Bridging Beijing Opera and Hip Hop A Style Fusion Experiment in Character Design

The concept of style fusion for visual storytelling is introduced and applied in this research. Style fusion is the process of identifying two distinct styles as sources, which are from different artists or culture backgrounds, and applying features and visual symbols from both to develop a new style. As a proof of concept, the source performance styles selected for fusion are traditional Chinese Beijing opera and hip hop. A set of guidelines for this style fusion are developed after an analysis of the visual symbols of each source style. A character and an environment design fusion are done based on these guidelines. Finally, the style fusion is visualized using 3D models

Revolutionary Melodrama: Tales of Family, Kinship, and the Nation in Modern China

Revolutionary Melodrama: Tales of Family, Kinship, and the Nation in Modern China investigates the seemingly paradoxical pairing of “revolution” and “melodrama” and the vital role the melodramatic mode played in shaping modern aesthetics in China. Where melodrama is commonly understood to disavow revolutionary change and maintain the status quo, I argue that revolutionary melodramas function as emotional pedagogies in which abstract revolutionary ideas and ideals are made emotionally legible, and political solidarities more possible, to the masses. By deploying melodrama as an analytical category, this dissertation focuses on three representative manifestations of revolutionary melodramatic aesthetics at the micro-level of individuals and families. Each chapter of my dissertation draws together different media across three key historical moments in twentieth century China: the iconic May Fourth novel Jia (1933), the music-drama The White-Haired Girl (1945) created in wartime Yan’an, and the model opera film The Red Lantern (1970) produced during the height of the Cultural Revolution. In their reappropriations of the melodramatic mode, these texts deploy the affective trope of family and kinship to articulate alternative affiliations and create a passionate revolutionary collective capable of making socio-political change. Revolutionary Melodrama shows that aesthetic texts can be more than a mere reflection of what people’s thoughts and feelings at a given historical moment; they are also mediated experience of history and modernity that can actively shape the affective meaning of family/kinship and transform existing structures of feeling at the same time. On the other hand, while the melodramatic mode provided a powerful, dichotomized trope that can be mobilized in different historical circumstances for varied ideological purposes, it ultimately failed to transcend these sets of dichotomies. Revolutionary melodrama oscillates between personal si feelings and public/social gong passions, between the particularities of familial and kinship bonds and the universality of the nation-state, and yet is never able to truly transcend such dichotomies

Mirror - Vol. 12, No. 03 - September 24, 1987

The Mirror (sometimes called the Fairfield Mirror) is the official student newspaper of Fairfield University, and is published weekly during the academic year (September - May). It runs from 1977 - the present; current issues are available online.https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/archives-mirror/1239/thumbnail.jp

Distinction in China - the rise of taste in cultural consumption

This research studies how cultural consumption draws cultural distinctions in the most developed megacities in China. This research examines the pattern of music consumption to examine distinction—which types of music are used, how they are used, who are using them, and what are the sources of those tastes. Although some theories, such as the cultural omnivore account, contend that the rise of contemporary pop culture implies a more open-minded pursuit of taste, this research argues that popular culture draws distinction in new ways. Based on a 1048 random-sample survey and 21 interviews on music in China, this research shows how the penetration of foreign music into China has allowed it to become a form of cultural capital—highstatus cultural knowledge and dispositions that can be leveraged for social distinction (Bourdieu, 1984). This research pioneers in cultural capital research the use of MIRT, a latent trait method from psychometrics, to reveal the pattern of music taste. Those with high levels of cultural capital had more exposure to certain types of music such as classical music and selective foreign pop music, which requires knowledge and research to consume, accumulating in "tastes" which they deploy to measure others. Those with low cultural capital tend to follow the mainstream or are uninterested in these music types. In turn, the meaning of cultural capital in China is examined to show how taste is influenced by not only current socioeconomic differences but also the past, most notably the privileged childhood of those growing up in advantaged families. The rise of taste in China is traced to rising inequality under Reform and Opening which led to a diverging upbringing in the newest generation of Chinese. This research updates Bourdieu's theory of cultural capital, which has traditionally focused on elite highbrow culture, by demonstrating how the influx of global culture in a contemporary society has enabled the continuation of cultural distinction

