Perspective of the Audiovisual Arts: On Ways and Tools of Studying Emotions in the Current Visuals (original) (raw)

A Method for Subjective Analysis of Audiovisual Works

This paper proposes a method for the analysis of audiovisual works.The method of semantic differential is used in order to develop a differentiated understanding of the analyzed audiovisual work. A total of 8 parameters are distinguished , which are grouped in three categories that refer to categories of mapping, semantics and atmosphere. The semantic differential yields a graphic display of the values that have been selected for the individual parameters of activity. Therefore an intuitive comparison between analyzed works is possible. An alternative display on a time-line is also proposed, which facilitate the visualization of changes of parameters over time.

EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE AND COGNIVE APPRAISAL OF A VISUAL ARTWORK

Acta Academiae Artium, ISBN 978-9934-541-62-9, 2023

The current study draws upon the theory of affect as an essential theoretical framework and tool for the interpretation of an artwork. Psychology and neuroscience study affect and emotional processes experimentally, producing measurable data. Empirical observation and a descriptive approach to aesthetic experience are not enough when it is assumed that a work of art has affective dynamics and evokes bodily responses. The author of this paper in cooperation with the Laboratory for Perceptual and Cognitive Systems at the Faculty 2 0 2 8 of Computing of the University of Latvia, has conducted an interdisciplinary study with the purpose to experimentally determine the dynamics of affect arousalvalence and intensity-in the subject while observing artworks that depict human bodies and / or have been stimulated by different bodily experiences. The research question of the study was: what types of body images can potentially create more pronounced affective reactions in the viewer and what is the viewer's aesthetic evaluation of these images? Measurements of affective processes can vary from self-assessment tables to measurements of changes in the physiological responses of the body, for example, fixation of micromovements of the pupils. An original research design was developed as part of the study, including stimulus generation, data collection, and data analysis. The results of the experiment have made 2 0 2 8 it possible to conclude that the methodology of perception experiments can become a research tool for art theory.

STIMULATED EMOTIONS AND EMOTIONAL AESTHETICS IN FILM STUDIES AND ENTERTAINMENT ARTS EDUCATION

MDIS Journal , 2020

The article attempts to articulate how Singapore and Malaysian films serve as case studies under western film theory for entertainment arts students in Malaysia in order to assist them to harness stimulated emotions from films in their strategies to create emotional stimulation. Entertainment Arts is a relatively new discipline in academia. In the field of education, an academic programme named the Diploma In Entertainment Arts has been designed, implemented and managed in Malaysia. One of the subjects in the programme Introduction to Contemporary Film uses the methodology detailed in the paper as its core pedagogy.

Hearing and Feeling Film: Cognitive Psychology's Odyssey

This essay will focus on empirical findings of cognitive psychology that examine the synergistic relationship between the auditory and visual domains of film. In cognitive psychology, theories argue that music’s expressivity results from cognitive ‘appraisal’ of musical features considered to have a certain expressive quality, whereas ‘emotivist’ theories claim that music’s expressivity is explained by its propensity to arouse emotion in the listener. However, Jeff Smith has argued that a purely ‘cognitivist’ approach is not adequate for understanding emotional arousal given that spectators make sense of film music’s affective properties on a number of different levels of mental and bodily states, and therefore, these levels are best understood within a combination of cognitivist and emotivist theories of musical affect.

The Concept of Affective Tonality, and the Role of the Senses in Producing a Cinematic Narrative

2016

The practice based research project presented in this thesis draws upon theoretical research in affect studies and film-­philosophy. The aim of the thesis is to reconsider the pre-­production and production process of narrative cinema and involve the rich and varied research into the area of affect and the body in the field of film studies that is currently being used to analyse the reception and meaning making process used as the foundation for producing a series of narrative films that privilege affect over traditional storytelling structures. Four films were made as part of an investigation into affective film practice. These films accompany the written exegesis and serve as a testing ground for concepts developed in the written component of the thesis. Each piece of practice is formally and conceptually more complex than the last. The fourth and final film serves as an example for the cinema of affective tonality and as such constitutes the central, visual argument. The theoreti...

Emotional topographies of performative artistic practices

2011

After the decline of studies with regard to feeling and emotions within the historical context of aesthetics, we can see a revival of interest in this topic from the so-called "affective turn" aspect in art, culture and the broader social reality. In this context, affect becomes the key which unlocks the door towards harmonizing body and emotions. The cultural turn in aesthetics itself brings us an open mind platform, where the historical methods of studying the senses, emotions and feelings embodied in art objects are increasingly substituted by studies of aesthetical processes and performativity. Psychoanalysis, deconstruction of poststructuralism and the establishment of a tighter alliance between theory and the artistic practice itself were the factors which significantly contributed to the evaluation of the latter. Another important contribution in this evaluation sprang from feminist thought concentrating on the body. Aesthetics is in this context returning to its or...

Art and Emotion: The Variety of Aesthetic Emotions and Their Internal Dynamics

"Interdysciplinary Studies in Musicology" vol. 20, pp.51-63, 2020

The aim of this paper is to propose an interpretation of aesthetic emotions in which they are treated as various affective reactions to a work of art. I present arguments that there are three different types of such aesthetic emotional responses to art, i.e., embodied emotions, epistemic emotions and contextual-associative emotions. I then argue that aesthetic emotions understood in this way are dynamic wholes that need to be explained by capturing and describing their internal temporal dynamics as well as by analyzing the relationships with the other components of aesthetic experience.

Audiovisual Music from the Audience's Viewpoint

The Intermediality of Contemporary Visual Arts, 2023

The music of everyday life crosses areas whose borders are blurred, takes place on screens and forms part of the trinomial that connects it with the visual and narrative realms. This space of high emotional tension is created with characters, settings, stories and roles, and is of a spectacular nature. All this allows it to provide meaning, which confirms the need for this study. This work looks into audiovisual music and its connections with the narrative, image and story. To perform this approach, we will study the leitmotif, music as a figure and background, diegetic/extra-diegetic music and emotions from the audience’s viewpoint. Furthermore, to explore intermediality we will use a mixed method, with tools that include bibliographic reviews, content analyses and maps. With them, we will carry out relational and specific studies, while analysing the connections between music, image and narrative. This study explores the audiovisual experience and its perceptions through music.

Is the Reception of Emotional Expression in Visual Art Global?

The International Journal of the Humanities: Annual Review, 2009

Pictures don't live in isolation from a context of comprehension and response. According to Gretchen Barbatsis, the notion that meaning is something added to a piece of art has important connotation in the way we conceptualize art. The dynamic understanding of visual interpretation is a mutual process, in which the artwork and the viewer add something to one another. Art conveys meanings, reflects moods, motivates both feelings and actions, and engages the viewer into a vivid dialogue with the artwork. Artists through the ages have been expressing deep feelings and sufferings. The expressiveness of figurative art moves the viewer, not only to admire the artist, but to feel the expressed emotions themselves. Can we call a picture-viewer engagement global? Local cultures are expanding and changing rapidly and affected by globalization; however there are different understandings of this term in different localities. Many eastern and western examples in the history of art show similar visual emotional expressions. Although the reception of emotional expression in visual art depends on local cultures and individual factors, a pre-read art-related text results in a similar eastern and western reception of the same visual expression. Whether it is an interpretation, criticism or art history, a preread text is valuable before seeing the artwork. It configures the viewer's rational and psychological involvements with artwork itself and affects the way he/she receives it. Regardless of the viewer's cultural, political, religious backgrounds he/she is involved in a meaning-making process. Every viewer tries to understand ideas and meanings in what is presented in artwork. The aim of this article is to investigate the picture-viewer interaction, the emotional involvement in visual art and the meaning-making process. Two eastern and western artworks are selected for their visual emotional expression: the Assyrian wall-relief Dying Lioness and the Hellenistic sculpture Laocoön. Both sculptures share painful death, heroic and pathetic presentations. They bring eastern and western expression closer to the viewer.