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6 No.47 SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 SOCIE T Y WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA Photo by Mykola TYMCHENKO, The Day IhorPASICHNYK: “Den provides a powerful intellectual milieu” The rector of Ostroh Academy discusses changes in the education sector and new horizons of cooperation with his favorite publication By Oleksii KOSTIUCHENKO, Ostroh Den/The Day has cooperated with the National University of Ostroh Academy for 15 years. During this time, we have managed to implement many joint initiatives, including the Ostroh Club of Free Intellectual Communication for Youth which grew into an international project called the Ostroh Forum last year, a series of discussions which editor-in-chief of this newspaper Larysa Ivshyna has held with students, as well as students attending Den’s Summer School of Journalism. In addition, Ivshyna serves as co-chair of Ostroh Academy’s Supervisory Board. At the beginning of the new academic year, we discussed with the school’s rector, Hero of Ukraine, Professor Ihor Pasichnyk results of the 2018 admissions campaign, implementation of education reforms, and new horizons of cooperation between Den/The Day and Ostroh Academy. ● “OUR FRESHMEN COME FROM ALL REGIONS OF UKRAINE, INCLUDING KYIV” Professor, we know that Ostroh Academy admitted almost 500 freshmen this year. What can you say about this year’s admissions campaign? “Despite the demographic shortfall, we have successfully completed the admissions drive, especially in the leading educational and professional programs of Ostroh Academy, which are international relations, law, Germanic languages and literatures, and journalism. Also, we launched an educational and professional program in computer sciences this year, which applicants have been enthusiastic about. Each university has its own applicants, and therefore they know where they apply and what they will be required to do when studying. I am pleased to see that Ostroh Academy freshmen come from all regions of Ukraine, including Kyiv. Most importantly, we have admitted a highquality bunch of young people, because our freshmen are mostly straight-A secondary school students who have extremely high scores in their External Independent Testing (EIT) certificates. No wonder the Ostroh Academy ranked sixth in the ranking of Top 10 Universities with the Highest Average Score, compiled by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine on the basis of the 2018 admission campaign. We educate highly intellectual youths, which encourages our faculty to keep working on self-improvement as well. This movement’s logic allows Ostroh Academy to rank with the leading institutions of higher education in Ukraine. “Regarding the technical failures that bedeviled those filing electronic applications during the admissions campaign, they were insignificant and did not affect its overall progress. The only thing we would like is for the Ministry of Education to allow universities to independently determine the list of EIT subject scores used to determine winning applications for this or that educational and professional program, especially when admitting self-funded students.” ● “I WOULD NOT CALL THESE MEASURES REFORMS...” There are many different opinions about reforms as envisioned by the new Laws of Ukraine “On Higher Education” and “On Education.” Are these reforms being successfully implemented at Ostroh Academy? “When we use the word ‘reform,’ we mean primarily a change in the ideological component. I do not see the ideological component substantially changing in these reforms that are currently taking place in education. What I mean is that the curricula and programs must be permeated with such an important term as ‘patriotism,’ especially now that Ukraine is in a state of war. Therefore, I would not call these measures reforms, but rather changes in the education sector, which had to start with secondary education, and then move on to higher education, and not vice versa, because as a result, we are now getting school graduates who are not ready for college. Changes are clearly needed, especially in secondary education, which we have inherited unchanged from the Soviet Union. This old system can be defended only by a person who has not seen any alternative, and therefore, does not know that a child can go to school with joy and feel calm and comfortable there. The education minister declares that we are mainly using the Finnish educational system as our model. In my opinion, this is the right direction, so I fully support Lilia Hrynevych in this. “As for the EIT, apart from a positive impact it has had on combating corruption in the admissions, it has had a negative one as well. It turns out that we are preparing students not for life, but for passing the EIT. Therefore, people have to spend considerable effort and resources on tutoring, especially while attending grades 10 and 11. In the Scandinavian system of education, a school graduate may submit either a school diploma or an EIT certificate at the time of admission. Why do not we borrow such an algorithm? I believe that the EIT needs to be conducted primarily among graduates of higher education institutions in order to determine the quality of their training and make appropriate conclusions about the expediency of keeping this or that university in business. “We in Ostroh Academy are currently preparing to confirm its status as a national university, so we analyze the strengths and weaknesses of our work. Naturally, we share other universities’ issues, because many talented graduates go abroad. Therefore, we are trying to support, both morally and financially, the young intellectuals who stay and work for our university. We have created a unit charged with ensuring