Redefining Female Talent: Chinese Women Artists in the National and Global Art Worlds, 1900s - 1970s

This study examines the art practices of three generations of Chinese women who were active between the 1900s and the 1970s. Its conceptual focus is on the reassessment of female talent and virtue, a moralized dichotomy that had been used to frame womens social practices and cultural production for centuries in China. The study opens in the period when female poetic practice was harshly vilified by reformists of the late Qing era (1890s-1911). It questions why womens art production was not directly condemned and examines how womens increasingly public displays of artistic talent were legitimized through the invocation of long-standing familial norms, the official sanction of new education, and the formulation of various nationalist agendas. Most importantly, this study demonstrates how women artists joined female writers, educators, and political figures in redefining gender possibilities in the early Republican period. Women artists discussed in this study practiced both Chinese-style and Western-style art. It examines their participation in several different public contexts, including art education, exhibitions, art societies, and philanthropic organizations. Representatives of the first generation, Wu Xingfen (1853-1930) and Jin Taotao (1884-1939), advanced the artistic legacy of their predecessors, the women of the boudoir (guixiu), while at the same time expanding the paradigm of traditional womens art practices. In addition to their emerging visibility in the local art world, they also exhibited works in international expositions, engaged with foreign concessions, and traveled abroad. Members of the Chinese Womens Society of Calligraphy and Painting (Zhongguo nzi shuhuahui) who represent the second generation, embraced new institutional possibilities by studying, teaching, and forming a collective to reaffirm womens position in the traditional-style art milieu. Pan Yuliang (1895-1977) and her cohort of Western-style artists who formed the third generation, contributed to modern art reform in China in the early twentieth century. Pans distinct life trajectory and subsequent career in Paris illuminate the ways race and gender figured in transcultural artistic representations from the 1940s to the 1970s. These artists public presence in both the national and global art worlds redefined and repurposed female talent as both a patriotic virtue, and new expressions of gender subjectivities

