title: Léon Blum

text: His brother René, the founder of the Ballet de l'Opéra à Monte Carlo, was arrested in Paris in 1942. He was deported to Auschwitz, where, according to the Vrba-Wetzler report, he was tortured and killed in September 1942.


title: Léon Blum

text: After the war, Léon Blum returned to politics, and was again briefly Prime Minister in the transitional postwar coalition government. He advocated an alliance between the center-left and the center-right parties in order to support the Fourth Republic against the Gaullists and the Communists.


title: Léon Blum

text: Although Blum's last government was very much an interim administration (lasting less than five weeks) it nevertheless succeeded in implementing a number of measures which helped to reduce the cost of living.


title: Léon Blum

text: Blum also served as Vice-Premier for one month in the summer of 1948 in the very short-lived government led by André Marie.


title: Léon Blum

text: Blum also served as an ambassador on a government loan mission to the United States, and as head of the French mission to UNESCO. He continued to write for "Le Populaire" until his death at Jouy-en-Josas, near Paris, on 30 March 1950. The kibbutz of Kfar Blum in northern Israel is named after him.


title: Alex Grey

text: Alex Grey (born November 29, 1953) is an American visual artist, author, teacher, and Vajrayana practitioner known for creating spiritual and psychedelic paintings. He works in multiple forms including performance art, process art, installation art, sculpture, visionary art, and painting. He is also on the board of advisors for the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, and is the Chair of Wisdom University's Sacred Art Department. He and his wife Allyson Grey are the co-founders of The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM), a non-profit organization in Wappingers Falls, New York.


title: Alex Grey

text: Grey was born on November 29, 1953, in Columbus, Ohio. His father was a graphic designer and artist. Grey was the middle child. He attended the Columbus College of Art and Design for two years before dropping out. Grey went on to study art the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts in Boston in 1975. At the end of art school, Grey met his wife Allyson at a party where they both ingested LSD and later bonded over the experience. He reported that the LSD was initially given to him by his professor.


title: Alex Grey

text: Grey learned anatomy by working to prepare cadavers for dissection at Harvard Medical School's anatomy department, a position he held for five years. He worked as a medical illustrator for approximately ten years in order to support his studio art practice. Grey also taught anatomy and figure sculpture at New York University for a period of ten years.


title: Alex Grey

text: Grey is best known for his psychedelic paintings and illustrations. In 1986 Grey's artwork was exhibited at the New Museum in New York City.


title: Alex Grey

text: Alex and Allyson Grey have worked collaboratively and have openly supported the use of entheogens. "Mending the Heart Net," an interactive installation artwork by Alex and Allyson Grey, was displayed at Baltimore's American Visionary Art Museum in 1998–99 as part of the exhibition "Love: Error and Eros".


title: Alex Grey

text: In 1999, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego held a mid-career retrospective of Grey's work titled "Sacred Mirrors: The Visionary Art of Alex Grey". That same year, Grey was noticed by guitarist Adam Jones of the progressive metal band Tool, who later featured his artwork on their albums "Lateralus" and "10,000 Days."


title: Alex Grey

text: Illustrations created by Grey have been selected to appear on albums for musical groups such as the Beastie Boys and Nirvana, as well as Meshuggah and The String Cheese Incident. "Newsweek" magazine, and the Discovery Channel, have featured his artwork. His images have been printed onto sheets of blotter acid and have been used on flyers to promote Rave events.


title: Alex Grey

text: Grey's artwork has been exhibited worldwide, including at Feature Inc., Tibet House US, Stux Gallery, P.S. 1, the Outsider Art Fair, the Grand Palais in Paris, and the Sao Paulo Biennial in Brazil.


title: Alex Grey

text: Grey has been a keynote speaker at conferences in Tokyo, Amsterdam, Basel, Barcelona and Manaus. In the 2012 book "Psychedelia", author Patrick Lundborg credits Grey as "the leading psychedelic artist of today, and also one of the foremost proponents of Visionary Art as a style."


title: Alex Grey

text: Since 2020, Alex Grey and Allyson Grey have created a podcast that features a variety of topics. Episodes include musings about religion, science, visionary art, nature, meditations, and full moon ceremonies.  Mr. and Mrs. Grey have interviewed artists, philosophers, YouTubers, musicians, and PhD candidates.


title: Alex Grey

text: Grey founded the Foundation for Sacred Mirrors (CoSM), a 501(c)3 as a place to permanently display the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors. Additionally, he created the Church of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM).


title: Alex Grey

text: CoSM allows visitors a place of respite and worship while admiring Grey’s artwork and writings. Other invited artists can display their works at the CoSM. According to CoSM’s website, “The mission of CoSM is to build an enduring sanctuary of visionary art to inspire a global community.”


title: Alex Grey

text: Located in Wappinger, New York, visitors can stroll the 40 acres while enjoying art by Alex Grey, Allison Grey, and Amy Senn, to name a few. Alex Grey, Allyson Grey, and various other artists created murals that can be found in the cafeteria at CoSM.  The property contains a 10 bedroom Victorian guest home that is decorated with art in the visionary style of Grey. A large amount of Grey’s work is displayed in Entheon, a converted carriage house on the property.  The Greys are currently raising funds for the completion of Entheon. Visitors will enter through bronze doors (see below) that display “Creating a Better World” by Alex Grey.


title: Alex Grey

text: While in Entheon, visitors can also admire Grey’s works "Kissing", "Copulating", "Pregnancy", "Birth", "Gaia", "Net of Being" (featured by the band Tool), and "Nursing".” Viewers will also be able to enter the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors.Grey's project The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM) first opened to the public in Chelsea, New York in 2004 and drew visionary and psychedelic art fans to the site for four years until its closure in December 2008. The CoSM featured 20 life-size paintings of standing human figures Grey created in the early 1980s.


title: Alex Grey

text: Grey's paintings are a blend of sacred, visionary art and postmodern art. He is best known for his paintings of glowing anatomical human bodies, images that "x-ray" the multiple layers of reality. His art is a complex integration of body, mind, and spirit. The "Sacred Mirrors", a life-sized series of 21 paintings, took 10 years to complete, and examines in detail the physical and metaphysical anatomy of the individual. "The inner body is meticulously rendered - not just anatomically precise but crystalline in its clarity". Many of his paintings include detailed representations of the skeleton, nervous system, cardiovascular system, and lymphatic system. Grey applies this multidimensional perspective to paint the universal human experience. His figures are shown in positions such as praying, meditating, kissing, copulating, pregnancy, birth, and death.


title: Alex Grey

text: Grey's work incorporates many religious symbols, including auras, chakras, and icons with geometric shapes and tessellations in natural, industrial, and multicultural situations. Grey's paintings are permeated with an intense and subtle light.


title: Alex Grey

text: "It is the light that is sublime in Grey’s oeuvre - which is the most important innovation in religious light since the Baroque - and that makes the mundane beings in them seem sublime, in every realistic detail of their exquisite being".


title: Alex Grey

text: His highly detailed paintings are spiritual and scientific in equal measure, revealing his psychedelic, spiritual and super-natural view of the human species.


title: Alex Grey

text: In 2002, Holland Cotter, "New York Times" art critic wrote, "Alex Grey's art, with its New Age symbolism and medical-illustration finesse, might be described as psychedelic realism, a kind of clinical approach to cosmic consciousness. In it, the human figure is rendered transparently with X-ray or CAT-scan eyes, the way Aldous Huxley saw a leaf when he was on mescaline. Every bone, organ and vein is detailed in refulgent color; objects and space are knitted together in dense, decorative linear webs."


title: Alex Grey

text: Grey published a large format art book, "Sacred Mirrors: The Visionary Art of Alex Grey". The book included essays on the significance of Grey's work by Ken Wilber, and by New York art critic, Carlo McCormick.


title: Alex Grey

text: Grey's "The Mission of Art", a philosophy of art, originally published in 1998 with a foreword by Ken Wilber was reissued in 2017. The book traces the evolution of human consciousness through art history, explores the role of an artist's intention and conscience, and reflects on the creative process as a spiritual path. He promotes the mystical potential of art and argues that the process of artistic creation has an important role to play in the enlightenment of both the artist and the broader culture.


title: Alex Grey

text: In "Transfigurations," published in 2004, Grey addresses his portrayals of light bodies, performance works, his collaborative relationship with Allyson Grey, and their quest to build a Chapel of Sacred Mirrors.


title: Alex Grey

text: Sounds True has released "The Visionary Artist", a CD of Grey's reflections on art as a spiritual practice.


title: Alex Grey

text: Grey co-edited the book, "Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics" (Chronicle Books, 2002, reprinted by Synergetic Press, 2015).


title: Alex Grey

text: Alex Grey has published a 10 volume journal that features his own artistic works and the works of other visionary thinkers and philosophers.


title: Alex Grey

text: As an advocate for sacred art, Grey was the subject of the 2004 documentary "ARTmind: the healing potential of sacred art."


title: Alex Grey

text: Grey and the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors gallery in New York City were featured in the 2006 documentary "CoSM The Movie", directed by Nick Krasnic.


title: Alex Grey

text: Grey appeared in the 2006 film "Entheogen: Awakening the Divine Within", a documentary about rediscovering an enchanted cosmos in the modern world.


title: Alex Grey

text: He also appeared in the film ", "in which he talked about the importance of the substance DMT in the past and present world, as well as describing some of his personal experiences with the substance and how it influenced his painting.


title: Alex Grey

text: In 2008, the "San Francisco Chronicle" reported that Grey lived in New York City with his wife, painter Allyson Grey. They have one daughter, Zena Grey. Grey is a member of the Integral Institute, formed by his friend Ken Wilber.


title: Alex Grey

text: The covers of "Sub Rosa", "Newsweek", "High Times", "Shaman's Drum", "Shambhala Sun", "Juxtapoz", "Vision", "Gnosis" and "The Healing Power of Neurofeedback: The Revolutionary LENS Technique for Restoring Optimal Brain Function" have featured Grey's artwork.


title: Alex Grey

text: The 1994 film "Brainscan" included a poster of one of the "Holy Fire" paintings in the main character's bedroom.


title: Alex Grey

text: The "Viking Youth Power Hour" interviewed Alex and Allyson Grey about the role of sacred art, the holy shenanigans of Burning Man, and the development of his process.


