's theme always is "When Strangers Meet" and it looks on film as the single most important medium to help bridge the chasms of ignorance dividing people culturally and mentally as well as geographically. Whether film alone can do that is questionable. But film supplemented with debate-the opportunity to ask questions and receive answers can go a long way toward creating the beginnings of understanding.

The Hawaii festival started out with this objective and in five years has demonstrated its validity. Organized by the East-West Center's Institute of Culture and Communication, the initial impetus was to draw the Hawaiians into the orbit

J4

SPAN MAY 1986

of its activities, and work toward profound cross-cultural exchanges. The scree~gs are free on a first-come, firstserved basis and the attendance jumped from 15,000 in 1984 to 30,000 in 1985.

The number of films, drawn from Asia, the Pacific and the United States, is relatively small. But-and it is a significant but-each screening is preceded by an introduction by the director if available, a writer from the o riginating country or a scholar from Hawaii. At the end of the film there is a discussion in the auditorium with the audience. From curiosity in the initial stages has come a real desire to participate. In 1983, for example, by the end of Mrinal Sen's Aakaler Sandhane, half the audience had left. The images were too alien, the concerns too distant , the style too unfamiliar. Apparently. In 1984 after another Mrinal Sen film, Kharij, however, the audience stayed talking, arguing, questioning for two hours, reluctant to e nd the experience. Last December's festival saw a whole separate section of eight films from India. It included Raj Kapoor's Aawara, Satyajit Ray's Ohare Bhaire, Buddhadeb Dasgupta's Grihajuddha, Prema Karanth's Phaniyamma and three films of Ritwik Ghatak. Nirad Mahapatra's Maya Miriga was am ong six selected by the Festival Committee to compete as the film that "best promotes cultural understanding," and came away with a special Jury commendation. For the second time in succession a Chinese film, Yellow Earth, received the top award. (River Without Buoys won in 1984.) With a large part of its population of Chinese origin and the Chinese Americans a significant presence in many large American cities, it is obvious that China seems more

apprc;>achable in Hawaii than others.

Historical links have also been forged among the countries of Southeast A sia.

Bringing South and West Asia, the Pacific and the United States into the circle is more challenging, requiring continuo us exposure plus the opportunity for verbal exchange. The Indian film screenings, held at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, were compleme nted by four informal discussion groups led separately by Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Nirad Mahapatra, myself and Wimal Dissanayake, deputy director of the Institute of Culture and Communication, who has m ade a special study of Satyajit Ray. The academy has a rather formidable reputation screening intellectually demanding films, so it attracted principally those who already had some knowledge of India. But the leap from one or at most two films a year to eight last year, was a pointer to the growing interest in India.

For the participants themselves, an unusual feature of this festival is the symposium to which the institute accords nearly as much importance as it does the films themselves. This is Wimal Dissanayake's special preserve and he o rganizes it so the discussions move from a general theoretical perspective to the case of each country in particular. Separate sessions explore the nature of cinema, and the function it performs in different cultures; how the medium is handled; and what images it projects of women, of power and of society.

This time the symposium was held on the beautiful island of Maui, which unfor. lunately was experiencing unseasonably rainy weather in December. Three days of intense discussion came to a head over the Indian cinema. Since knowledge of

Indian cinema is based on the limited amount written or seen outside the country, the few who are profoundly interested in it become "experts," inevitably clashing with Indians who really do know the medium. However, such conflicts can be productive in the end because they serve to heighten awareness and intensify a determination to find out more. William Rothman, who taught film for many years at Harvard, admitted that even his reference to Indian cinema was based on the solitary general history that is available in the United States and the rare articles that appear in film journals.

One hopes the films that form part of the Festival of India and are traveling to several American cities will fill in some of the gaps. A number of publications have been produced to accompany them and provide basic reference material. It is a fact that Indian cinema is catching the attention of film analysts and students, both for its popular cinema, which is still

debate. It is a unique forum that can bring together in two successive years such eminent figures as Donald Richie and Tadao Sato, both internationally renowned for their work on the Japanese cinema; the American theoretician Dudcapable of attracting a mass audience, ley Andrew; the peripatetic British critic and for the serious, the new, the parallel Tony Rayns who has an intensive knowlcinema that is making itself increasingly edge of Southeast Asian cinema; the felt nationally and internationally. For scholarly Shao Mujun from China; John the one there is a tinge of nostalgia for a Tulloch, the author and editor of the cinema of glamor and spectacle that has Australian Journal of Screen Theory; virtually vanished in the West; for the Henry Breitrose and Seymour Chatman other a certain respect for the commit- from Stanford and Berkeley universities; ment and the struggle of the directors Augustin Sotto from the Philippines; and Asiah Sharji from Malaysia among fighting against the mainstream.

For the speakers themselves, scholars, others. Jeanne Wakatsuki Huston, whose writers and professors of film, the papers moving book Farewell to Manzanar has are a mine of information and the sympo- been made into a film, was a member of sium a rare opportunity to reflect collec- the Jury in 1984 and together with hustively on the various qualities and func- band James Huston, the writer, was a tions of cinema, to enlarge horizons and seminar participant in 1985.

The chairperson of the Jury in 1985 was gain valuable insights. The symposium is acquiring a reputation for the level of its Maxine Hong Kingston whose two books

Top: The author with foreign filmmakers after a group discussion. Above: Jennifer Kendal and Victor Banerjee in Satyajit Ray's Ghare Bhaire. Right: L. V. Sharada in Premo Karanth's Phaniyamma.

SPAN MAY 1986

15

WHEN STRANGERS MEET continued

The Woman Warrior and Chinamen have been highly acclaimed. On the Jury were Madame Kawakita from Japan who is well known and deeply respected in international film circles, the Australian director Paul Cox; from India it was P.K. Nair, director of the National Film Archive and from the United States came Roger Ebert, film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times. The only writer on film to have won a Pulitzer Prize, Ebert is also cohost, with Gene Siskel of the U.S. network television program At the Movies.

In competition were six films that showed fascinating differences. Yellow Earth, which has been in a number of international film festivals this past year, is Chen Kaige's first feature. It is visually stunning as the camera sweeps across huge expanses of dry, bare, yellow earth.

Nature is overwhelming, people appear swamped by its relentless grandeur.

Against this the human struggle appears pitifully insignificant but is invested with dignity. Its neorealistic style and concern for individuals are evidence that a new cinema is taking birth in China. Knowledge of the background of the historical and, to some extent, cultural forces that have swept China in recent years helps to deepen the impact of this film.

The same is true of When the Tenth Month Comes from Vietnam. Although the background of the film is war, it 1s never stated which war. Instead, the film dwells very gently on the effects of war. on the wife left behind who conceals the death of her husband from her ailing, dependent father and small son.

It is her story, somewhat naively but movingly told.

Homecoming, from I long Kong, acquires an added dimension when seen agairlst an awareness of imminent political changes as Hong Kong prepares to become once again a part of China. In this, a young woman from Hong Kong makes a trip to the village where she grew up on the mainland and where her grandmother has just died. Her meeting with two school friends, now married to each other, produces conflicts in the minds of all three. She leaves. The homecoming has proved a journey into nowhere.

Dim Sum is another image of the Chinese as Wayne Wang, its director, paints a warm, humorous picture of Clunese Americans. Young Chinese women talk of the relative merits of

16

SPAN MAY 1986

Top: A still from Maya Miriga directed by Nirad Mahapatra. Above: Anjan Dutt and Mamta Shankar in Buddhadeb Dasgupta's GrihaJuddha.

change are not strong dramatic events; the turmoil is internal. To grasp its nuances and underlying intensity created by family relationships, some idea of the cultural codes that operate in India is essential. Similarly, a background knowledge of Japanese customs enhances the uncharacteristic and delightful comedy of The Funeral.

But for those who do not have the necessary cultural literacy, the Hawaii festival's efforts are directed at furnishing the minimum understanding required through debate and discussion.

What is cinema? Andre Bazin asked in the 1950s in France, provoking a thousand answers. What is important in cinema? asked many others subsequently and a thousand interpretations were aired. How is film perceived by its audience? Does the audience matter at all when a work of art is created, whether it be a painting, a piece of music or a film?

Is film to be judged by how closely it approximates reality, or are style and form of greater significance? In the 1960s the structuralists and semioticians entered the field and film cnticism acquired a new vocabulary. When Solan as and Gettino wrote their famous essay, "Towards a Third Cinema ," the concept of film as a weapon in an ideological struggle assumed worldwide currency. UnconcerneCI by the critical debate, the ma1ority of filmmakers and audiences continued to look on film as the perfect form of amusement.

Art. weapon or entertamment , the fascination with film has not flagged One of the factor& to have e merged from the multifaceted interest in cinema is the need to understand the codes that operate in the styles of filmmaking in different cultures. Film is perceived to work tn two ways. On the one hand it helps to decode cultural conventjons; on the other, a basic awareness of those very conventions helps m deciphering the codes that¡ make a film into a complex symbolsystem, capable of bemg experienced at different levels. The interpretations and discussions are carried out in books and journals while the flurry that surrounds festivals keeps stars. directors and films them<,elvcs highly visible manifestations of the collective fantasy.

0

dating Chinese and white men; the mother sits placidly sewing, listening to her neighbor, another Chinese woman of a totally different temperament. letting the world flow around her while she remains its rock-strong center. Her occasional observations are acutely perceptive and wryly amusing. Her neighbor asks her how Christmas was. ¡'They (her sons and daughters with fam ilies) came, they ate and they went home. Same as every year," she replies laconically as she continues to tidy up the house. It is beautifully shot. an unobtrusive homage to the Japanese master Ozu. India's Maya Miriga 1s also a portrait of a family, although without Dim Sum's ironic acceptance of things as they are.

Maya Miriga is about time passing, as the About the Author: Arw1a Vasudei¡ is a filmpast slowly crumbles and opens out on maker and author. Her forthcoming book. New to an unknowable future. Conflict and Indian Cinema, will be published this sumnwr.

K-EEPlN6 GOO·N=f---t

by ZICK RUBIN

A

the start of our family's two-and-a-half-week vacation sexual conquests, as adults we count the accounts we have won , ast summer, my 8-year-old son and I went to the public the insurance policies we have sold, the hours we have billed , library together. He took out seven biographies, includ- even the kilometers we have flown. Last year, McDonald's ing What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin?, Robert Frost: America's made a big deal about serving their 50,000-millionth hamburgPoet and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: The Story of Lew Alcindor. I er; they had cou nted every last one of them. When the About took out a two-volume work of social history that had been Men column [from where this article is reprinted] was started in The New York Times Magaz ine a couple of years ago , its first recommended to me. We both enjoyed our selections.

As it turned out, we weren't just reading. We were also biographical note recorded that " Isaac Asimov, the science and keeping count. I would periodically ask Elihu how many of his science-fiction writer, is the author, at last count, of 272 books." books he had read, and he would periodically ask me what page In some cases, such counts may provide reasonable measures of I was on. By the weekend, I was proudly telling my wife that productivity. The problem is that the quantitative measures Elihu had read six of his books, and Elihu was bragging to his have a way of crowding out the qualitative ones-the assessfriends about the huge tome that I was reading. After Elihu ments of our real worth that cannot be reduced to numbers.

I believe that this numbers game is fundamentally a male had finished all seven books, he enlisted my help in computing the total number of pages he had read. They added up to 409, phenomenon , the result of our well-known obsession with and he was only slightly disappointed to note that his total was individual achievement. In the 1980s, to be sure, women as well less than the 500-odd pages that 1 had completed. I couldn't as men find themselves tabulating their accomplishments. To resist pointing out that some of the pages he was counting my mind, this is another example-alongside cigarette smoking and pumping iron-of the down side of women's march toward contained pictures, while my pages were all words. equality. Even so, it remains the male of the species who by ourselves measure to learn we boys, Starting when we arc measures his masculinity by the length of his resume. I have a ingrained. deeply is habit the counting. By the time we are men, hard time imagining a female professor summing up the years in in book, reunion I was looking through my wife's 15th college terms of "five books and 31 articles or monographs." tell which the once-fresh-faced graduates, now in their mid-30s, I don' t know whether the counting syndrome is transmitted, their classmates about what they've been doing for all these years. Among the various accounts of family and career was this like baldness, through our male genes. But I'm sure that it is statement by a male professor of political science: "I've written one of those chunks of masculinity that we fathers pass on to or edited five books and 31 articles or monographs in profes- our sons, even if unintentionally. At my son's Little League baseball games no official score is kept. The important thing, sional journals."

Why would anyone sum up his life's work in such absurdly we all know , is the playing and the building of skills, not the quantitative terms? After all, it's the quality of a person's work winning. But despite the official policy , one can always find a that matters, not the quantity. Can you picture Rembrandt father or two on the sidelines who is surreptitiously but proclaiming, "This is the 43rd oil painting I've done this year''? scrupulously re..:ording every run that scampers across the plate.

Can you hear Beethoven explaining, "I've composed eight The bc;s quickly learn that someone is counting. If they want to know how they're doing, they can always find out the score. symphonies so far, and this will be my ninth"?

I don't want to come down too hard on the counting man.

The professor's self-appraisal is not really surprising, score can often be a lot of fun . But perhaps, with a Keeping . though. Professors are famous for measuring themselves by the quantity of their scholarly output , and they're often measured little help, we can loosen the numerical noose. On our vacation, by others in the same way. A friend of mine, as an instructor at besides reading, Elihu and I played a lot of beach tennis- the a distinguished medical school, was trying to get promoted to game in which two people hit a half-dead rubber ball back and assistant professor. To do that, he told me, he needed to have forth with wooden racquets. There's no real way to keep score, seven articles published. It didn't matter how good the articles but we always keep count of how many times· we hit the ball were-presumably no one would read them anyway-as long back and forth without letting it drop. At this writing, our as there were seven of them. Count von Count, who teaches record is 248. Elihu sometimes plays beach tennis with my wife, kids to count on the TV program, Sesame Street, would have a too, so I asked him what their record was. He looked puzzled field day on the tenure committee of a university: "That's one for a moment, the n shrugged his shoulders and said, "We don't 0 journal article, two journal articles, three journal articles .... " count."

