Stanford Undergraduate Research Journal

76 Pages·2002·1.09 MB·English

by  Stanford University

May 2002 SURJ 1
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Letter from the Editors-in-Chief
Welcome to the premier issue of the Stanford Undergraduate Research Journal (SURJ). As Stanford’s newest
student publication, SURJ strives to showcase a wide array of original research conducted by current undergraduates,
thus providing a forum in which individuals from diverse fields can learn about research in disciplines other than
their own. Towards this end, the thirteen articles featured in this issue are written in a manner that makes them easily
accessible to all members of the Stanford community.
The role of SURJ in the academic community is twofold: first, to encourage, recognize, and reward intellectual
activity beyond the classroom, and second, to provide a forum for the exchange and dissemination of research and
ideas. We hope that by providing opportunities for undergraduates to have their research published, we can continue
to foster their pursuit of knowledge and engage their investigative spirit.
In order to acheive these ambitious goals, we have worked tirelessly over the past year to produce this first issue.
We could not have done it without the amazing support we received from the members of our SURJ staff, our
Advisory Board, and from the University itself. We would also like to thank the many students who submitted their
work for publication. Our entire editorial staff was impressed with both the quality and quantity of the submissions
we received, which speaks volumes about the diligence, creativity, and intellect of the undergraduates at Stanford.
The Journal plans to be one of the nation’s premier peer-reviewed academic journals, dedicated to the presentation
of original undergraduate research to the wider community. Through its activities, the Journal seeks to vitalize
interest in all academic disciplines and inspire the highest quality research.
If you would like to contribute to SURJ, we invite you to submit your research next year or join our staff. For
more information, please visit our website at http://™™surj.stanford.edu.
With very best wishes,
Alex Bradford Donald Matsuda
SURJ Executive Editor-in-Chief SURJ Executive Editor-in-Chief
We would like to thank the following individuals, departments, and organizations for
their support of the Stanford Undergraduate Research Journal:
Dean of Students Office
Department of Art and Art History
Department of Communications
Department of Comparative Literature
Department of English
Department of History
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Department of Psychology
Department of Physics
Department of Religious Studies
Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities
Mark Lepper
Office of Development
Office of the Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education
Symbolic Systems Program
Undergraduate Research Programs
Tom Wasow
The Writing Center
Professor Philip Zimbardo
2 SURJ May 2002
Table of Contents
5 He, She, and It: Aesthetics in Mary Shelley, Ulrike Buschbacher
10 Classical Modern Irreverence: Jeff Koon’s Michael Jackson and Bubbles
Recontextualized, Susan Cameron
14 Purity Viewed through the Eschatological Framework of Qumran,
Sara Ferry
18 When Information Flow in Project Organizations Become Turbulent:
Toward an Organizational ‘Reynolds Number’, Michael Fyall
24 Pattern Characterization of Running and Cutting Maneuvers in Relation to Non-
contact ACL Injury, Brenna Hearn
29 Perceptions of Ranavalona I: A Malagasy Historic Figure as a Thematic, Symbol of
Malagasy Attitudes Toward History, Alison Kamhi
33 Overt and Covert Aggression in Women with Bulimia Nervosa, Ashwini Sagar
37 Color photos for Classical Modern Irreverence: Jeff Koon’s Michael Jackson and
Bubbles Recontextualized and Eduardo Kac: Challenging Norms through Art
41 Eduardo Kac: Challenging Norms through Art, Thomas Loverro
46 Bayesian Belief Network Analysis of Legal Evidence, Fred Luminoso
52 The Psychological Experience of Security Officers Who Work With Executions,
Michael Osofsky
55 The Computerized, Three-Dimensional Reconstruction of Human Teeth for Pedagogical
Purposes, Amrit Rao
60 The Status of the Mechanical in the Writings and Works of Two Artists:
Cézanne and Matisse, Marina Kassianidou
65 Asymptotic Quantization: A Method for Determining Zador’sConstant, Joyce Shih
71 Author Biographies
Editor’s Note: The Kassianidou and Sagar articles were transposed due to necessary layout issues.
