Whoever Said Change Was Good: The Transforming Body of the Disney Villainess

This dissertation examines female figures in Disney animation through the lens of Laban Movement Analysis (LMA), a system for observing and articulating movement qualities. Drawing from six major films released between 1937 and 2010, I focus my inquiry on how the bodies and movement of Disneys villainesses reflect and/or perpetuate cultural imaginaries of women. I identify the influence of several cultural tropes of femininity, including fairy-tale archetypes, ballet conventions, and the Hollywood femme fatale, and explore how they constellate social understandings of age, beauty, and desirability. Coalescing around the theme of physical transformation, the study investigates how consistent movement patterns both support character animation and reflect gender ideologies encoded in the bodies of these wicked women. Through a methodology grounded in LMA and drawing from dance studies, feminist theory, and Disney scholarship, I interrogate popular conceptions of women and evil, articulate how movement contributes to cultural meaning, and demonstrate LMAs value to cultural analysis and animation

Synthesizing systems : the work of art and of science in the fiction of Richard Powers

The purpose of this dissertation is to introduce a general reading audience to the major themes found in the fiction of Richard Powers with an emphasis on his use of science. For Powers, science is something more than the accumulation of technical data and the proliferation of theories developed to explain physical phenomena. It is an evolving body of knowledge which has important insights to contribute into the conditions which ground human experience The close and often detailed discussions of contemporary issues in science which Powers incorporates into his fiction indicate the extent to which he sees science as an inseparable component in any attempt to understand the complexities of human experience

Cinesonica: Sounding the Audiovisuality of Film and Video

The dissertation presents an exploration of neglected and under-theorised aspects of film and video sound. In doing so, the study proposes a sounding of the cinesonic; that is, it considers the deployment of sound within an audiovisual context. The key concern of this dissertation is how we might map and negotiate the materiality of film and video sound both beyond, and in relation to, its signitive dimensions, and what might be at stake in a critical engagement with that materiality. In particular, this sounding engages with the inscription of difference that is common to Saussurian linguistics, signitive formulations of sound-image relations, and notions of what might constitute the properly 'political' in an audiovisual poetics founded on modernist paradigms. The research demonstrates that any coming-to-terms with film and video's materiality needs to be informed by the idea that the material events we term 'the film' or 'the video' are marked by a relationship between sound and image. Thus the dissertation negotiates a sounding of these media in relation to that materiality best described as audiovisuality. The dissertation opens with a consideration of the way in which sound is commonly conceptualised in terms of its relationship with an object source, and how the formulation of sound as signifier militates against an engagement with its material dimensions. The following chapters explore neglected aspects of film and video sound by drawing on a range of theoretical resources predominantly - but not exclusively - derived from the work of Gilles Deleuze, with detailed case study analyses of specific film and video texts, and interviews with filmmakers. The topics covered in these chapters include the phenomenon of optical crackle, electronic sounds, the correspondence of sound and image pejoratively termed 'mickey-mousing', and the organisation and manipulation of sounds in British Scratch Video of the 1980s

Hollywood\u27s Indian: The Portrayal of the Native American in Film

Offering both in-depth analyses of specific films and overviews of the industry\u27s output, Hollywood\u27s Indian provides insightful characterizations of the depiction of the Native Americans in film. This updated edition includes a new chapter on Smoke Signals, the groundbreaking independent film written by Sherman Alexie and directed by Chris Eyre. Taken as a whole the essays explore the many ways in which these portrayals have made an impact on our collective cultural life. Raises interesting issues and challenges readers to consider the complex realities of American Indian cultures and Indian/non-Indian relations that major motion pictures often fail to communicate. -- American Graduate Important and groundbreaking work. -- Bookman News Enables readers to construct a cinematic chronology of the Hollywood Indian and to comprehend the larger cultural forces at work interpreting the Indian-white past on screen. -- Choice Rollins and O’Connor have skillfully blended a variety of thoughtful veiwpoints. -- Chronicles of Oklahoma A collection of quality essays, put together by two of the leading experts in this particular topic area. -- Communication Booknotes Quarterly Hollywood\u27s representation of Indians is a subject which up till now has generated a lot more heat than light. This welcome new collection of essays covers a lot of ground . . . including a valuable piece on Michael Mann\u27s The Last of the Mohicans and earlier versions of Cooper\u27s \u27Leatherstocking Tales,\u27 a surprisingly and convincingly sympathetic essay on Dances with Wolves , and an informative account of Pocahontas . -- Edward Buscombe Will become the standard source for reference for an important subject, not only in American contemporary popular culture, but for evolving attitudes in a new century. -- Film and History The essays provide valuable ways to think about the meaning and impact of Hollywood\u27s portrayal of American Indian characters. -- Great Plains Quarterly Offers an engaging and timely update to previous critical anthologies. -- H-Net Book Review An engaging and timely update to previous critical anthologies. -- Journal of American Culture The value of this collection resides in the concentrated attention it gives to the portrayal of Native Americans on film. -- Journal of American Ethnic History The essays are solid pieces that place the films in a proper historical and artistic context. -- Journal of American History The essays add to the growing literature on films about American Indians, and individually, they provide interesting insights into the process of movie-making and viewing. -- North Carolina Historical Review A welcome contribution to the lively and timely debate on the representation of ethnic minorities in the media. -- Zeitscrift fur Anglistik und Amerikanistik An excellent set of essays on the subject. -- Choicehttps://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_film_and_media_studies/1022/thumbnail.jp