But the counting me ntality extends beyond the world of academics to the wider world of men. As boys we count our Ab-Out the Author: Zick Rubin is a professor of social psychology at Matchbox cars and trading cards, as adolescents we count our Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Copynght © 1985 by the New York Times Company. Reprinted by pcnnission from Tht Ntw York Times Magazint.

SPAN MAY 1986

17

Reprinted from U.S. News & World Reporr, November 11, 198S, published at Washington, D .C.

N

ever in all of history has medical science made life so long or so free of disease. Today, doctors replace organs with plastic parts, vaporize tumors with laser rays, make babies in test tubes, isolate memory celJs and draw maps of people's genes. New treatments for schizophrenia and other stubborn scourges of the mind are on the way . By the turn of the century, coronary bypass may well be obsolete as doctors learn to treat clogged arteries with drugs and J...sers.

The power of science to affect the way the body feels and functions is accelerating so fast that a textbook published only five years ago is frequently out of date. Missing from those pages would be medical milestones like the first successful heart-lung transplant operation, the first use of monoclonal antibodies to treat cancer, the first implant of a permanent artificial heart, the first gene transplant in a mammal.

Americans' pursuit of health has turned into a national fitness cult. They jog. They diet. At the start of the 20th century, life expectancy in the United States was 47 years.

Today, it's 71.1 for men, 78.3 for women.

While lifestyle changes and a raised standard

18

Medicine's New Triumphs

by ABIGAIL TRAFFORD

of living account for much of the gain, recent discoveries in medical science have played a major role.

American researchers dominate the international race for better medicine. Two Texas scientists won the 1985 Nobel Prize in Medicine for deciphering how cholesterol clogs human arteries-a key to understanding the cause of strokes and heart attacks.

Altogether, U .S. scientists have received eight of the last 10 Nobel medical awards.

The first wave of the modern medical revolution occurred when Alexander Fleming discovered the antibiotic penicillin in 1928, making it possible to cure infectio us diseases. In the 1940s, bacterial infections caused 25 percent of all deaths. Today, they

account for less than 3 percent.

Now, a second revolution in treating disease is beginning- due in large part to cracking the human genetic code that controls the function of cells in the body .

Although the science of genes is in its infancy, it has the potential for unraveling the origins of disease. Doctors may one day treat patients by administering a normal gene to overcome a defective one-thus turning gene therapy into tomorrow's penicillin for inherited defects such as hemophilia and for illnesses ranging from depression to Alzheimer's disease. ¡ The other flank of America's medical revolution is machine technology: The 40ton diagnostic device that peers inside the skull and illuminates the working of the brain. Or the 300-gram plastic pump to replace the heart. Or the experimental laser that blasts out the buildup of fatty deposits in blood vessels. Or the intensive-care unit that provides a glass-and-steel womb for one-kilogram premature babies.

At the same time, progress has its price, and science is not always invincible in the face of disease. Now, doctors are stymied by the modern plague of acquired-immune-defi-

The authors of the articles in this package are on the staff of the U.S. News & World Report.

Facing page: A laser beam is delivered through a hand-held fiberoptic for treating a skin problem.

ciency syndrome (AIDS). Although the AIDS virus has been identified, a vaccine is at least five years away. French scientists just announced cures in two patients healed with cyclosporin , but U.S. doctors are calling the results premature. So far , no drugs have proved effective. Several other diseases are also eluding the doctors' healing touch.

"It's important for people to realize that, alth.ough we have learned a great deal in medicine in a very short period of time, we are only just beginning to understand basic human biology," cautions Dr. Arno Motulsky, director of the Center for Inherited Diseases at the University of Washington, Seattle. "Disease has been around for millions of years-science has existed for only a fraction of that time."

Yet despite advances, many wonder treatments are raising difficult ethical questions about how lifesaving tools should be used-and who should pay. Living longer

Clockwise from left: A portable unit to aid heart attack patients in remote areas; disposable microsurgical knives; a low-intensity X-ray imaging scope (lixiscope), a portable X-ray instrument; the hand holding the knife is natural, the one holding the tomato is part of the battery-powered Utah arm developed by scientists at the University of Utah.

does not automatically mean living better.

American doctors and lawy~rs are pondering what to do with the patient whose body is alive but whose brain no longer functions.

As Daniel Callahan, director of the Hastings Center on medical ethics, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, puts it: "Medicine now has genuine power, and that always produces moral dilemmas. We must refine our thinking on what is life and when does death occur."

And saving lives can cause financial catastrophe. A single liver transplant can cost more than $235,000. Medical costs at the end of life lead to bankruptcy for many families. Already, the: United States spends more than $387 ,000 million on health care.

Flagship technologies such as the artificial heart are particularly controversial.

"We've drifted into a policy of spending our resources on a procedure that will help people a little bit but doesn't get at the real problem of the underlying disease," says Dr. Thomas A. Preston, chief of cardiology at the Pacific Medical Center in Seattle.

Instead of pouring large sums of money into experimental life-prolonging machinery, some medical experts argue, more funds should be spent preventing such conditions as fatty deposits in arteries and high blood pressure that cause heart disease.

On the following pages , SPAN examines the most advanced methods of treating a wide range of health problems.

--..

Birth

those who, because of functional sterility or infertility, cannot have children naturally.

by STANLEY N. WELLBORN In IYF, doctors surgically extract an egg from the mother and have it fertilized by the father's sperm in a lab dish. Once "Where do babies come from?'' conception "takes," the fertilized egg is implanted in the That age-old question is provoking some startling new mother. answers as doctors begin manipulating life.

Sometimes it takes repeated attempts to achieve fertilizaToday, some children are created in test tubes. Others are tion. Dr. Michael Soules of the reproductive clinic ac the carried in the wombs of surrogate mothers. And with sound- University of Washington at Seactle estimates that a couple has wave scans, prospective parents can know if their baby will be a a one-in-ten chance of having a baby on the fi rst try with l YF. boy or a girl months before birth . Soon, they wiU even be able Since the first test-tube baby was born in England in 1978, to choose the sex. there have been roughly 1,000 such births worldwide. The In Australia and the Netherlands, five children have been Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk has produced 150 born from frozen embryos. It is not beyond the imagination of babies, including 20 sets of twins and two sets of triplets. doctors that parents one day may freeze their fertilized embryos Surrogates. At Cleveland's Mount Sinai Medical Center. for 100 years or more, leaving instructions for their children¡s doctors have performed the first implantation of an in vitro births in another era. embryo in a surrogate mother.

Infertility. In the United States, one in six couples has In August 1984, doctors took an egg from a woman who was difficulty conceiving or bearing a child. About 27 percent of unable to have children because her uterus had been removed women between ages 15 and 44 can't have children because of four years earlier. Once the egg was fertilized in a dish by the physical problems. The sperm count of U.S. males has fallen husband's sperm , it was transplanted into a good friend of more than 30 percent in 50 years. Some 25 percent of men are the couple. considered functionally sterile. Experts suspect that environ" I don't know of any previous case like this," says Dr. Wulf mental pollution is a cause.

Utian , director of the medical center's obstetrics and gyneAll .this is spurring the race for ways to have a baby that are cology department. sa fe and ethically acceptable. In the process, " miracle" births A growing number of surrogates are being artificially are becoming part of the norm. inseminated by a husband's sperm to produce a baby for him At one clinic, a poster reads: "They say that babies are and his wife. In such instances, the baby has genetic characterismade in heaven- but we know better." tics of the father and the surrogate mother.

"Miracle" Conceptions. Some 175 clinics in the United In the Cleveland case, however, the child carries the genes States offer in vitro fertilization (IVF). The technique benefits of its mother and father , not the surrogate.

possible, researchers say the trend will be toward smaller and more-portable dialysis devices.

by GORDON WITKIN "Smart" Arms and Hands. Since its first use more than four years ago, the artificial arm-and-hand unit developed at the University of Utah has been placed on about 250 people The dream of a bionic body is fast becoming a reality-and worldwide. Roughly 75 facilities in the United States and it's mostly plastic. Doctors can replace the heart. pancreas, Europe are qualified to fit the apparatus. costing $25 .000 to kidneys, ears, limbs, blood vessels and .hip joints with synthetic $30,000. devices. " In certain areas, artificial organs will provide the best The artificial arm and hand is con trolled by electrodes and a treatment," says Dr. Fred Shapiro , president of the American microprocessor that responds to messages sent from the brain Society for Artificial Internal Organs. through remaining muscles in the shoulder and arm.

Pancreas. At the University of Massachusetts Medical To give the double-hooked device more dexte rity, researchCenter, researchers hope to provide diabetics with an implant- ers are experimenting with a three-finger, one-thumb robot hand . able artificial pancreas within five years. Undergoing tescs is a Blood Vessels. Under clinical trial are tiny polyurethane '"biohybrid" organ, consisting of live celJs from an animal tubes that carry blood to tissue and muscle. They even pulsate pancreas, packed in membranes of plastic polymers. The when blood surges through and may help people who have membranes let in glucose and let out insulin made by the circulation problems in their limbs. These vessels cost about implant, shielding it from antibodies and white blood cells of $600 for each 60-centimeler segment. the immune system. Thus the patient would not have to take "People faced with the prospect of amputation are delighted immunosuppressant drugs. to have this possible alternative choice." says Dr. Donald Portable Kidney. A Japanese firm may produce a wearable Lyman , director of the Biomedical Engineering Center for artificial kidney for dialysis. The 3.5 kilogram, battery-powered Polymer Implants at the University of Utah. device, designed by University of Utah researchers, can be Artificial Hearing. A pe rmanent hearing implant has been attached to the body by belts. During dialysis, blood lfows in fitted into 700 patients since it was approved by the U.S. Food and out of a needle in the arm of the patient, who is connected and Drug Administration more than a year ago. Developed by to a 20-liter tank . But the patient can disconnect from the Dr. William House of Los Angeles and manufactured by the system for as long as 15 minutes at a time during the four to five 3M Company, the device turns sounds into electrical signals hours needed to complete dialysis. that are transmitted to the cochlea-the seashell-like formation Although an implantable artificial kidney is believed im- of the inner ear. Wearers of the aid say that it has improved

Artificial Parts

20

SPAN MAY 1986

Embryo Transfer. Thls technique is employed for women who cannot produce eggs but can carry a fetus.

Doctors first match up the infertile wife with an egg donor who ovulates at about the same time-a key step since hormone levels must be the same in both women for a successful transfer.

The donor then is artificially inseminated with the husband's sperm. Five days after fertilization, the egg is transferred from the donor and inserted into the wife's uterus.

A Chicago firm called Fertility & Genetics Research, Inc., has devised a procedure using a special catheter for_embryo transfers. It forecasts a market of up to 50,000 candidates.

Multiple Births. The most common therapy for the more than two million U.S. women who have difficulty getting pregnant involves fertility agents. These trigger increased ovulation and can lead to multiple births. The Frustaci septuplets, for example, were born to an Orange, California, couple last May. Only three of the seven survived-all three healthy.

Frozen Embryos. Through cryopreservation, eggs are fertilized and cooled to minus 160 degrees Celsius in liquid nitrogen.

In that condition, embryos could remain safe for centuriesand a couple could have their own genetic offspring even if one or both became sterile.

Yet frozen embryos present major ethical problems. "To whom do such embryos belong?" asks Michael Flower, a professor at the University of California at San Diego. "To living parents, to the estate of deceased parents, to the storage facility that maintains them, or to the state?"

Conception occurs in a lab dish at in vitro fertilization clinics.

their ability to read lips. More sophisticated implants are in the research stage. At the University of California in San Francisco, an experimental unit has enabled 14 patients to recognize pitch by stimulating areas of the cochlea that respond to different frequencies.

Heartaches. Until now, the highly publicized artificial-heart program has dominated the field of spare-parts medicine. In three years, five hearts have been implanted permanently and three have been used temporarily in patients awaiting humanheart transplants.

But the high incidence of complications-especially strokes and mental deterioration-has raised doubts about the current artificial heart. "Obviously , what has happened so far is an unacceptable result ," says Dr. John Watson, chief of the devices-and-technology branch at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Maryland . " But it's an experimental approach , and you can't expect it to work therapeutically."

Meanwhile , researchers at a number of institutions are working on next-generation devices. One model, the Utah 100, is elliptically shaped and fits better into the chest cavity than the Jarvik-7 model now in use.

Also in competition is an artificial heart, developed at Pennsylvania State University, that has a seamless plastic lining and plastic valves that possibly will reduce the danger of clots.

The ultimate goal: A totally implantable artificial heart that enables patients to resume active lives.

A manufactured finger joint to fit the hand of an arthritis patient.

SPAN MAY 1986

21

Surgery

Brain

by STEVE HUNTLEY. CHAR LES FENYVESI and DAVID WHITMAN

by JOSEPH CAREY

There's hardly a place in the body that surgeons can't penetrate with their a rsenal of scalpels, microscopes and vaporizing beams of light.

In 1984, U.S. surgeons transplanted more than 7 ,700 organs. Some patients eve n got two new organs such as a heart and a lung or a hea rr and a kidney.

The Presbyte rian U nive rsity Hospital of Pittsburgh is pla nning a tra nsplant in which a patient is lo receive small a nd large intestines, a stomach , a pancreas, a spleen and a liver.

Jn a spectacular procedure al Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, 9-month-old Siamese twins were separated on October 26 last year in an operatio n that lasted 22 hours and involved more than 20 surgeons.

So facile is surgery today that doctors can reattach finge rs and even operate on fetuses in the womb.

One of the most dramatic operations is transplant surgery. In 1984, surgeons transplanted 346 hearts, 308 live rs, 87 pancreases and 6,968 kidneys in the United States.

