Winding and Unwinding (English): Room 1
12:00PM - 13:40PM MADRID CEST (Complutense University of Madrid)
Twenty-first Century Vampire Narrative: Posthuman Insight into Popular Culture View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Patrycja Pichnicka Trivedi
Vampire is a perfect embodiment of the Other. Vampire narratives show an immanent and ever-present rule organising society, the division into ‘us’ and ‘the Other’. This domain has been researched from many angles, but there is an important gap, which I propose to fulfill: ecological and postman questions in vampire narrative. I propose the new method of research: analysis of the narrative as a structure (till now researchers mostly concentrate on Vampire figure only), composed of significative triad: Vampire - victim (beloved) - slayer; examined with the aid of diverse theoretical tools, and put in social and cultural contexts. I concentrate on vampire narrative as an embodiment of biomedical and ecological discourses as well as the realm of construction of subject/object, person/non-person division, built on the fundament of human/non-human division. This division was primary in (modern scientific) Western culture: discursive deprivation of humanity imposed on minorities, disabled or females was the main tool of depersonalisation and objectification. In nineteenth century narratives, vampire could be submitted to everything; because it wasn't human. In twenty-first century Vampires become positive heroes. This can be seen as the accordance of agency, subjectivity, or even personhood to many beings. Moreover, such a positive vampire frequently promotes “vegetarian” lifestyle. However, this is not the only type of vampire narrative in twenty-first century, and even this type can rather support anthropocentricity than subvert it: vampire “vegetarianism” consists on non hunting humans only. Furthermore, the ecology is usually a conservative white-male one.
Sound, Motion, and the Brain: Movement Improvisation and Brain Activity Forming an Experimental Performance
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ioannis Sidiropoulos
This paper presents the interdisciplinary practice-as-research project, which examines the effects of auditory perception on movement improvisation, and how this informs the creative process of an experimental performance. It hypothesis that there can be a measurable data-based relationship between heard sound(s), brain activity, and movement response(s). The central questions are how sound affects the brain during the creation of improvised movements and how these sounds influence the performers' movement choices (actors and dancers). This research combines contemporary dance and physical theatre improvisation with cognitive neuroscience, exploring how responding to sound stimuli is expressed through embodiment and brain activity. Data will be gathered through individual movement improvisation from 10 performers based on recorded music and individual fMRI scanning while listening, imagining, and watching movement improvisation in specific tasks. The gathered data will be compared and correlated, forming data sets to develop an experimental performance.
Spanish Cultural Narcissism in Netflix Series View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Frederic Conrod
In the last decade, the rise of the 'longer cinematography' developed by Netflix has reshaped the way cultures represent, project, and perceive themselves. This paper focuses on how Spain has exposed its cultural psychology in complex narratives dealing with social injustice, sexual re-orientations, political power transfers, as well as drug circulation and consumption. Through shows such as "Cocaine Coast" (Fariña), "Money Heist" (La Casa de Papel), "Sky Rosa" and others, viewers from around the world are perceiving cultural projections from Spain that question its deepest traumas and its resulting cultural narcissism (a way to cope with trauma). This paper analyzes this mechanism through the analysis of key scenes from worldwide successful Spanish shows produced by Netflix.
The Migrant/Refugee Crisis of 2015 and the Rise of Anti-Muslim Right-wing Politics in Europe
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Anouar El Younssi
The chaos and devastation the terror group ISIS caused in Syria and Iraq, as it attempted to establish its “caliphate,” caused a massive refugee crisis in various parts of the world, especially in Europe. In 2015 alone, “[m]ore than a million migrants and refugees crossed into Europe …, sparking a crisis as countries struggled to cope with the influx, and creating division in the EU over how best to deal with resettling people.” The biggest driver of this crisis was the conflict in Syria, followed by other conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq—among others. By the end of 2016, following the UN Refugee Agency, “nearly 5.2 million refugees and migrants reached European shores, undertaking treacherous journeys from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries torn apart by war and persecution.” This refugee crisis was quite unprecedented in Europe’s recent history, and—alongside the Brexit—it threatened to tear apart the EU body. The large numbers of mostly Muslim refugees and migrants descending on Europe sent shock waves throughout the continent, triggering the rise of populist, right-wing politics and anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant discourse. A politics of fear targeted at Muslims living in the West finds its raison d’être in a civilizational rhetoric that portrays Islam a menacing force that could present a real challenge to Western cultural hegemony.