the quality of education in Ostroh Academy. We redesigned the curricula in accordance with the competence-based approach last year and carry out internal monitoring of the quality of education. We also plan to involve relevant international agencies in external monitoring, aiming to obtain, in the long run, an international certificate confirming that Ostroh Academy provides high-quality educational services.” Read more on our website Ascientific“rockconcert” By Maria PROKOPENKO, photos by Ruslan KANIUKA, The Day Can you imagine a full house at a popular science conference? Such that the tickets for one of its days were sold out a week before it even started. Well, how could it be otherwise when the speakers included experts from NASA, the Mars Society, the Copernicus Center, and leading Ukrainian scientists? So, the first day of the INSCIENCE popular science conference took place at the ArtHall D12 space in Kyiv on September 13. The title can be deciphered as “innovations + science.” The conference is just one direction of a major project of the same name, founded by Olena Skyrta and Anna Oriekhova. The project aims to popularize science, unite academics and business community, and create conducive conditions for the development of innovations. ● CHOOSING WHERE TO FLY During the first day, visitors had an opportunity to listen to presentations on space, astrophysics, bio- and nanotechnology. For instance, the first speaker was Jakub Bochinski – Polish astrophysicist, head of the educational laboratory at the Copernicus Science Center in Warsaw, and Poland’s representative on the Education Consultative Committee of the European Space Agency. He explained why the humanity needed to explore exoplanets. Incidentally, that same evening, Bochinski had a discussion with founder of the Mars Society Robert Zubrin, who advocates the idea of colonizing Mars literally in several decades from now. In parallel, an exhibition of high-tech startups and inventions made by both private companies and branches of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU) took place on the location. The next day’s planned events included speaker-led workshops dealing with fundraising, looking for grants, presenting projects and writing for cool academic journals, as well as pitching of startups and inventions, all of them to be held in the UNIT.City innovation park. ● TO PREVENT CHOKING ON THE FUMES In a break between the eminent speakers’ presentations, The Day’s reporter talked to participants of the high-tech startups and inventions exhibition. A small rectangular device with a screen, wires and a cap that is worn on a finger – this is a gadget that can help a physician determine the degree of carbon monoxide poisoning. “It is actually carbon monoxide, which mostly enters the human body with the fumes,” clarified Serhii Mamilov, the academic secretary of the NASU’s Institute of Applied Problems of Physics and Biophysics, who has been studying this topic since 1995. “Carbon monoxide poisoning is very hard to deal with, because there are no external signs. The level of carboxyhemoglobin, which blocks the supply of oxygen to cells, rises, so the body disconnects these cells. People say that somebody ‘has Exciting research and innovations discussed and demonstrated at the INSCIENCE conference choked on the fumes.’ During such a poisoning, the person goes to sleep, then full hypoxia sets in, and death comes. Pathologists even say that after such a poisoning, the dead person has red-colored skin and looks like they are still alive.” When it comes to extinguishing a fire, it is important to quickly determine the degree of the victims’ poisoning and to monitor the condition of the emergency responders. “And here we have developed this combined device that non-invasively assesses the level of carboxyhemoglobin in the blood, the status of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, and also has sensors determining the presence of CO in the air, including one exhaled by somebody. This is an option for a physician needing to determine the condition of the victim. We also planned to make a smaller device which would be attached to the firefighter’s ear, and would start beeping at some point, signaling that they have already inhaled too much of carbon monoxide and must leave the room,” Mamilov added. Scientists told the State Emergency Service about the device that measures the degree of carbon monoxide poisoning. “They say ‘it is good, but we have no money,’” Mamilov told us. “The device must be certified, and it costs money. Academic institutes do not get any money allocated for such purposes, as we are only allocated money for research. We have not found anyone willing to invest in it, even though there is only one mass-produced device in the world that measures the level of carboxyhemoglobin in the blood, and it alone. Ours measures more parameters. So we are trying to promote this design, have been entering it in various exhibitions, and our military has shown some interest as well.” ● A SMART MAP The EOS Platform company creates analytical tools to help clients get real-time images and analyses of satellite and other Earth observation data, which can be used for research as well as for business and public administration purposes. