Asian Research Journal of Arts & Social Sciences

Aims: To propose an artistic analysis of the evolution of Palestinian poster art via the analysis of the artwork of the artist Marwan Al-Alan. The artist Marwan Al-Alaan witnessed the tragedy of Palestine and expressed it through his paintings and posters, and he followed the events that Palestine had witnessed through his creative art works in this field.

Study Design: The study is a qualitative approach that used the descriptive analysis of literature and interview

Place and Duration of Study: The study is a descriptive discussion of the artwork of the Palestinian Artist Marwan Al-Allan. An interview conducted with the artist in October 2017.

Methodology: A non-structured interview was conducted with the desire artist to provide an insight of his work and its relation to the Palestinian cause. The author mainly contributes in choosing the proper artwork, which was analyzed for its artistic features and values.

Results: It is clear how influenced the Palestinian artist Marwan Al-Alan with his relation to the Palestinian land and with everything that it is going through from events, and how his style, and contents of his works change according to the nature of his connection to the event. The artist's influence with non-Palestinian environment, and its effect of this on his beliefs when he is outside of his country and there are no events related to home like it used to be when the artist was in Jordan during the eighties. It is noted that there is a qualitative difference in the symbols of artistic artwork. Symbols are used during the outbreak of the revolution and armed struggle, but disappeared during the first Intifada (insurrection) and the rock replaced the rifle. In addition, national identity symbols such as Kuffiyeh (Arab head cover) and the map of Palestine were present in some of the paintings and designs.

Conclusion: The symbolic indications of elements and the symbols used in the Palestinian graphic experience have contributed to preserving the identity of the Palestinian heritage, and transforming it to the outside world, though in difficulty, since the Palestinian artists lack the freedom to travel due to the Israeli occupation.

Aims: Understanding the connection between form and content in the artwork contributes in the development of art tools. In addition to the development of tools and effective trends when teaching this type of arts, which is capable of building a creative personality that, keeps the national cause pivotal in the artwork by preserving the popular heritage and the traditional heritage of the Palestinian people. Therefore, the study aims to investigate the relation between the content and form of the Palestinian posters in the recent decade.

Study Design and Methodology: The study is qualitative deductive research approach that relies of systematic content analysis based on descriptive discussion of the characteristics of the artwork. The last decade is chosen, as it is a significant series of events from the Palestinian struggle. Choosing the sample of poster and designing a tool for data analysis is main part of the study. 

Results: Posters of “”Gaza War 2012” time slot have a heavy use of text to deliver the message which weaken the poster design. This time slot is a drawback of the continuous enhancement of the linkage between form and content, between graphics, text, and message.  Posters of “”Gaza War 2014” time slot have a heavy use of colors and poster objects to deliver the message which weaken the poster design. While there is and advanced use of graphics components, but the impact on the content and message is not advanced in the same level. Posters of “”Al-Aqsa Intifada - 2017” time slot have a heavy use of colors and poster objects to deliver the message which weaken the poster design. While there is and advanced use of graphics components, but the impact on the content and message is not advanced in the same level.

Conclusion: Palestinian artists focused on the form more than the content when designing posters and the researcher attributed this to many reasons and factors. The most important of which are related to the Palestinian society and the changes that have taken place in the region where those variables were linked to social, economic, or political factors. The nature of the Palestinian struggle mad the Palestinian artists in a stressful and reacting act, therefore his artworks become more products of works of art, especially from art posters in response to the sudden events.

How is death conceptualized in Hausa and Yoruba languages? Are there any linguistic similarities or differences in the ways they break news of death? This paper notes that language is not carelessly used to establish interactional and transactional functions among interactants; rather it is creatively used depending on the context of usage. One such context of usage that involves more caution and wisdom is breaking news of death to the deceased loved ones. This particular context is mostly achieved through the use of some metaphors and idiomatic expressions to present, euphemistically, unpleasant news about the death of a person. There is no contrastive research effort, at present, which has examined conceptualization of death in Hausa and Yoruba languages for possible similarities and differences. In this paper, therefore, an attempt was made to conceptualize death as a domain through the cognitive, cultural and religious windows that are available in these native Nigerian languages. In the course of the investigation, the paper argues that even though metaphors are ubiquitous in every community and are presented in different ways in breaking news of the departed friends and enemies, there abound areas of metaphoric convergence and divergence in the description of death. The convergent and divergent points are results of the universality in the conceptualization of aspects of human body/experience such as death. In particular, we argued, that the similarities in the identified four source domains (journey, rest, garment and gate) and their differences are conditioned by cultural or religious constructs and contacts, and the linguistic variance between the two languages. Finally, the paper lends credence to the claim that primary metaphors are shared by all human languages.

The purpose of the study was to determine the levels of job satisfaction among staff of the College of Technology Education, Kumasi (COLTEK) of the University of Education, Winneba.  Descriptive research design was used for the study and questionnaire was used for data collection. The population consisted of 420 staff (teaching and non-teaching) of COLTEK as at 2018, made up of 131 senior members, 120 senior staff and 169 junior staff. Stratified random sampling was used to select 201 staff comprising 65 senior members, 55 senior staff and 81 junior staff for the study. The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) was used. Cross tabulation was used to compare satisfaction levels amongst groups of workers in the University. The major findings of the study were that staff of COLTEK was satisfied more intrinsically than extrinsically. The overall level of job satisfaction (intrinsic and extrinsic) among COLTEK staff was 69%. Majority of staff were males but females were more satisfied than their male counterparts. It was recommended that the College should generate more funds and complement the salary being paid by Government in the form of annual bonuses.

The study assessed the vulnerable groups and impact of   flooding on the rural farmers and the different adaptive measures taken to reduce the impact.

Aims: To examine the Statistical approach to Vulnerability by Farmers to the impact of flooding in Rivers State.

Study Design: Cross sectional survey design.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was carried out in Okirika, Obio Akpor, Opobo/Nkoro,  Andoni,  Ahoada West and Bonny Local government area all in Rivers state, between December 2016 and September 2017.

Methodology: The survey method was employed whilst 399 copies of questionnaire were used to elicit information from 399 respondents. Purposive sampling technique was employed to choose the six communities affected by flooding .Pearson product moment correlation coefficient was employed to test the hypothesis.

Results: The findings showed that there was a significant relationship between knowledge of flooding and adaptation strategies of the farmers; also the rural female farmers are the most vulnerable groups affected by the impact of flooding. The major underlying cause of flooding was found to be farming in flood prone   areas.   On the adaptation measures, the study showed that majority of the respondents perceived that building of critical infrastructures have been a crucial measure in checkmating the impacts of flood; haphazard construction of houses along flood plains to be major factor militating against the efficient management of flooding in the respective communities.

Conclusion: It was concluded that cluster groups should be organized so as to sensitize the people on the impact of flooding and possible adaptation measures.