title: Alex Grey

text: In "Variable Star", a 2006 science fiction novel written by Spider Robinson based on a story outline by Robert A. Heinlein, Robinson devotes several pages to his protagonist's discovery of Grey's "Sacred Mirrors" and "Progress of the Soul" series, and to using them to enhance meditation.


title: Alex Grey

text: James Oroc, (2018) "The New Psychedelic Revolution: The Genesis of the Visionary Age", Inner Traditions/Bear,


title: Paris metropolitan area

text: The Paris metropolitan area () is a statistical area that describes the reach of commuter movement to and from Paris, France and its surrounding suburbs.


title: Paris metropolitan area

text: In 2020 France's national INSEE statistical bureau introduced the concept "aire d'attraction d'une ville" (functional area), replacing the former "aire urbaine" (urban area). A functional area consists of an urban cluster and the surrounding commuting zone. This concept is consistent with the functional urban area as defined by Eurostat.


title: Paris metropolitan area

text: Created and used from 1996 by France's national INSEE statistical bureau to match international demographic standards, the "aire urbaine" (literally: 'urban area') was a statistical unit that described the suburban development around centres of urban growth. In 2011, the INSEE reclassified its largest "aires urbaines" into "aires métropolitaines" (literally: metropolitan areas) and "grandes aires urbaines" ('large urban areas'). With this change, the Paris metropolitan area became the largest in France.


title: Paris metropolitan area

text: In France, use of the term 'Paris metropolitan area' is limited to demographic and statistical studies, and, to date, it is not used in economic statistics — the traditional administrative subdivisions "commune", "département", and "région" are still referenced for this — though the media will employ it when referring to the electoral tendencies of France's largest cities. In 2010 the government passed a law that invited France's largest city 'metropoles' to work together as an intercommunitary entities (more or less described by the INSEE concept), but the lack of response by the following year moved the government to make the cooperation for many of France's largest cities obligatory, and Paris became a case study all on its own.


title: Paris metropolitan area

text: This latter initiative created the "Métropole du Grand Paris" (official translation: 'Greater Paris metropolitan authority'), a Paris-centred intercommunal cooperation effort enacted from January 1, 2016. The territory it covers is much smaller than the INSEE 'Paris metropolitan area' statistical area: it includes Paris, its neighbouring three departments (or 'petite couronne'), and a few bordering communes in the departments beyond.


title: Paris metropolitan area

text: As of 2022, the INSEE statistical Paris metropolitan area covers 1,929 communes. With its , it extends significantly beyond Paris' administrative Île-de-France region (). Outside the Île-de-France region, it covers part of the departments Aisne, Aube, Eure, Eure-et-Loir, Loiret, Marne, Oise, Seine-Maritime and Yonne.


title: Paris metropolitan area

text: The Paris metropolitan area expands at each population census due to the rapid population growth in the Paris area. New communes (municipalities) surrounding Paris are included when they meet the commuter threshold required. At the 1968 census, the earliest date for which population figures were retrospectively computed for French "aire urbaines", the Paris metropolitan area had 8,368,459 inhabitants in an area that only encompassed 279 communes in central Île-de-France.


title: Paris metropolitan area

text: By the 1999 census the Paris metropolitan area was slightly larger than Île-de-France and had 11,174,743 inhabitants in 14,518 km². At the 2010 revision, the "aire urbaine" of Paris had 1,751 communes.


title: Paris metropolitan area

text: The area had a population of 13,064,617 as of 2018. Nearly 20% of France's population resides in the region.


title: Paris metropolitan area

text: The table below shows the population growth of the Paris metropolitan area ("aire urbaine"), i.e. the urban area ("pôle urbain") and the commuter belt ("couronne périurbaine") surrounding it. (Note: the area shown in red and pink in above):


title: The Qwaser of Stigmata

text: Sentai Filmworks licensed both seasons and the OVA for digital distribution and home video release in North America, releasing English subtitled DVD sets in 2012 and 2013.


title: The Qwaser of Stigmata

text: The story chronicles the school lives of Mafuyu Oribe and Tomo Yamanobe at the Japanese Eastern Orthodox school St. Mihailov Academy, where they have endured persecution and isolation from other students led by the daughter of the current dean Miyuri Tsujidou and her second-in-command Hana Katsuragi. Mafuyu and Tomo's lives take a drastic turn when they nurse the silver-haired Russian-born Alexander "Sasha" Nikolaevich Hell back to health upon encountering him unconscious one day during their home commute. Almost immediately, Sasha begins to repay Mafuyu and Tomo's kindness as he repels their tormentors; however, this does not change Sasha's background as a throw-away Qwaser from the Adepts, and that the Adepts have no qualms about making an absolute war zone of the Academy in order to acquire the Theotokos of Tsarytsin from Athos, who wishes to keep the icon's existence a secret from the world.


title: The Qwaser of Stigmata

text: The manga is written by Hiroyuki Yoshino and illustrated by Kenetsu Satō. "The Qwaser of Stigmata" was serialized by Akita Shoten in "Champion Red" magazine and the chapters collected in tankōbon. The first volume was released on December 20, 2006. The series ended on July 9, 2016, and was collected into 24 volumes.


title: The Qwaser of Stigmata

text: The manga series has been licensed internationally, translated, and published in several countries outside Japan. The series is licensed in France by Kazé, listing the first 14 volumes in their online catalog. In Italy the manga series is licensed by J-Pop Edizioni. and Ever Glory Publishing in Taiwan. Tokyopop licensed the series for the North American market and published the first four volumes; however, since resuming business in December 2012, the title has not been listed in their online catalog.


title: The Qwaser of Stigmata

text: A 24-episode anime television series titled was adapted from the manga series of the same name and broadcast as a censored version on Biglobe. An uncensored version of the series was streamed online. The first season was followed by a single episode OVA with the title that was released on DVD with the manga series volume 10. A 12-episode second season titled was broadcast in Japan in 2011 . The first and second seasons were also released on DVD in Japan.


title: The Qwaser of Stigmata

text: Sentai Filmworks licensed both seasons and the OVA in North America and released three English subtitled DVD sets between 2012 and 2013.


title: The Qwaser of Stigmata

text: Lantis has taken the opportunity presented by the "Seikon no Qwaser" anime to produce an Internet radio show starring


title: The Qwaser of Stigmata

text: Aki Toyosaki as Tomo Yamanobe and Yōko Hikasa as Hana Katsuragi alongside commercially releasing the five theme songs as indicated in the table below. They released also an original soundtrack composed by Tatsuya Kato on June 7, 2010.


title: The Qwaser of Stigmata

text: Reviewer Chris Beveridge gives the series' grades in the "B" range in The Fandom Post. Theron Martin, an anime reviewer for the Anime News Network, reviewed the DVD release collections 1 and 2 of the first season gives the series grades from C+ (story) to A− (music).


title: Jenny O'Hara

text: Patricia Joanne "Jenny" O'Hara (born February 24, 1942) is an American film, television, and stage actress. She is best known for Dixie in "My Sister Sam" (1986–1988), Janet Heffernan in "The King of Queens" (2001–2007), and Nita in "Big Love" (2006–2009).


title: Jenny O'Hara

text: O'Hara was born in Sonora, California. Her father, John B. O'Hara, was a salesman, and her mother, Edith (Hopkins) O'Hara, was a journalist and drama teacher, who founded and continued to run the 13th Street Repertory Company in New York City for many years before her death at age 103 in 2020. Jenny, her singer/actress younger sister Jill O'Hara, and her singer/guitarist brother Jack O'Hara, grew up amid their mother's pursuit of a theatrical career. John and Edith O'Hara eventually divorced. Edith O'Hara directed a children's theater in Warren, Pennsylvania, where the two daughters occasionally acted. Jenny O'Hara debuted on stage at age 5 at the Bushkill Playhouse in the Poconos.


title: Jenny O'Hara

text: She spent a year at Carnegie Tech (now part of Carnegie-Mellon University) in Pittsburgh and a summer playing in stock theater, and then came to New York to study with Lee Strasberg and Sanford Meisner. In 1964 she appeared on Broadway in the dramatic play "Dylan" at the Plymouth Theatre opposite Sir Alec Guinness, and in 1969 appeared in the musical "The Fig Leaves Are Falling" at the Broadhurst Theatre with Dorothy Loudon. Her other Broadway credits include "Promises, Promises", "The Iceman Cometh", and "The Odd Couple".


title: Jenny O'Hara

text: In 1970, O'Hara succeeded her younger sister, Jill (who had been nominated for a Tony Award) in the musical


title: Jenny O'Hara

text: "Promises, Promises". She graduated to television, both in series and made-for-TV features, including starring roles in: "", "The Return of the World's Greatest Detective", "Blind Ambition" and "Blinded by the Light" with Kristy McNichol.


title: Jenny O'Hara

text: She later worked in movies such as "Career Opportunities", "A Mother's Prayer", "Mystic River", "Matchstick Men", "Extract" and "Devil"; was part of the ensemble cast for the first season of "The Facts of Life" and the entire run of "My Sister Sam"; and had guest roles on television series such as "Kojak", "Charlie's Angels", "Quinn Martin's Tales of the Unexpected" (known in the United Kingdom as "Twist in the Tale"), "Barnaby Jones", "Barney Miller", "Law & Order", "The X-Files", "Beverly Hills, 90210", "NYPD Blue", "ER", "CHiPs", "House M.D.", "Boston Legal", "Reba", "Six Feet Under", and "Big Love". She has also made appearances over the years on various TV game shows.


title: Jenny O'Hara

text: On TV, O'Hara portrayed Ruth Manly on "Black Beauty", Lottie Murphy in "Costello", Rebecca in "Highcliffe Manor", Janet Heffernan in "The King of Queens", Muriel Spiegleman in "Live In", Dixie Randazzo in "My Sister Sam", and Lucy Dexter on "Secrets of Midland Heights". She also had roles in the 2009 film, "Extract", and the 2010 horror film, "Devil".


title: Jenny O'Hara

text: O'Hara directed the off-Broadway play "The Women Are No Different", which was about abuse of wives. In 1973, she owned and operated Jacob O'Hara Inc., a plant business in New York. She auctioned off plants and provided advice to people about caring for their plants.


title: Jenny O'Hara

text: O'Hara was married to August Dorr Watkins, an interior designer and former actor, from 1968 until their 1974 divorce. Since 1986, she has been married to British-born American actor Nick Ullett. They have two adult daughters.


title: Smack My Bitch Up

text: "Smack My Bitch Up" is a song by English rave group The Prodigy. It was released in November 1997 as the third and final single from their third album, "The Fat of the Land" (1997). In 2013, "Mixmag" readers voted it the third greatest dance track of all time.


