Spectators’ aesthetic experiences of sound and movement in dance performance

In this paper we present a study of spectators’ aesthetic experiences of sound and movement in live dance performance. A multidisciplinary team comprising a choreographer, neuroscientists and qualitative researchers investigated the effects of different sound scores on dance spectators. What would be the impact of auditory stimulation on kinesthetic experience and/or aesthetic appreciation of the dance? What would be the effect of removing music altogether, so that spectators watched dance while hearing only the performers’ breathing and footfalls? We investigated audience experience through qualitative research, using post-performance focus groups, while a separately conducted functional brain imaging (fMRI) study measured the synchrony in brain activity across spectators when they watched dance with sound or breathing only. When audiences watched dance accompanied by music the fMRI data revealed evidence of greater intersubject synchronisation in a brain region consistent with complex auditory processing. The audience research found that some spectators derived pleasure from finding convergences between two complex stimuli (dance and music). The removal of music and the resulting audibility of the performers’ breathing had a significant impact on spectators’ aesthetic experience. The fMRI analysis showed increased synchronisation among observers, suggesting greater influence of the body when interpreting the dance stimuli. The audience research found evidence of similar corporeally focused experience. The paper discusses possible connections between the findings of our different approaches, and considers the implications of this study for interdisciplinary research collaborations between arts and sciences

Global Platform Work: Negotiating Relations in a Translocal Assemblage

Digitale Freelance-Plattformen werben mit Flexibilität, Unabhängigkeit und dem Zugang zu einem weltweiten Arbeitsmarkt. Doch was bedeutet es, sich in diesem Umfeld zu organisieren und zu positionieren? "Global Platform Work" beleuchtet den Alltag von Grafikdesigner:innen, die von Indien aus über digitale Plattformen weltweit Aufträge erhalten. Auf der Grundlage von Interviews, Beobachtungen und Fototagebüchern beschreibt die Autorin, wie wichtig es für Gigworker:innen ist, sich ständig aufs Neue in ein positives Licht zu rücken, Beziehungen zu knüpfen und sich an eine Arbeitsumgebung anzupassen, die im ständigen Wandel begriffen ist. Dabei formuliert sie Gig Work als Beziehungsarbeit und beleuchtet alltägliche Praktiken, die gängige Konzepte von Arbeit oft unberücksichtigt lassen

Towards Understanding the Influence of Nature Imagery in User Interface Design: A Review of the Literature

Nature imagery is frequently employed as a design element to improve how users experience interactions with computerized artifacts such as websites and mobile apps. However, literature on the influence of such imagery on human perception and behavior is scant and highly fragmented. In this paper, we develop a theoretical framework that integrates the different pathways for how nature imagery embedded in user interface design may affect user perception and behavior. Building on this framework, we synthesize the results of existing literature on how humans perceive nature imagery and the potential cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses. By providing a concise overview of key theories and results of the extant literature, this study contributes to the knowledge base of (1) scholars who theorize on the impact of nature imagery on user perception and behavior and (2) systems designers who intend to utilize nature imagery in their user interfaces

#Funeral and Instagram: death, social media, and platform vernacular

© 2014, © 2014 Taylor & Francis. This paper presents findings from a study of Instagram use and funerary practices that analysed photographs shared on public profiles tagged with ‘#funeral’. We found that the majority of images uploaded with the hashtag #funeral often communicated a person's emotional circumstances and affective context, and allowed them to reposition their funeral experience amongst wider networks of acquaintances, friends, and family. We argue that photo-sharing through Instagram echoes broader shifts in commemorative and memorialization practices, moving away from formal and institutionalized rituals to informal and personalized, vernacular practices. Finally, we consider how Instagram's ‘platform vernacular’ unfolds in relation to traditions and contexts of death, mourning, and memorialization. This research contributes to a broader understanding of how platform vernaculars are shaped through the logics of architecture and use. This research also directly contributes to the understanding of death and digital media by examining how social media is being mobilized in relation to death, the differences that different media platforms make, and the ways social media are increasingly entwined with the places, events, and rituals of mourning

Ciudadanía económica en las noticias financieras digitales: afecto y argumentación en la cobertura periodística de la Eurocrisis

This paper evaluates the practices of online news media in representing citizens in the midst of the Eurozone crisis from the perspective of civic participation. Our special focus is on the interplay of argumentation and affect as crucial sources of political action. The empirical analysis examines affective and argumentative framing in two multimodal story types, captioned photo galleries and video reviews, and evaluates their capacity facilitating or hindering political agency. Video reviews construct news narratives that incorporate both affective and argumentative elements. Photo galleries, by contrast, emphasize affect at the cost of argumentation and voice resulting in alienation and silencing. The analysis gives grounds to suggest that dramatized visual news narratives about the financial crisis echo discourses of war on terror and unspecific threat. Such discourses legitimize pre-emptive action (austerity measures, police force), which, in effect, participate in producing what it is supposed to fight (economic inequality, social unrest, violence)El presente artículo evalúa las prácticas utilizadas por los medios digitales para representar la ciudadanía desde la perspectiva de la participación cívicaen el epicentro de la crisis de la Eurozona. Nuestro enfoque se centra en la interacción de la argumentación y el afecto como fuentes cruciales de activismo político. El análisis empírico examina el encuadre afectivo y argumentativo en dos tipos de relatos multimodales, las reseñas videomáticas y las leyendas de las colecciones fotográficas, y evalúa su capacidad de facilitar u obstruir la agencia política. Las reseñas videomáticas construyen narrativas sobre las noticias que incorporan elementos afectivos y argumentativos. Las colecciones fotográficas, por el contrario, enfatizan el afecto a costa de la argumentación y la voz, propiciando la alienación y el silenciamiento. El presente análisis permite sugerir que la dramatización de narrativas gráficas sobre las noticias relacionadas con la crisis financiera repite los discursos sobre la guerra contra el terror y las amenazas latentes. Tales discursos legitiman las acciones preventivas (medidas de austeridad, fuerza policial) que, en consecuencia, entran en connivencia con lo que se supone deberían criticar (desigualdad económica, descontento social, violencia

Sharenting: Pride, affect and the day to day politics of digital mothering

The coming together of parenting and routine posting on social networking sites has become a visible and recognisable theme and the term ‘sharenting’ has found a place in everyday talk to describe some forms of parental digital sharing practices. However, while social media has undoubtedly provided a space for parents to share experiences and receive support around parenting, sharenting remains a contestable issue. Thus, one reading of sharenting would be as a display of good parenting as mothers ‘show off’ their children as a marker of success. However, the term also can be used pejoratively to describe parental oversharing of child-focused images and content. In this paper we explore the practice of sharenting in terms of pride, affect, and the politics of digital mothering in a neoliberal context to conclude that sharenting can be best understood as a complex affective and intersectional accomplishment that produces motherhood and family as communicative activities within digital social practices