RCAAP Repository

The aim of this article is to analyze musical form in german composer Robert Schumann’s works (8 June 1810 – 29 July 1856), particularly that of piano solo piece Carnaval, op. 9, trying to understand what is revealed by the way he uses it in relation to his personality, not only in artistic terms (taking into account the context of German Romanticism) but also on a deeper psychological level. To come to an understanding of Schumann’s use of form, this paper begins with a brief description of the evolution of musical form since Viennese Classicism, with additional references to the baroque system of ‘affects’. Form in Schumann is compared with that of other significant composers of the romantic period and various points of intersection between music and other arts are analyzed, especially literature, in certain key works of this period. Parting from these reflections, we explore the question of the expressive intention behind his handling of form in Carnaval, op. 9. The aim of the investigation of this aspect is to understand how far the innovatory use of this parameter in Schumann, reflects a unique vision of the art of music.

This paper proposes an idea of noise [Geräusch] as presentness in order to think about the critical works of Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) and Peter Eisenman (1932-). This idea implies that there is a connection between these both aspects: Geräusch [noise] in relation to Stockhausen’s work, and presentness, linked to the displacement of what Eisenman called the metaphysical presence of architecture. In a strict sense, we must show how noises are draw out in Stockhausen’s music and how Eisenman deals with the metaphysical presence of architecture – articulating them beyond the limits of both areas, i.e., noise with architecture and presentness with music. In general terms, when we articulate theses concepts beyond the limits of music and architecture, paradoxically, we are focusing on the critique of their internal autonomy. Thus, when we are approaching Eisenman’s and Stockhausen’s works in terms of the subjects noise and presentness, we are talking about the relationship between music and architecture.

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is a Mexican digital artist recognized for creating large-scale theatrical interactive installations for museum and public spaces, as well as small-scale works with custom-made interfaces and digital technologies. Since 2006 this artist has created eight works that require the physiological input (pulse and heartbeats) of the audience in order to be completed. Light in the pulse-based works of Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is the main vehicle that serves to visualize heartbeats outside the realm of the body, facilitating its reterritorialization and conceptualization as a malleable material that can cross the boundaries of the skin, expanding it to other three-dimensional extents in which new spatiotemporal relationships and interactions between participants and the surroundings are produced. This paper explores how these rhizomatic digital installations create a community conscience and engagement between different people in various spaces dedicated to art, while challenging our conception of reality.

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Throughout history we can identify a great number of authors discussing the nature of narrative. From Plato's and Aristotle's original mimetic and diegetic influential theories to Gérard Genette's or Roland Barthes' essential contribution to structuralism, narrative has been studied and discussed as a fundamental process for the human mind in terms of producing and communicating meaning and expressing experience. Over the past few decades major scholars such as Bordwell, Metz, Genette, Carroll, Chatman, Eisenstein, Bal, Abbot, Tan, Smith or Branigan have produced some of the most significant contributions to the study of film narratology. Some scholars envisage narration as a means to process information. Others argue that narration can be better understood as a strategy to cue narrative comprehension. Others envisage narration as a means for emotion. This paper intends to establish that film narrative can be better understood as an act of communication through and from experience from filmmaker to an audience and vice-versa.

This article explores the relationship between emotions and themes in the stories presented in El Secreto de sus Ojos (Campanella, 2009) and its remake Secret in Their Eyes (Jackson & Johnson, 2015). The approach draws from Paul Ricoeur’s method for the interpretation of texts, which stems from the analytic study of their discourse. This makes it possible to infer an interpretation of the theme (what the story aims at) starting from an itemized study of the plot (characters in action within a dramatic structure). The article looks into the way in which some emotions are presented in each story, the characters involved, why, where, and when they show up, their effects, etc. It examines the inciting moment of the plots, the relationship between plots and subplots, the emotions revealed in the midpoint and the resolutions. At the end, and following Ricoeur and García-Noblejas, I propose that the different articulation of the emotions in the two films explains the difference in their understanding of the theme they are exploring: the meaning of justice.

Globalization has transformed economic, political and social structures, but it also reshaped our perceptions of the world. These transformations influenced media narrative not only as products of big multinational corporates, but also, as stories. This paper, motivated by the success of the Nordic Noir police drama, Bron/ Broen and its adaptation by the US. channel Fox, explores how transnationalism permeates TV narratives generating new narrative worlds. Moreover, the work goes a step further examining how these narratives reimagine the transnational lifestyle and how this contributes to their success internationally. What happens when TV stories cross borders? And in what ways does transnationalism become an internal element of these narrative mobilities? But also, how is transnationalism narrative-generated, too?

Aware of all the problems videogames have faced trying to elicit sadness from its players, we decided to analyse the videogame Heavy Rain in virtue of its capabilities to induce sadness in the players. The game was studied under two different perspectives: the character’s non-verbal expressivity and the audiovisual artistic properties of the game. We have found that for the narrative design of sad interactive sequences, the game followed a three-stepped model made of: attachment, rupture, and passivity.

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Generative art can be used for creating complex multisensory and multimedia experiences within pre-determined aesthetic parameters, characteristic of the performing arts and remarkably suitable to address Moholy-Nagy’s Theatre of Totality vision. In generative artworks the artist will usually take on the role of an experience framework designer, and the system evolves freely within that framework and its defined aesthetic boundaries. Most generative art impacts visual arts, music and literature, but there does not seem to be any relevant work exploring the cross-medium potential, and one could confidently state that most generative art outcomes are abstract and visual, or audio. It is the goal of this article to propose a model for the creation of generative performances within the Theatre of Totality’s scope, derived from stochastic Lindenmayer systems, where mapping techniques are proposed to address the seven variables addressed by Moholy-Nagy: light, space, plane, form, motion, sound and man (“man” is replaced in this article with “human”, except where quoting from the author), with all the inherent complexities.

