RCAAP Repository

The generative art changed our concepts of image and art. They are so embedded in they way we can create new visual artistic expression. This paper will present some ideas regarding generative art and introduce Untitled*, piece developed using those principles.

Television and Cinema present specific behaviour and language in relation to reality. If film focuses on its proximity to artistic practices, and this reflects the viewer’s relationship with the film, television, in turn, seeks in directness or the transposition of the real to the imaginary, the key to its success, the audience. We all see the possibilities that television has for viewers. Even those most aware of the various con- straints, and who claim themselves to be not influenced, come under the hypnotic power of the television screen. The quality of the programming continues to decline, succumbing to the claim that television channels have to get into the audience “ratings”.

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This review refers to an artistic residency which took place at LCD LAB -  CAAA at Guimarães, in March, exploring a strategy for media art called Media Displacement. The text introduces the strategy very briefly and describes the residency's organization, structure, processses and the results produced.

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This brief review explores the evolving relationship between the music and the image up to newer art forms. From the experimental cinema of the early 20th century, among other things related to music and to the attempts to sound the filmic image, to the success and flooding of, at first, the cinematic image and then the television image (with the production of countless musical and music related movies in the first case, with the creation of TV networks dedicated to the "music to see" in the second), up to their assimilation and processing in the artistic field, today it happens to witness the neutralization of all the examples of union between music and image because of excessive audio-visual production. In this situation, the art can, as in the past, intervene to bring out the quality of the music or the visual, or both in real complete works, by renewing the language and elevating it from a subculture level to a more authoritative one, as well as "positive" for new art markets

The foundation of painting on its sources or “influences” serves to achieve its integration in a group of reference from which painting, any true painting that aims at the present, can and should take part. This work aims at an updating of the analysis these influences from the means that serve as references to the pictorial analysis and creation, the images (reproductions) and the paintings themselves, by crossing two major references of Art History and Modern Painting (Aby Warburg and Serge Poliakoff).

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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