Last O ctober, the suicide of a teenager gave a ne w lease on life to two patients at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. The boy's pancreas and one kidney were implanted into William Creighton, 46, of forest Hill , Ma ryla nd. The heart a nd lungs went into a 34-year-old North Carolina woman, Brenda Minton.

Jamie Fiske , only 11 mo nths old in 1982 when she got a liver t ra nspla nt at the University of Minnesota , today "does e verything a 3- or 4-year-old should be doing," says her father, C harles.

Behind the recent explosion in transplant surgery is cyclosporin, a potent drug introduced in 1980 that suppresses the body's immune system and prevents the patient from rejecting a n ;w organ. Patients must take the drug for the rest of their lives-which increases their risk of infections. Cyclosporin has also been Linked to kidney damage.

Key to futu re expa nsion of transplant surgery is to design a new gene ration of drugs. "The eventual objective is to try to change the immune response permanently so it will accept the organ but retain the body's defenses against everything else ," says surgeon Paul Russell of Harvard Medical School.

22

SPAN MAY 1986

With the aid of microscopes and modern precision tools, surgeons can pe rform increasingly complex operations- reattaching hands, fingers and even scalps.

At Emory University in Atlanta , Dr. Foad Nahai , associate professor of plastic and teconstructive surgery , took n toe from each foot of Chalmer D obbs of Conyers, Georgia, a factory worker who lost the fingers of one ha nd in an industrial accide nt.

Nahai fashioned the toes into a thumb a nd little finger to make a functional hand. " I le can hold a fork, comb his hair a nd is back at work," says Na hai.

As bloodless scalpels, lasers arc becoming prime surgical tools. An acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emissio n of Radiation, the laser converts elect romagnetic e ne rgy into light beams that can be p recisely aimed at selected targets. Lasers use different molecules-such as a rgon or carbon dioxide-depending on whether the doctor wants to cul, vaporize or melt .

Krypton and a rgon lasers are effective in stopping the ravages of glaucoma and for slicing away eye tumors. The Y AG laser is used to treat patients with cancerous tumors in the esophagus.

At Northwestern University's Medical School in Chicago, Dr. Leonard Cerullo successfuJJy used a carbon-dioxide laser to remove tumors in the brain and spine in more than 400 patients.

In New Orleans, Dr. Joseph Bellina takes the same type of laser to resculpt damaged Fallopian tubes so that women can become pregnant.

Medicine's dream is to find an easy way to re move cholesterol deposits in blood vessels. Dr. George Abela of the University of Florida has treated 11 patients with blocked blood vessels in the leg by melting lesions with an a rgon laser. At Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Dr. Warren Grund fest is testing pig cadavers to sec if the avant-garde excimer laser can blast away fatty deposits.

In the future, surgeons hope to take advantage of a spinoff from defense researc h: The free-electron laser. Similar to the beam the U.S. Defense De partme nt is designing to shoot down missiles in space, the freeelectron laser has potential for attacking cancer cells. Doctors hope it will stimulate a whole new wave of lasers for medicine.

After thousands o f years of poetry and speculation, brain scientists are closing in o n the origins of madness.

They are probing the biochemistry of pain. depression and stress, as well as that of hunger, sex a nd pleasure .

For the first time, doctors can look into the brain with diagnost ic machines. Over the next decade, they hope to unravel the causes of schizophrenia, epilepsy a nd A lzheimer's disease.

Most important to understanding the brain is the discovery of 50 out of a possible 200 agents known as neurotransmitte rs.

These chemicals allow nerve cells to communicate with each other to control pain , e motio ns, thoughts and behavior.

Researchers think that Alzheimer's disease may partly be caused by a deficiency of a n enzyme that produces the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Work is under way to find che micals that produce the same effect as this neurotransmitter.

At Emory U niversity in Atlanta, scie ntists succeeded for the first time in reversing symptoms of Parkinson's disease by implanting normal cells from monkey fetuses into the brains of afflicted mo nkeys.

The transplanted cells produced dopamine, the key brain chemical absent in Pa rkinson's patients, and raised the a mount to normal levels in two months.

Scient ists a re discovering that the chemica ls in the brain controlling emotio ns arc linked to white blood cells in the immune system that fight disease.

"Diseases previously thought only to have a physical cause also have a psychological component," says Candace Pert. ch ief of brain biochemistry at the National Institute of Mental Health.

Factors such as unexpressed anger, fear and depression a re key to health status and to the development of different diseases.

According to a recent report in the journal Science, U.S. National Institutes of Health researche rs have found that some immune cells a re like magnets for anti anxiety drugs such as Vali um and Librium.

This suggests that defects in the immune system may play a role in diseases such as schizophrenia and depression.

These results are giving doctors a bette r unde rsta nding of mental disease a nd erasing the distinction between mind and body.

Radiology

Genes

Drugs

by ANDREA GABOR

by JOSEPH CAREY

by STANLEY N. WELLBORN

Radiology now has gone from fuzzy pictures of broken bones to color images that diagnose brain disorders, heart attacks and epileptic seizures. Instead of using conventional X-rays, doctors employ CTcomputed tomography- which illuminates tissue and blood vessels as well as bones.

Therapy with radiation also is becoming more precise. For cancers such as Hodgkin's disease, the remission rate at Johns. Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore has jumped from 50 percent to 94 percent.

Now being tested for future use are such radical treatments as shooting neutron particles into the brain to kill tumors and transfusing a polyvinyl foam into arteries to plug aneurysms.

One of the first of a new wave of imaging techniques that can measure metabolism and show response to drugs is a $1.5-million device called PET. Shaped like a giant tire , the Positron Emission Tomography device is used to map the brain by measuring the way cells use glucose, their main fuel. Scans show different brain patterns when a person is thinking. resting, or listening ro music.

PET can show differences between the brains of healthy people and those with symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.

It is proving to he the best tool for locating damaged tissue in the brain , which causes seizures in epileptics. For patients who suffer severe forms of the disease , surgeons can now remove the damaged tissue with greater precision.

"PET also is one of the best ways to determine how much of the heart has been damaged following a heart attack," says Dr. Malcolm Cooper of the University of Chicago. "PET can then monitor treatment. " Among the most versatile devices is MR (Magnetic Resonance). First used to diagnose brain disorders, it shows promise in detecting problems in the prostate gland , heart and reproductive organs.

The 40-ton , $2-million machine works by creating a magnetic field and bombarding the patient with radio waves. When these are withdrawn , hydrogen atoms in the body emit a radio signal that reflects the difference between healthy and damaged tissue.

"The beauty of MR is that there's no radiation damage to the patient ," observes Dr. Juan Taveras, radiologist in chief at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Now that scientists can probe the genetic blueprint of life, they see their way to controlling growth , curing disease, extending life spans and- ultimately-improving the human species.

Today, researchers have mapped more than 800 of an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 individual genes that determine a person's makeup. Doctors can diagnose more than 200 of the roughly 3,000 disorders caused by single-gene defects. Among them are muscular dystrophy and hemophilia.

What lies ahead is gene therapytreating inherited diseases by replacing or altering abnormal genes.

Last year, a U.S. Government advisory panel approved national guidelines for gene therapy. The first patients are likely to be those who have a rare disorder called adenosine deaminase deficiency . Because of a genetic defect , these patients have no immunity and usually die of infections in childhood. Jn this procedure, researchers will remove up to 10.000 million bonemarrow cells from the patient's hip bone, treat them with a functioning gene for immunity and inject the corrected cells into him.

Dr. W. French Anderson of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and a group of coJJaborators have successfully performed a similar procedure in mice.

Scientists at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto recently announced that they have identified the defective gene for cystic fibrosis. They are devising a test to detect this disorder that afflicts 30,000 Americans. Another test may be ready soon to diagnose polycystic kidney disease, an inherited disorder that forces 400,000 Americans to undergo kidney dialysis.

Just recently, scientists identified markers on genes that signal which people are at risk for famil ial heart disease and pinpointed the defect in the gene that causes hemophilia.

A new genetic test called chorion villus biopsy can detect defects in the fetus. It can be performed during the eighth week of pregnancy and may eventually replace amniocentesis, which cannot be done until the 16th week.

By the year 2000, scientists believe, they will have a complete map of human genes.

This should lead to better treatments for many more inherited disorders.

In quest of a magic bullet to cure disease, scientists are exploring deep into a brave new world of drugs. With geneticengineering techniques, they are creating synthetic agents to replace natural compounds and developing safer vac~in~s.

Last October, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of a genetically engineered human-growth factor- a substance that allows children with a growth defect to reach normal size. Many of the agents now being designed are decades away from use , but they have the potential for wiping out some of the worst diseasesincluding rheumatoid arthritis, muscular dystrophy, hepatitis, herpes , hemophilia and tooth decay.

Among the most promising developments are lab-produced clones of natural disease-fighting antibodies. Such agents can be used as homing devices to carry drugs or radioisotopes to kill unhealthy cells. At Johns Hopkins Hospital, Dr. Stanley O rder attached radioactive molecules to monoclonals to treat advanced liver cancer. Of 105 patients, 7 had complete remission and 50 showed improvement.

One promising advance in this field is a drug for life-threatening colds . This agentalpha interferon- is now being tested as a nasal spray. The drug also is effective as a cure for a rare cancer , hairy-cell leukemia.

The AIDS epidemic is galvanizing efforts to perfect a drug against this virus.

Another approach is to strengthen the body's immune system. Scientists can synthesize naturally occurring chemicals that are secreted in minute quantities by white blood cells. That treatment mobilizes defenses against an invading organism such as a virus.

Gamma interferon appears to be effective therapy for rheumatoid arthritis. Interleukin-2 is showing promise against colon cancer, melanoma and Kaposi's sarcoma.

Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York have recently begun human tests of tumornecrosis factor , a compound that destroys cancer cells without harming normal cells.

"With every breakthrough , we have to put up caution flags, " says John Farrar, the director of biological research at HuffmannLa Roche, Inc., " but we are excited about these many advances.''

.v

Copyright Š L985 U.S. News & World Report, Inc .

SPAN MAY 1986

23

MIT'S MEDIA LAB

Making Friends With the Computer

by BRIAN DUMAINE

JI I I I I I I I I I

MAKING FRIENDS WITH THE COMPUTER continued

n a dimly lit room crammed with piles of black boxes and tangles of colored wires, a young scientist is talking to his computer screen in a loud voice as if it were a slightly deaf friend . Into his headset microphoue he says, "Schedule a meeting with Walter." The computer stays silent. The scientist repeats the command . Finally the computer blurts out in a mechanical monotone. "When ... do ... you ... want ... to ... meet. . . with ... Walter?" The scientist answers crisply , "On Tuesday morning. " The computer then telephones Walter's computer, which is sitting in an office down the halL makes the appointment. and reports back , " All right.

Ifs ... scheduled ... for . .. 11 o'clock." The computer never scheJules early-morning meetings. It knows the boss likes to sleep late and not be rushed.

This man and his talking computer are part of the Media Laboratory , an exciting new experiment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The Media Lab , which opened its Joors in Jtinuary 1985. is a gleaming computer research center whose mission is to explore what computers could be doing 10 or 20 years from now. Its 120 professors, students and administrators have two goals: to create new ways of using computers and to make them easy to use.

Founders Nicholas Negroponte. an M.IT professor of media technology, and Jerome Wiesner. president emeritus of MIT and science adviser to President Kennedy, envisioned a lab completely different from places like AT &T's legendary Bell Labs , where the emphasis is on designing faster and smarter computers.

At the Media Lab, researchers buy offthe-shelf equipment and program it for new uses in creative fields such as broadcasting, publishing, motion pictures, music and theater. "This is an effort to enhance human creative power through computers," says Wiesner. .. A person whose only interest is in a deep technological problem doesn't belong here. '' Wiesner and Negroponte cashed in on their connections to sell more than 40 heavyweight corporations-including CBS. Digital Equipment , Japan's NEC Corp., Apple Computer and Time Inc.on their vision. Since 1978 the two have raised $ 40 million from these corporations for the Media Lab's building and computer equipment, and $4 million a year for operating expe nses. "We support

I

26

SPAN MAY 1986

them precisely because they are working on such far-out stuff," says Jerome S. Rubin, a group vice-president of the Times Mirror Co., a sponsor. "The Media Lab is on the cutting edge of the electronic future ." Some backers like the creative atmosphere. Says Gerald M. Levin , executive vice-president for strategic planning at Time Inc.. " It's worthwhile just to send our people there a nd have their minds expanded. There aren' t many places you can do that. " Of the dozen major projects under way now , some a re new; others have been taken over from other MIT departments.

It's a diverse and mind-boggling lot that ranges from talking computers to electronic newspapers, from computer programs for kids to computers that make music. The point of each is to show what computers can do, not to create finished , marketable products.

To make the lab a success, the corporate sponsors have to figure out how to capitalize on its inventions. For their money they get a five-year key to the Jab. None of the work is proprietary. Sponsors can wander around and ask questions about the different projects. Negroponte wants to avoid the fate of Xerox PARC, a lab that failed to find ways to comm unicate its inventions to its parent company, Xerox, and get them onto the market. So far Negroponte has succeeded , but at a price. H e says he spends half his time demonstrating projects for the sponsors, and the staff gets distracted as well. One good-natured but hassled researcher programmed his computer to tlash , ·'What are you staring at, Bozo?" whenever sponsors linger too long over his shoulder.

The lab's roster of researchers reads like an all-star cast of computer talent.

The staff includes MIT's Marvin Minsky , widely known as the dean of artificial intelligence, the field that uses computers to try to emulate human thought; and Seymour Papert , the MIT math and education professor who developed Logo , a computer language used by schoolchildren around the world. Not the least of the stars is Negroponte, 42, who looks more like a matinee idol than a walking paradigm of the state-of-the-art technologist. An architect and a pioneer in computer-aided design technology, he prefers using electronic mail 10 talking on the telephone. never travels without his portable computer and even keeps in

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1985 Time. Inc. All rights reserved

touch with his staff by computer from his retreat on the Greek island of Patmos. ··we want to make the computer a sensory-rich experience rather than the sensory-deprived one it is right now," he says. "If we can do that, the computer will become a commonplace part of people's lives." He intends to speed the day when exciting a nd rewarding creative uses for computers abound in music, art, publishing, film, theater, education and business. Among the possibilities are: THE OFFICE. TheMedia Lab believes executives will find computers a Jot friendlier in the office of the future. Rather than constantly wrestling with keyboards and obscure codes, the businessman will be able to run his computer by talking to it , pointing at it, or even glancing at it.