title: Smack My Bitch Up

text: The song caused considerable controversy because of its suggestive title and explicit music video, which depicted scenes of drunken and drug-fuelled sexual assault and violence. The refrain, which consists only of the line "Change my pitch up/Smack my bitch up" was sampled from the song "Give the Drummer Some" by the Ultramagnetic MCs, and it also contains a brief medley of an unidentified female singer vocalising alap. In 2010, the song was voted as the most controversial of all-time in a survey conducted by PRS for Music.


title: Smack My Bitch Up

text: Prior to the release of the single, Liam Howlett was presented with three remixes of the title song, one by Jonny L, one by DJ Hype and one by Slacker. Howlett chose the DJ Hype remix to be released on the single. The Jonny L remix was released through a free CD that came along with an issue of "Muzik" magazine, while the Slacker remix was never officially released, although it surfaced on a rare and limited set of white labels.


title: Smack My Bitch Up

text: The lyrics "Change my pitch up / Smack my bitch up" are repeated through the whole song. The vocals are sampled and altered from the Ultramagnetic MCs song "Give the Drummer Some"; the original lyrics, performed by rapper Kool Keith, are: "Switch up change my pitch up" / "Smack my bitch up, like a pimp". Kool Keith had previously been sampled by the Prodigy in the track "Out of Space". The female vocals in "Smack My Bitch Up" were performed by Shahin Badar. Badar's vocals and harmonies are based on "Nana (The Dreaming)" performed by Sheila Chandra. Initially Liam Howlett used a direct sample of Chandra's song, but later had the vocal resung after sample clearance issues. The track also contains samples from "Funky Man" by Kool & the Gang, "In Memory Of" by Randy Weston, "Bulls on Parade" by Rage Against the Machine and "House of Rising Funk" by Afrique.


title: Smack My Bitch Up

text: British magazine "Music Week" gave "Smack My Bitch Up" five out of five, picking it as Single of the Week.


title: Smack My Bitch Up

text: The song reached the top 15 in several countries, such as Canada, New Zealand, Norway, and Sweden. The song performed best in Finland, securing the Prodigy their third Finnish number-one hit alongside "Firestarter" and "Breathe". Although not reaching the top 20 in those countries, "Smack My Bitch Up" was a hit in the Netherlands peaking at No. 22, in Australia reaching No. 41, and in the United States reaching No. 89. The single also returned to the "Billboard" charts after Flint's death, entering number 23 on its Dance/Electronic Digital Songs Sales chart in its 16 March 2019 issue.


title: Smack My Bitch Up

text: Director Jonas Åkerlund's music video for "Smack My Bitch Up" was rarely seen on television due to its controversial subject matter. The video, filmed entirely in first-person perspective, depicts a drug-and-alcohol-fueled night out through the eyes of a mostly-unseen character, and utilizes different camera movements, through a 35-mm film camera attached to director of photography Henrik Halvarson's head, corresponding with the protagonist's altered state of mind. This character first showers and dresses, then drinks vodka and sniffs cocaine before going out. At a bar, the protagonist has several more drinks, sexually assaults multiple women, violently attacks several men, and destroys the DJ's equipment before running to the restroom to vomit and inject intravenous drugs, resulting in a shaky and disoriented vision. Later, at a strip club, the protagonist drinks more alcohol while watching nude dancers, and eventually brings one stripper home to have sex. Finally, after they have sex, a look in the mirror reveals the protagonist to have been a young, blonde woman; as the song ends, she passes out on her bed.


title: Smack My Bitch Up

text: "There's a realness to that video. Most people have had nights out like that, off their head on coke and drink… It's not to everyone's taste, but not everything we do is. No radio station was gonna play the song, so we thought we'd make a video that no one would play either."


title: Smack My Bitch Up

text: The song's lyrics, often held as misogynistic, were defended by the band, saying that the lyrics were being misinterpreted and the song actually meant "...doing anything intensely..."


title: Smack My Bitch Up

text: "Smack My Bitch Up" was banned by the BBC and only a lyric-free version was played on BBC Radio 1. On the chart rundown, other tracks from the single release were played, and the title "Smack My Bitch Up" was not mentioned. On BBC World Service radio chart run down it was mentioned as "Smack" and was not played. Yet on the first episode of "Top of the Pops" in which it charted, the DJ Hype remix was played over the top 10 countdown, including the offending lyric of "Change my pitch up, smack my bitch up." On his 25 April 2009 Radio 1 Essential Mix, producer Sub Focus included his own drum and bass remix of "Smack My Bitch Up" which also included this lyric, though a warning preceded the track.


title: Smack My Bitch Up

text: "ITV Chart Show" refused to display the name of the song when the video was played during one of their episodes. Usually aired at 11.30 a.m., the show displayed the on-screen graphic as simply "The Prodigy"; the title of the song would usually appear underneath. This also meant they avoided playing a part of the song that used the offending lyric when playing the customary music video clip.


title: Smack My Bitch Up

text: It received daytime airplay on London indie station XFM and reached number one in their Top 30 chart.


title: Smack My Bitch Up

text: In 2016, a DJ for the Chicago Cubs played the song as pitcher Aroldis Chapman left the mound. Chapman had served a 29-game suspension under Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy. The Cubs apologized for the music choice and announced that they had fired the DJ.


title: Smack My Bitch Up

text: MTV initially restricted the video to late-night rotation, starting with a midnight debut on "120 Minutes" on 7 December 1997. The video garnered controversy for depiction of driving under the influence, drug use, violence (including street fighting and a hit-and-run incident), vandalism, nudity, and sex, and also drew criticism for misogyny, particularly from feminist groups such as the US National Organization for Women (NOW), accusing it of encouraging violence against women. On 22 December, MTV removed the video from rotation; a statement was posted on the network's official website the same day, which stated that protests from feminist organizations had nothing to do with the decision. Despite the controversy, the video was nominated for four awards in the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards, and eventually won Best Dance Video and Breakthrough Video. In 2002, MTV2 played the full unedited version as part of its special "Most Controversial Videos".


title: Smack My Bitch Up

text: The track Mindfields (Headrock Dub) has sometimes been mistakenly identified as "Abadosa dub" because of the graffiti lettering on the single's track list.


title: Smack My Bitch Up

text: In 2012, a parody video, by the now defunct YouTube channel TheCube95, went viral. The video featured a cat exhibiting similar reckless behavior to that of the woman in the original music video.


title: Smack My Bitch Up

text: In 2020, the game "Cyberpunk 2077" featured a scene where the main character, V, in the "Chipin' In" main quest, goes to clubs, gets tattoos, does drugs and drinks alcohol while being controlled by the character of Johnny Silverhand. The cutscene is in first-person perspective (just like most of the game) and has a corresponding song on the soundtrack titled "Smack My Chip Up", a clear reference to "Smack My Bitch Up". Released the same year, "Assassin's Creed Valhalla" includes a sidequest called "The Prodigy", where the player character boxes a clergyman, prompting a character named Keith to sing, "Smack my bishop!"


title: Capital punishment in Florida

text: Since 1976, the state has executed 99 convicted murderers, all at Florida State Prison. As of July 8, 2021, 327 offenders are awaiting execution.


title: Capital punishment in Florida

text: Florida performed its last pre-"Furman" execution in 1964. After the Supreme Court of the United States struck down all states' death penalty procedures in "Furman v. Georgia" (1972), essentially ruling the imposition of the death penalty at the same time as a guilty verdict unconstitutional, Florida was the first state to draft a newly written statute on August 12, 1972. After the Supreme Court permitted the death penalty once more in "Gregg v. Georgia" (1976), the state electrocuted John Arthur Spenkelink on May 25, 1979, which was the second execution in the U.S. since 1967, after that of Gary Gilmore on January 17, 1977, in Utah.


title: Capital punishment in Florida

text: Florida statute also provides the death penalty for capital drug trafficking and discharging or using a destructive device causing death. A provision for capital sexual battery was found unconstitutional in the 2008 U.S. Supreme Court case "Kennedy v. Louisiana". No one is on death row in the United States for drug trafficking.


title: Capital punishment in Florida

text: In "Hurst v. Florida" (2014), the United States Supreme Court struck down part of Florida's death penalty law, holding it was not sufficient for a judge to determine the aggravating facts to be used in considering a death sentence. The court ruled that this trial process violated the Sixth Amendment right to jury trial under "Ring v. Arizona" (2002). This was later held to benefit only to defendants sentenced by a non-unanimous jury from 2002 to 2014.


title: Capital punishment in Florida

text: Since March 2017, when the prosecution pursues the death penalty, the sentence is decided by the jury and must be unanimous.


title: Capital punishment in Florida

text: In case of a hung jury during the penalty phase of the trial, a life sentence is issued, even if a single juror opposed death (there is no retrial).


title: Capital punishment in Florida

text: Prior to 2014, the judge decided the sentence alone, and the jury gave only a non-binding advice. In March 2014, the Florida Legislature provided a 10-juror supermajority to issue a sentence of death. This was also challenged and in October 2014, the Florida Supreme Court struck down the law, finding that death sentences can only be handed down by a unanimous jury.


title: Capital punishment in Florida

text: On June 14, 2013, Governor Rick Scott signed the "Timely Justice Act of 2013". The law is designed to overhaul and speed up the process of capital punishment. It creates tighter time frames for a person sentenced to death to make appeals and post-conviction motions and imposes reporting requirements on case progress.


title: Capital punishment in Florida

text: However, the sentence can be carried out by electrocution if the offender request it. If lethal injection or electrocution is held unconstitutional, statutes authorize the use of "any constitutional method of execution" instead.


title: Capital punishment in Florida

text: The only execution chamber in Florida is located at Florida State Prison in Starke. When sentenced, male convicts who receive the death penalty are incarcerated at either Florida State Prison itself, or at Union Correctional Institution next door to Florida State Prison, while female convicts who are sentenced to death are incarcerated at Lowell Correctional Institution north of Ocala. Inmates are moved to the death row at Florida State Prison when their death warrant is signed.