The new within the given : collage principles and processes in contemporary painting

Collage is presented as an allegoric art-form sui generis, considering allegory itself as an open-ended form of art. The research provides a suggestion to a different understanding of collage i.e.: as a catalyst for a search for structure and semiotic relationships in an attempt to overcome a constant disordered expansion of an intertextual web and hermeneutic possibilities; and as an open work, providing multi-layered meanings. As an open work collage is typified by the prominent role of its "readers", its ambiguity and the infinite net of references it summons. Collage may be conceived as a bridge between modernism and postmodernism, structuralism and post-structuralism; as a model for constant innovation and suppleness; as a stimulator for meta-artistic questions, acceptance of "soft" universals and reevaluation of the role of the Other within an artwork. Works by Jasper Johns, Michal Na'aman, Dina Hoffman and myself exemplify these ideas.Visual ArtsM.A. (Visual Arts

Following Tradition

Following Tradition is an expansive examination of the history of traditio

Following Tradition

Following Tradition is an expansive examination of the history of tradition— one of the most common as well as most contested terms in English language usage —in Americans\u27 thinking and discourse about culture. Tradition in use becomes problematic because of its multiple meanings and its conceptual softness. As a term and a concept, it has been important in the development of all scholarly fields that study American culture. Folklore, history, American studies, anthropology, cultural studies, and others assign different value and meaning to tradition. It is a frequent point of reference in popular discourse concerning everything from politics to lifestyles to sports and entertainment. Politicians and social advocates appeal to it as prima facie evidence of the worth of their causes. Entertainment and other media mass produce it, or at least a facsimile of it. In a society that frequently seeks to reinvent itself, tradition as a cultural anchor to be reverenced or rejected is an essential, if elusive, concept. Simon Bronner\u27s wide net captures the historical, rhetorical, philosophical, and psychological dimensions of tradition. As he notes, he has written a book about an American tradition—arguing about it. His elucidation of those arguments makes fascinating and thoughtful reading. An essential text for folklorists, Following Tradition will be a valuable reference as well for historians and anthropologists; students of American studies, popular culture, and cultural studies; and anyone interested in the continuing place of tradition in American culture.https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/usupress_pubs/1064/thumbnail.jp

Inside the conductor's jacket : analysis, interpretation and musical synthesis of expressive gesture

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2000.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 154-167).We present the design and implementation of the Conductor's Jacket, a unique wearable device that measures physiological and gestural signals, together with the Gesture Construction, a musical software system that interprets these signals and applies them expressively in a musical context. Sixteen sensors have been incorporated into the Conductor's Jacket in such a way as to not encumber or interfere with the gestures of a working orchestra conductor. The Conductor's Jacket system gathers up to sixteen data channels reliably at rates of 3 kHz per channel, and also provides mcal-time graphical feedback. Unlike many gesture-sensing systems it not only gathers positional and accelerational data but also senses muscle tension from several locations on each arm. The Conductor's Jacket was used to gather conducting data from six subjects, three professional conductors and three students, during twelve hours of rehearsals and performances. Analyses of the data yielded thirty-five significant features that seem to reflect intuitive and natural gestural tendencies, including context-based hand switching, anticipatory 'flatlining' effects, and correlations between respiration and phrasing. The results indicate that muscle tension and respiration signals reflect several significant and expressive characteristics of a conductor's gestures. From these results we present nine hypotheses about human musical expression, including ideas about efficiency, intentionality, polyphony, signal-to-noise ratios, and musical flow state. Finally, this thesis describes the Gesture Construction, a musical software system that analyzes and performs music in real-time based on the performer's gestures and breathing signals. A bank of software filters extracts several of the features that were found in the conductor study, including beat intensities and the alternation between arms. These features are then used to generate real-time expressive effects by shaping the beats, tempos, articulations, dynamics, and note lengths in a musical score.by Teresa Marrin Nakra.Ph.D

(D)urban identity : stories of an African city

Includes bibliographical references (p. 263-309)