Body Talk
Bodily Presence and the "Massage" of Movement: The Impact of Mediatized Environments on the Human Body
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ursula Payne
The human body as a medium intersects with all of communications media. The work of Marshall McLuhan is explored throughout this paper to consider the impact of mediatized environments on the human body, sensory perception, and ultimately human interactions with each other. Where Innis believed that communications technology was central to the technological revolution because of its impact on social and cultural institutions, McLuhan considered the human body as the site of the senses. I refer to experts in kinesis, somatic, transcendence, and bodily presence as being dancers. When the body is not present de-personalization or disembodiment occurs. The ecology of learning and embodying creative human movement is responsive to communicative innovations. This paper explores how bodily presence, as it relates to creative human movement, functions as a sophisticated and generative medium within mediatized environments.
Typographic Culture Wars: Blackletter Fonts from Reformation to the Resurgence of Nationalism
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Peggy Bloomer
Typography has always been an expressive artifact of culture. Blackletter fonts simplified and extended access to written materials in the late Middle Ages. These fonts became the typeface of the reformation and spread throughout Europe. Later these fonts became associated with German literature and with the rise of Modernism fell out of style. Rising nationalism returned Blackletter fonts as of the people. After World War II, Blackletter fonts fell out of style once again except to express medieval and other seasonal expressions. This study considers how many contemporary cultural currents have placed Blackletter fonts in prominence once more fed by cultural currents such as tattoos, gangs, tribalism, edgy logos, and a resurgence of nationalism.
Spectator Bodies - Watching the Same Film within a Different Body: Personal Story on Defining Spectatorship from Obese to Fit Body
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Mert Kutluk
It was only two years ago that I was 140kg. Since I opted to change my lifestyle into a healthier way, it only took me one-and-a-half years to lose 85 kg and become a person who is 58 kg. Suddenly I have found myself within a brand new body, a situation which is affecting any kind of daily life practices that occur both in public and personal spaces. One day I had a rather intriguing situation when I came across a film on TV; Click (2006) which I once watched in a theater back in 2006 when I was 140kg. I suddenly realized that the film-watching experience of mine dramatically shifted as Click has rather offensive-humorous scenes based on fat bodies. I was surprised by how my feelings were different from the first time that I was exposed to those scenes as I experienced the same film but within a totally different body. Then, I came up with an idea that this such a mundane but a unique experience is pointing out something in a broader sense, especially for audience studies. I want to share my own auto-ethnographic experiences based on movies that I have been exposed to again but within a different body. This comparison provides a rather important and seamless clues for audience studies as it is based on the real-life story of mine on personal viewing experiences and dynamic definition of spectatorship.