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EXECUTIVE BOARD
Editors-in-Chief
Alex Bradford Donald Matsuda
Chief Financial Officer
Ravneet Kaur
Managing Directors
Jonathan Olsen David Roeske Patrick Wong
PRODUCTION BOARD
Director
Rachel Siegel
Graphics Designer
Derek Gaw
Production Associates
Samuel Chang Giancarlo Giustina Amelia Kotte Gina Schiel Peter Yu
EDITORIAL BOARD
Humanities Natural Sciences and Engineering Social Sciences
Section Editor Section Editor Section Editor
Rachel Siegel Christopher Baer Charles Feng
Associate Editors Associate Editors Associate Editors
Nick Geballe Samuel Chang Robert McConnell Rebecca Chu
Amelia Kotte Heart Hsin Amrit Rao Nick Geballe
Gina Schiel Stephanie Hu Carolyn Sangokoya L. Charles Shioleno
Alex Smyth Tony Huie Elizabeth Williams Jennifer Davie Yoon
Grace Wu Jenelle Jindal Eric Yieh
Andres Martinez
MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS BOARD
Directors
Zach Katagiri Valerie Rozycki Michael Osofsky
WEB DEVELOPMENT
Director
Taqi Jaffri
ADVISORY BOARD
Gene Awakuni, Vice Provost of Student Affairs
John Bravman, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education
Susie Brubaker-Cole, Director, Undergraduate Research Programs
Karen Cook, Cognizant Dean of Social Sciences
Jeffrey Koseff, Senior Associate Dean, School of Engineering
Andrea Lunsford, Director, Program in Writing and Rhetoric
Hilton Obenzinger, Associate Director, Undergraduate Research Programs
Jared Scherer, Assistant Director, Office of Student Activities
Laura Selznick, Associate Director, Undergraduate Research Programs
Marc Wais, Dean of Students
4 SURJ May 2002
He, She, and It:
Aesthetics in Mary
Shelley
Ulrike Buschbacher
In her novel The Last Man, Mary Shelley follows in the footsteps of Edmund Burke and
Immanuel Kant by representing the beautiful and the sublime as female and male aesthetic categories,
respectively. However, even though most of the characters in The Last Man embody Burke and Kant’s
traditional aesthetics of the beautiful and the sublime, the novel’s protagonist, Lionel Venney, falls
into a different aesthetic category — the Gothic idea of the uncanny. Freud’s definitive 1919 essay on
the qualities of “uncanniness” serves as the basis for analyzing Lionel. Throughout the text, Lionel
evolves into an uncanny figure. At the same time, he loses his gender characteristics, becoming
ambiguously gendered and almost hermaphroditic. His loss of gender identification, combined with
Freud’s conception of the aesthetic, renders the uncanny as a genderless aesthetic.
In her novel The Last Man, Mary (Kant 91), and the women in Shelley’s
“...the novel’s Shelley follows in the footsteps of novel are indeed physically attractive.
protagonist, Edmund Burke and Immanuel Kant by However, Shelley only pays nominal
Lionel Verney, representing the beautiful as a female attention to physical beauty and places
falls into a aesthetic and the sublime, an entity more emphasis on the beauty inherent
conveying nobility, grandness, awe, in the women’s virtues and
different aesthetic
and superiority, as a male aesthetic. personalities. For Burke, this focus
category-- the
However, Lionel Verney, the particularly genders the beautiful; he
Gothic idea of the
protagonist of The Last Man, falls into argues that only the feminine is
uncanny...”
a different aesthetic category — a beautiful. He states, “But…perfection
category formed by the Gothic idea of [is so far] from being the cause of
the uncanny. Freud’s definitive 1919 beauty, that this quality, where it is
essay on the qualities define “uncanny” highest, in the female sex, almost
serves as the basis for analysis of always carries with it an idea of
Lionel’s character. As Shelley’s story weakness and imperfection” (Burke
progresses, Lionel evolves into an 137). He further distinguishes beauty
uncanny figure while also losing his from the sublime by calling beauty
gender characteristics, becoming weak and imperfect. Moreover, these
ambiguously gendered and almost traits make women beautiful. In the
hermaphroditic in the end. His loss of novel, Idris and Perdita are always
gender identification, combined with subservient to their husbands and
Freud’s conception of the aesthetic, brothers. Presented as a frail persona,
renders the uncanny as a genderless Idris ultimately dies as a result of this
aesthetic. fragility because she cannot endure the
Nearly all of the females in The plague raging around her and the threat
Last Man are “beautiful” characters. of death hovering over all of her loved
First and foremost, Kant points out that ones. Meanwhile, Perdita is also weak;
the “beautiful” is always attractive she kills herself when Raymond dies,
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feeling useless without her male fundamental transformations to really has a place of his own to call
half. This extreme codependence evolve into an uncanny figure. He “home.” He only is able to join
is the largest weakness in Shelley’s starts out as a wild, uncivilized the nobility by marrying Idris,
female characters, and yet, it does “beast,” “an outcast and a Adrian’s sister. While Lionel is
not diminish them aesthetically. vagabond” (Shelley 205). Adrian welcomed in the aristocracy and
The gentler feminine sex serves rescues him from this way of life acts as the governing Lord at
the stronger male gender within by offering him a place to live Windsor, it is never technically
the novel, paralleling the along with an education and an “his” house and he is never the real
relationship between beauty and aristocratic identity backed by Lord of Windsor as this title
the sublime. property and money. Lionel belongs to Adrian. This sense of
In contrast, Shelley’s Lord describes this life-changing alienation, fueled by his childhood
Raymond is a prime example of encounter as a hunter-prey abandonment and enforced by the
masculinity, possessing all the scenario, comparing himself to a circumstances of his life, drives
qualities of the sublime. As Burke beast that had to be caught: him to travel at the end of the
states, the sublime “excites ideas “Adrian gently threw me the silver novel. As the last man, there is
of pain and danger…it is net of love and civilization, and little need for Lionel to continue
productive of the strongest linked me to…human excellence” traveling. Yet he is not
emotion which the mind is capable (Shelley 205). Lionel does not say comfortable leading a settled life.
of feeling” (51). Raymond is a that Adrian awakens his humanity, He cannot establish a new home
Byronic figure; he is a dashing but he says rather that he himself and certainly will not do so
soldier who goes off to fight for is linked to civilization and can without external influences.
Greece, whose “reckless courage start to evolve into a civilized man. According to Freud, the
and comprehensive genius “I was admitted within that sacred uncanny is primarily something
brought him into notice…[h]e boundary which divides the that should be repressed or has
became a darling of this rising intellectual…and animals. My “undergone repression and then
people” (Shelley 31). Raymond best feelings were called into play returned from it” (“The Uncanny,”
also encompasses other sublime in response to [Adrian]” (Shelley 245). Lionel’s emergence into
virtues such as wisdom, justice, 22). He is rescued from an society can be described by the
and fortitude, as he is a good leader animalistic existence by the Freudian concepts of the Ego, Id
and a successful general. Yet, in education that Adrian provides. and Superego. The wilderness in
contrast to beauty, sublimity His first evolution does not grow which he revels at first is
inspires both positive and negative out of his own volition; rather, it representative of the Id, the
reactions. Raymond also incites is left to Adrian to lead him into untamed part of a personality
more unpleasant emotions, like civilization. The air of weakness craving only instant gratification.