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, but the team is to a large extent Ukrainian, while designers and most of the research department are located in Ukraine. “We coordinate our activity with our head office in California, there are our representatives there who help promote the product in the Western market and track global data management trends, they also can help us set right priorities when designing our products,” said Mykola Kozyr, coordinator of one of EOS Platform’s projects, namely Vision. The Vision team develops toolkits for working with vector data, deals with visualization and analysis of vector data in a browser. “Vision is a website where one can add one’s information either in a convenient vector data format, or in the form of a regular Excel spreadsheet with coordinates,” Kozyr described his project. “In the browser, one can immediately reproduce this data, stylize it, or make a spatial query using a common interface. One can also make a thorough analysis of data and distribute a map that will be available as a single link for all Internet users. Effectively, it is a browser toolkit that allows one to quickly create high-quality vector maps.” Vision has an immense potential market, including businesses, primarily small and medium-sized ones, government organizations and NGOs. Actually, it is everyone who has data that needs to be analyzed and stylized. “One example of its use is cooperation with relevant ministries of Ukraine, we are establishing contacts right now,” Kozyr noted. “Decentralization is going on, new united communities are being formed, and with the help of our project, it is possible to display them on the map, add statistical indicators, like the number of residents, the level of accessibility of the Centers for Provision of Administrative Services, etc., and analyze it.” Read more on our website
WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA CULT URE No.47 SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 7 By Maria PROKOPENKO, photos by Mykola TYMCHENKO, The Day Fever on the streets and a pompous cold Empire style, new privileges for the third estate and the emergence of an empire which could rival the Roman one in grandeur, although it existed for a much shorter time… The history of France 200 years ago has a lot of figures that can be easily found in today’s Ukraine. The proof of this is the exhibit “Freedom vs. Empire” now being held at the National Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko Museum of Arts. Many of the items are exhibited for the first time. The bulk of the exhibits are graphic pictures, but what attracts the greatest attention is caricature. The exposition also displays porcelain, Wedgwood plaques, and other historical items. ● CONCEPT The project’s idea came up a few years ago. Oleksandra Isaikova, a senior research associate at the museum’s graphics section, who is, together with the section head Olena Shostak, the curator of this exhibit, calls it a cultural project, when various items show a profile of a certain era or phenomenon. Besides, Isaikova confesses, the deeper the museum got absorbed in the subject, the more it understood that this closely echoes with 20th-century history and today. The story unfolds from the beginning of the 1789 French Revolution until the exile of Napoleon to the island of Saint Helena, where he died. ● A “STOP IMAGE” OF THE SEIZURE OF THE BASTILLE One of the first exhibited works is Jacques-Louis Bance’s etching “The Storming of the Bastille.” “This composition was unbelievably popular. It was repeated many times, and later artists painted pictures on the basis of this engraving. For there were no photo cameras at that time, and everything is fixed here,” Isaikova says. French King Louis XVI seems to be looking at this scene – for an engraving by Johann von Mueller, done on the basis of the monarch’s grand portrait, hangs on the opposite wall. The museum people are saying that, as long as this image of the king was of great ideological importance, the engraver was specially invited to Paris to do a drawing. The master worked on the engraving for four years, but the work lost its importance in 1789 because the country’s political life changed radically. The engraving was first released in 1793 in Nuremberg, when the king and his wife Marie Antoinette were executed. ● REDISTRIBUTING OPPORTUNITIES HANDKERCHIEF “THE STAGE OF EUROPE IN DECEMBER 1812” “Caricature as a genre of art was finally formed in the 18th century. It is the French Revolution events that gave impetus to the development of French caricature in a situation of new freedoms and challenges,” Isaikova points out. The key theme of the cartoons drawn in 1789-91, at the beginning of the French Revolution, is the alliance of three estates – the clergy, the nobility, and commoners. “There were still illusions of being able to achieve equality and fraternity. This is why we can see a bit idyllic pictures here,” Isaikova adds. Here the three estates unite in a dance, and a good-natured caricature is accompanied with sentimental verses. And the next cartoon strikes a more threatening note: a third estate representative robs an embarrassed noble of his officer tunic, while a cleric looks on pensively. “Indeed, sir, I think your tunic of an officer will suit me better,” the caption says. This story dates back to the formation of the National Guard in Paris on July 14, 1789. The rank of an officer was usually a privilege of the nobility, but even a commoner could achieve a high rank in the National Guard, if he showed certain abilities and the leadership liked him. So this insti- The art of revolution tution became an important symbol of A new exhibit at the Khanenko Museum shows fighting for the third estate’s new opportunities. how people fought for freedom and ridiculed the empire PLATE. THE MANUFACTURE NATIONALE DE SEVRES, 1846 THE ULTIMATE IN CANNIBALISM, 1815 ● A CANNIBAL ON THE RIVERS OF BLOOD Among the displayed caricatures of the times of Napoleon’s First Empire, the rarest are those created by royalists. Often anonymous, they were published in England, where Napoleon was not liked, and then smuggled to and distributed in France in order to undermine the emperor’s prestige. “These sheets are from the album that belonged to Count Henryk Ilinski who had a manor near Zhytomyr,” Isaikova