The Conversational Desktop is the Media Lab's talking computer. It can perform such secretarial tasks as making phone calls and reminding the boss of that important meeting. Christopher Sclunandt. a principal research scientist and the man who was talking to the computer about scheduling a meeting with Walter. admits there are limitations to his system. which includes a $5,000 NEC voice recognizer and a $10.000 Sun desktop work station: ·•If you ask it to order a pizza , it won't know what to do."

Along with his voice , the executive of the future may be able to use a glance or point a finger to communicate with his computer, says Richard A. Bolt, a principal research scientist in the Human Interface Group. As part of his splendidly named Gaze-Orchestrated Dynamic Windows project, Bolt , wearing special glasses, sits facing as many as 40 television pictures, all running simultaneously on a giant screen. Sensors on the glasses track where his eyes are looking; that information goes by cable to a central computer. If his gaze rests on a single picture. the other 39 recede and that one fills the screen.

Bolt also has a wristband with a magnetic sensor that can move an image from one location on a computer screen to another. He simply points at the image with his finger, and says, "Put that. .. "indicates where he wants it p1aced, and adds-"' ... there ." As Bolt's hand moves through a magnetic field , sensors on the wristband send signals hy cable to the computer. relaying where on the screen he's pointing. His eye, hand and voice systems could allow a busy executive to

glance at a screen and have it display a report while he talks on the phor;ie.

THE HO M E. Finding a useful place in the home for the computer is one of the toughest cha llenges the Media Lab faces.

A recent natio n al survey found that only about half the LO million computers in U.S. ho mes a re used more than once o r twice a week. People need better reasons than storing recipes or balancing checkbooks to buy a home computer. Andrew Lippman , associate professor of media technology a t MIT, and Walte r Bender, a research scie ntist at the Media Lab, think they have one: an elect ronic newspape r called Newspeek. meaning a p eck at the news- not to be confused with the siniste r do uble-talk Newsp eak la ngu age of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-

of

Four.

If the subscriber of the yea r 2000 is intereste d , say, in foreign affairs and sports, during the night Newspeek wou ld scan and collect the relevant stories from publications such as The New York Tim es and the Washington Post. These newspapers would be store d in compute rs and updated daily. In the morning a front page with crystal-clear graphics and color headlines would pop onto the home computer screen with articles on the latest hijacking to Be irut and the New Y ork Mets' latest six-game slump. To read the story on te rro rism, the reader touches the headline o r the first paragraph and the full text comes into view. As he reads, related articles that the compute r has chosen app ear to the side.

What Newspeek can't yet do is show photographs and television film clips alongside the articles. but Lippman and Bende r are worki ng on that. An article on terrorism, for example . could include a TV inte rview with o ne of the hostages.

Lippm<1n says Newspeek could be printed out in the home. H e adds that as mail and delivery costs continue to rise, it could soon be cheaper to transmit newspapers and magazines e lectronically.

T H E CLASSROOM. The school i!> yet another place where the computer has failed to fulfill its promise. There'sonlyonc computer for every 70 U.S. public school studen ts. Compu ters have failed to spread more widely, Seymo ur Papert says, because '"they've basica lly done more harm than good ." Rathe r than using computers to explore ideas in lang uage, math and art, most stud ent~ arc forced to learn computer programming a~ an end in itself- a real

turn-off in most people's expe rience .

Over the past two ye'a rs, Papert has bee n getting students high on computers a l a largely black and I lispanic j u nio r high school in New York City. T hey're encouraged to use Papert's Logo com pute r language in any way they wa nt, for as long as they want; there's one compute r for every three students, and they average two hours a day o n it. If a student deaides to draw a flower , he can te ll the computer to ske tch lines and curves. Typing ··RT 45,. and "FD 10," for instance , instructs the machine to draw a line ten units long at a 45-degree angle to the righ t. W hile having fun drawing, the stude nt learns a lot about angles. Says Tessa R . Harvey, a deputy New York City school superintende nt. "This is a te rrific way to get kids excited about thinking.·· So far Papert's school has better -attendance and higher math and reading scores than similar schools e lsewhe re in Manhattan.

TH E CO NCERT H ALL. In a nother corner of the Media Lab, Barry Vercoc, a professor of music and technology, and his colleagues have programmed a computer to play the harpsichord part of a H ande l trio sonata on a synthesizer and to follow the tempo set by a conductor.

When the conductor slows his baton, a sona r sensor following his hands tells the computer to have the synthesizer play more slowly. The synthesizer can re act as quickly as a musician and plays in nearly perfect sync with a vio linist and flutist.

In the world e nvisioned by the Media Lab many musicians and composers will use computers to play and write music more creatively. Marvin Minsky, the artificial intelligence guru, who is a lso a respectable pianist, wants to study what goes on in the mind when someone writes music o r listens to it ; he believes that understanding how people think about music will ultimate ly lead to sma rter machines. "After all," says Minsky, "the mind is just a hundred big computers with programs." The computer of the future could have helped George Gershwin. for instance. who wrote brilliant melodics but had difficulty o rchestra ting them.

T H E STAGE. Marvi n Dcnicoff. an artificial intelligence ex pe rt and an award-winning playw right , thinks a computer could help a dramatist write plays.

In his visio n , sti ll very much on paper. the p laywright would draft a scene and then set up a stage on his computer screen by

drawing o n a rich database of stock characters, sets a nd costumes. H e would the n instruct his e lectronic actors to speak and move in any way he wished until he was satisfi ed with the scene. H e could also use a computer to show his fini sh ed p lay to potential investors.

The Media Lab is already wo rking o n th e technology that could make D e nicoff's e lectronic actors a reality. P atrick Purcell, a n associate professorof computer graphics, is developing a suit that e mits infrared signals to be read by four light sensors connected to a computer- which the n generates a stick figure o n its scree n that co pie's every movement. With the he lp of computer g raphics, the stick figure cou ld be dressed up to look like anyone fro m William Shakespeare to Elizabeth T aylor.

NHK. the Japanese counterpart of the British B roadcasting Corporation, is alread y using this technology a nd h as created a computer-animated host for a new show o n the 2 Lst century.

H o w soon any of the other Media Lab projects will become commercial realities is anyo ne's guess. though Alan Kay of Apple Compute r , whose research he lped lead to the microcomputer. observes that getting a product fro m the lab to the market at a price under $10,000 usually takes ten yea rs or so. But he thinks it auspicious th.at dozens of America·s largest corporations have done some thing they rarely d o: pool their resources for long-range research to reap collective advantages tomorrow .

Typically, Ka y argues, America n corporations miss big o pportunities to develop and perfect new technologies because they insist on tackling the projects singlehandedly. As he puts it, "They tend to be aggressive and act like members of a hunter-gatherer socie ty. stripping the land and killing off a ny strangers." J apanese corporations, by contrast, can be likened to members of an agricultural socie ty who cultivate their o wn garde ns during the week and then help a neighbor raise his barn on the weekend. ''That's the way big idea!> arc born and big b reakthroughs happen." say!> Kay. The Media Lab, with its "friendly rivalry and o pe nness where everyone wins," he says, "is l)lOrc like the Japanese model- a nd should greatly help the Uni ted States compete with Ja pan in one of th.c most imp0Ha11t maPke ts of the future."

D Abo ut the Author: Brian D11111ai11e i1· a11 associate editor with Fortune.

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American Art at the Triennale

by SHANTA SERBJEET SINGH

Throughout the past century. art historians have debated some basic questions. Why does art change? How are new styles generated? What factors have the greatest influence on artistic development. internal or external? When art historians Ernst Gombrich and Arnold I lauser direct attention to the social conditions under which styles change, when they attribute the choice of formal possibilities that are open to an artist to the specific convention imposed by his time , the question immediately arises: Where have these conventions come from?

Can we pass beyond the mere observation of certain sequences of art history and actually state why one particular phase should follow another and not the other way round?

Such questions were raised by a small exhibition of 52 original works on paper by 42 American artists at the recent Sixth Triennale, organized by the Lalil Kala Akademi in New Delhi last February-March. Represented were abstractionism, pattern , meticulous detail, fantastic imagery, neoexpressionism , even photorealism.

Each artist in his own way in the American section. put together by the Smithsonian Institution and selected by Ned Rifkin, curator of Contemporary Art at the Corcoran Gallery, Washington , D .C.. carries forward the silent revolution brought about by the Cubists. Like the Cubists, each one realizes intuitively that an object is never seen from one perspective only but that there are many spatial frames and relative points of view that can be applied to it-all of which are equally valid. Once "binocular vision," as Suzi Gablick calls it, is discounted , there are no more fixed points or isolated moments of perception. These young artists seem to be trying to relate the within to the without , formal qualities of color to composition, and, above all, to emotion-a new e ntrant in their perception rf pictorial rea lity.

There is raw emotion in the two works of Patricia Fennell , of Madison , Wisconsin. Jn Achieving Distance Without Color (acrylic, 1984), the play of black against white, the figures bolting off the flat surface, the black cross-hatches underlining alienation and isolation point to a dialectical moment of awareness of the self. In Pale Dry (mixed media , 1983) the man and woman , placed side by side, are yet far apart, each having moved far from the shadow of the other. It is as if feeling, which does not reveal itself easily but lies hidden behind a sealed exterior, is trying to raise its head.

John Wax of Washington , D.C., offers emotion of another kind. Egypticon I (page 31) is a pink gray and blue corrugation of paper, its sand dune-like ups and downs stress the passing, the ephemeral. At the same time, the elements have been so ordered according to a predetermined structure that the imagery evokes a timelessness, as if referring the viewer to an ancient manual.

Pennsylvania artist, Rob Evans, places Three Green Peppers on a shiny dining table foreground, then seduces the eye into wandering into the interior, savoring its cool, sun-filled ambience, then wande ring out the open door into the green hint of a garden.

Kathy Yancey, who lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia, deposits into her painting, The Tomatoes For This Dish Musi Be Without Blemish (page 28) , much more than formal representa-

tion of a typical American kitchen, sanitized surfaces, window firmly closed, everything spick-and-span. She uses the flattened interior to focus on the people who inhabit it. people who give themselves away, their anxieties and inner claustrophobia. by the most innocent of statements.

Mary Holland , from Richmond, Virginia, is obviously a very skilled printmaker and painter. Cornered (oilstick, 1984) palpably bristles with menacing overtones, pushing the three black figures. outlined in white, on a street corner in poses of confrontation. Joan Ryan , who received her Master of Fine Arts degree from Boston University, stimutates and at the same time seems to reject the isolationism implicit in her Empty Days on the Beach (acrylic, 1984).

Emotion, this time joyful, life-assertive, is evident in the two watercolors of Phillip S. Brazeau , Jr. , who works with children, specially juvenile delinquents in Seattle, Wash.ington .

Foggy. Isn't It? (page 30) and I lost My Dog are both 1984 works, both anything but foggy, either in the choice of colors-sunny, vibrant-or innate philosophy, that of acceptance of the world as it is and then trying to change it from within.

Hoser (page 30) by Robin Davis, from New York, reinforces the modern notion that the art object, in this case the commonplace hosepipe, is only an incidental, a byproduct of whatever is designed to happen in a work of art. With art itself-and not the world-having become the focus of the artist's investigation, artists like Davis are mentally far and apart from their compatriots of earlier generations, all those titans who struggled to create vainglorious "art objects" with a touch of finality.

On the other hand, Davis and others in this show seem to subscribe to Peckham's view: "The new role of the artist demands that he construct perpetual fields that offer a disorienting experience to the perceiver."

Jury Ned Rifkin seems to have had much the same ai m. ln his accompanying note, he rejects the viewpoint of that last classic painter of the Medite rranean , Henri Matisse, when he opined (Notes of a Painter, 1908): " What I dream of is an art of balance , of purity, of serenity, devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter ... like an appeasing influence ... soothing like a good armchair in which to rest from physical fatigue." Rifkin throws out the "armchair" purpose of art lock. stock and barrel.

He has chosen works, he writes, in which the search is for "art that challenges, asks questions for which there are no ready answers ... "; art which the viewer completes.

It is art, of course, but also a game; a game that two can play, the one who makes art happen and the one who looks at it. It is a game of aesthetic signs, sieved through the artist's unconscious and then reassembled as in a puzzle where the manifold, split forms are rearranged in a game for the mind of the viewer.

About the Author: Shanta Serbjeet Singh is a columnist for The Times of India, an art critic for Economic Times and a ballet critic for The Hindustan Times. She has published two books, Nanak the Guru and America and You.

SPAN MAY 1986

29

3

1. Robin Davis

Hoser, 1983, acrylic.

2

American Art at the Triennale

2. Phillip Brazeau Foggy, Isn't It?, 1984, watercolor.

3. Ed Dolinger Monza, 1984, mixed media.

JO

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"And, in conclusio11, my cliem is prepared to make it worth your while ifyou acquit him of tltese bribery charges." ©

1985. Reprinted cour1csy Bill I locM and famde magaLmc.

"King me!"

Drawong by Jack Ziegler,

©

1985 The New Yorker Magazine. Inc.

© 1985 Universal Press SyndiC818

" The good news is that we've designed tt computer no bigger titan a doughnut . .. tlte bt1d 11ews is that Hu11gerford dunked it in his coffee."

Rc prin1cd w11h pcrnmsion lrorn The SalUrday Evening Posi Sociely. u d1v1sion of BFL nnd MS.. Inc. © 1985.

Canoon by Gary Larson

,

t:\ ..

