Impacts of the Moving Image
Storytelling and Intervals
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Cedric van Eenoo
Storytelling is regarded as a key concept of art. Aristotle’s theory is regarded by many scholars as the cornerstone of the tradition of narrative composition articulated in three acts (Prince 1974). Additionally, Russian formalists Vladimir Propp and Viktor Shklovsky make a distinction between two correlated concepts: Fabula and Syuzhet (Cobley 2001). In contemporary cinema, this ultimately defines tone and style (Bordwell 1985). But the three-fold paradigm can also be observed in Japanese culture, with the additional element of rhythm, which is of importance in its relation to time. In this regard, filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky approaches the cinematic experience by manipulating the perception of duration (Tarkovsky 1989), generating intervals in the chronology of the movie. These narrative intervals are the focus of a new approach to storytelling. They create an unspoken language, with the instruments of cinematography, rhythm, and sound as alternate characters of the story. Besides, in Gilles Deleuze’s view, an image is infused with time, and contains present and past (Deleuze 1989). Therefore, a narrative configuration composed of gaps encompasses a different dimension of time and space, allowing contemplation to become the interface between the audience and the film. In this regard, the Japanese concept of Ma describes how hiatuses enable an intensity of vision, thus creating an immersive experience (Arata 1979). The story can operate on a level where the emotional attributes of the images and sound work of the film become quintessential.
Disrupting Embodied Prejudice with Art and the Moving Image
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Edmond Kilpatrick
Through autobiographical, arts based inquiry, I sensitized my awareness to solid and fluid sensations in my chest that I associated with prejudice and vulnerability and analyzed them phenomenologically in embodied writing. I entertained the supposition that sensations of fluid movement could be associated with vulnerability, and solid unyielding sensations could be associated with bias or prejudice. I found images that elicited these responses and became aware how implicit bias influenced my sensation response. I investigated how sensations elicited by implicit bias could be changed. While watching a short video interview of a gentleman who shared his struggles with addiction and poverty I noticed solid, resistant sensations in my chest that betrayed my efforts to empathize with him. I strategically inserted short dance and contemporary art clips throughout the video that disrupted my solid sensations with fluid ones. The intervention of art altered the habitually resistant way I engaged with him and moved me emotionally and sensationally. The original educational video was intended to create empathy and advocate for addiction support services. Despite my best intentions, it did not challenge the implicit biases that barred me from internalizing its message. This research reinforces how our embodied prejudices need to be addressed along with our cognitive ones for a new understanding and experience to occur. If public education programs and media tools are to have a transformative impact on their audience, the use of art can be a potent element to communicate the message in a full-bodied way.
Wonderwomen: Embodied Confidence in Popular Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Alethea Alexander
Wonder Woman bursts into the hearts of millions of moviegoers inspired by the power of the female superhero. It was satisfying to see a woman join in WWI battle and defeat a God, but narrative alone did not make Wonder Woman the seventeenth highest-grossing film of all time. I suggest that the superhero’s physicality defined her strength and empowered female viewers. This presentation will explore how specific ways of moving, both individually and as observed in others’ bodies, can affect confidence and empowerment in women. Drawing from oral and movement interviews with twelve nationally diverse dancers at the University of Washington, and a socioemotional application of Laban Movement Analysis, my research reveals preliminary findings about physical expressions of confidence and empowerment shared among women. I suggest that free-flowing, circular movements initiated from the gut and spine are associated with feelings of safety and self-assuredness, and that direct, bound movements initiated from distal points evoke empowerment. I argue that movement patterns share an intrinsic relationship with emotional states, and therefore movement matters. Furthermore, because of our mirror neuron system, we physically experience the movement of bodies observed both on and off-screen. Not only is it fun to watch Wonder Woman plow through battlefields, but we also experience kinesthetic empathy for her confident strides and punches. I will argue that movement is an under-recognized keystone that could clarify and catalyze empowerment for women.
A Shooting Star or Flying Start?: Interactive Documentary Film Making Practice and Storytelling in Contemporary China
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Chanjun Mu
Interactive documentary film, emerged in 1980s and thrived in past decade under the growth of digital media technologies, is a new genre that narrates and the real and enables audience interact with reality through interactive digital technologies. There is increasing concern on this genre from vast western film agencies (e.g. the National Film Board of Canada, the Irish Film Board), international film forums and festivals (e.g. International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, Sundance Film Festival) and broadcasters (e.g. Arte, BBC, The Guardian, France 24), facilitating the interactive documentary film making practice and spreading the trend all over the world. Researchers from varied fields engage in this promising territory as well (e.g. MIT’s Open Documentary Lab, the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam’s Doc-Lab). Chinese interactive documentary film practice came to the stage in a relatively late time, but it expanded in past decade and brought about artworks and projects unremittingly. Many questions are not yet clear like the features and making practice situation of Chinese interactive documentary film. As a profound segment of jigsaw picture mapping the global interactive digital art practice, the investigation about Chinese interactive documentary film should not be absent. To remedy the gap, this research offers some insights into two aspects: the historical procedure in which Chinese documentary started to employ and be reshaped by emerging digital technologies; the current situation and features of Chinese interactive documentary film. For methodology, a systematic literature review in relevant field and case studies of Chinese contemporary representative artworks and projects will be conducted.