title: Capital punishment in Florida

text: Florida used public hanging under a local jurisdiction, overseen and performed by the sheriffs of the counties where the crimes took place. However, in 1923, the Florida Legislature passed a law replacing hanging with the electric chair and stated that all future execution will be performed under state jurisdiction inside prisons. The electric chair became a subject of strong controversy in the 1990s after three executions received considerable media attention and were labeled as "botched" by opponents (Jesse Tafero in 1990, Pedro Medina in 1997, and Allen Lee Davis in 1999). While most states switched to the lethal injection, many politicians in Florida opposed giving up "Old Sparky", seeing it as a "deterrent". Finally, after the Davis execution, lethal injection was enabled as the default method.


title: Capital punishment in Florida

text: The Governor of Florida has the right to commute the death penalty, but only with positive recommendation of clemency from a Board, where they sit.


title: Capital punishment in Florida

text: Between 1925 and 1965, 57 commutations were granted out of 268 cases. Since 1972, when the death penalty was re-instituted, only six commutations have been granted, all under the administration of Governor Bob Graham.


title: Barred spiral galaxy

text: A barred spiral galaxy is a spiral galaxy with a central bar-shaped structure composed of stars. Bars are found in about two thirds of all spiral galaxies, and generally affect both the motions of stars and interstellar gas within spiral galaxies and can affect spiral arms as well. The Milky Way Galaxy, where the Solar System is located, is classified as a barred spiral galaxy.


title: Barred spiral galaxy

text: Edwin Hubble classified spiral galaxies of this type as "SB" (spiral, barred) in his Hubble sequence and arranged them into sub-categories based on how open the arms of the spiral are. SBa types feature tightly bound arms, while SBc types are at the other extreme and have loosely bound arms. SBb-type galaxies lie in between the two. SB0 is a barred lenticular galaxy. A new type, SBm, was subsequently created to describe somewhat irregular barred spirals, such as the Magellanic Clouds, which were once classified as irregular galaxies, but have since been found to contain barred spiral structures. Among other types in Hubble's classifications for the galaxies are the spiral galaxy, elliptical galaxy and irregular galaxy.


title: Barred spiral galaxy

text: Barred galaxies are apparently predominant, with surveys showing that up to two-thirds of all spiral galaxies contain a bar. The creation of the bar is generally thought to be the result of a density wave radiating from the center of the galaxy whose effects reshape the orbits of the inner stars. This effect builds over time to stars orbiting further out, which creates a self-perpetuating bar structure.


title: Barred spiral galaxy

text: The bar structure is believed to act as a type of stellar nursery, channeling gas inwards from the spiral arms through orbital resonance, fueling star birth in the vicinity of its center. This process is also thought to explain why many barred spiral galaxies have active galactic nuclei, such as that seen in the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy.


title: Barred spiral galaxy

text: Bars are thought to be temporary phenomena in the lives of spiral galaxies; the bar structures decay over time, transforming galaxies from barred spirals to more "regular" spiral patterns. Past a certain size the accumulated mass of the bar compromises the stability of the overall bar structure. Barred spiral galaxies with high mass accumulated in their center tend to have short, stubby bars. Since so many spiral galaxies have bar structures, it is likely that they are recurring phenomena in spiral galaxy development. The oscillating evolutionary cycle from spiral galaxy to barred spiral galaxy is thought to take on the average about two billion years.


title: Barred spiral galaxy

text: Recent studies have confirmed the idea that bars are a sign of galaxies reaching full maturity as the "formative years" end. A 2008 investigation found that only 20 percent of the spiral galaxies in the distant past possessed bars, compared with about 65 percent of their local counterparts.


title: Barred spiral galaxy

text: The general classification is "SB" (spiral barred). The sub-categories are based on how open or tight the arms of the spiral are. SBa types feature tightly bound arms. SBc types are at the other extreme and have loosely bound arms. SBb galaxies lie in between. SBm describes somewhat irregular barred spirals. SB0 is a barred lenticular galaxy.


title: David Hamilton (photographer)

text: David Hamilton (15 April 1933 – 25 November 2016) was a British photographer and film director best known for his photography of young women and girls, mostly in the nude. His signature soft focus style was called the "Hamilton Blur", which was erroneously thought to be achieved by smearing Vaseline on the lens of his camera. It was not created that way. Hamilton's images became part of an "art or pornography" debate.


title: David Hamilton (photographer)

text: In October 2016, French presenter Flavie Flament accused him of raping her in 1987, when she was 13 years old. In November 2016, French magazine "L'Obs" published anonymous accounts from three other former models affirmed to have been raped by Hamilton. Hamilton issued a statement threatening legal action against his accusers and claimed that he did not do anything wrong. On 25 November 2016, he was found dead in his Paris apartment by apparent suicide.


title: David Hamilton (photographer)

text: Hamilton was born in 1933 and grew up in London. His schooling was interrupted by World War II. As an evacuee, he spent some time in the countryside of Dorset, which inspired some of his work. After the war, Hamilton returned to London and finished his schooling.


title: David Hamilton (photographer)

text: His artistic skills began to emerge during a job at an architect's office. At age 20, he went to Paris, where he worked as a graphic designer for Peter Knapp of "Elle" magazine. After becoming known and successful, he was hired away from "Elle" by "Queen" magazine in London as art director. Hamilton soon realised his love for Paris, however, and after returning there became the art director of Printemps, the city's largest department store. While Hamilton was still employed at Printemps, he began doing commercial photography, and the dreamy, grainy style of his images quickly brought him success.


title: David Hamilton (photographer)

text: His photographs were in demand by other magazines such as "Réalités", "Twen" and "Photo". By the end of the 1960s, all of Hamilton's photographs appeared to have been snapped as if through a hazy mist. His further successes included dozens of photographic books with combined sales well into the millions; five feature films; countless magazine displays and museum and gallery exhibitions. His work was exhibited in every one of the first three years of The Photographers' Gallery, London, but were roundly condemned by Euan Duff for its "cliched pictorial symbolism, exploiting soft focus, pastel colours, country landscapes and old houses, old fashioned clothes and even white doves to give a phoney impression of heaIth-food ad naturalness; they are a sort of wholemeal stoneground pornography," exhibited "because the gallery needs the money." In December 1977, Images Gallery—a studio owned by Bob Persky at 11 East 57th Street in Manhattan—showed his photographs at the same time that "Bilitis" was released. At that time art critic Gene Thornton wrote in "The New York Times" that they reveal "the kind of ideal that regularly was expressed in the great paintings of the past". Hamilton has said that his work looks for "the candor of a lost paradise". In his book, "Contemporary Photographers", curator Christian Caujolle wrote that Hamilton worked only with two fixed devices: "a clear pictorial intention and a latent eroticism, ostensibly romantic, but asking for trouble".


title: David Hamilton (photographer)

text: In 1995, Hamilton said that people "have made contradiction of nudity and purity, sensuality and innocence, grace and spontaneity. I try to harmonize them, and that's my secret and the reason for my success". Besides depicting young women and girls, Hamilton composed photographs of flowers, men, landscapes, farm animals, pigeons and still lifes of fresh fruit. Several of his photographs look like oil paintings. Most of his work gives an impression of timelessness because of the absence of cars, modern buildings and advertisement boards. In 1976, Denise Couttès explained Hamilton's phenomenal success on page 6 of "The Best of David Hamilton". His images, she wrote, "express escapism. People can only escape from the violence and cruelty of the modern world through dreams and nostalgia".


title: David Hamilton (photographer)

text: His soft focus style came back into fashion at "Vogue", "Elle", and other fashion magazines beginning around 2003. Hamilton had been in a relationship with Mona Kristensen (b. 1950), a model in many of his early photobooks who made her screen debut in "Bilitis". Later, he married Gertrude Versyp, who co-designed "The Age of Innocence," but they divorced amicably.


title: David Hamilton (photographer)

text: Hamilton divided his time between Saint-Tropez and Paris. He had been enjoying a revival in popularity since 2005. In 2006, "David Hamilton", a collection of captioned photographs, and "Erotic Tales", which contains Hamilton's fictional short stories, were published.


title: David Hamilton (photographer)

text: At the time of his death, Hamilton had another book in the works, a monography of Montenegro. He was working with Jelica Bujić, who was his first and last photography assistant.


title: David Hamilton (photographer)

text: Much of Hamilton's work depicted early-teen girls, often nude, and he was the subject of some controversy including child pornography allegations, similar to those which the work of Sally Mann and Jock Sturges have attracted. For moral reasons, several of Hamilton's books were banned in South Africa.


title: David Hamilton (photographer)

text: In the late 1990s, conservative Christian groups in America unsuccessfully protested against bookstores selling Hamilton's photography books. As Chris Warmoll, writing for "The Guardian" in 2005, commented, "Hamilton's photographs have long been at the forefront of the 'is it art or pornography?' debate."


title: David Hamilton (photographer)

text: In 2005, a man in the UK was convicted for being in possession of 19,000 images of children, including photos by Hamilton. The images were found to be in the lowest indecency rating. In response, Glenn Holland, Hamilton's spokesman, said: "We are deeply saddened and disappointed by this, as David is one of the most successful art photographers the world has ever known. His books have sold millions".


title: David Hamilton (photographer)

text: In 2010, a man was convicted of level 1 child pornography for owning four books, including Hamilton's "The Age of Innocence" as well as "Still Time" by Sally Mann, which he purchased from a bookstore in Walthamstow, London. His conviction was overturned on appeal in 2011, with the judge calling his conviction "very unfair" and criticising the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for prosecuting him. The judge concluded that "If the [CPS] wishes to test whether the pictures in the books are indecent, the right way to deal with the matter is by way of prosecuting the publisher or retailer – not the individual purchaser."


title: David Hamilton (photographer)

text: On 22 October 2016, Thierry Ardisson, the host of the French talk-show "Salut les Terriens!" on TNT C8 channel, named Hamilton as the alleged rapist of now radio RTL presenter Flavie Flament. According to Flament, the acts were committed in 1987 when she was 13 years old, in Cap d'Agde, a naturist resort in Hérault, southern France. She mentions them in her novel "La consolation", a romanticised story based on her purported life experiences. After Flament publicly identified Hamilton, the book led to Hamilton being accused of being a predatory paedophile. Flament's brother has called certain revelations in her book into question. He also states that at the time Flavie complained of inappropriate behaviour by the photographer resulting in her parents stopping Hamilton from continuing with her. On 22 November 2016, Hamilton issued a statement threatening legal action against his accusers. When contacted by the French press agency AFP, Hamilton declared that he was not to blame. "I didn't do anything wrong," he said, while claiming only that he took a portrait of Flament, "29 or 30 years ago". Flament put the portrait on the cover of "La consolation".