terror. His passions are described that surrounds Lionel is one of the Stealing and fighting, Lionel acts
as “violent,” and his focus is main forces rendering him on every visceral impulse, and this
entirely selfish (Shelley 35). For incapable of being a sublime disregard for social convention
example, he terrifies his wife with figure. leads to his incarceration. He is
vehement reactions to her This transformation from a pure passion, his every move
accusations of infidelity and savage to a civilized gentleman fueled by his hatred for Adrian and
intimidates his friends when they also sets up Lionel’s lack of roots. the nobility that turned its back on
try to persuade him to remain The concept of the unknown being his father. He has not been
calm. According to aesthetic uncanny is expressed in the subjected to the taming influence
categories, Raymond German concepts of the heimliche of society and hence, has not
encompasses sublime qualities in and the unheimliche (Freud 21). developed a Superego, or
the ways that only a male can, The word heimlich denotes conscience, to discipline the wild
namely by being aggressive and “home,” “native,” and “known.” Id. Only the appearance of Adrian,
dominant. Its antonym, unheimlich, conveys the embodiment of an Ego — a
Lionel represents an the uncanny and means literally, balance between the wild Id and
exception to the gendered “not home.” Conversationally, restrictive moral Superego —
aesthetic rule that Burke and Kant however, it means “uneasy,” leads Lionel out of his wild
established; rather than being “eerie,” “ghostly,” and “creepy.” manners into civilization. Lionel
sublime or even beautiful, he The term unheimlich is easily comes into contact almost
embodies the uncanny. Lionel’s applied to Lionel. Despite being exclusively with Adrian. As a
character undergoes several adopted by Adrian, Lionel never result, Adrian’s influence curbs
6 SURJ May 2002
Lionel’s Id, enabling Lionel to negative responses due to being man’s attitude towards death,
develop an Ego that allows him to mean and hurtful. “We also call a “turning something fearful
become a normal and balanced living person uncanny, usually uncanny” (Freud 49). Lionel’s
human being. However, Lionel’s when we ascribe evil motives to attitude towards death is foreign
primitive roots need to be him. But that is not all; we must and unsympathetic.
repressed in order to forge the not only credit him with bad Once Lionel completes his
“new” Lionel. This first intentions but must attribute to transition from a man to an
transformation plants the seeds of these intentions of capacity to uncanny figure, he also loses his
his uncanniness. achieve their aim in virtue of gender, becoming asexual and
Moreover, Freud wrote that certain special powers” (Freud androgynous. A large part of
the uncanny encompasses 49). In contrast to Lionel’s Lionel’s sexual metamorphosis is
elements of precognition and positive qualities depicted in the not connected to anything he
morbid anxiety (Freud 47). The majority of the novel, there are actively does; rather, it is
strongest connection between several instances when other connected to the fact that his
Lionel and the uncanny element characters accuse Lionel of being gender is rendered useless.
of prophecy is in the text’s “unkind.” For example, after Gender consists primarily of three
introduction. At the beginning, the Perdita’s husband’s death, Lionel elements: biological, comparative,
Sybil’s cave is described as the drugs Perdita to put her aboard the and social. By the end of the
place where a document is ship, despite her express wishes to novel, Lionel is the only person to
“found,” a document that is stay in Greece by his grave. She have survived the plague.
actually the novel itself. The wakes up from her drugged sleep Biologically, then, he becomes
author narrating the introduction and, realizing what Lionel has asexual as there is no hope of
claims only to have put the scraps done, exclaims, “Unkind! repopulating the earth; his
of prophecy together and unkind!…you know not what you physical sexuality is irrelevant,
translated them. This makes have done!” (Shelley 167-8). She and he becomes technically
Lionel the embodiment of the blames him for his selfish desire impotent. His sexual physical
prophecy. In addition, Lionel to keep her close to him and for desires are also rendered useless
experiences a moment of his blatant disregard for her since there is no one, male or
precognition shortly after the feelings. His unkindness also female, to fulfill any sexual
outbreak of the plague in London, drives Perdita to commit suicide. craving. He then must fulfill the
before the extent of its Hence, by wielding a “special role of male and female in his own
destructivity was known. He power,” by using a drug and then life, a trend that started while he
returns home to find a small forcing an evil end, Lionel was taking care of Clara, fulfilling
festival held in honor of his son commits an uncanny act. both maternal and paternal roles.
