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- Volume 4, Issue 2, 2016
Scene - Volume 4, Issue 2, 2016
Volume 4, Issue 2, 2016
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Embracing the diversity of European national identities: The nation as part of the collective European whole
More LessAbstractIn Europe: An Unfinished Adventure, Zygmunt Bauman demonstrates that ‘Europe is not something you discover; Europe is a mission – something to be made, created, built’ (Bauman 2004b). Spanning the twentieth century, the narratives of travel of Paul Morand, Stefan Zweig, Primo Levi and Paul Theroux play a key role in this process of European identity construction. These four authors promote a forward-thinking and inclusive conceptualization of Europe and the relationship between nation and identity, through largely autobiographical narratives that detail travel within Europe, enforced or otherwise. Drawing on the work of European thinkers such as Zygmunt Bauman, Jürgen Habermas, Jacques Derrida, Roberto Dainotto, Amin Maalouf and E. J. Hobsbawm, my article will demonstrate to what extent all four authors show their readers that the importance given to national borders can be subverted through the motion of travel, in which these arbitrary lines on the map are crossed by the travellers in question. In accordance with the renowned pacifist Romain Rolland – who believed that national and European identity were not ‘mutually exclusive’ affinities – these four authors use their narratives to promote a sense of European or supranational identity, by urging their readership to rethink their relationship with their nation as part of a collective European whole, and to perceive diversity as being not Europe’s weakness, but rather its greatest strength. I will demonstrate how it is through valuable cultural productions such as these narratives of travel that Europeans are exposed to an alternative and more inclusive mode for identity construction, which triumphantly forwards what Ulrich Beck describes as ‘a Europe that helps diversity to flourish’.
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Setting variables: Axes of time, space and meaning in production design for the screen
More LessAbstractMy focus in this article is twofold. Firstly, I address the commonalities between production design for film and television, in terms of what and how design signifies. Secondly, I explore differences in the semiotic potential of design for the two media. I argue here that what design most securely signifies is genre, and I also offer a qualified endorsement of the frequent claim that design indexes narrative mood and tone. Design imagery establishes both mood and generic affiliation by calling upon viewers’ tendency to interpret new stimuli in relation to established standards. In other words, design satisfies primarily in terms of its perceived ‘rightness’, in relation either to genre precedent or more nebulous benchmarks such as realism. Conversely, while a set or costume always contributes in some way to the formation of tone, it may simply set the ‘wrong’ tone for certain stakeholders, based on their expectations or tastes. Consequently, I argue that design imagery is at best imprecise as a signifying element in screen fiction. As to distinctions between media, I argue here that there is a polarity between the ‘slow fuse’ operation of design imagery in the television series and the ‘fast acting fuse’ of design for the feature film. The relative brevity of a feature film necessitates that all formal elements make a powerful, rapid impression. In the television series, by contrast, sets that recur from episode to episode are likely to be less assertive and are deployed in less immediately imposing ways. In long-form screen fiction sets and their decor tend to present imagery that can subtly grow in its interest and suggestiveness, as audiences repeatedly engage with it from episode to episode.
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When choreography marries digital projection
By Alice ValeAbstractAs a choreographer, I have always had a keen interest in fusing movement with other art forms and in being able to achieve this seamlessly. Each art form is as important as another; therefore making this a reality can be challenging. However, in my work I have discovered that the use of movement with digital projection is one that has a real connection. The two have a symmetry that is aesthetically pleasing, but my work to date had never had a real ‘marriage’ of the two forms. One always came before the other; never did the two coexist to arrive at the same point. During 2016, Illuminos (digital artists www.illuminos.co.uk) and I set about our biggest challenge to date: creating a full-length production that did not just fuse dance with digital, but dance with digital, music and storytelling. Our aim was to create a show based on the myth of Daedalus and Icarus. It would explore the story, highlighting the journey it takes from the ground to the sky and back again. Most importantly the piece was to demonstrate how projection can create the illusion of height and weightlessness, with imagery dictating the movement, and how the movement can dictate the imagery when the journey reverses. In simplest terms we wanted to find a cohesive process that allowed not just one aspect to dictate the other: a happy marriage between choreography and digital projection, all portrayed through our show, Icarus. This article will explore that journey.
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Young female filmmaker makes controversial film − making her an inspiring humanitarian
More LessAbstractJennifer Merchant; the first director to take on a coming-of-age movie that deals with the headscarf-wearing teenager. So far there haven’t been any films with this focus.
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Sharing ‘untamed ideas’: Process-based costume design in Finnish contemporary dance through the work of Marja Uusitalo
Authors: Tua Helve and Sofia PantouvakiAbstractWhen designing for contemporary dance, Finnish costume designer Marja Uusitalo integrates herself into the process of each production, allowing the costumes to emerge from collaboration. Starting from the costume designer’s ‘chase of untamed ideas’ and continuing with the production team’s ‘shared experiences’, Uusitalo’s design work is the outcome of a process led by trust, dialogue, creative exchange and experimentation. The collaborative nature of performance design has been discussed by both practitioners and scholars; yet, an in-depth investigation of the centrality of collaboration in process-based costume design would enhance a profounder understanding of process-led design in the specific field. Through Uusitalo’s work, this article examines the relationship between costume design process and costume outcomes in the context of Finnish contemporary dance in the twenty-first century. This article discusses the frame of Uusitalo’s work and analyses three of her designs as case studies. The analysis not only reveals the ways in which the design process informs the final costumes for the performance, but also brings to the forefront elements of process-based costume design that, as this article argues, result in an explicit understanding of collaboration as well as of the agency of the costume designer. Furthermore, by proposing ways to consider alternative working methods in costume design, this article contributes to an ongoing discourse on processes and hierarchical structures in the creative fields more broadly.
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Critical costume
Authors: Rachel Hann and Sidsel Bech
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