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I . . . .eo

by MINA KRISHNAN

Lare last year, the American Film Institute held a Television and Video Festival infour Indian cities in cooperation with Doordarshan and the Jndo-U.S. Subcommission on Education and Culture. The festival provided insights into how, through various innovative approaches and formats, the twin technologies of television and video have become revolutionizing aid'\ to education, scientific research and the arts in the United States.

The wry visible ~1gns of the TV and video age arc all around In<.lia . Doordarshan no'W CO\'ers 70 percent of the .:ountry'c; l<ind area. TV set sales are up and antcnnal. and video libraries are sprouting all over. In lhl: last three years Door<.larshan has gone from a chain of nine stations lo a national network of 184 stations. And programming ha~ undergone a complete revolution with the introduction of sponsored programs.

Video parlors. video ousc s and cwn video boats are giving this medium a mass reach. And every exposure that Indians havt abroad further reinforces the allpervasive influence and uses ot TV and \ideo Deha1c has al\\ays raged fiercely

about the purpose of programming. For a long time "commercial television," which smacked purely of entertainment. was anathema since TV was supposed to be the medium of development. And yet, expcnence with Doordarshan and the experimental SITE effort. indicated that unless programming was able to stimulate and involve the viewer, there was no possibility of communicating development messages. kt alone stimulating beha'vior change The dilemma was summed up :;uccinct1~ hy the Joshi Committee. a Governmen1 of India Working Group on software for Doordarshan, ¡'fhe challenge of today is to put into effect the idea of a problem-oriented, development-orient ed and entertainment-cum-e nrichment ori cnted Doordarshan. su1kd to the needs of a developing country hke India.

The American TV and Vidro Festwal in India, held late last year in Bombay, Calcutta. Madras and New Delhi. provided a rare opportunity for f ridians to gain an insight into a wide range of work. approaches and formats being created in the United State'). Spread over three days a1 each city, it offered a view of Am~rican TV and video that goes well beyond thL popular high-rating serials. gam1.. shows, sitcoms. talk shows and news. And. it opened up larger possibilities for cultural exchanges and dialogue.

The festival's faculty was headed by Edward Landler. project director, and included Ruth Christiansen Sproat, director of Higher Education, South Carolina Educational TV network, and Tom Angell. president of Video Interface. The festival owed its existence to the efforts of James I lindman, associate director of the American Film Institute. for whom this was the culmination of two years' work.

The fest1val covered three broad categories: the Expansion of Knowledge; the Advancement of Culture; and the Spread of Information.

Each day. one subject was covered. and its subsegments explored, primarily through show ¡and-tell video excerpts and commentar) Imm the faculty members.

The Expansion of Knowledge Telev1s1on is the electronic babysitter in the United States. Children spend an avarage of 27 hours a week watching TV. By the time an American stutlen1 finishes school. he has watched over 11 .000 hours of TV-more time than he will ever spend in the. da-.sroom TV bas the potential to be hoth an electronic school and library for children.

Young people learn from everything they are exposed to. and believe what they see. Addrc~sing the special needs of young people is important, and cannot be handled hy treating them like miniature

SPAN MAY 191!6

33

VIDEO VERSATILITY colllinued

34

adults. The tone of voice used is crucial.

The tapes presented at the festival covered both the pioneering efforts by the U.S. Public Broadcasting System (PBS). and special programming developed by the commercial networks for children. The work was notable for the wide range of treatments that have been found effective.

One obvious choice, of course, was Sesame Street. It 1s the most visible and successful experiment on TV. Through songs, skits, puppets and animation, it transformed the entire concept of audiovisual learning, It has proved a global success, reaching youngsters in 90 countries.

Another was Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. Hosted by Fred Rogers, a Presbyterian minister, this popular TV show helps preschoolers learn about values, deal with their emotions and understand the world about them.

Reading Rainbow, which was also screened at the festival, uses animation. music, superb production values and a magazine-style format to bring alive books and the magic of reading to children between ages 6 and 9. Books are

that help keep school-age children informed on national and international events. Livewire, a variety talk show for teenagers, appears weekly on Nickelodeon. a cable channel for children.

What followed the showings were panel discussions, which were, in many ways, more interesting and illuminating.

Among the topics were: Should adults be featured on children's programming or should it only be children? How much fantasy is right, and at what pomt should realism and reality prevail in such programming? And, how can a balance between entertainment and education be Ruth Christiansen Sproat, director of Higher struck?

Tele-education or telecourses have Education, South Carolina Educational been beamed in the United States since Television network, was one of three American video the early 1950s. The early programs experts who accompanied the concluded festival the city, each At festival. merely telecast the teacher at a blackwith a symposium attended by the board, or used the simplest of visual aids. Indian invitees and the U.S. festival faculty.

Today, televized learning for the distant learner has come to use all the capabilities of the medium to bring a subject research in the northwest Atlantic. The alive. And, at its best, such programming next 15-minute episode is on the scientific represents a creative collaboration be- and mathematical concepts encountered tween the educational faculty and pro- on the expedition. This two-step approach serves the purpose of first creatduction teams.

Interestingly, the union of education ing a lot of human interest and involve-

dramatized, or reviewed, and research

and

has shown a 20 percent increase in the check-out of books among children exposed to the program.

For those Indian participants making children TV films to show science at work in everyday life was 3-2-1 Contact, which is a daily adventure in science and technology for young people from 8 to 12.

Presentations vary from a simple, lowcost demonstration of how a lens works, to the more dramatic story of how a "bird-detective" identifies a bird from a small feather segment.

Then there was the Faerie Tale Theater. The brainchild of American actress/producer Shelly Duvall , the show uses the talents of famous Hollywood personalities to transform favorite fairy tales into live action fantasy pieces for children of all ages.

Interestingly, the commercial networks' children's programs were almost scaled-down versions of their adult programming-with the same dramatic o r entertainment value. The ABC "Afterschool Specials" present a series of hour-long dramas dealing with themes relevant to adolescents and their families.

The CBS program "In the News" comprises two-and-a-half-minute segments

brought print technology to the fore.

Today's telecourses are accompanied by sophisticated ancillary materials which include student study guides, an anthology of selected readings and a faculty/ administrator's manual. The majority of educational TV courses fa ll into two categories: those produced specifically for instructional purposes and those that are derived from TV series referred to as "wrapped" telecourses. When a series is "wrapped," it usually means that the related print materials have been created to enhance its educational value. The earliest "wrapped" college course was The Ascent of Marz. A recent example of an Indian experiment is the series Cosmos by Carl Sagan where some accompanying material was mailed to schools by the sponsor.

Telecourses represent an area of programming where production budgets need not be high, but imagination and innovation can help dramatize a subject.

The memorable excerpts shown in the festival included The Voyage of the Mimi, a series consisting of two parts. The first is a 15-minute episode of a continuing dramatic story, dealing with the adventures of a group of young people doing

SPAN MAY 1986

electronic communications

has

ment, and then introducing the learning.

If TV had been around in the 14th century. how would the 9 o'clock news have reported the events of those times was the theme of the Newcast From the Past. It allows the viewer to see history in a manner that h.e is unlikely to forget, and to understand history not just as dates from the past, but as events that shaped the lives of people then and now.

The show is also a parody of the intrusiveness of modern TV journalism, and the 14th-century commercials are a wonderful spoof of advertising today.

English as a Second Language attempts to provide the Hispanic student in America with the basic skills in learning English. The series is like an adult-level Sesame Street, where visuals and sound illustrate t~e written language. The series is also noteworthy for its use of humor in depicting the awkwardness and difficulty in learning a new language.

The festival presented three facets of TV and video in science and medicinefor broadcast science journalism, as a research tool and as a training aid in performing medical procedures.

Broadcast Science Journalism covers programs which bring the world of science to a general audience. Offered

largely by the PBS, the programs vary in subject coverage and format, and are all characterized by their attempt both to demystify science, and to create popular interest and excitement around it.

Nova: Excerpts from hour-long programs were presented. The first , "Acid Rain," was a straight news-type presentation, with an activist message. An excerpt from a program Miracle of Life was outstanding for its presentation of the development of a foetus inside the womb.

Discover: The World of Science: Two sections from the magazine-format hourlong program were presented. "Heart DefibrilJator" was made with all the dramatic impact of a suspense thriller, as it described how a new device could be implanted into a man's diseased heart, to literally "shock" it into starting, should it ever stop. The "MIT Design Contest" covered the annual game that MIT engineering students compete in, where their theoretical engineering knowledge is tested as they create a new contraption that will work. The segment captures the tension and competitive spirit of the game, and makes the point that from now these students have to start designing for the real world .

Video has emerged as a research tool both through the use of existing technology in creative, new applications and also by the virtual transformation of video technology to solve new problems. Originally, video was used in research primarily for documentation. Today medical science has benefited tremendously from techniques that magnify or visualize the body internally , often replacing major surgery with less traumatic procedures.

Video has allowed us access to environments that cannot be observed easily: outer space, inside nuclear reactors, under the sea.

In astronomy and microbiology, video technology has been transformed by using silicon chips to store visual information digitalJy. Images which are very faint because of low available light can be enhanced. What could not be seen, can now be studied, and the benefits of this are showing up in scientific breakthroughs.

An example of this was provided by A Quick Look With Jack Devine, which takes viewers on an eerie and chilling trip into the reactor core of the crippled nuclear plant at Three Mile Island. A small pipe-shaped video camera made the

exploration, and the footage it captured made a clean-up operation possible.

Many clinics and hospitals in the United States now have permanent video facilities to record operations and procedures for further study and training. They produce video tapes to introduce patients to the hospital and to acquaint them with their treatment. A telecommunications satellite network als.P now exists, to broadcast medical education programming to subscriber hospitals across the country.

The Advancement of Culture The theme of the presentations on the second day of the festival was the impact TV and video have had on the arts of the United States and how the two have brought the excitement of the performing arts into the home.

The Public Broadcasting Service bas played a major role in bringing the best of the traditional performing arts-drama, opera, concert and dance series-to millions of TV viewers. What was once the preserve of the elite is now available to any viewer who chooses to watch. This transformation of high culture into popular culture, by creating wider access for the best-quality pedormances, is an important role for TV to play.

Flowing through from the earlier section was a fascinating look at the emergence of video as an art form in its own right. Video offers so much potential-the possibilities of image making, image recording and image manipulation are endless.

In Making Television Dance, Twyla Tharp demonstrates the fusion of dance and video to create a new art form. The dance movements have been conceived and choreographed for the small screen.

The technology does not intrude into the performance, instead the performance is transformed through adaptation. Tharp's video demonstrated to Indian artists exciting and intimate ways in which to present their work on TV. A master of video art is Nam June Paik, who began working in the 1960s by inventing a machine that would create the first purely synthetic image on TV. In Lake Placid 80, produced for the 1980 Winter Olympics, he created a rapidfire series of computer-generated images set to fast driving music-a precursor of the music videos which followed a few years later.

A feature of video art in America is that all the creations tend to be intense personal statements by the artist. They are not salable commercially to the networks, and often are screened at video exhibitions or in museums. As always, it is public television which provides a forum for such work in a program calJed A)ive from Off Center.

This combination of music, television and film has created a new video form , and given new life to the sagging music industry.

A few films in the 1960s pointed the direction toward the evolution of the music video, notably Ute Beatles' films A Hard Day's Night and Help, and the Monkees' film Head. It was in the 1980s that music video clips became promotional tools for the music industry, and suddenly there was MTV-an entire channel devoted to music vid~o programming. Film/ video hybrids like "Flashdance" reinforced the nexus between film, music and video. And much of the experimentation between computers and video found expression in this new form.

The selections presented at the festival featured music video work by directors who have established themselves in film.

Brian de Palma's video of Bruce Springsteen is a mesmerizing vision of the Boss and his female fans Dancin' in the Dark, Bob Rafaelson creates a modern-day musical with Lionel Ritchie's All Night Long, Ron Howard uses computer graphics to full effect in Michael Sembello's rendition of Gravity. It is incredible to think that the average cost of these videos is between $100,000 and $200,000 and some cost up to $1 million.

On TV screens today, many images are seen which have never been shot by a camera. Shiny metallic logos, graphics that swirl and change shape- most of which are machine-generated.

Computer technology offers a new method of creating animation-the art of moving an image in time. Since computers allow repeated processing and evaluation of real and imagined images, this enables the creation of visuals with almost unlimited choices and combinations. Computer animation is produced either from source material which is restructured into a new visual form, or the images are created entirely from the imagination by mathematical rendering.

The animation can be made with the smallest microcomputer, or on dedicated

SPAN MAY 1986

35

VIDEO VERSATILITY continued

main-frame computer systems. The a'rtist's skill to creatively manipulate the computer program, to express the ideas he wants to communicate arc the two most important elements needed to create a wprk of art.

The uses of computer graphics have gone way beyond entertai nment and advertising. From the microworld of medicine to the simulation of space flight patterns, the computer graphics industry has made a great impact by its ability to create images that have physically not existed in real life.

The influence of computer graphics was provided most succinctly by Composite News: Second Edition In this humorous piece digitized pictures combine to create composite portraits-for example, the combination of Ronald Reagan and Yuri Andropov's faces.

These "new" images are social commentaries on various themes.

On average, Americans see 156 TV advertising spots a day. or 1,092 spots a week! And the number will keep growing as the duration of commercials which feU from 60 to 30 seconds. now seems to be getting standardized at 15 seconds! TV spots have to maximize their impact m the short time they are exposed, because often they are seen as intrusions into the programming by their audiC'nces. With the rise of remote control TV, the biggest problem that commercials face i~ of being "zapped" by the viewer switching channels as soon as a commercial breaks m TV commercials are a spec1 a liz~d art form. fhe economy and speed with which the·) have to communicate, the devices available to them, and the enormous production costs (a 30-second commercial can cost between $100,000 and $250,000) and the massive budgets that support their telecast, make them a umque feature in the Amencan telev1s1on and video industry.

36

SPAN MAY 1'186

A 30-minute excerpt of a documentary featuring four leading TV commercial directors was screened at the festival.