title: David Hamilton (photographer)

text: On 17 November 2016, the weekly news magazine "L'Obs" published anonymous accounts by three other former models who affirmed to have been raped by Hamilton. One day later, Flament confirmed that Hamilton was the rapist whom she had not identified in her book.


title: David Hamilton (photographer)

text: On the evening of 25 November 2016, Hamilton's cleaning lady entered the apartment of the 83-year-old photographer at 41 Boulevard Montparnasse in southern Paris and found him dead with a plastic bag over his head and medications close at hand. The autopsy revealed that asphyxiation was the cause of death. Suicide is the leading hypothesis in the investigation.


title: Two Sentence Horror Stories

text: Two Sentence Horror Stories is an American anthology horror television series. It was acquired by The CW for an airing in the U.S. in mid-2019 and premiered on August 8, 2019, after being originally set up at CW Seed. On May 14, 2020, The CW renewed the series for a second season, which premiered on January 12, 2021. On September 17, 2020, the series was renewed for a third season, which premiered on January 16, 2022.


title: Two Sentence Horror Stories

text: The first season consists of nine 20-minute episodes, each of which has a self-contained plot and characters. The series began as a series of five short films before The CW adapted it as a regular series.


title: Maattrraan

text: Maattrraan () is a 2012 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film co-written and directed by K. V. Anand and produced by Kalpathi S. Aghoram, S. Ganesh and S. Suresh under the banner AGS Entertainment. It stars Suriya in dual roles, along with Kajal Aggarwal in the female lead while Sachin Khedekar, Tara and others play supporting roles. The dialogues were penned by the duo Suresh and Balakrishnan. The film features music composed by Harris Jayaraj, cinematography handled by Soundararajan, editing done by Anthony, respectively. V. Srinivas Mohan, handled the visual effects.


title: Maattrraan

text: The film was launched on 22 July 2011, along with the commencement of principal photography. A major portion of the film was shot in the Balkan region in countries like Croatia, Serbia, Albania and Macedonia, as well as Latvia and other parts of Europe, with rest of the scenes in India. "Maattrraan" was the first Indian film to use performance capture technology. Based on the Siamese twins concept, It was also touted to be the first Indian film based on conjoined twins, until two other films, with the same concept were launched later. The film was released on 12 October 2012. The film received mostly positive reviews for critics.


title: Maattrraan

text: Ramachandran is a geneticist who does not get due credit and funds for his research. He tries creating a human with several talents through baby designing, which leads to the birth of his sons, who are conjoined together above the waist. Since they share a common heart, doctors suggest a sacrificial surgery, to which their mother Sudha objects. They begin raising their children, Vimalan and Akilan. Vimalan and Akilan are poles apart in character, Vimalan being decent, intellectual, and good at studies; while Akhilan is happy-go-lucky, socializing, and poor at studies.


title: Maattrraan

text: In the following years, Ramachandran makes it big with Sudha's help. His company, Locus Lacto Products, makes a huge profit through their product 'Energion', the top-selling children's powdered milk energy drink in the market. Both Vimalan and Akilan are smitten by Anjali, who joins their company as a translator. She, along with her Russian friend Volga, a journalist, spend their time with the brothers. Meanwhile, Anjali falls for Vimalan. Akilan is jealous yet feels happy for them. Volga is then revealed to be a spy who tries to steal Energion's trade secrets. She is exposed and sent out by Ramachandran. She then takes the brothers to their cattle farm under the pretext of an interview, where she takes pictures and collects a milk sample from their farm.


title: Maattrraan

text: When Vimalan confronts Volga, she warns him that Energion is an adulterated food product and can lead to the death of thousands of children. She tells that an employ named Ajay Ratnam who joined their company was actually a spy, and because of his cheat work, he was murdered. She also exposes their father of killing their R&D department head, Raghu and setting the lab on fire, thereby destroying evidence. Consequently, she is murdered, but swallows a pen-drive containing pieces of evidence of the foul play before dying, and is thrown out of the building. Anjali acquires it from the person who performs Volga's autopsy. She hands the pen-drive over to Vimalan. Following this, Vimalan and Akilan are confronted by goons who try to get the pen-drive from him. Akilan is convinced that the attack was only meant for robbing them. During this fight, Vimalan suffers a huge blow on the head.


title: Maattrraan

text: Vimalan is declared brain dead, and his heart is transplanted into Akilan. After the twins are separated through a surgery that results in Vimalan's total death, Akilan and Anjali are depressed. Anjali moves on and falls for Akilan. Sudha is warned that Energion is adulterated, and she confronts her husband, who asks the food safety department to raid their company. To her surprise, Energion is just declared safe and hygienic. Meanwhile, Akilan discovers that his father is behind Vimalan's and Volga's deaths by tracking his assistant Dinesh. He gets hold of the pen-drive that contains several photos, where ingredients used as cattle feed at their farm are declared as very unsafe to eat. The beginning of the scheme is traced back to the European republic of Ukraine.


title: Maattrraan

text: Accompanied by Anjali, Akilan sets out to solve the mystery. They get her friend Ashok's help who is an official in the Indian Embassy in Ukraine, but he is killed by Dinesh, who followed them there. The photos are revealed to be athletes who were competing as "Unified team" under the Olympic flag in the 1992 Summer Olympics. The athletes were declared dead in a plane crash. The investigation leads them to the army medical research centre. The truth is then revealed that Energion was, in fact originally a steroid invented by Ramachandran to improve the performance of the athletes at the world games. Despite the country performing well, some athletes began suffering from similar health problems leading to their deaths, and that their death from a plane crash was faked to avoid national shame. They also learn that the adulterant in Energion could only be detected using an ionization enhancer. After being assaulted by a local mafia led by Dinesh, Akilan manages to kill him and takes the ingredients back to India.


title: Maattrraan

text: Once they are in India, Ramachandran is exposed and is about to be arrested. Akilan requests his father to surrender but finds out that he and his brother are just a result of their father's failed experiment and that he and his brother are actually made up of several talented people's DNA. Ramachandran states that he used the whole society as his research lab through Energion. His leg is then crushed by a rock after being unsuccessful in killing his son. Akilan leaves his father to die at the hands of rats which chew on his flesh. Akilan is conferred national recognition for bravery. He later marries Anjali, and they become parents to twins.


title: Maattrraan

text: During the post-production stage of "Ko", K V Anand announced that he would direct Suriya again after the success of "Ayan", further noting that it would be produced by AGS Entertainment and would begin once Suriya finished shooting for A R Murugadoss's sci-fi thriller "7aum Arivu". Anand had supposedly narrated the script of "Maatraan" to Suriya in 2009, but the project failed to launch then, due to the lack of technology. In an interview he stated that the film was inspired from the true story of Thailand-based Siamese twins Ying and Sang. Anand said, "I read an article about them, which inspired me to come up with a similar story. I imagined how would it be if two people, who are physically conjoined, completely differ in their ideologies". During the late production stage the title was slightly changed from "Maatraan" to "Maattrraan".


title: Maattrraan

text: Several actresses were considered for the lead female role including Taapsee Pannu, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Sonakshi Sinha and Anushka Sharma, with Kajal Aggarwal eventually grabbing the role. Kannada actress Tara was signed on to play the mother to Suriya's character. Prakash Raj was dropped from the film and was replaced by Sachin Khedekar who had played notable roles in "Yaavarum Nalam" and "Deiva Thirumagal". Daniel Balaji was said to be a part of the cast but he denied that he was a part of the crew. Hindi actor Milind Soman was also wrongly reported to be working for the film.


title: Maattrraan

text: "Maattrraan" was officially launched on 22 July 2011 in Chennai. The first schedule was held near the Pakistan border. In November 2011, the crew filmed a song in Latvia. A major portion of the film was shot in the Balkan region in countries like Croatia, Serbia, Albania, Macedonia and especially a large chunk in Latvia. Another large portion was filmed in sets erected at Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad. In February 2012, the team left for the United States to do special facial scanning led by VFX Supervisor V Srinivas Mohan. "Maattrraan" thus became the first Indian film to use performance capture technology. Isha Sharvani performed an item number for a song titled 'Theeyae Theeyae' which was shot at AVM Studios. Furthermore, a duet song featuring Kajal and Suriya was shot at Wai, a village near Pune in Maharashtra. Moreover, many CG scenes were shot at Balu Mahendra studios. A song featuring over 500 junior artists and Suriya was shot in Jodhpur, touted to be the last phase of canning songs. Next, filming for an important talkie portion was held at Bhuj in Gujarat near the safe zone along the Indo-Pakistani border that lasted for five days. K V Anand and cinematographer Soundararajan subsequently were in Madagascar, hunting for a forest location to shoot a song for the film. However, since Suriya could not afford filming there due to his other commitments, Anand decided to erect a similar set in India to create the same look as in Madagascar. The shooting which was to be held in the US, was cancelled in June 2012. The entire filming was wrapped up in Norway by completing the 'Naani Koni' song in outdoor scenes shot at Trollstigen, Geiranger, Atlanterhavsveien, Måløy and Aurlandsfjorden.


title: Maattrraan

text: Harris Jayaraj composed the soundtrack album and background score for "Maattrraan", in his third collaboration within K. V. Anand. It also marks his seventh collaboration with Suriya, after "Kaakha Kaakha", "Ghajini", "Vaaranam Aayiram", "Ayan", "Aadhavan" and "7aum Arivu". As per Anand's idea, he and Jayaraj sailed on a ship in the Mediterranean Sea where most of the songs were roughly composed. Harris roped in Chennai-based singer-songwriter Mili Nair, who appeared in the MTV based Coke Studio, to provide vocals for the teaser theme. Mili, who had previously sung for jingles, rendered the English lyrics used in the theme, and also included in the song "Rettai Kathirae".


title: Maattrraan

text: The soundtrack features five tracks that belong to varied genres. The album had lyrics written by Na. Muthukumar, Viveka, Pa. Vijay, Thamarai, Madhan Karky. The audio was mixed and mastered in the US. Harris Jayaraj, in May 2012, revealed that 85% of work in the film's music was complete, and later stated that the audio would be released on 23 July 2012, coinciding with Suriya's birthday. However, Anand confirmed that the album would release in August. In June 2012, Sony Music acquired the audio rights for . Later, Harris handed the master copy of the audio on 15 July 2012.