While interactive media and its interfaces are susceptible to interference on technical and human dimensions, this is rarely considered by theoretical models found in the literature for describing or designing interactive settings and interfaces. This research explores modalities of interference as it affects agency in interactive and performative settings, by analysing a selection of artworks where this phenomenon becomes evident. As observed through the works discussed, modalities of interference redefine successful interaction as discovery of new potential, providing wider latitude for creative expression and collaborative engagement. Paths towards an aesthetics of interference are found on practical and conceptual levels. Challenges are identified, such as the difficulty in mastering highly variable interference, its cumulative increase, and the impossibility of anticipating the full spectrum of possible interference. As an agent for increased affordance generation and wider operational ability, on technical and cognitive levels, interference is demonstrated to be a factor of required consideration for a more informed observation and configuration of interactive and performative experiences.

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This issue of CITAR (Journal of Arts Science and Technology) is especially devoted to what we designated as Marginalized Narratives. It is a special issue that collects studies published upon the 5th Colloquium on Narrative, Medium and Cognition, held at the University of Algarve in November 2018, and which was focused on that topic.

In audiovisual's history, minorities as LGBTQ+ people had been excluded or stereotyped, thus, this study has as a guiding question understanding “Him”, character of the classic cartoon series “The Powerpuff Girls”, produced between 1998 and 2005 by Cartoon Network - by the bias of the Queer Theory, which address the questions about non-heteronormative bodies that belong to marginalized groups whose rights are denied and their lives taken. For this, a documentary and exploratory methodology was used, based on the authors researches like: Guacira Louro, Judith Butler, Edgar Morin, besides the analysis of two episodes: Octil Evil and Bash Birthday. Thus, the problematizations arised here refer to: a) How the Queer is related to Him and its possible problems and b) The dialectic between the bodies discourses accepted and excluded from the heteronormative society.  The argumentation of this research is sustained by homophobia and transphobia brazilian datas, which reveals the urge to approach matters about gender and sexuality representations.

What is augmented in Augmented Reality (AR)? In this paper, we review existing opinions and show how little consensus exists on this matter. Subsequently, we approach the question from a theoretical and technology-independent perspective. We identify spatial and content-based relationships between the virtual and the real as being decisive for AR and come to the conclusion that virtual content augments that to which it relates. Subsequently, we categorize different forms of AR based on what is augmented. We distinguish between augmented environments, augmented objects, augmented humans and augmented content and consider the possibility of augmented perception. The categories are illustrated with AR (art) works and conceptual differences between them are pointed out. Moreover, we discuss what the real contributes to AR and how it can shape (future) AR experiences. A summary of our findings and suggestions for future research and practice, such as research into multimodal and crossmodal AR, conclude the paper.

This paper extends previous research relating puppetry to new media art. Two of the author’s artworks, Toast and Ventriloquisms for Fun and Profit, are used as case studies. The projects are summarised and insights that emerged from their implementation are proposed as results. Throughout the text, ventriloquism diagrams are used to illustrate possibilities for directional transmission of speech and to reflect upon the roles of code, artist, and participant in new media artworks.

This article is an extended version of a paper presented at the xCoAx 2015 conference, and explores how smart materials, and in particular thermochromic silicone, can be integrated into a wearable object in combination with microelectronics to create aesthetically coherent stimulus-reactive jewellery. The different types and properties of thermochromics are discussed, including experiments with layering pigments that react at different temperatures within three dimensional silicone shapes. The concept of creating digital enchantment through playful interaction is introduced, illustrating how accessible microelectronics can be used to facilitate the creation of responsive jewellery objects. Bringing together digital methods of fabrication with craft methodologies to create objects that respond intimately to changes in the body of the wearer and the environment is presented as an outcome of this research project. Moving towards the notion of a posthuman body, potential practical applications for these jewellery objects exist in the areas of human– computer interaction, transplant technology, identity management and artificial body modification, where such symbiotic jewellery organisms could be used to develop visually engaging, multifunctional enhancements.

Since the 1990s, the growing expansion of a vast array of medical technologies for the visualization of the inner body seems to have revamped, in an improved version, the tradition of the anatomical theatre, fuelling not only the question of the relation between inner and outer body, public and private space, visible and invisible objects, but also the problem of the relation between art, science and knowledge. The objective of this article is to shed some light on how contemporary artists engage with the very notion of “knowledge of the inner body” proper of the anatomical tradition. To this aim I briefly summarize some fundamental aspects of such tradition and subsequently examine the work of two artists, Laura Ferguson and Annie Cattrell, as examples of very different approaches to the meaning of the visualization and representation of the inner body in contemporary art.

In this paper, we describe the development and use of PhotoFrac, an application that allows artists and designers to turn digital images into fractal patterns interactively. Fractal equations are a rich source of procedural texture and detail, but controlling the patterns and incorporating traditional media has been difficult. Additionally, the iterative nature of fractal calculations makes implementation of interactive techniques on mobile devices and web apps challenging. We overcome these problems by using an image coordinate based orbit trapping technique that permits a user-selected image to be embedded into the fractal. Performance challenges are addressed by exploiting the processing power of graphic processing unit (GPU) and precomputing some intermediate results for use on mobile devices. This paper presents results and qualitative analyses of the tool by four artists (the authors) who used the PhotoFrac application to create new artworks from original digital images. The final results demonstrate a fusion of traditional media with algorithmic art.