Representation and Visualization
Be the Best : Images of Trauma and Belonging in the Representations of Combat
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Kirsten Anna Adkins
The 2016 British Army recruitment film, “Be the Best” combined images of violent combat with messages of nurture and belonging. Viewers saw jump cuts, exposure pops, whip pans and crash zoom suggestive of flashback moments associated with trauma. But a commentary spoke of inclusion, self-development, life-skills and learning to cook. This paper explores how violence exists in an aestheticised disavowal of violent representation. The army recruitment story is one in which conflict appears in the flash-back, while messages of belonging, foreground brutal reality. Is there a forced amnesia driving this complex layering of army life? In these adverts we see these fragments of combat as visual abstraction. Characters appear in void spaces. But their suffering is enacted in the context of the mundane and the familiar: Tea provides comfort in amid an interminable wait for action. A perilous route march is made bearable when the soldiers start to sing “The Time of My Life,” from 1980’s teen romance, Dirty Dancing. The paper explores memory and forgetting, denial and spectacle. What are the consequences of avoiding representations of trauma when we are discussing culture inherent with trauma? The proposal considers these questions in the context of Surrealism the work of Georges Bataille and Lacanian psychoanalysis.
Rediscovering Science Fiction Films through Data Visualization
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Nur Cemelelioglu
The fact that a significant part of the human brain is related to vision and other visual processes has made the visual expression forms of great importance. Nowadays, data visualization studies are very popular especially thanks to developments in computer technologies. Transferring complex data sets to the audience through graphical representations is an easy to understand and effective method. For this reason, data visualization projects are very effective in helping students develop problem-solving and analytical thinking skills, to create more creative visual solutions and to use appropriate graphics and diagrams. In this study, Interactive Media Design student’s data visualization projects about science fiction film, which is a popular type of mainstream cinema were examined. In these projects, selected works, which have been made by using the visual language of the film were taken as a data source and were re-created a new visual narrative accordingly. The purpose of the research is to examine the ways and means of the use of the design elements and principles that the students employ in the visualization process in order to explore the methods they use to analyze and organize complex sets of information and to pass on data about the film. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gain insight into the students' approach to design problems in their visualizations, and content analysis was used to analyze them.
Saving Face: China's Challenge to Portray a Positive Image in International Relations
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Maria Marakhovskaia
This study concentrates on the role of image in interstate relations of People’s Republic of China. China’s emerging power and its impact are among the most intensely discussed topics worldwide. In particular, China puts considerable emphasis on enhancing its positive image and promoting its values, thereby provoking heated debates on the nature of its intentions. Language is one of the most powerful tools for China to create and maintain a positive image. This paper examines the linguistic strategies China (represented by governmental officials) employs in order to balance between the positive image it wants to present and multiple challenges, both domestic and foreign, it has to deal with. We rely on Goffman (1967) and Brown and Levinson (1987) socio-pragmatic theory of Face, which was first developed to describe interaction between individuals. This research applies theory of Face to communications made by state actors on the premise that whole nations have Face which they enhance and protect. In order to ensure coherence and objectivity, first-hand sources (Chinese government statements in the form of Ministry of Foreign Affairs press conferences) are collected and subjected to qualitative linguistic analysis. The main tool employed to investigate the role of image in China’s foreign policy is political linguistics and corpus-assisted discourse analysis strategies. Chinese government’s strategies of face-keeping and image-enhancement present an extensive source of analysis because of the particularly controversial nature of China’s policy, both domestic and foreign, as well as due to the key role attributed to face and image in Chinese culture.