title: Maattrraan

text: The makers announced that the audio launch of the film will take place on Singapore on 9 August 2012, which also coincided with the National Day of Singapore. The track list was released on 31 July 2012. The audio was released at the Singapore Expo in Singapore, in the presence of several noted personalities from the film industry, along with the technical crew and cast of the film. The event was witnessed around 10,000 fans. A live performance was given by Harris Jayaraj and singers Karthik, MK Balaji, Vijay Prakash, Krish and Charulatha Mani, Velmurugan, Suchitra and Sunitha Sarathy, and dance performance for the songs were done by Anjali, Neetu Chandra, Poorna, Dhanshika and Russian actress Julia Bliss, who performed in the film, and was choreographed by Brinda. The first copy of the audio CD was released by Gautham Vasudev Menon, N. Lingusamy and Hari and received it to the crew members. The event's satellite rights were secured by Jaya TV for an undisclosed price, and was premiered on 2 September 2012 at 2:30 p.m. IST.


title: Maattrraan

text: The soundtrack received generally positive reviews from critics. IndiaGlitz wrote, "Harris Jayaraj has not disappointed, the music composer has equipped 'Maattrraan' with songs that make an instant impact", and called the album "an interesting treat to the fans". Milliblog reviewed "Maatran scrapes through Harris’ time warp!" Moviecrow reviewed "Harris and Suriya combination have always spelled success starting from "Kaakha Kaakha, Ghajini, Vaaranam Aayiram, Aadhavan" and "7aum Arivu". Similarly, KV Anand's association with Harris since Chellamey (as cinematographer), Ayan and Ko, elevated with great picturization, have all been chart busters. Maattrraan will further strengthen this long enviable track record of this successful commercial trio." In contrast, BehindWoods said "On screen, KV Anand's magic might do the trick but the songs as such aren't special. Most of them fall under the heard before category...", and gave it 2 out of 5 stars. Music Aloud gave 6.5 out of 10 and stated "Pretty much like their previous outing together, Harris Jayaraj produces one exceptional song for K V Anand in Maattrraan and the rest is average."


title: Maattrraan

text: The soundtrack album of the Telugu version titled "Brothers" was released through Aditya Music. Initially, the audio was planned to release on 22 September 2012. But the audio release event for the film was held on 29 September 2012, at Taj Krishna Hotel in Hyderabad, with Karthi, Bellamkonda Suresh, V. V. Vinayak and Santhosh Srinivas, attending the event along with the cast and crew. The soundtrack album, unlike the Tamil version, has five tracks, reusing the same set of singers. Chandrabose and Vanamali penned the song lyrics. Indiaglitz reviewed it as "Harris Jayaraj here gets to score songs in different musical genres and he doesn't disappoint. The lead actors and the set-up of the film demanded a snazzy output, while the story needed a portrayal of emotions. Backed by a young team of lyricists and singers, Harris has dished out an interesting treat to the fans."


title: Maattrraan

text: Eros International acquired the film's worldwide distribution rights for , in May 2012 and later announced that "Maattrraan" will release on 15 August 2012, coinciding with Independence Day. Later, the makers announced that the film will be released on 19 September 2012, which coincides the festival of Ganesh Chathurthi. However, the film's production company, AGS Entertainment confirmed that the film will be released on 12 October 2012. The film was dubbed in Telugu as "Brothers", with Karthi providing voiceover for Suriya's character in the film.


title: Maattrraan

text: "Maattrraan" was touted to become Suriya's biggest release till date, which was released over 1,400 prints. The film opened in over 1,200 screens worldwide on the release date. In France, the film was released by Aanaa Films in 14 different screens across the country. In the US, ATMUS Entertainment distributed the film in 63 centers, making it the widest release of a Tamil film in the country. The film was censored on 3 October 2012 and it was given a U certificate by the Censor Board without cuts. This film was dubbed in Telugu as "Brothers" and in Hindi as "No 1 Judwaa – The Unbreakable" in 2014.


title: Maattrraan

text: The film's Telugu version "Brothers" was distributed by Bellamkonda Suresh's Multi-Dimensional Films for . The rights of Karnataka and Kerala regions were acquired by Mandya Srikanth for and respectively. The movie's overseas rights were sold for to Gemini Film Circuit.


title: Maattrraan

text: The first poster of the film was released on early November 2011. The film's first teaser was released on 11 July 2012. The second teaser of the film was released on 9 August 2012, during the film's audio launch. The VFX making of the film was released on 18 September 2012. The third teaser of the film was premiered on Jaya TV on 3 October 2012, and was simultaneously uploaded on YouTube.


title: Maattrraan

text: "The Times of India" gave the film 3.5 out of 5 stars, commenting that it had a "running time of close to three hours, and editor Anthony should have persevered with the director to reduce it as a lot of time is expended on scenes that could have been easily sacrificed to make it a much more compact package. Or maybe Anand also needed a "Maattrraan" (alternate) to step in when he lost his way". "IndiaGlitz" rated it 3.5 out of 5 stars, saying that it was "worth a watch for Suriya's acting and some great groundwork done by K. V. Anand", further adding that "the second half does a shabby job of wrapping things up, but it still gives you an unique experience overall". Sify's critic commented: "If you are looking at a time pass entertainer, walk into K. V. Anand’s "Maattrraan". It is a fun ride till interval and in the second half there is a neat message told with lot of cinematic liberties. Suriya holds the film together as the script tends to waver towards the climax". BehindWoods.com gave it 3 out of 5 stars, while stating: "There is a pattern in K. V. Anand’s films. There is a definite social message which he masquerades with commercial components and packages it interestingly. "Maattrraan" also follows the route and it delivers what it promises- a rich and stylish entertainer with an interesting story". Oneindia rated the film 3 out of 5 stars, stating that it had "rare characters of conjoined twins but has a predictable story and appears like a second part of Suriya's last movie "7aum Arivu" directed by A. R. Murugadoss" and that it was "good, not brilliant". Pavithra Srinivasan of "Rediff" gave the film 2.5 out of 5 stars, concluding that it had a "great premise, great characters and actors who could have pulled off a complicated story. Sadly, the movie never capitalises on its strengths". S Viswanath from "Deccan Herald" cited that "despite its interesting theme, the film is, however, done in by its rather long running time as also painfully sluggish first half seeking to establish the plot but brimming with comic capers", summing up that it was "an ensemble entertainer but could have been much better". Haricharan Pudipeddi of "NowRunning" gave the film 2.5/5 stars, stating that it "only promises the potential of Suriya, but fails to arouse interest due to its stretched second half and lacklustre narration". "The New Indian Express"' critic Malini Mannath claimed that the film "with its whimsical screenplay and lackadaisical narration, turns out to be a huge disappointment", going on to add that it "smacks of overconfidence, and an utter disregard for the sense and sensibility of a viewer". J Hurtado of "Twitch Film" said, ""Maatraan" is two decent films split down the middle with little connective tissue to bind them, not unlike its protagonists" and concluded, "See it at your own risk".


title: Maattrraan

text: In response to most of the reviews which mainly criticised the "film being very long and dragging towards the climax", "Maattrraan" was re-edited to make itself "more slick and racy, to appeal to a larger section of the audience". 1 minute and 23 seconds of the first half and 19 minutes and 30 seconds of the second half were trimmed from the film. The trimmed version earned a favourable response from fans, who called it "more racy and entertaining".


title: Maattrraan

text: "Maattrraan" had a good opening at the domestic box office, collecting nett in Tamil Nadu, with in Chennai alone in its opening weekend. The film also collected in Kerala in the opening weekend. The film stayed in the first position for three consecutive weeks in Chennai but was later overtaken by horror film "Pizza" at the box office. The film was declared as an 'Above average' by "Behindwoods". The film is reported to have completed a 50-day run in a few theatres across Tamil Nadu.


title: Maattrraan

text: "Maattrraan" had a good opening at the Overseas box office, collecting in the UK and in the USA in the opening weekend. The film overall collected , and in UK and the US, respectively. The film also collected US$1,124,812 from Malaysia box office.


title: Maattrraan

text: When "Maattrraan" was touted to be the first Indian film based on conjoined twins, it created a stir after two other films with the same concept – "Chaarulatha" and "Iruvan", were launched later. It was reported to have shared the same storyline as "Charulatha", but director K V Anand however denied the reports and said, "After reading such reports, I watched the original version ("Charulatha" was based on 2007 Thai movie "Alone"). There isn’t any connection between the two movies, except for the fact that the protagonists are conjoined twins."


title: Maattrraan

text: Later reports claimed that the film was inspired by another conjoined twins-themed American film "Stuck on You", with the posters of both films also being described as similar to each other. Lead actor Suriya however denied this and said, "I have been seeing comments and links on social networking sites saying that "Maattrraan" is based on some world movie. Only after seeing those links, I came to know that such a film even exists!"


title: Maattrraan

text: The film was banned in the state of Karnataka due to tension between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the Kaveri River water dispute.


title: Maattrraan

text: Vivek and Cell Murugan play conjoined twins in "Killadi" (2015) inspired by Akhilan and Vimalan from the film. The song "Rettai Kathirae" is reused.


title: Maattrraan

text: An internet meme began trending on social media platforms in late May 2020, in which Suriya's films were coincided with real life incidents, that happened around the world. Here, Russia's ban in 2018 Winter Olympics, was predicted in the film.


title: Ghosts 'n Goblins

text: Ghosts 'n Goblins, known in Japan as , is a run-and-gun platform video game series created by Tokuro Fujiwara and developed by Capcom. The first entry in the series was "Ghosts 'n Goblins", released in arcades on July 7, 1985. The series has subsequently been ported to and released on a variety of personal computers, game consoles and mobile platforms and spawned several sequels and spin-offs.


title: Ghosts 'n Goblins

text: The main series focuses on the knight Arthur's quest to save princess Prin-Prin from the demon king Astaroth. The primary spin-offs include the "Gargoyle's Quest" and "" game series.


title: Ghosts 'n Goblins

text: The series as a whole has sold over 4.4 million units as of June 30, 2022 and stands as the 13th best-selling Capcom game franchise. It has gained a reputation among players for its high level of difficulty.


title: Ghosts 'n Goblins

text: The most recent game in the series, "Ghosts 'n Goblins Resurrection", was released on February 25, 2021.


