Allison Smith - Böcker

Studies have demonstrated that choices in the use of language convey information that goes beyond the content of the words themselves. In many cases, how something is said matters as much as what is said. Using techniques collectively referred to as linguistic content analysis, researchers have studied topics ranging from how to identify if individuals are lying, to whether there are particular characteristics associated with leaders who take their nations to war. This book presents findings from a research effort funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate, which examined whether linguistic content analysis can indicate whether groups will engage in terrorist violence. Specifically, this project brought together several researchers who have developed manual and automated coding systems to analyse documents issued by Central al Qa’ida and al Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula, and two non-terrorist comparison groups. The intention has been to test whether linguistic content analysis can first, distinguish the language of terrorist groups from that of non-terrorist groups and second, provide indicators of specific terrorist attacks.This book was originally published as a Special Issue of Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict.

Contemporary artist Allison Smith's diverse creative practice critically engages with popular forms of historical reenactment through a variety of media, including sculpture, textiles, ceramics, and photography. Focusing on the handmade and performative aspects of history and material culture, Smith re-stages, refigures, and replays the role of traditional crafts in large-scale installations that reconsider the construction of collective memory and identity. For the core of Allison Smith: Needle Work, the artist created contemporary revisions of European and American gas masks from World War I and World War II. Smith used art supplies found at local fabric and craft retail stores to explore a range of masklike forms - from the ghoulish to the foolish - thereby questioning essential notions of camouflage and masquerade. This exhibition catalog, illustrated throughout in color, includes an essay that considers Smith's project in light of Peter Sloterdijk's "Terror from the Air", as well as in-depth interviews with the artist and the curator.

Studies have demonstrated that choices in the use of language convey information that goes beyond the content of the words themselves. In many cases, how something is said matters as much as what is said. Using techniques collectively referred to as linguistic content analysis, researchers have studied topics ranging from how to identify if individuals are lying, to whether there are particular characteristics associated with leaders who take their nations to war. This book presents findings from a research effort funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate, which examined whether linguistic content analysis can indicate whether groups will engage in terrorist violence. Specifically, this project brought together several researchers who have developed manual and automated coding systems to analyse documents issued by Central al Qa’ida and al Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula, and two non-terrorist comparison groups. The intention has been to test whether linguistic content analysis can first, distinguish the language of terrorist groups from that of non-terrorist groups and second, provide indicators of specific terrorist attacks.This book was originally published as a Special Issue of Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict.