Review and Reflect
Asynchronous Session
Silence as Storytelling
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Cedric van Eenoo
In this study, sound and music are examined for their narrative properties in film, with their influence on generating meaning in concurrence with images. But it is the absence of music and dialogues that is the focus of the investigation: the subtle yet present audio signal captured by the microphone. The methodology includes case studies of mainly independent movies with analyses of selected sequences that rely on audio for narrativity purposes—within specific scenes, or in the entire work. Film sound plays a significant role in communicating emotions. The logic of the storyworld can be conveyed through audio in a suggested manner. Music has the power to manipulate the perception of time. Additionally, audio has the ability to create connections between the different scenes, so that the narrative is granted a sense of development, without necessarily relying on cause-and-effect. Film sound can influence the narrative and its perception by creating an implied dimension to the movie that is created by audio alone. Besides, a soundtrack can construct the space and time in which the story takes place. It generates the film’s atmosphere, and by doing so, characterizes the mode of perception of the story. But silence and lack of conversations can create a unique tone, generate meaning and communicate a sensorial message to the audience. In this perspective, the sensorial dimension of storytelling can be directly informed by sound, including rests, and silence.
Victorian Collectors Heroized: Creating and Sustaining British Art View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Julie Codell
Critic F. G. Stephens's 100+ Athenaeum series, "The Private Collections of England" (1873-1887), propelled collectors into national culture heroes. Stephens detailed these collections’ expanded geography in England’s industrial north, turning local art collecting into a national, unifying force, a transformation through his series. These collectors ranged from aristocrats to middle-class industrialists, merchants and bankers, socially networked with artists and with each other, often in complementary industries. Stephens, a former co-founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, wrote for forty years at the Athenaeum from 1860 as art critic and later art editor, writing about 475 reviews. Covering two generations of collectors, especially from England’s industrial North, Stephens’ essays benefitted from new forces in Victorian visual culture: the press, art critics, philanthropic collectors, museums and their emerging public role, celebrity culture, and the growing status of visual cultural capital. Stephens expanded the public image of collectors into a cultural role as sustainers of British culture by their collecting and canonizing contemporary British artists. Stephens’ series on collectors appeared at a time when collectors were being seen as cultural heroes throughout Europe and the US, praised for sustaining living artists whose works they collected and building a national visual culture, since most of them gave their collections to public museums, thus shaping public taste. Complementing collectors’ rising profile were a slew of new British art histories emphasizing nationalism in books and the press, as London was becoming a center of an international art market.
Exploring Spatial Genes in Cultural Heritage Sites along the Suzhou Canal: An Analysis of Inheritance and Transformation View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Shengdan Yang, Yan Huang
Suzhou's canal, a hallmark of its heritage, serves as a focal point for exploring the city's spatial evolution. This study examines cultural heritage sites along the canal, including bridges, ancient architecture, street blocks, and ancient towns, selected for their intrinsic connection to Suzhou's waterways. Through a lens of spatial morphology and typology, it analyzes how these sites reflect the city's socio-cultural influences across dynasties. Beginning with an overview of Suzhou's heritage over dynasties, the study contextualizes the spatial genes that underpin the city's distinctive architectural typology. Drawing from principles of spatial morphology and typology, the research seeks to unravel the spatial logic and socio-cultural influences that have shaped Suzhou's built environment over centuries. The research traces the lineage of spatial genes while identifying patterns of transformation influenced by factors such as socio-economic shifts, urbanization, and globalization. Through a comparative analysis of spatial indexes, the research elucidates how inherited spatial genes have adapted to accommodate changing societal needs and urban contexts from the Sui Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty and modern times. Furthermore, the study examines the implications of these transformations on urban morphology, spatial perception, and cultural identity in Suzhou. By unraveling the spatial genes embedded within the city's built environment throughout its history, this study sheds light on the mechanisms of spatial inheritance and transformation that continue to shape Suzhou's urban fabric in the present day. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the complex interplay between tradition and modernity in Suzhou's architecture across different historical epochs.
Invisible Sounds: Profound Symbolism in Eugène Ionesco’s Absurdist Tragic Farce “The Chairs” View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Matthew Hodge
20th-century Romanian-French playwright Eugène Ionesco was a prominent figure of French avant-garde theatre and a pioneer of Theatre of the Absurd (a post-World War II style that abandons traditional theatre structures while exploring absurdism and surrealism). Ionesco’s 1952 one-act play “The Chairs” -- labeled a “Tragic Farce” by the playwright – exemplifies the philosophical concepts typical of absurdist theatre. Yet beyond its inherent representation of the standard seed rooted within most works of absurdist writers (humanity’s perceived unsuccessful attempts at finding meaning in life), “The Chairs” presents provocative dualities that suggest profound symbolisms of the absurdist movement itself and its situated evolution among the cultural aftermath of World War II. This presentation will explore Ionesco’s “The Chairs” as a significant model of the Theatre of the Absurd movement and interpret its layered political symbolism of societal isolation, blind allegiance, propaganda-fueled war, and dangerous dictatorship.
Permanent Seminar EnfocARTE - Education for Sustainability: Methodology Matters View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Graciela Staines Vega, Oscar Rafael Hernández Meneses
Art and education are inherently transdisciplinary, rooted in foundations of great civilizations worldwide. Civilization implies societal agreement on upholding human ideals - a balance where emotions are guided by rationality, not opposed. The interplay between civilization and legal culture has often conflicted. Since ancient times, arts have depicted the spectrum of human experiences - collaboration, violence, war - through codes, symbols, languages, acting as cultural messengers and decoders. The field of human rights represents the most comprehensive approach to safeguarding fundamental liberties, rights, and duties (FLRD). It cannot ignore art's power as a vehicle for expression, learning, and planetary sustainability. Enhancing financial literacy as an educational outcome is equally crucial, empowering individuals and communities. Our vision fosters global behaviors aligned with core FLRD values: radical inclusion, co-responsibility, deliberative democracy, non-violence - humanity's evolutionary trends. Our mission emphasizes art appreciation methodology's impact on educational outcomes. Technology must expand this civilizatory model, diagnose and mitigate inequalities engagingly and motivationally, as neuroscience demonstrates. Our interdisciplinary human rights education through arts team shares the Permanent Seminar EnfocARTE methodology. We employ literature analysis, position museums as open universities, utilizing multimedia (films, documentaries, etc.), arts (paintings, music, sculpture) to promote interdisciplinary critical analysis, contextualizing the FLRD model. This flexible seminar strengthens social capital, intergenerational interactivity, and visual analysis, ultimately instilling human rights and legal culture values through art's transformative power.