What came through was the close collaborative effort between the marketing, creative and production teams to create messages that stimulate buying behavior in consumers.

The Spread of Information The third day of the festival was presented as the Spread of Information.

Most of the focus was on the symposium which concluded the festival, but the two segments on corporate video and documentary video were of interest.

As corporations get larger, so do their needs to communicate, both internally and externally. And, the incomparable ability of video to "get the word out" has made it a perfect business partner to the corporate world .

American organizations now regularly release video "news magazines," video "benefits brochures" and video "annual reports." Video conferencing has made instant interactive communication possible, within the country and multinationally. The use of video in training has been taken to a very advanced stage. and there are specialized production houses that can produce programs with all the gloss and slickness of the networks.

Corporate video is a good example of a parallel narrowcastang n.etwork that has sprung up, with tapes being dis·· tributed for private viewing among employees or specific audience groups, or feeding the program through a companyleased satellite to corporate offices in various c1tte~ The examples shown at the festival included a training tape to fam1hanze company staff with their new phone system; corporate video news magazines; a tape on a bank's plan to relocate its employees; and a public service announcement on the hazards of drunken driving.

Portable video provided the opportunity to create inexpensive and innovative alternatives to broadcast television The video pioneers of guerrilla telev1s1on offered a more direct, informal and involved view of controversial issues and events, by allowing the viewer to get close to ordinary people. Some independent producers in America have been able to get their work viewed over the networks, while for most it is public

television that has provided the avenue for exposure.

It is not only professionals who create such programming. Community-based programming that focuses solely on local people and issues has been cablecast.

Public access programs, made as it were by the people and for the people, have also made the point that good alternative TV is possible at low cost. It is not big budgets, but good ideas and communication that can make TV memorable and thought-provoking.

The work featured in this section included Paper Tiger Television, which presents critiques of the print media by leading media analysts.

The festival concluded with a symposium at each center attended by the faculty members and special invitees from India. Among the key issues pertinent to the use of TY and video in India discussed at the symposium were: • It is easy to getdaaled by technology, but this will not improve the quality of programming. It is vital to create work that captures the interest of audiences.

• If ideas exist to utilize the technology being developed in the West. then the technology will find a way of getting here.

• TV in India has a social responsibility. which increases as it becomes more of a mass medium. But this cannot be fulfilled if the viewer response is ignored , and attention is only focused on the social relevance of inputs. TV and video must mvolve the viewer and engage his attention before socially important messages can be transmitted and accepted.

• Commercial sponsorship can provide impetus for good programming through fundmg. and this should be encouraged.

However. concern was expressed that the content and quality of programs would then be determined by commercial sponsors, who might not be tl~e best arbiters of what 1s good TV The TV and Video Festival has made a great beginning by providing such a wide ranging exposure to work bemg done in the United States. As Ed Landler, pro_ject duector. said. "If this has been found useful. then we can perhaps work on providmg more focused exposure to a 0 specific area at a later stage."

About the Author: Mina Knslmtm. a freelance jo11rnalisr, is a bus111esswoma11 cleating m educational reference material, with ~pecial intert'sf in wdeo comm1111ica1io11.1· .

The Community Spirit

by NICK THlMMESCH

In the west wing of the White House in Washington, D.C., is a plaque studded with many fountain pens, and engraved underneath are the words: "With these 50 pens, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the foundation of the Great Society passed by the historic and fabulous First Session of the 89th Congress (1965-66)." One pen is lettered "Poverty," another "Juvenile Delinquency," a third, "Education."

The plaque illustrates President Johnson's great confidence that he had begun a monumental government effort to eradicate America's problems, but il even more appropriately symbolizes an America which headily assumed that the federal govemmenl alone could right many of the nation's wrongs.

Though the public's expectations of government have narrowed, Americans, as they have for generations, still strive to leave their communities and country a bit better off than when they found them. Historically, Americans have alternately turned to government, to business, and to private organizations and individuals in this idealistic quest.

U.S. citizens have always had a great measure of freedom to combine work and talent to attain any life or fortune they want. In return, they have shown a consistent gratitude by contributing time and money to their communities and to people who haven't quite made it.

Nowadays, it is this latter impulse-in the private sectorwbich is seen _as the more effective way to treat social problems.

There is great thumping on this score. For example, pollster George Gallup reported 92 million Americans ··working in some way to help others for no monetary pay" in 1983. The United Way's 2,200 local agencies recently recorded their best fu nd-raising campaign in 27 years, collecting $9,500 million , almost a 10 percent increase over 1982.

T he new focus on private-sector initiatives should not lead anyone to think that federal programs are being abandoned wholesale. Indeed , recent data indicate that $1.5 million million is spent annually by local, state and federal governments for the disadvantaged and poor, while all voluntary o rganizations raised some $150,000 million in annual income-a ten-to-one ratio. There is no way that the private (profit and nonprofit) © 19$4

by E.I. Du Pon1 de Ncmoun and Company

sector will ever come close to performing the social services that government does. What is happening, however, is a wholesome, productive rediscovery of the American impulse to help out and to seize initiative at the community level.

When President Johnson's "Great Society" programs arrived, a big, strong, impersonal centralized government seemed relentless. Yet ironically, those programs also accentuated the urge for decentralization and diminishmenr of federal authority. "Power to the people" was a defiant shout to Washington.

Unhappiness with federal regulations and demands by activist~ of the Left and Right for "local" or "community" control, including local councils and " little" city halls denoted a distinct shift in public sentiment.

This building opposition to the notion that the federal government should be the pre-eminent problem-solver culminated with the election of Ronald Reagan who had called for "an end of giantism ... a return to human scale ... of the local fraternal lodge, the church organization, the block club, the farm bureau.''

Not surprisingly, shortly after taking !office, President Reagan established an Office of Private Sector I nitiatives, boosting it with speeches and the White House·s own adoption of a public school in a low-income Washington, D.C., neighborhood which he visited several times himself.

James K. Coyne, a former Pennsylvania Congressman, who heads the office, describes it as "woven in with the President's economic pol icy."

Today we are seeing great increases in voluntarism, corporate responsibility and public-private partnerships. Coyne remarks, "Twenty years ago American businesses thought their only business was business. This has completely turned around.

I see highly paid businessmen who work 50 p ercent o f the time running nonprofit activities and get real satisfaction . We see trade associations stressing voluntarism , and no longer Several individuals, citizen groups and business houses have started or supported community ventures. Above, John F. Ward, Jr. (left) and Ronald L. Bayton (right) run with members of a summer sports youth group they have formed in Hampton, Virginia.

SPAN MA Y 1986

37

THE COMMUNITY SPIRIT continued

..

promoting just their narrow business interest."

As many as 10,000 of the 35,000 schools in the nationwide Adopt-a-School program were adopted by businesses. They act as tutors, provide money and books, and take youngsters on field trips. "You can cut through red tape fast through voluntarism," Coyne emphasizes. "When the President spoke on National Missing Children's Day, be challenged the private sector. Trailways Bus Company came forward in three weeks with a proposal to provide a free ride for any missing child so identified. That deal would have taken the government two years to set up.

"Obviously, this office can't do everything. We don't want Above: Each spring, to do away with government; we want to make it work better with volunteers repair and for people. We want to be a catalyst for the use of all homes for the available resources, including the army of 92 million volunteers. elderly, poor and We want to stimulate and coordinate partnerships, the active handicapped in involvement of the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors, and the Midland, Texas. participation of citizens at the local level, for only they know Right: Henry Chiu, an executive in a San their community's needs."

Public opinion surveys reported an increase in voluntarism Francisco company, and showed that 85 percent of those surveyed felt that even if teaches English there is enough money to pay for social services, "it is still to children of recent Asian immigrants. important to community life that a lot of useful work be done by Far right: A volunteer volunteers." works with handiAn American Enterprise Institute poll of black Americans capped children at a turned up a renewed emphasis on self-help. It showed that 82 school in Florida. percent of black people were confident they could direct their own lives, 95 percent felt blacks should initiate actions to upgrade their neighborhoods, and 70 percent said they would acceptable," explains Wilson, "and they enforced it."

In many cities today there are individuals who on their own, work in such self-help projects.

Robert L. Woodson, who commissioned the poll and is and using their own money, brighten up neighborhoods by currently president of the National Center for Neighborhood planting trees, building miniparks, and repairing and painting Enterprise, has for years been highly critical of bureaucratic the homes of the elderly. Hundreds of companies like Levi attempts to "administer" to low-income neighborhoods and has Strauss & Co., Honeywell Inc., and Tenneco Inc., have orgaoften expressed the view that blacks must become empowered nized community affairs departments to train employees on how to solve their own problems. to be volunteers and help to facilitate their involvement.

Woodson , once a youth in a tough urban neighborhood who In the state of Kansas, hotel and motel owners developed a earned a master's degree and became a National Urban League program to provide free emergency housing for people forced official, says: "We've got to change the tax laws so indigenous to leave their homes because of domestic violence, evictions or businesses can start in poor neighborhoods. We should stop natural disasters such as floods . In New Franklin, Missouri, government subsidization of benefits and services to the poor. retired citizens who compose much of the town's 1,100 people Let's give 'service vouchers' so they can shop for the social, built their own center on the strength of quilt sales, bake sales health and welfare programs best serving their needs. We and bazaars. In San Mateo, California, businessmen set up a should provide 'education voucher~,' too, so we can increase job search program for people on public assistance-70 perthe number- now at 350- of independent black schools cent of those who used the services found jobs and left the welfare rolls. started by low-income families."

The work and programs initiated at the grass roots, in Woodson , a political independent who is often critical of the Reagan Administration policies, is welcomed as an adviser to neighborhoods, by concerned citizens, by the poor and many the White House. It was Woodson who championed the House others, are an enormous resource not yet fully tapped. of Umoja (unity) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a self-help Voluntarism and community service in whatever form are in group which has earned a national reputation for its success in the mainstream of American tradition. They are much deterring youth gang violence. needed-and will continue to be needed even more- as the Another indigenous effort with growing success is tenant American society becomes increasingly complicated and as ownership of public housing projects. Cicero Wilson of the technology causes more people to feel alienated and alone.

American Enterprise Institute did a case study of Kenilworth , a Such community and voluntary spirit makes its practitioners resident-run project in Washington , D.C. It indicated that after more human through self-giving and provides its recipients not one year, welfare dependency was reduced from 85 percent to only with tangible benefits, but also with a sense of dignity and 35 percent; teenage pregnancy decreased 50 percent; rent participation.

D collections increased by 60 percent; and crime dropped by 70 percent. "The tenants set a community standard for what was About the Author: The late Nick Thimmesch was a syndicated columnist.

38

SPAN MAY 1986

FOCUS •••

India-Image and Reality Last March, five American teenage students and their five teachers had a rare experience of comparing the India of their imaginations with the real India.

During their three-week tour here, they stayed with Indian families, ate Indian food, toured a number of cities, saw the Taj Mahal and visited the Jim Corbett National Park in Uttar Pradesh.

The all-expense-paid tour was the prize they won in an art competition, "Portraits of India 1986, " sponsored by the Asia Society in New York earlier this year, in cooperation with the Festival of India in the United States, PanAm Airways and Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, New Delhi. The competition, which was -open to secondary schools in five American cities, required the students to paint images of India that they thought would best symbolize that country, and the teachers to outline a curriculum on India for teaching in American high schools.

Their prize: A free three-week tour of the country.

The unique annual program, part of the Asia Society's continuing effort to enhance American understanding and appreciation of Indian culture at the highschool level, is designed to allow winners to compare their images with reality. "We want the winners to experience firsthand the fabric of Indian society at the grassroots level," says Timothy Plummer,

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SPAN MA\" l'llll>

director of the Asia Society's Education and Communications Department.

"The program seeks to use the arts to learn about another culture- especially India, where the arts are embedded in everyday life," adds program coordinator Eva Saleh . "India is a country where you can tie art and culture together and learn something about the society."

One of the winning entries was a painting of baskets, each of which held a mystery of India for the artist, a highschool student in St. Louis, Missouri.

Talking about his artistic creation, an excited Joseph Mangrum said, "I had heard about India and read a little bit an,d some things were clear, others were not. So I thought of painting baskets, each holding a mystery of India for me as I imagined. I made some of these baskets open, revealing Indian facets that I knew about.

Others I kept closed-the things that I didn't know about, the things that I would like to discover for myself if I won the competition."

Did he and the others succeed in that discovery? "Oh, I am absolutely excited being here," answered Mangrum. "The trip has widened my view of India and its people ." Summing up her impressions.

Emma Dryden, 16, said, "I had never met an Indian before, and this trip has given me an opportunity to talk with them,· to see for myself how they dress, what they

eat and how they live. We lived with them and ate their food. They are a very charming people, very hospitable and their family bonds are very strong ."

Emma, who is an 11th-grade student at the Bell High School in Bell, California, continued, " Ever since I was small I was interested in India. I don't know why but I read a lot of books about it and always felt a desire to visit it. Now my dream has come true. I hope to come back after a few years and spend much more time here."

Similar sentiments were echoed by everyone. Said Richard Berge, "I had read and heard a lot about the richness of Indian designs and motifs. But what I have seen in this short tlme is infinitely more colorful than I had imagined. The diversity and variety of Indian designs are indeed awe-inspiring. They are simply gorgeous, absolutely out of this world."

Berge is an art teacher at the Madison East High School in Madison, Wisconsin.

He won the trip for the curriculum he drew for teaching Indian designs and patterns in American schools.

Mehather Lang, 16, an 11th-grade student at the L.E. Rabouin Vocational High School in New Orleans, Louisiana, said he had not pictured India as "being industrialized like it is. Moreover, I had thought I would have difficulty in talking with the people, but it came as a big surprise when I found them speaking English. In fact, I felt very uneasy because I didn't know their language." What impressed Carl Yochum, an art history teacher at McCluer North Senior High School in Florissant, Missouri, was "this country's arts and crafts. In this age when everything is being mass produced on an assembly line, it was so refreshing to see artisans creating fabulous designs with their handblock printing at the Crafts Museum in New Delhi."