Alfred’s birthday. Lionel Finally, Lionel’s survival of There is also the comparative
exclaims, “Ye are all going to die the plague epidemic completes his aspect of gender, the definition of
[…] already the gay dance transformation from a man to an one’s sex in opposition to the
vanished, the green sward was uncanny figure, for as Freud says, other. If there are two genders, one
strewn with corpses, the blue air “we are tempted to conclude that is distinguished by not being the
above became fetid with deathly what is ‘uncanny’ is frightening other; hence, the categories of
exhalations” (Shelley 189). Lionel precisely because it is not known male and female exist. However,
presciently envisions the deaths of and familiar” (21). No one, there is no other gender left for
his wife and children, as well as including the reader, knows why Lionel to compare himself to; he
the deaths of the surrounding Lionel survives the plague. There cannot define himself through
villagers and other party attendees; is no logic and also no contrast.
he simply misidentifies the causes supernatural explanation offered Finally, gender is a social
of the their deaths. Furthermore, in the place of logic. Furthermore, construct that carries with it
his morbid anxiety over his family Lionel’s ambivalence towards his expectations and conventions
is mentioned numerous times own death heightens his regarding behavior and self-
throughout the novel, uncanniness. He is never image. For example, in Lionel’s
demonstrating that Lionel is in the frightened about his own demise, Western society, men wore pants
midst of transforming from a man but he never quite embraces it and took up careers while women
to a fully uncanny figure. either. As he nears death, he wore dresses and stayed home
Similar to the sublime declares he is happy. The uncanny raising children. To an extent,
aesthetic, the uncanny can invoke is closely related to death and their lives were predetermined
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based on their social gender, gender changes. In the novel, there Shelley struggled to suppress her
rather than a biological necessity. is a pattern of women being gender in a world dominated by
Yet there is no society, Western or beautiful, hence gendering the men who were practicing the same
Eastern, to establish a gender code aesthetic to be feminine. Likewise, literary craft as she. The uncanny,
that Lionel must follow. The only the cases of sublime males in the the survivor trait, can be possessed
trace of social gender that still novel gender the sublime as male. by either sex. The novel suggests
clings to Lionel at the end of the Lionel, then, is a genderless, an equality of the sexes, a
novel is his own memory of these sexually irrelevant figure who is suggestion supported by the fact
“gender laws”. He thus becomes uncanny, transferring his sexual that the author’s voice is aligned
asexual, possessing male identity onto the aesthetic of the with Lionel’s and that Lionel is
reproductive organs that are uncanny. The uncanny aesthetic’s believed to be Shelley’s fictional
useless, and androgynous since he gender is defined by an irrelevance doppelgänger. Some contemp-
must fulfill his own sexual desires of sexuality and gender. orary critics have asked, “Why not
and practice both the male and Shelley chooses to end the The Last Woman?” Shelley
female spheres of life defined by novel with a lone uncanny answers with her desire to create
his memory of gender roles. character. Both the beautiful and a genderless encasement of spirit
Lionel’s final step in his the sublime characters perish. to stress the irrelevance of gender
transformation into a full uncanny There is a wistful autobiographical to her contemporary society.
figure matches the time when his element to this turn of events, as
Works Cited
Burke E. Philosophical Inquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. New York:
Harper & Brothers, 1863.
Freud S. Studies in Parapsychology.Ed. P. Rieff. New York: Collier Books, 1963.
Freud S. “The Uncanny.” The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud,
Vol. XVII. Ed. and Trans. J. Strachey. London: Hogarth, 1953.
Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Judgment. Ed. James Creed Meredith. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952.
Shelley, MW. The Last Man. Ed. A. McWhir. Peterborough: Broadview, 1996.
Suggested Reading
Castle, Terry. The Female Thermometer. 1995.
Freud S. Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. 1905.
Freud S. The Ego and the Id. 1923.
Shelley, MW. Valperga. 1823.
