Action and Reaction
Polyscopic Spectatorship, Creative Cartography, and Post-Cinematic Refractions in the Age of Neo-Liberal Travel: An Investigation of Youtube Travel Vloggers View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Niko Doezema
One of the most popular forms of travel “literature” consumed today is the travel-vlog. YouTube is awash in these travelers, the most successful of which even make a career out of their travels through monetization of their content, allowing them to pay for traveling by traveling. My project is a three-fold investigation into the nature of this genre, the first two branches of which are genealogical and diagnostic, the third of which is speculative and potentially transformative. My first inquiry examines the historical and generic conditions at the crossroads of travel literature and empire that have led to the present moment as well as the ideological implications of the representations that arise from this convergence. My second critical framework develops on the “post-cinematic” medium itself, namely its spatial and temporal representations by/of its subjects, as well as the social and economic network on which it operates. Drawing on critical approaches to cartography (read here as spatiotemporal translation at large), I pivot to an analysis which takes into account a potentially oppositional reading of this genre resulting from an unstable “polyscopic” spectatorship emanating from a refracted multiplicity of gazes transmitted to/from the primary spectator (the traveler/creator) and the secondary spectators (the viewers/consumers as well as ethnographic/anthropological subjects). Through a close reading of several vloggers, I ultimately ask whether this potential modality can ever be realized within the confines of a genre characterized by shallow cosmopolitanism, a commodification of destination, and the fabrication of parasocial intimacy.
Featured Sound, Motion, and the Brain - Movement Improvisation and Brain Activity Forming an Experimental Performance: The Methodological Approach View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ioannis Sidiropoulos
The paper presents an experimental methodology designed to explore perception-action coupling for understanding creativity in the context of responsive movement improvisation, influenced by music and sounds, towards developing an experimental data-driven performance. This interdisciplinary project combines performing arts, cognitive neuroscience, and neuroimaging. It questions how music (Avro Pärt, Olafur Arnalds, Sohn, Agnes Obel etc.) and environmental sounds (such as vehicle siren, landing aeroplane, and birds) influence the performer in the creation and execution of movements expressed through improvisation. The experimental procedures map and measure the physical and mental responses of performers (contemporary trained dancers) while improvising to the music and sounds in the studio and whilst undertaking functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Analysis of the data, through movement analysis (Motiongrams and Laban Movement Analysis) and fMRI analysis, lead to a better understanding of the perceptual and cognitive mechanisms at play in how performers interpret and respond to music and sounds during improvisation. Finally, the data is used to create a data-driven experimental performance outcome.