Gale Shafer, also an art teacher, at Bell High, said, "The trip destroyed a lot of myths and misconceptions. Moreover, coming from a country which is only 200-300 years old, it was a thrilling experience to walk across Akbar's Fatehpur Sikri or see the Taj in its full splendor. I wish I could describe the excitement I felt walking through these historic monuments. How I wish we had monuments of the same kind in our country!"

Sridhar Mani's Proud Moment In the wake of five Indian scientists recently making it to the Science Digest list of 100 top 1985 innovators in the United States (SPAN April 1986), comes news of another young Indian who has been named one of 20 outstanding college students in America

by Time magazine.

He is Sridhar Mani, a thirdyear medical student at the City College of New York Medical School, specializing in tropical diseases. The winners, selected from a group of 100 finalists from across the nation after ¡a six-month talent search, will receive a $3,000 scholarship each. Time also paid them a handsome tribute when it published a special campus edition last month featuring their achievements, which go far beyond their academic accomplishments.

Awards are not new to Mani. Just before the Time honor, Mani got a Rockefeller University undergraduate re-

Plentiful Potatoes Plant breeders have found potatoes to be a difficult breed.

Unlike many other crops, they have defied efforts to develop hardier strains of the world's fourth largest food crop.

However, good news comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture labs in Madison, Wisconsin. Single cells from potato plants that are difficult to cross are being fus~d to overcome major barriers to breeding better potatoes. "Cell fusion is a new recourse for solving potato-breeding problems caused by infertility, cross incompatibility, or different numbers of chromosomes," says John Helgeson, a plant physiologist at Madison.

Cross incompatibility occurs when the parts of a potato flower "somehow recognize that pollen landing upon them is foreign and reject it." This problem often shows up in potatoes native to many countries, especially wild species with important traits such as pest-resistance. For example, many of the

search fellowship to work this summer under the guidance of Cornell University's Dr. George Cross, an international authority on tropical diseases. Mani has also received a fellowship from the U.S. National Institutes of Health to do research in malaria.

After graduating from Doon School in Dehradun, Mani joined Atlantic College in Wales (U.K.) where he was awarded an international baccalaureate in sciences. Later, Mani chose a seven-year accelerated medical program at the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education at the City College.

Asked about how he became interested in tropical diseases and not in the presently more popular fields of medicine like cardiology, surgery or cancer, Mani said, "My curiosity was sparked by my professors who were themselves parasitologists interested in the transmission of vector-born diseases, those transmitted by insects."

Another reason for his choosing tropical medicine was the fact that "malaria is one of the worst scourges in my country, causing much suffering and loss of life and I thought may be I could be of some help."

Mexican, Central American and South American species have 24 chromosomes carrying the genes that transmit inheritance.

By contrast, most U.S. varieties have 48 chromosome.s.

"Overcoming incompatibility or chromosomal mismatches that thwart crossing is necessary if plant breeders are to improve domestic potatoes with foreign genes that transmit such traits as disease-resistance or hybrid vigor," says Helgeson, who recently achieved one of the world's first cell fusions of domestic potatoes. He is now working with the products of five fusions of cells from wild and domestic potatoes.

Potato plants bred by cell fusion, he says, are generally bigger and stronger than either parent, thus exhibiting superior hybrid vigor. Some may be the result of the fusion of four or five cells from complicated parentages.

Helgeson fused cells drawn from one of the world's premier collections of potato germplasm-about 3,500 strains, including 110 wild species-maintained by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Research Service (AAS) in Madison.

These and other breeding technique.s permit making crosses once deemed impossible and enhance and expedite exploitation of the AAS germplasm for such traits as resistance to specific diseases, insects, nematodes and fungi.

So diverse is the germplasm that many potatoes in ARS greenhouses and field plots only remotely resemble commercial varieties. Plant sizes range from tall to squat: leaves differ in shape, size and texture; and flower colors come in red, blue, purple, or a combination of these.

The Wisconsin lab collects and shares germplasm with plant breeders working anywhere to improve the low-cost, nutritious potato's status. One of its overseas projects with far-reaching implications for easing hunger is extending the normal range of potatoes beyond temperate regions to undeveloped lands that are hot and humid.

(John P. Helgeson can be contacted at the Plant Disease Resistance Research Unit, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53705, U.S.A.) SPAN MAY 1986

4J

'This is My Letter to the World'

by K.S. VENKATARAMU

Publishing a volume of poems is said to be like dropping a rose petal down a deep gorge and waiting for the echo. This was the experience of an obscure poet named W .H . Davies, who today needs no introduction. One day Davies sent a volume of bis poems to Bernard Shaw. Shaw read the first few lines of the volume and was at once convinced that what he was reading was real poetry. He bought a few more copies of the book and sent them to well-known poetry buffs and critics, and waited to see if they would recognize a poet when they read his work. He did not have long to wait. Davies was soon acclaimed as a new find by the literary cognoscenti.

In contrast when Emily Dickinson sent four of her poems in 1882 to Thomas Higginson, an American man of letters and "a liberal thinker interested in the status of women in general and women writers in particular." he was convinced of the authenticity of the aesthetic emotion that he experienced on reading them. But be doubted whether what Emily Dickinson had written was poetry. The result was that he asked her to delay publication, and her work remained unpublished during her lifetime, except for seven poems which were included in a 1878 collection called A Masqu e of Poets.

The reason why W.H. Davies, despite bis sybaritic indifference to public acclaim, was able to attain early recognition as a poet during his own time was that he did not deviate from the traditional style of lyrical poetry, and neither critics nor readers had any difficulty in judging his work as real poetry.

On the other hand, Emily Dickinson's poetical diction. her metrical form and rhyme schemes were so unorthodox that her very originality came in the way of her success. Consider, for example, the following Lines of one of the four poems that she submitted to Higginson for his comments: I'll 1ell how 1/ie Sun roseA Ribbon al a timeThe steeples swam in AmethystThe news, like Squirrels ranThe Bobolinks-begunThen I said to myself'' That must have been the Sun."

A modern reader, with any degree of poetic sensibility, is not only sure of the genuineness of the aesthetic impression tbat the lines make on bis mind , but he also has no hesitation in recognizing them as true poetry. Higginson , on the other band ,

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SPAN MAY 1986

was a "mid-19th-century traditionalist" who was set the task of judging the work of, as Thomas H. Johnson, the noted Dickinson scholar, has pointed out, "a wholly new order of craftsman." Little wonder, then, he found it difficult to believe that Emily Dickinson wrote poetry . He could only thank her for her " beautiful thoughts and words."

One cannot, however, accuse Higginson of lack of insight. It is never easy to detect genuine poetry, particularly when it is presented in a form that conforms to the standards of correct writing. G.S. Fraser gives us an exceUent example from the Augustan poet Denham of four lines which became famous not because they had real poetic quality, but because "they are an early successful example of balance and antithesis in the heroic couplet; and because they state very clearly some of what were to become the Augustan standards of correct writing in poetry": 0 could I flow like thee, and make thy stream My great example as it is my theme.

Though deep. yet clear; though gentle. yet not dull; Strong without rage, without o'erffowing full.

Evidently Denham is comparing the ideal beauty of the poem he would like to write with that of the river he is writing about. The reason the lines appear neat and memorable is that , in the words of Fraser, "the terms which have their secondary, or applied, or metaphorical meanings in literary criticism do also apply so neatly ... to a river." That is why "early admirers of them found no puzzle about the meaning, but found the lucid sense admirably adapted to the sound." And very soon there were many poets in the early Augustan period who imitated Denham.

The reason why Emily Dickinson, though she wrote excellent poetry, could not, unlike Denham, immediately become a trend-setter, will be obvious when we consider what she had to say on the same theme of poetic craftsmanship: I shall keep singing!

Birds will pass me On their way to yellow C/imesEach- with Robin's expectation1- with my RedbreastAnd my rhymesLate- wizen I take my place in rnmmerBw-1 shall bring a fuller tune-

Vespers- are sweeter than Matins- SignorMoming- only the seed of Noon.

And again, To pile like Thunder to its close Then crumble grand away While everything created hid This- would- be Poetry-

So far as the beauty of words and the a uthe nticity of the aesthetic images that emerge from these lines a rc concerned. a contemporary c ritic like Higginson could not but feel genuinely moved. But the lines are lacking in apparent neatness, unlike those of De nham. That was why Higginson did not encourage Dickinson to publish he r poe try and she had to languish in obscurity while she lived .

When we study E mily Dickinson's metrical originality a nd the highly cha rged "suggestive ambigui ty and direct tonal quaLity" of her poetry, it would at once be clear that the revolt against tradition in Ame rica began as much with her as with Walt Whitman . T hat is why an anthologist of modern poetry usually starts off with Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman .

One of the verse-forms that Emily Dickinson freque ntly used was of fo ur lines with the syllabic sche me of 6- 6- 8-6.

For example : The Heart has narro w Banks It measures like the Sea 111 mighty- unremitting Bass And Blue Monotony.

'·A good song," wrote H .J.C. Grierson, ·•even if set to no music and read in sile nce , still sings, a nd dances in the reader's brain. " Any poem of Dickinson read at random has much the same effect. Dickinson was so kee n on enhancing and emphasizing the musical effect of he r lines, that she frequently used dashes as a me trical device. That is why her lines seldom jingle monotonously. "lt is not me te rs," said Emerson, "but a meter-making device that makes a poem ." This observation applies with great validity to Dickinson's poe ms. The use of "sprung rhythm" in which one foot may have one or more syllables is a meter-ma king device that few poets have used with greater force than Dickinson .

The unorthodoxy of D1ckinson·s rhymes consists in the use of imperfect rhyme where consonants but not the vowels of the ending words a rc similar. It is not unusual to find in her poems all the lines e nding in irregular rhyme. In a poe m of three stanzas, " hurt" rhymes with "sight," ·' hat" with "forget" and "us" with weariness. " Although irregular rhymes are frequently used by modern poets, it would be difficult to imagine any poet using them in the mid-19th century. In all these aspects of poetic craftsmanshiprhyme , meter, me taphor and image-Dickinson so differed from her traditional contemporaries that she herself harbored no illusions of becoming popular, although success remained one of he r serio us preoccupations.

About the Author: K.S. Venkataramu, who lives in Bangalore. has . contributed articles, poems and book reviews to several publications.

His poems have been included in two i11tematio11al anthologies and appear regularly in the American poetry magflzines Poet and Encore.

Whe n Dickinson first submitted her poe ms to H igginson for comme nts in 1882, she was already 39 years old. She ·had only four more years to live. It was also the peak year of her poetic production. She wrote 366 poe ms in that year. In all she wrote L,775 poems during her short life .

Emily lived with her siste r Lavinia in Amherst in the ho use built by their grandfather. The mother had died in 1852. The two sisters were cared for by a servant. After Emily's death in 1886, when Lavinia we nt through her sister's pe rsonal effects. she found a small box containing 900 poems in 60 sLim volumes tied together with twine. She pe rsuaded the same Thomas We ntworth Higginson to unde rt a ke the task of publication of the poe ms.

This time he compiled and published 115 of the m , with the help of Mrs. Todd , wife of a unive rsity professor. Thus E mily Dickinson's first volume of poe ms appeared in print four years afte r her death. The poems were an instant success, and he r posthumous emergence from obscurity is regarded as an important literary event of the 19th century, comparable with tha t of the publication of Walt Whitman 's Leaves of Grass in 1855. Emily Dickinson's posthumous po pularity has remained unabated even a century after her death.

Emily Dickinson wrote poe try at a time when wome n in America as elsewhere in the world lived a protected li fe. S he had few contacts with the o utside world to gain worldly experie nce which could e nrich he r creativity. Despite these handicaps, she shows a rare unde rstanding of life and huma n fee lings in her poetry.

Emily Dickinson's career brings to mind the career of Robe rt Frost who, like Emily. writing apart from the mainstream of contemporary American poetry, re mained for lo ng a n unappreciated poet. His Ame rican expe rie nce was, however, quite unlike that of Dickinson. It was rich and varied. Off a nd on he was a shoemaker, textile worker, teacher, editor and farmer. Born in San Francisco in 1875, fame came to him in England where he lived from 1912 to 1915. And he soon became a classic in his own country, and like Dickinson has re mained so even today. Frost was a realist who regarded poetry "as a way of taking life by the throat" and who described himself as not the kind of realist ··who offe rs a good deal of dirt with his potato to show that it is a real one," but rather " the one who is satisfied with the pota to brushed clean .,.

Despite the fact that success eluded her, Dickjnson did not lose he r wit and vivacity. Sparkling wit is noticeable in many of he r lines, as in the oft-quoted ve rse: Surgeons must be very carefid When they ((Ike the knife!

Underneath their fine incisions Stirs the Culprit-Life!

Emily Dickinson is re ported to have said: ''If l read a book and it makes my whole body so cold , no fire can warm me, I know it is poetry . If I feel physically as if the to p of my head we re taken off, J know this is poetry. These are the only ways I know it." Whether this test is applicable to he r poetry is difficult to say. Pe rhaps it all depe nds on the reader.

The compulsive pote ncy of Emily Dickinson 's genius was such that she could not help writing unceasingly during he r creative years. And the o utcome was great poetry.

SPAN MAY 1986

43

AN EMILY DICKJNSON SAMPLER To put this World down , like a BundleAnd walk steady, away, Requires Energy- possibly Agony'Tis the Scarlet way Trodden with straight renunciation By the Son of GodA word is dead When it is said, Some say.

I say it just Begins to live That day.

This is my Jetter to the World That never wrote to Me The simple News that Nature toldWith tender Majesty Her Message is committed To Hands I cannot seeFor love of Her -Sweet-countrymenJudge tenderly-of Me

Read-Sweet- how others-stroveTill we-are stouterWhat they-renounccdTill we-arc less afraidHow many times they-bore the faithful witnessTill we-are helpedAs if a Kingdom-cared!

