The Art in Parkour Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Art in Parkour - Essay Example Belle began Parkour when he was fifteen, and claims it was inspired by the ideas of the French physician George Hebert, who promoted the 'methode naturelle' (Grimsley 1961) of medical treatment. This focused on the pure benefits of exercise over other methods like drug treatment for simple illnesses and injuries. Belle took these principles and used them in his own fitness regime, which turned quickly into something of a post-modern art form in itself (Gire 2006). Post-modern art takes many ideas on board, but the main feature of this art form that is embodied in Parkour is the aspect of realism through another medium: "Reality itself founders in hyperrealism, the meticulous reduplication of the real, preferably through another, reproductive medium, such as photography" (Harrison et al 2003). Post-modern art deals with new and fresh takes on the reality all around us in the world. The question with Belle and Parkour is simple; is freerunning actually an art or merely a sport that has been copied by followers across the world Van Esterik, Van Esterik and Miller describe an artist as someone who "may be revered and wealthy as individuals or groups, or stigmatized and economically marginal." (Van Esterik et al 2001). Overall, artists must use unique concepts or create new ideas from reality or already established forms of art; in this Belle certainly did succeed and can therefore be thought of as an artist and Parkour as the ultimate in post-modern art. Miles notes how the "forms and spaces of the city are at the heart of academic enquiry across a number of disciplines from architecture and planning to geography, sociology, cultural and media studies" (2000). People like David Belle and his followers have been enthralled by the stark reality that is the inner city, and this is what Parkour is based upon fundamentally (Pinch 2004). A similar remark can be made about skateboarding and its use of the city space in such a comprehensive, post-modern way. Iain Borden explains how skateboarders have taken a new l ook at their surroundings and discovered how to interact with them and take a real interest in all the elements of the city they live in. Borden challenges his readers to adopt the same way of thinking and to take a more hands on approach to the spaces in which they live (Borden 2001). Nevertheless, it must be noted that Parkour is a dangerous art form, and many of its practitioners have sustained injury from its execution; Josephson mentions reknown Parkour practitioner Cris Burden in this vein, since he was the type of artist not only to use Parkour to express himself but other forms of self harm that were thought life threatening and uniquely shocking to American society (Josephson 1996). In fact, Parkour seems to attract the sort of artists looking for innovative and entirely shocking ways of drawing attention both to themselves and their ideas about societal ills. To overcome these dangers, a freerunner must posses "a good pair of sneakers, cat burglarlike agility and a lot of courage" (Washington Times 2004). So what do freerunners feel they are getting out of Parkour The opinions are varied and very interesting to researchers like Western Mail writers who comment on how the art form is "graceful and strict" (2005) at the same time. Piers Hernu remarks that the jumps involved are difficult and dangerous, something

Network Monitoring Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Network Monitoring - Essay Example This essay is based on the primal reasons for government to regulate and examine information gathered or communicated by individuals either within the country or without. In line with the thesis statement, this essay is essentially centred at providing information/evidence as to why the government should be solely in charge of networks that keep the various communications within a country. To form a valid argument, we will examine the United Kingdom's pursuit to control information. The United Kingdom government has always been faced with the need to secure information within the country mainly to help ensure that no threat is forthcoming at least not through the communication networks. This has been a debate for a long time and has seen the two main parties in the Kingdom draw various opinions. While the labour party wanted the formation of a single database for storing individual communications, the conservatives wanted a monitoring system which would ensure information is filtered; only that information which poses a threat to the people is stored. This they said was due to two facts; one, the government would infringe on the privacy of individuals something that had been done in the past but which they wanted a departure from. Of concern however is not how the politicians fought for the balance between security and privacy but the main point I want to draw is that they all agreed on the need to monitor information; notably, for the sole reason of security. In the same way, the United Kingdom government through its home secretary found the need to monitor information. The following part thus gathers the various parts of concern for these individuals and examines the information handled within and without the government quarters to help cement the need to monitor information. PART TWO-Government and Networks Government and Information Understanding the above discussed network components will help in the discussion of the government's need to secure networks for the purpose of security promotion and maintenance; especially, with the growing threats of terrorism, fraud cases and other major scandals. (Barret et al 2006) These have caught the government either unprepared or have overwhelmed government forces due to the extent and level of the technology used. This necessities that the government prepares fully for such occurrences or situations and since it is usually not possible to harness the entire human knowledge and make use of the same in developing government networks, it is then important for it to ensure that the information and methods used by these outside developers is monitored or regulated. Notice that the use of outside developers means those that are not part of the government. The other point of concern is that the corporate as well as the entire private sector has embarked in developing powerful technological equipments which enable the coding and encoding of data transported to allies of these companies or entities. If this is not monitored, then the security of the nation is likely to be in jeopardy as this information if not traced or decrypted, may contain matters likely to affect the well being of the society. Thus in conclusion, the government is definitely the one to control the amount of data that flows within the networks as it is the