title: Ghosts 'n Goblins

text: The main series consists of run and gun platformers with players controlling a knight named Arthur who must battle through hordes of the undead in order to rescue the kidnapped princess Prin-Prin (also known as Guinevere, or not named altogether depending on the game/translation) from the demon king Astaroth. Arthur's health and magic level is represented by the armor he wears, with Arthur capable of finding better armor and various weapons in treasure chests hidden throughout the game stages; even so, regardless of how powerful the armor Arthur wears is, he will lose it with a single hit. Once losing his armor Arthur is left only wearing his boxers (an image which has become iconic for the series). In most of the main series, once completing the game the player is forced to re-play the game's stages at a higher difficulty level in order to receive the game's "true" ending. The series has gained a reputation among gamers for its high level of difficulty.


title: Ghosts 'n Goblins

text: The "Gargoyle's Quest" series is a group of side-scrolling adventure games with mild role-playing video game elements. Players control the character of Firebrand, a character who is based on an enemy in the main series.


title: Ghosts 'n Goblins

text: "Maximo" is a 3D hack and slash platformer series developed by Capcom for the PlayStation 2. The games are based on the "Ghosts 'n Goblins" universe and feature original character designs by Japanese illustrator Susumu Matsushita.


title: Ghosts 'n Goblins

text: Capcom released a series of "Ghosts 'n Goblins"-themed Flash based mini-games for "Capcom Party"; a subscription service related to its "Capcom Park" i-mode mobile app.


title: Ghosts 'n Goblins

text: In 1986, "Ghosts'n Goblins" was adapted into a manga by Sawada Yukio and published by Wan Pakku Comics, released as a five-part story in the anthology series .


title: Ghosts 'n Goblins

text: "Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts" and "Gargoyle's Quest" are two of the video games featured in the manga titled "Rock'n Game Boy", by Shigeto Ikehara and published by Comic BomBom October 1989 to December 1991.


title: Ghosts 'n Goblins

text: "Ghosts 'n Goblins", was one of the video games adapted into a manga titled "Famicom Ryu" (1985-1987) and "Nekketsu! Famicom Shounendan" (1986-1987), published by Comic Coro Coro.


title: Ghosts 'n Goblins

text: "Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts" is one of the video games featuring in the manga titled "Cyber Boy", by Nagai Noriaki, Published by Coro Coro Comic and Shogakukan, from 1991 to 1993.


title: Ghosts 'n Goblins

text: The series would later be included in the Archie Comics "Worlds Unite" crossover along with various other Capcom and Sega franchises, with the "Sonic the Hedgehog" and "Mega Man" comic lines providing the backdrop.


title: Ghosts 'n Goblins

text: The "Ghosts 'n Goblins" franchise was created by Tokuro Fujiwara (also known for producing games in the "Mega Man" franchise) and is produced by Capcom. Toshio Arima served as lead programmer and Ayako Mori composed the score for the original arcade release in 1985.


title: Ghosts 'n Goblins

text: The original score for the initial arcade release of "Ghosts 'n Goblins" was composed by Ayako Mori. The music developed for the game's first level, entitled "Graveyard, Forest & Ice Palace," has since become recognized as the official theme for the franchise, appearing in a re-mixed form in every entry of the main series as well as making cameo appearances in other Capcom games such as "Mega Man 7" and "Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3". Tamayo Kawamoto composed the score for "Ghouls 'n Ghosts", the next entry in the series, followed by Mari Yamaguchi for "Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts" (with Tomohiro Masuda and Nobuhiko Isa handling the GBA re-release), and Masaya Tsunemoto and Kazuhiro Kotani for "Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins". The score for the "Gargoyle's Quest" spin-off series was composed by Harumi Fujita (I) and Yuki Iwai (II) (with Norihiko Togashi handling the Game Boy re-release of "Gargoyle's Quest II").


title: Ghosts 'n Goblins

text: To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the franchise, Capcom released the "Makaimura Ongakutaizen" in Japan on December 28, 2005. This 7 disc boxed set featured over 350 tracks and was a complete soundtrack for the series to date featuring the complete scores of not only every entry of the "Ghosts 'n Goblins" and "Gargoyle's Quest" series, but also of every PC and home console port of each game therein. This collection quickly sold out and was praised by various video game music review sites. In reference to the series' soundtrack as a whole, one reviewer noted:


title: Ghosts 'n Goblins

text: With each of Makaimura's original scores, Capcom's composers and sound programmers pushed various consoles to the limits to produce high quality scores. With "Makaimura", "Daimakaimura", and "Choumakaimura", the series evolved admirably to refine a dark action-packed orchestral sound that fitted the scenes of the games. The classic series is especially strong thematically, remembered not just for the first stage theme but for other striking compositions. The series has demonstrated plenty of diversity over the years with the Baroque-influenced approaches to "Makaimura for WonderSwan" and the Red Arremer titles, the exceptionally ambient score to "Demon's Blazon Makaimura Monshou Hen", and the dabs of avant-garde and rock influence in the classic series. All these factors considered, the series has secured the legacy of being one of the most musically and technologically influential video game franchises.


title: Ghosts 'n Goblins

text: Though selling for around $100 upon its release, the collection was highly sought out by fans and continues to fetch a high price on Internet auction sites such as eBay.


title: Ghosts 'n Goblins

text: The "Ghosts 'n Goblins" franchise stands as Capcom's 13th best-selling game franchise, having sold over 4.2 million units. It is generally well regarded by critics and somewhat notorious for its traditional high level of difficulty. Additionally, the franchise frequently makes cameo appearances (the character of Arthur in particular) in other Capcom titles, the latest of which being "Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3".


title: Ghosts 'n Goblins

text: The main series starring Sir Arthur and Princess Prin-Prin was initially released as an arcade title in 1985 and subsequently re-released and ported to a variety of home computer consoles. It continues as an active intellectual property for Capcom with its latest release in 2021 on the Nintendo Switch. The NES release of "Ghosts 'n Goblins" was rated as the 54th best NES game of all time by IGN and the 124th best game on a Nintendo console by Nintendo Power. The game is considered by GameTrailers to be the world's second most difficult game ever made. As of 2008, the original "Ghosts 'n Goblins" is Capcom's 18th best selling title, having sold over 1.6 million units. Similarly, "Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts" is Capcom's 42nd best selling title, having sold over 1 million units.


title: Ghosts 'n Goblins

text: The main series went on a minor hiatus after the release of "Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts" in 1991. Capcom general producer Noritaka Funamizu explained that the "Ghosts 'n Goblins" games take a long time to develop and were not popular in Japan; as a result, Capcom had taken a net loss on previous installments and were wary of producing a new entry. With the exception of the largely overlooked "Makaimura for WonderSwan" which was released only in Japan, and a re-release of "Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts" on the Game Boy Advance, the main "Ghosts 'n Goblins" series did not see a major release until "Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins" on the PlayStation Portable in 2006. The return of the series received mixed to positive reviews. GameSpot noted that the entry would appeal to fans of the original, but that many of the old-school game mechanics including level design and jump mechanics, along with the traditional level of difficulty, may not appeal to the current generation of gamers. These concerns were echoed by such sites as GameDaily and AtomicGamer. Other sites such as IGN and GameCritics praised this adherence to the series' old-school mechanics and traditional level of difficulty, while noting that the new health, armor, and waypoint systems as well as tiered difficulty options went a long way in adjusting the difficulty for new gamers. "Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins" was also the first entry in the series to employ 3D graphics, a fact praised by most reviewers: "The 3D graphics enhance the 2D gameplay by giving the world a sense of depth without interfering with the gameplay, and the whole package simply glows with vibrant color and lighting effects."


title: Ghosts 'n Goblins

text: The "Gargoyle's Quest" spin-off saw a series of releases between 1990 and 1994. The introduction of RPG elements in "Gargoyle's Quest" was praised, however reviewers noted an uneven level of difficulty. "Demon's Crest" was highly regarded as "one of the finest action titles on SNES, and without a doubt the crowning achievement of the "Ghosts 'n Goblins" line" by critics; however, it went largely unnoticed in terms of sales being labeled a "major flop". Similarly, the "Maximo" spin-off sub-series was initially well-received, though criticized for being difficult and inaccessible. "Ghosts to Glory" (2001) achieved PlayStation 2 Greatest Hits status in the United States, selling more than 400,000 units in North America. IGN ranked the game as the 6th most difficult game on the PlayStation 2. A sequel, "Maximo vs. Army of Zin" was released in 2003 with better critical reception but faltering sales, ultimately leading to the cancellation of "Maximo 3". The future of both the "Gargoyles Quest" and "Maximo" spin-off series is unknown.


title: Video games as an art form

text: The concept of video games as a form of art is a commonly debated topic within the entertainment industry. Though video games have been afforded legal protection as creative works by the Supreme Court of the United States, the philosophical proposition that video games are works of art remains in question, even when considering the contribution of expressive elements such as acting, visuals, stories, interaction and music. Even art games, games purposely designed to be a work of creative expression, have been challenged as works of art by some critics.


title: Video games as an art form

text: In 1983, the video game magazine "Video Games Player" stated that video games "are as much an art form as any other field of entertainment".


title: Video games as an art form

text: The earliest institutional consideration of the video game as an art form came in the late 1980s when art museums began retrospective displays of then outdated first and second generation games. In exhibitions such as the Museum of the Moving Image's 1989 "Hot Circuits: A Video Arcade", video games were showcased as preformed works whose quality as art came from the intent of the curator to display them as art. Further explorations of this theme were set up in the late 1990s and early 2000s with exhibitions like the Walker Art Center's "Beyond Interface" (1998), the online "Cracking the Maze - Game Plug-Ins as Hacker Art" (1999), the UCI Beall Centre's "Shift-Ctrl" (2000), and a number of shows in 2001.


title: Video games as an art form

text: The concept of the video game as a Duchamp-style readymade or as found object resonated with early developers of the art game. In her 2003 Digital Arts and Culture paper, "Arcade Classics Span Art? Current Trends in the Art Game Genre", professor Tiffany Holmes noted that a significant emerging trend within the digital art community was the development of playable video game pieces referencing or paying homage to earlier classic works like "Breakout", "Asteroids", "Pac-Man", and "Burgertime". In modifying the code of simplistic early games or by creating art mods for more complex games like "Quake", the art game genre emerged from the intersection of commercial games and contemporary digital art.


title: Video games as an art form

text: At the 2010 Art History of Games conference in Atlanta, Georgia, professor Celia Pearce further noted that alongside Duchamp's art productions, the Fluxus movement of the 1960s, and most immediately the New Games Movement had paved the way for more modern "art games". Works such as Lantz' "Pac Manhattan", according to Pearce, have become something like performance art pieces. Most recently, a strong overlap has developed between art games and indie games. This meeting of the art game movement and the indie game movement is important according to Professor Pearce, insofar as it brings art games to more eyes and allows for greater potential to explore in indie games.