Read then-offaithThat shone above the fagotClear strains of Hymn The River could not drownBrave names of Men And Celestia'! Women Passed out-of Record Into- Renown.

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SPAN MAY

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Later, his faint Confederates Justify the Road Flavors of that old CrucifixionFilaments of Bloom , Pontius Pilate sowedStrong Clusters, from Barabbas' TombSacrament, Saints partook before usPatent, every drop, With the Brand of the Gentile Drinker Who indorsed the Cup-

Because I could not stop for DeathHe kindly stopped for meThe Carriage held but just OurselvesAnd Immortality.

We slowly drove- He knew no haste And I had put away My labor and my leisure too, For His CivilityWe passed the School, where Children strove At Recess-ir. the RingWe passed the Fields of Gazing GrainWe passed the Setting SunOr rather- He passed UsThe Dews drew quivering and chillFor only Gossamer, my GownMy Tippet-only TulleWe paused before a House that seemed A Swelling of the GroundThe Roof was scarcely visibleThc Cornice- in the GroundSince then- 'tis Centuries-and yet Feels shorter than the Day I first surmised the Horses' Heads Were toward Eternity-

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NEXT ISSUE

Nek Chand's Fantasy Gardens Chandigarh and Washington, D.C.. have a fantasy creator m common now Nck Chand Saini.

His famous Rock Garden in Chandigarh- made from industrial waste and other leftoversinspired the Capital's Children's Museum of Washington to invite him to build a sculpture ga rden along the same lines. American volunteers helped him create a garden populated by an American version of 6is whimsical figures.

High Tech in New Mexico New Mexico- retreat for artists, home to hardy ranchers-is also the state with tht: highest percentage of technical workers. Two national laboratories and 75 high-tech firms are located here. participating in some of the most sophisticated research going on anywhere.

Buffalo Bill-Life as Legend A century ago, William F. (Buffalo Bill) Cody, a popular showman, regaled audiences in America and Europe with his superb horsemanship. He turned his own real-life youthfol adventures into an ext raordinary traveling show called Wild West, which reenacted the saga of American Indians and cowboys. The image he presented of the Old West has continued to color the American view of it even today.

A Safer World with FDA As one of the oldest regulatory agencies of the United Slates, the Food and Drug Administration monitors the safety of foods and drugs, ensuring that they are pure. wholesome. safe, produced under sanitary conditions and that labeling is accurate, truthful and informative.

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1f you want to make friends with good cinema, this is your Dale Carnegie primer. There are a lot of people, especially in India, who don't recognize the cinema as an art form. For them, Charles Lamb's unwillingness to get to know someone for fear that he might end up liking him (" I dislike that man; don't introduce me to him") is the key to this attitude. Nearly a hundred years after films were first shown, a hint of apology, an anxiety to justify, still underlies much of the discussion of cinema as art. The "Nickelodeon's" graduation to respectability is still unsure. Cinema's massive popularity is either seen as a form of holiness or spurned from a lofty intellectual-academic perch.

David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson's effort at introducing the reader to the aesthetics of film is blandly free from these popular or elitist hang-ups. Their book makes a very determined attempt to tell us more about the art of film than we might ever need to know. The book's passion for classification is as remarkable as that of the Kamasutra, or, of any ancient Sanskrit treatise. It is thoroughly thorough.

What is more, it doesn't play favorites among film theories and filmmakers. The authors present virtually all practices and points of view, first laying the ground by explaining the technical and social factors of film production. W,e learn the basic scientific principles and developments that led to the invention of cinematography and thereby get to know the physical basis of the art we are to study. In describing the social factors of film production , the authors do tend to set standards by what happens in the West; in India, we do not, for instance. know the designation: "The Key Grip, the head prop Chidananda Das Gupta, film路 maker and critic, is a former man路 aging editor of SPAN.

Film Art: An Introduction David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Prentice Hall, New Delhi, 339 pp., Rs. 95.

person ; who may also have a staff. " perhaps there is an attempt to explain this when the authors say that "studio film production tends to occur when countries have achieved division of labor in other manufacturing industries." Again, India becomes the despair of such generalizers: Studio production was the order of the day in British India, before large-scale industrialization began. Independence saw the dis.integration of studio production and the rise of the independent producer.

As with most such publications from abroad , the book can be faulted for ignoring the world's largest film producing country . India made 912 full-length features in 1985. Yet the authors' sole acknowledgment of this country comes in a bare mention of Satyajit Ray as one of the directors influenced by Italian Neorealism (itself a questionable proposition).

Citing an innovative use of sound , they say, in Psycho, when a woman screams, we expect to hear the human voice and instead hear "screaming violins." Well , Satyajit Ray did that brilliantly in Pather Panclzali (1955) before Hitchcock's film (1960). Again, the book gives an example of innovative lighting: "Consider a shot from Ozu's Her Only Son. It is well past midnight and we have 路just seen a family awake and talking; this shot shows a dim corner of the family's apartment, with none of the characters on screen. But soon the light changes. The sun is rising.

By the end of the shot it is morning." In Mrinal Sen's Oka Oorie Katha the same effect is brought off spectac-

ularly within a shorter space when father and son go into the hut, decide that the woman in there is dead, come out and walk into a patch of golden light of the just-risen sun .

While this sort of oversight may not be good for the Indian ego, it does not take away from the overwhelming merits of the book. It is the most comprehensive and coherent account of film as art that I have read . It is written without flourishes , but with depth and clarity. It discusses film form. narrative and nonnarrative systems, the shot as the basic unit of film. the role of editing and sound, and finally the outcome of all this- style. Its chapter on film criticism, with analyses of a number of classical films. is one of its most interesting sections.

And it is certainly not blinded路 by Hollywood. Its examples are drawn from Russian, French. German and Japanese cinema as much as from the American.

It surveys the major movements in national cinemas through film history-for instance, German Expressionism, French Impressionism, Soviet Montage, Italian Neorealism, the French New Wave and every other movement experienced in cinematography. There is no questioning the authors keen awarenesss of a very wide range of classical cinema, both in its history and in its spread. Discussing the noble use of pictorial space within the film frame, they give the example of Kenji Mizoguchi's Forty Seven Ronin: "The camera inches laterally along the corridor, its gaze fastened on the utterly empty courtyard. Surely, we expect, someone or something will enter that courtyard.

Sure enough, voices are heard as the camera continues slowly to track right.

But then, after what seems like minutes, the camera pans right to reveal a man standing in tbe corridor and talking. We have been mis-

led; the real action was occurring in the corridor, off screen, and the camera's sidewise trajectory deliberately excluded the action. " Similarly , while discussing sound, they point out how "several great directors have used music that might seem to have a rhythm inappropriate for the visuals. In Four Nights of a Dreamer. Robert Bresson includes several shots of a large floating nightclub cruising the Seine.

The'boat's movement is slow and smooth, yet the sound track consists of lively calypso music. The strange combination of fast music with the slow passage of the boat creates a langorous, mysterious effect. " In cinema, as in all other arts, rules are made only to be broken by the great innovators who expand its language.

Once you have forgiven the writers for leaving out examples from Indian cinema. you realize what a wealth of cinematic experience they bring to the writing. The bibliography at the end of every chapter is indeed formidable. The many stills used for illustrating the points made by the text are chosen and approved with elaborate care. Perhaps the book's greatest merit is that it is at once large in its canvas and fine in its detail.

Whether you like the book or not depends on the hat you wear. As a critic, I admire the systematic structuring and classification of cinematic devices and methods it analyzes: a filmmaker may be filled with wonder at its complexity and yet ask, "ls that all there is?"

Relentless explanation of all aspects of film language can make the artist feel naked and exposed, divested of the magic he had fondly thought himself capable of. Fortunately for the filmgoer, while his or her enjoyment of a film may be enriched by the knowledge of its construction, the film seldom interferes with his surrender to the 0 wiles of the filmmaker.

Text by DANIEL FENDRICK Photographs by WALTER SMALLING JR.

46

SPAN MAYl986

Albert Paley is the undisputed master of architectural metalwork, a craft that had nearly vanished before he began to revive it in the 1970s. In all his work, Paley has given a contemporary definition to an old medium. In his versatile hands, this blacksmith's craft has become sculpture.

Paley created a seven-meter-long architectural screen (above) and a gate of mild steel arid brass (far left) to decorate the ca/e of thel. W. Mflrriott Hotel in

Washington, D.C., in 1984.

More recently, he designed castiron tree gmtes and circular benches (left) for Washington's Pennsylvania A venue.

Š Fendnck Gallery. All rigJus reserved.

SPAN MAY 1986

47

.

THE lRON AESTHETIC continued

n the past decade Albert Paley has revived a moribund art, architectural metalwork, and developed a unique personal vocabulary that exploits the inherent plasticity of iron. Major commissions, like the four-meter-high gates for the State Senate Chamber in Albany, New York, or the 37-meter-long fence for the Hunter Art Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee, have produced not only grand ornamentation but also works of art on a monumental scale. In Paley's hands the blacksmith's craft has become the agency of sculpture.

He begins with an industrial product, mild steel, that is available in a wide variety of rounds, squares and other basic shapes. He often buys several tons at a time. They are delivered to his workshop in an industrial district of Rochester, New York, that is a ramshackle structure resembling several two-car garages stuck together. Everything there is on an industrial scale: the gantries and hoists to convey the bars of steel; the blower on the forge, which is so massive Paley can have a working fire in 20 minutes; the 15 tons of coal sometimes piled outside, waiting to serve this Prometheus.

Paley studies junkyards across the western tier of New York State, bringing back old castings, fence sections, anything in metal that strikes his fancy. This urge to accumulate is not some collector's mania, but rather an indispensable part of reviving the discipline of architectural metalwork as an art form.

When Paley began to work in iron in 1969, there were no tools on the shelf, no living tradition, no textbook of do's and don'ts awaiting the aspiring craftsman. The last master architectural metalsmith in America, Samuel Yellin of Philadelphia, died in 1940, leaving no successor. A few blacksmiths still plied their trade, sometimes making andirons, door knockers or other forged objects on order. The growing interest in colonial restoration , together with the burgeoning American craft movement, produced a new generation of smiths in the 1970s who did quality work grounded in traditional designs. But in his chosen field of architectural metalwork as a contemporary art form, Paley was, and is, alone.

A contemporary artist, in Paley's estimation , cannot simply reproduce turn-of-the-century or medieval design. His goal must be to give contemporary definition to his medium, and produce work that is a product of its own time. But what form is specifically relevant to 1960, or 1970, or 1980?

Having entered college in 1962, Paley's formative years were marked by the revolutionary changes of the 1960s, when established conventions were under challenge. After experimenting with painting, sculpture and weaving, he decided that making jewelry best suited his particular needs. Working with metal required a physical confrontation with a resistive material that provoked his creative imagination. As a jewelrymaker he soon found himself a rebel against existing standards and attitudes: the roles of ornamentation and sexuality , the relationship of form to function, and the integration of jewelry with its context, the human body. His large, complex, baroque jewelry designs represented a radical break with what art students were being taught was " modern." In goldsmithing Paley found what seemed to be the right medium at the time to express his unconventional ideas about form and style that were relevant to contemporary culture.

However, by the end of the 1960s, Paley found himself

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SPAN MAY 1986

drawn increasingly to the forging process, which promised a more direct involvement with the process of shaping metal. His first major architectural commission , for the gates of the Smithsonian Institution's Renwick Gallery in Washington , D.C., in 1972, was a watershed in his artistic development. This commission forced him to consider how iron ornamentation could provide a meaningful vocabulary for architecture. He researched historical ornamentation and wrought iron work, studying Antonio Gaudi's constructions in Barcelona, the design of the Alhambra in Granada, and Rene Lalique pieces in Lisbon. While in many ways the Renwick gates, completed in 1974, suggest the goldsmith's craft transposed to larger scale, they also point toward the evolution of a new aesthetic of ornamentation in keeping with the metamorphosis taking place in American architecture. Paley's romantic imagery is both foreru nner and symptom of a profound shift in contemporary sensibility.

His later assignments include commissions for the Hunter Museum in Tennessee (1975), Gannett Corporation in Rochester, New York (1976), Clyde's Restaurant, near Washington, D.C. (1979), New York State Senate Chamber, Albany (1980) , and the 800 cast-iron tree grates and 50 circular benches designed for the redevelopment of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington. While Paley's metalwork has evolved considerably since completion of the Renwick gates, certain underlying concepts have remained the same. The whole purpose of architectural ornamentation as Paley sees it is to bring accent and focus to architecture. Therefore it has to be sensitive and sympathetic to its surroundings. Thus in the New York State Capitol building in Albany, there is a dialogue, a real interaction between the ornamentation provided by Paley's gates and the monumental architectural space . . Moreover, Paley's ornamentation is not a helter-skelter assemblage of pretty shapes, but rather is an integral part of the structure of his metalwork. He is well aware that the reason the term ornamentation has acquired such a negative connotation is that people think of it as decoration, in the sense of applying wallpaper to a wall or putting up a false front. A central theme in Paley's art is the effort to bring structure and ornamentation to a mutual conclusion that seems inseparable, preordained and wholly natural. His decorative elements are unified by the composition of the whole, by their inner relationships with each other and by their logical representation of the dynamic forces at play within the work.

Paley is an artist who extends his own perception, and that of his audience, t.flrough constant exploration of a particular medium , iron. He does not see himself as a manufacturer of functional metal objects or as a craftsman who faithfully reproduces established designs. He revels in the challenge of working red-hot iron into things of beauty. Iron is strong, rigid, brutal, yet he can make it sensitive and fine. This paradox inspires him and informs his efforts to manifest in steel the ebb and flow of movement he sees in nature. His work is documentary , recording in frozen motion a particular D interaction between artist and material.

About the Author: Daniel Fendrick is with the Fendrick Gallery in Washington, D. C.

Right: Mild-steel entrance ~ates to a private home in Washington, D. C.