8 SURJ May 2002
Figure 1: Character Map
Figure 2: Novel Chronology
Lionel the Beast Lionel meets Adrian, is adopted by him
Lionel is educated
L Marries Idris after she escapes from her mother
i
o
n
e
l Plague breaks out
’
s
a
Lionel the Man s
s Goes to Greece with Perdita looking for Raymond
o
c
i
a
ti Raymond and Perdita die
o
n
w
i Adrian becomes Lord Protector
t
h
t
h
e Lionel shuts himself and family in at Windsor
m
a
l
e Alfred dies
g
e
n
d Adrian decides to move rest of England to Paris
e
r
Countess of Windsor reappears
Idris dies
Alfred, Lionel, and group of stragglers travel the Continent
Countess of Windsor dies after reconciling with Lionel
Lionel the Uncanny
Everyone in the group dies, including Evelyn, Lionel’s last child
Adrian and Clara die in shipwreck
Lionel is the last one left alive
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Classical Modern Irreverence:
Michael Jackson and Bubbles
Recontextualized
Susan Cameron
The mission of this paper is to be as irreverant as the art it discusses. The research moves between
high and low culture, creating a vertigo that blurs all artistic distinctions. I examine Jeff Koons’s Michael
Jackson and Bubbles (1998) through the lens of Classical Greek art. The comparison shows the circularity
of time, which humanizes antiquity and aggrandizes modernity. The research is particulary valuable to
Stanford students because Koons’s sculpture resides in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. When
I am in the gallery there, I notice that most people walk by laughing at its gaudy absurdity. While this is
certainly a valid response, it ignores the deeper implications of the piece. A plaque at the museum has
some useful information about the scultpture, but it does not mention the obvious iconographic link to
Dionysus. The paper’s broad historical scope appeals to classicists and modernists alike, as well as the
befuddled museum-goer. Koons crosses the traditions of ancient cult statues, the Parthenon, and Praxiteles
with the banality of pop culture to question the materialist values of American society and blur established
gender distinctions.
For ancient Greeks, the Parthenon to brag about their military prowess. They
was the central melody on which elaborately carved the Nike Temple on
“ W h e r e a s
subsequent variations were based. Every the Acropolis in a fashion even more
neoclassical artists
change in the artistic style was in some luxurious and idealized than the
b o r r o w e d way a reaction to or against the Parthenon, while still applying
reverently, Koons Parthenonic ideal. Pericles wanted the Parthenonic motifs (Fig. 2 & 3). Bassae
b o r r o w s Parthenon to flex the political muscles and the Nike Parapet are two examples
irreverently, of Athens, so he enlisted the best of the opposite reactions that existed in
linking the King of sculptors to depict the conquest of the regard to the Parthenon and its political
Pop across time Persians in a way that made the battle propaganda.
appear gracefully easy. Physical What happens, however, when an
and space with the
imperfections, like Hephaestus’s clubbed artist sourly satirizes modernity in a mode
King of Theater.”
foot, were all “airbrushed” away. that more resembles the Nike Parapet’s
However, after the outbreak of the buttery elegance than Bassae’s caustic
Peloponnesian War in 431 BCE and the brutality? Jeff Koons created the answer
plague in Athens in 430 BCE, the in his 1988 sculpture, Michael Jackson
perfection of the Parthenon must have and Bubbles (Fig. 4). Just like the Nike
struck a dissonant chord. At the Temple Parapet, Michael Jackson and Bubbles
of Apollo Epikourios in Bassae, the relief candy-coats the visual language of the
artists revolted bitterly against the Parthenon, but does so with a Bassae-like
unattainable and naive Parthenonic ideal. sarcasm that bluntly criticizes America’s
Although there are still visual references values of fame and wealth. The blaringly
to the choreographed war of the metopes, bright statue almost screams the
Bassae shows war as the bloody chaos it importance of its surface over all
really is (Fig. 1). Several years later, after intellectual content, recalling the tradition
the defeat of the Spartans at Sphacteria, of porcelain Meissen figurines—
the Athenians once again felt compelled decorative knick-knacks for wealthy
10 SURJ May 2002