notes. “How they found themselves in our museum is a mystery. Anyway, there is seal on each sheet with the inscription ‘Count Henryk Ilinski’ and his personal coat of arms.” “The Ultimate in Cannibalism,” a caricature created in 1815 by Louis Francois Charon, parodies Napoleon’s fulldress portrait by the artist Jean August Dominique Ingres. “The full-dress portrait depicts Napoleon on the throne in a mantle and with a scepter. On the caricature, he also wears a mantle but is seated on a pile of dead soldiers and, besides, on the bank of a ‘river of blood,’ as the caption says. We can see cities reduced to dust and the attacking troops. My most favorite detail is a tricolor that shows the Phrygian cap, a symbol of freedom, surrounded by chains, while the caption says: ‘Disguised as freedom, I’ve chained you,’” Isaikova comments. Even if royalist masters did not sign, they could be easily recognized by style and content. Firstly, a right composition with a good drawing was typical of such works. A commoner could have hardly created this, while aristocratic education included art exercises. Another particularity is a huge number of captions in small print. According to Isaikova, the best examples of folk caricature comprise fewer inscriptions, for they should be understood by large masses of the illiterate populace. Thirdly, accusations against Napoleon of, say, crushing a royalist revolt usually found an echo in the old aristocracy only. ● A DANCE AROUND THE TREE OF FREEDOM “Soldiers of the French Revolutionary Army Are Erecting a Tree of Liberty in Zweibruecken on February 11, 1793” – the Ukrainian spectator will easily recognize the prototype of Kyiv’s notorious Christmas tree in this caricature by Jean Godefroy. The engraving was found this year in the museum’s repository. It depicts the French troops that are putting up a Tree of Liberty, a symbol of the French Revolution. This symbol came from the US and later spread all over the world. “The French revolutionary troops were in the habit of erecting a Tree of Liberty at every place they were coming to,” Isaikova says. “The tree on the engraving really looks like a Christmas tree, but it was usually an oak or any other tree. Sometimes it was just a stick adorned with ribbons. A Phrygian cap was put on the Liberty Tree’s top, and a celebration in honor of freedom and equality was held. It usually consisted of dances, such as carmagnole or farandole.” ● GREAT VICTORIES AND DEFEATS In the hall about the First Empire, you can see engravings that depict victories of Napoleon’s army, for example the outcome of the Battle of Austerlitz. Jean Godefroy made this engraving after Francois Gerard’s picture commissioned by Napoleon on the second day after his victory. The emperor could not help being proud of this event, for the enemy considerably outnumbered his army. As a result, the anti- French coalition broke up. The picture portrays Napoleon himself on a white horse the moment General Rapp arrives to announce the victory. In general, there are a lot of historical persons among the characters. Isaikova points at marshals Berthier and Bessieres, generals Duroc and Junot, and the captured Russian Prince Repnin-Volkonsky. Next to the image of a great victory is the print “The Death of Prince Jozef Poniatowski during the Crossing of the Elster on October 19, 1813” by Philibert Louis Debucourt, which shows the defeat of Napoleon’s troops in the Battle of Leipzig, after which the emperor abdicated the throne. The national hero of Poland, Jozef Poniatowski, died covering the French army’s retreat. ● HEALTH-FRIENDLY EMPIRE STYLE These battle scenes are in contrast with empire-style household stuffs, such as porcelain items by French and German manufacturers, a dainty clock, and plaques. Some of them, incidentally, bear the portraits of Napoleon’s enemies: British Prime Minister William Pitt, Admiral Nelson, and Admiral Hood. Isaikova notes that the key sign of the empire style is reference to classical antiquity and military subjects. Even those who resisted Napoleon liked this style which flourished in the emperor’s hour of triumph. Refined vessels contrast with rather a simple desk of the architect made in the first half of the 18th century. It is a representative of the then popular folding furniture called “a la Tronchin” – after physician Theodore Tronchin who invented it. “In particular, Tronchin healed spinal disorders architects complained about. This doctor understood that architects just sit uncomfortably at work and invented a desk at which one can work well without harming his back. The desk’s height can be adjusted by means of special legs. The angle of the desk top’s can also vary if necessary,” Isaikova says. ● DEATH, CRUTCHES, AND A WHITE CAT After the Leipzig defeat, Napoleon abdicated the throne and was exiled to the island of Elba. France saw the beginning of a short period of Restoration, when the Bourbons regained power. Closely watching the developments, Napoleon chose a favorable moment, landed in France with just a thousand of soldiers, and reaches Paris in two weeks. This signaled the so-called Hundred Days period, when Napoleon managed to stay in power again. The caricature “The Arrival of Nicolas Buonaparte at Tuileries on March 20, 1815” shows this moment. The emperor is accompanied by the figures of Death and Poverty, and crutches are falling out of the box on which it is written “War Compensations.” It is clear from the gloomy faces of commoners and bourgeois that these people do not believe Napoleon’s promises. The most good-natured character here is a well-fed white cat in the center who says: “I have velvet paws.” This French idiom describes a person who pretends to be kind but has a selfish motive. Read more on our website
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