Technically Speaking (Asynchronous)
Ballet Education for the Web 2.0 Generation: A Case for Using the Web to Teach Elementary and Middle-School Ballet Students View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Alejandra Iannone
Today’s elementary-school and middle-school aged ballet students were born in the era of Web 2.0. Their everyday lives are significantly engaged with digital technology. Though scholars have addressed related topics, no one has looked at how ballet can be taught to the Web 2.0 generation using twenty-first-century technologies. Recent shifts to online dance classes in light of COVID-19 related dance school closures demonstrate this research would help satisfy a real and present need - developing best practices for Web-based ballet instruction. The purpose of this paper is to help fill that gap in the literature. This author: first, calls for a shift in the pedagogical approach to teaching elementary-school and middle-school aged students ballet; next, suggests incorporating student-generated Time-lapse, Tutorial, Fan Review and Commentary, and Reaction YouTube videos; then, argues that a cross-pollinated approach could help teachers develop specific skills, while also extending existing research on twenty-first-century technology as relates to cultural identity, pedagogical approaches in arts education, and other pedagogical approaches.
Digital Technology and Individual Identity
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Eveline Boudreau
An individual’s inner sense of identity, of who they are, can be at odds with their role in society. My recent art works have focused on how extensive use of digital social media can affect an individual user’s perception of their own identity. This paper reviews how I used my performance art as a conceptual framework to interact with a cross-section of people, raising related questions and ideas about identity. My main objective was to obtain a better understanding of how the use of social media and other digital technology can change one’s sense of identity. Literature, including recent work from a phenomenological and existential perspective, is reviewed relative to this project and the concerns it raises. Digital technology can be wonderful, but it is also infused with inner paradoxes; internet users can find themselves in a difficult landscape, left to navigate in a liminal space without distinctions.
Transmedial Aesthetics: Printmaking Re-forms Senses in a Technological World View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Monika Lukowska, Sarah Robinson
TRANSMEDIAL — a research project with accompanying international printmaking exhibition examines diverse intersections between art, technology, and science. It considers Ruth Pelzer-Montada’s call for acknowledging the ‘distinct sensory properties of both old and new technologies’ in printmaking and interprets the impact of digital technology in broader terms of ‘institutional, critical and cultural discourses.’ Curated by artists and researchers Monika Lukowska and Sarah Robinson, TRANSMEDIAL asks; in what way has technology embedded itself within the printmaking medium not only technically but also conceptually and what are its implications for audiences, artists and the field? A critical analysis of multisensorial modes of engagement generated by artworks, where aesthetics originate from algorithmic data, sound waves and robotics is situated alongside seminal writing in the field by theoreticians Frieder Nake and Ruth Pelzer-Montada. Sharing an affinity of expanding technologies Marta Pogorzelec’s lenticular prints, Magda Stawarska-Beavan’s soundscapes, and Jo Stockham’s rotating 3D Bot-heads lie between online and material worlds blending digital data with printmaking materiality. In addition, TRANSMEDIAL exhibition showcases Paul Catanese’s performative drone technology with lithography, innovative approaches to matter by Santiago Pérez’s digital design fabrication and chemistry expert Susanne Klein’s reinvention of 19th century Woodburytype, amongst others. TRANSMEDIAL initiates a dialogue about the future of printmaking medium currently navigating from physical matrices to a space that mergers digital data, traditional process and new technologies. By looking at how the viewer’s experience changed and how print as a medium has been challenged this research aim positions printmaking in a rapidly changing global art context.