title: Video games as an art form

text: In March 2006, the French Minister of Culture first characterized video games as cultural goods and as "a form of artistic expression", granting the industry a tax subsidy and inducting two French game designers (Michel Ancel, Frédérick Raynal) and one Japanese game designer (Shigeru Miyamoto) into the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In May 2011, the United States National Endowment for the Arts, in accepting grants for art projects for 2012, expanded the allowable projects to include "interactive games", furthering the recognition of video games as an art form. Similarly, the United States Supreme Court ruled that video games were protected speech like other forms of art in the June 2011 decision for "Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association". In Germany, prior to August 2018, the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK) software ratings body enforced "Strafgesetzbuch" (German code) section 86a as outlined by the German government, which banned the sale of games that contained imagery of extremist groups such as Nazis; while Section 86a allowed for use of these images in artistic and scientific works, video games were not seen to fall within an artistic use. On August 9, 2018, the German government agreed to recognize some of the artistic nature of video games and softened the restriction on Section 86a, allowing the USK to consider games with such imagery as long as they fell within the social adequacy clause of Section 86a.


title: Video games as an art form

text: The lines between video games and art become blurred when exhibitions fit the labels of both game and interactive art. The Smithsonian American Art Museum held an exhibit in 2012, entitled "The Art of Video Games", which was designed to demonstrate the artistic nature of video games, including the impact of older works and the subsequent influence of video games on creative culture. The Smithsonian later added "Flower" and "Halo 2600", games from this collection, as permanent exhibits within the museum. Similarly, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City aims to collect forty historically important video games in their original format to exhibit, showcasing video game interaction design as part of a broader effort to "celebrate gaming as an artistic medium". The annual "Into the Pixel" art exhibit held at the time of the Electronic Entertainment Expo highlights video game art selected by a panel of both video game and art industry professionals.


title: Video games as an art form

text: The Tribeca Film Festival, while having featured video games in the past, had its first Tribeca Games Award at the 2021 event.


title: Video games as an art form

text: Video games have been of interest in philosophical aesthetics and the philosophy of the arts since at least the mid-2000s where a growing body of literature typically examines video games in the context of traditional philosophical questions concerning the arts. One such question is whether video games are a form of art. In a 2005 essay in the journal "Contemporary Aesthetics", "Are Video Games Art?", the philosopher Aaron Smuts argued that "by any major definition of art many modern video games should be considered art" The New Zealand philosopher Grant Tavinor's 2009 book "The Art of Videogames" argues that when considered under disjunctive definitions or cluster accounts that have been employed to address the question of the definition of art itself, that "though they have their own non-artistic historical and conceptual precedents, videogames sit in an appropriate conceptual relationship to uncontested artworks and count as art". In a later paper Tavinor also argues that despite ontological differences to other examples in the category, video games count as examples of what the philosopher Noël Carroll has referred to as "mass art". Dominic McIver Lopes, a philosopher at the University of British Columbia, writing in a book on computer art, gives similar reasons to consider video games as a form of art, though also noting that their characteristic interactivity may mean that in comparison with established forms of art such as architecture and music, each "realizes positive aesthetic properties in its own way".


title: Video games as an art form

text: Following on from these initial philosophical accounts of video games as art, video games have become an established topic in the philosophy of the arts, appearing as a frequent topic in aesthetics journals such as "The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism"; receiving their own entry in the "Oxford Encyclopedia of Aesthetics"; and appearing in multiple readers and collections of works in philosophical aesthetics.


title: Video games as an art form

text: Much of the literature has now turned from the question of whether video games are art, to the question of what kind of art form they are. University of St Andrews philosopher Berys Gaut considers video games to be a case of "interactive cinema". In "The Aesthetics of Videogames", a 2018 collection of philosophical essays on games edited by Tavinor and Jon Robson, several philosophers consider the kind of art form games are, and whether they include characteristic or unique artistic interpretative practices. In his chapter, "Appreciating videogames", Zach Jurgensen, while accepting that previous philosophical arguments that videogames are art are "convincing", finds that they typically neglect gameplay in their accounts, and "what makes studying videogames as works of art worthwhile is grounded partly in our understanding of them as games" In 2020, University of Utah philosophy professor C. Thi Nguyen published "Games: Agency as Art" to examine the concept of video games as art in the context of the wider consideration of non-electronic games.


title: Video games as an art form

text: While many video games are recognized as art for their visual imagery and storytelling, another class of games has gained attention for creating an emotional experience for the player, generally by having the user role-play as a character under a stress-inducing situation, covering topics associated with poverty, sexuality, and physical and mental illnesses. Such games are considered to be examples of an empathy game, loosely described by Patrick Begley of the "Sydney Morning Herald" as a game that "asks players to inhabit their character's emotional worlds". For example, "Papers, Please" is a game ostensibly about being a border agent checking passports and other travel documents in a fictional Eastern Bloc country, with the player-character's pay reflecting how few mistakes they made and going to feed and house their family. The game requires the player to make decisions about letting in certain people who may not have all their proper papers but have dire reason to be allowed through such as to be reunited with their own loved ones, at the cost of their own pay and well-being of their family.


title: Video games as an art form

text: The characterization of games as works of art has been controversial. While recognizing that games may contain artistic elements in their traditional forms such as graphic art, music, and story, several notable figures have advanced the position that games are not artworks, and, according to them, may never be capable of being called art.


title: Video games as an art form

text: American courts first began examining the question of whether video games were entitled to constitutional guarantees of free speech as under the First Amendment in strings of cases starting around 1982 related to ordinances that limited minors from buying video games or from video game arcades, such as "America's Best Family Showplace Corp. v. City of New York, Dept. of Bldgs." These ordinances and regulations had come from a moral panic around the potential for violence and addictive behavior of video games and arcades in the wake of the golden age of the arcade, with games like "Space Invaders" and "Pac-Man" drawing in millions in revenue from minors. Precedent began to be established for finding that video games were no more expressive than pinball, chess, board- or card-games, or organized sports, and thus could not be considered protected speech. The bulk of these cases declined to grant video games protection under the First Amendment and ruled in favor of the municipalities that their concern about limiting behavior was a more compelling concern at the time. However, these early cases brought into question the potential that video games may be more advanced than just pinball machines due to the virtual worlds they could represent, and as technology advanced, could change the precedence.


title: Video games as an art form

text: The release of "Mortal Kombat" intensified debate around violence in video games, and the U.S. Congress held hearings in 1993 and 1994 criticizing the industry for lack of a ratings system. The hearings prompted the formation of the Interactive Digital Software Association in 1994 – later renamed as the Entertainment Software Association – and the creation of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) to stave off proposed legislation to regulate the industry. While the ESRB system was voluntarily, retailers agreed to not sell unrated games or those rated "Adults Only" while restricting sales of "Mature" games to minors.


title: Video games as an art form

text: Despite the ESRB system, several states attempted to create laws that enforced the ESRB ratings on the basis that violent video games were harmful to minors. A series of cases at federal district and circuit courts starting in 2000 which challenged these ordinances and restrictions began an alteration of precedent of the nature of expression of video games. In these cases, the courts identified two elements of video games; that they were expressive works that had the potential to be protected by the First Amendment, and that under review using Miller test, video games were not seen as obscene, and thus were not restricted from being protected works. The Seventh Circuit case "American Amusement Machine Ass'n v. Kendrick" in 2001 is considered to be the most definitive basis of the new precedent set by these cases, in which Judge Richard Posner recognized that obscenity, related to sexualized content, was separate from violent content. Posner reasoned that, unlike cases involving obscene content, there was no similar prurient interest to support excluding violent content from First Amendment protection. Applying this reasoning, video games were treated by reviewing courts as protected works under the First Amendment, with decisions generally ruling that ordinances blocking minors from playing or purchasing them were unconstitutional. However, in the absence of Supreme Court precedent, these decisions did not set nationwide standards.


title: Video games as an art form

text: Violence in video games remained a concern for parents, advocates, and lawmakers. Following the "Hot Coffee" discovery in "" in 2005, and the ESRB's of "" in 2006, both which revealed sexually explicit content within the game's assets that were only viewable with mods, new federal and state laws were proposed to further enforce the ESRB's system as well as to mandate processes for the ESRB. Other states passed laws to enforce sales of games based on the ESRB ratings, most designed to prevent sales of games rated "Mature" to minors by fining retailer. Video game industry trade groups sued to block these laws, generally succeeding based on similar precedence from the early 2000 cases that video games, even violent ones, were protected speech.


title: Video games as an art form

text: In 2011's "Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association", which was based on a similar law in California to block the sales of mature video games to minors, the United States Supreme Court ruled that games are entitled to First Amendment protection, with the majority opinion reading, "Like the protected books, plays, and movies that preceded them, video games communicate ideas—and even social messages—through many familiar literary devices (such as characters, dialogue, plot, and music) and through features distinctive to the medium (such as the player's interaction with the virtual world). That suffices to confer First Amendment protection."


title: Video games as an art form

text: Emerging art forms depend upon existing communities for recognition and legitimization, even as they compete with those incumbents for ideological and material support. Games have faced suspicion from critics of established media, just as film, television, and comics were once doubted. Keith Stewart, games editor for "The Guardian", sees mainstream media as preferring to approach games from the angle of the human stories surrounding them – making indie games with identifiable creators attractive to journalists. Critical communities devoted to games have likewise embraced auteur theory of games' artistic potential as underpinned by the creative visions of sole creators. John Lanchester of the "London Review of Books" noted that even as video games become a larger market by revenues compared to films and books, the amount of attention given to video games is generally delegated to a limited set of sources and do not readily enter the "cultural discourse".


title: Video games as an art form

text: Auteur theory has led to some overlap between indie status and artistic cachet, with critics praising stylistic choices in indie games, when those same choices would be deplored in a commercial game. Rather than defending the medium as a whole, proponents of art games attempt to create a separate milieu opposed to video games they accept to be low culture. In practice, indie auteurs often receive commercial backing, while mainstream creators such as Shigeru Miyamoto and Peter Molyneux are increasingly viewed as auteurs as well. The conflation of indieness and artistry has been criticized by some, including Anna Anthropy, Lucy Kellaway, and Jim Munroe, who argue the characteristics that distinguish indie games from the mainstream are not inherently artistic.