Using Experiential Marketing Theory to Develop Event Marketing Strategies for Classical Music Concert Venues View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jordan Gamble
In 2018, classical music represented just 2.1% of digital and 2.7% of physical album sales worldwide. The classical music industry continues to rely on its live sector for economic sustainability. However, the proliferation of other live music genres and entertainment choices means that classical music venues need to take more strategic approaches to growing audiences and remaining relevant in today’s competitive digital climate. Consequently, gaining a better understanding of how classical music venues develop marketing strategies for their live events would have pragmatic implications for practitioners and venues, whilst raising the economic profile of the classical music industry on the world stage. The current study addresses existing gaps in the literature by investigating the event marketing strategies used by classical music venues. Specifically, it draws upon experiential marketing theory to explore how audience engagement can help co-create events that are more educational, entertaining, aesthetic or immersive, and how these types of experiences can be integrated into event marketing strategies. Using a grounded theory approach, the case study methodology consists of semi-structured interviews with senior marketing management and audience members at a renowned classical music concert venue. The findings will advance arts marketing literature by offering new insights into the event marketing strategies of classical music performance venues, whilst developing new theories of experiential marketing and arts marketing strategy. Ultimately, the findings will help classical music venues develop more efficient marketing strategies to facilitate economic sustainability and contribute towards reversing downward GDP caused by the Covid19 pandemic.
The Magic of Material Handling: Portraiture for Exploration of Identity View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Anne Marie Cullinan, Birut Zemits
Many young adults in the digital age have too few opportunities to learn by handling physical materials. Personal identity can be explored through the magic of material handling. This involves a learning process that engages the senses, empowering participants to discover and wonder about themselves and their place in community. This participatory action led research develops personal and cultural connections through “hands on” art. Through studio portraiture workshops participants have created personal and group connections relating to the society and culture in which they find themselves. The significance of this research is how it repositions art in the current digital “hands free” society. This work emphasises the importance of building an understanding of the socio-cultural benefits of engagement through the sensory experience of material handling in creating art.
Field Recording and Speculative Sound Design for Urban Environments View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Eleni-Ira Panourgia, Guillaume Dupetit
Sound plays a significant role in the experience and the design of material, virtual and living environments. This research investigates speculative sound design as a method to explore relationships between human, more-than-human and climate agency in future cities. By merging an ecological and immersive approach to field recording with narratives of climate fiction, this study presents a series of practical explorations that transform existing soundscapes as a means to navigate from real to virtual versions of living environments and propose imaginary ones. The practical explorations move beyond the manipulation of individual sound sources to designing sonic fictions of ecosystems that are situated across several temporalities, locations and climate conditions. Treating sound in this way can provide with representations of larger temporal and spatial scale that enable new connections between different landscapes and ecosystems. The relationship between field recording and fictional scenarios allows us to consider the role of sound in the many facets of the world and modify our perception of reality. This study suggests that speculating in sound promotes a radical questioning about our actions and our integration into the world through listening.
The Genomic Fingerprints of Lung Cancer Shape Response to Immunotherapy View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Taxiarchis Botsis, Valsamo Anagnostou
The intersection of cancer genomics with novel immunotherapies is revolutionizing patient care. The number of mutations found in tumors has been associated with overall survival of lung cancer patients treated with immunotherapy. Inspired by these findings, we used clinical and genomic data from a lung cancer patient cohort to build a 3D information visualization and illustrate this association. Certain demographics and patient characteristics are incorporated in this installation project that shows patients’ overall survival (y-axis) versus the number of mutations (x- and z-axis). Multiple materials were used to represent patients and their characteristics. First, patients are represented by wire balls that are color-coded based on the smoking status (black for current or former smokers and blue for non-smokers). Second, two blocks at the top of each wire ball represent race (yellow for Asians, black for African Americans, and white for Caucasians) and gender (purple for Females and light blue for Males). Third, a blue wire cover represents patient’s overall survival, a black wire cover signifies a death event, and a white wire cover indicates that the patient was still alive when data was collected. This installation work visually supports the notion that a high number of mutations may confer a survival benefit for lung cancer patients treated with immunotherapy. We are envisioning that this work may catalyze a communication channel between patients and researchers.
The Future of Cultural Olympiads in a Post-pandemic World View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lisa Stansbie
The Cultural Olympiad traditionally is a series of cultural events in the four years leading up to an Olympic Games. This paper reviews previous Olympic Cultural Olympiads and assesses elements of their impact on the creative sectors in host cities and countries. It traces the history of the Olympiad and the connections it creates across arts and sports and proposes how a reimagined approach is timely. Methods proposed include utilising aspects of the digital innovation for participation and engagement in sports, arts and culture sectors developed over the past year specifically and suggests that such innovations could promote a globalised distributed technology enhanced future Cultural Olympiad.