FACING EXPERIENCE: A PAINTER’S CANVAS IN VIRTUAL REALITY

Full version unavailable due to 3rd party copyright restrictions.This research investigates how shifts in perception might be brought about through the development of visual imagery created by the use of virtual environment technology. Through a discussion of historical uses of immersion in art, this thesis will explore how immersion functions and why immersion has been a goal for artists throughout history. It begins with a discussion of ancient cave drawings and the relevance of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Next it examines the biological origins of “making special.” The research will discuss how this concept, combined with the ideas of “action” and “reaction,” has reinforced the view that art is fundamentally experiential rather than static. The research emphasizes how present-day virtual environment art, in providing a space that engages visitors in computer graphics, expands on previous immersive artistic practices. The thesis examines the technical context in which the research occurs by briefly describing the use of computer science technologies, the fundamentals of visual arts practices, and the importance of aesthetics in new media and provides a description of my artistic practice. The aim is to investigate how combining these approaches can enhance virtual environments as artworks. The computer science of virtual environments includes both hardware and software programming. The resultant virtual environment experiences are technologically dependent on the types of visual displays being used, including screens and monitors, and their subsequent viewing affordances. Virtual environments fill the field of view and can be experienced with a head mounted display (HMD) or a large screen display. The sense of immersion gained through the experience depends on how tracking devices and related peripheral devices are used to facilitate interaction. The thesis discusses visual arts practices with a focus on how illusions shift our cognition and perception in the visual modalities. This discussion includes how perceptual thinking is the foundation of art experiences, how analogies are the foundation of cognitive experiences and how the two intertwine in art experiences for virtual environments. An examination of the aesthetic strategies used by artists and new media critics are presented to discuss new media art. This thesis investigates the visual elements used in virtual environments and prescribes strategies for creating art for virtual environments. Methods constituting a unique virtual environment practice that focuses on visual analogies are discussed. The artistic practice that is discussed as the basis for this research also concentrates on experiential moments and shifts in perception and cognition and references Douglas Hofstadter, Rudolf Arnheim and John Dewey. iv Virtual environments provide for experiences in which the imagery generated updates in real time. Following an analysis of existing artwork and critical writing relative to the field, the process of inquiry has required the creation of artworks that involve tracking systems, projection displays, sound work, and an understanding of the importance of the visitor. In practice, the research has shown that the visitor should be seen as an interlocutor, interacting from a first-person perspective with virtual environment events, where avatars or other instrumental intermediaries, such as guns, vehicles, or menu systems, do not to occlude the view. The aesthetic outcomes of this research are the result of combining visual analogies, real time interactive animation, and operatic performance in immersive space. The environments designed in this research were informed initially by paintings created with imagery generated in a hypnopompic state or during the moments of transitioning from sleeping to waking. The drawings often emphasize emotional moments as caricatures and/or elements of the face as seen from a number of perspectives simultaneously, in the way of some cartoons, primitive artwork or Cubist imagery. In the imagery, the faces indicate situations, emotions and confrontations which can offer moments of humour and reflective exploration. At times, the faces usurp the space and stand in representation as both face and figure. The power of the placement of the caricatures in the paintings become apparent as the imagery stages the expressive moment. The placement of faces sets the scene, establishes relationships and promotes the honesty and emotions that develop over time as the paintings are scrutinized. The development process of creating virtual environment imagery starts with hand drawn sketches of characters, develops further as paintings on “digital canvas”, are built as animated, three-dimensional models and finally incorporated into a virtual environment. The imagery is generated while drawing, typically with paper and pencil, in a stream of consciousness during the hypnopompic state. This method became an aesthetic strategy for producing a snappy straightforward sketch. The sketches are explored further as they are worked up as paintings. During the painting process, the figures become fleshed out and their placement on the page, in essence brings them to life. These characters inhabit a world that I explore even further by building them into three dimensional models and placing them in computer generated virtual environments. The methodology of developing and placing the faces/figures became an operational strategy for building virtual environments. In order to open up the range of art virtual environments, and develop operational strategies for visitors’ experience, the characters and their facial features are used as navigational strategies, signposts and methods of wayfinding in order to sustain a stream of consciousness type of navigation. Faces and characters were designed to represent those intimate moments of self-reflection and confrontation that occur daily within ourselves and with others. They sought to reflect moments of wonderment, hurt, curiosity and humour that could subsequently be relinquished for more practical or purposeful endeavours. They were intended to create conditions in which visitors might reflect upon their emotional state, v enabling their understanding and trust of their personal space, in which decisions are made and the nature of world is determined. In order to extend the split-second, frozen moment of recognition that a painting affords, the caricatures and their scenes are given new dimensions as they become characters in a performative virtual reality. Emotables, distinct from avatars, are characters confronting visitors in the virtual environment to engage them in an interactive, stream of consciousness, non-linear dialogue. Visitors are also situated with a role in a virtual world, where they were required to adapt to the language of the environment in order to progress through the dynamics of a drama. The research showed that imagery created in a context of whimsy and fantasy could bring ontological meaning and aesthetic experience into the interactive environment, such that emotables or facially expressive computer graphic characters could be seen as another brushstroke in painting a world of virtual reality

Digital effects in opera - Case study of Opera for 100th Anniversary of Helsinki University of Technology

Näyttämötaiteissa on aina käytetty tehosteita voimistamaan illuusiota esitysmaailmasta ja luomaan elämyksiä. Nykyisin oopperatuotannossa käytetyt esitallennetut digitaaliset tehosteet eivät mukaudu esityksen etenemiseen, joka nojaa musiikin kulkuun ja esiintyjien toimintaan. Tässä tutkimuksessa etsittiin keinoja luoda esitykseen luontevasti sopivia visuaalisia tehosteita. Tosiaikaisella tietokonegrafiikalla voidaan luoda vuorovaikutteisia tehosteita, joiden ajoitus ja kehitys voidaan ohjata esityksen aikana. Tehosteita voi ohjata tehostemies tai automaattinen seurantajärjestelmä, joka seuraa esimerkiksi esiintyjiä, rekvisiittaa tai musiikin piirteitä. Tehosteet voidaan esittää osana lavastusta tai omana kokonaisena virtuaalisena lavastuksena. Nykyaikaisilla kuluttajatason grafiikkakiihdyttimillä voidaan korjata projisoitava kuva näkymään oikein lähes millä tahansa näyttämön pinnalla. Tutkimuksen kokeellinen osa tehtiin osana Teknillisen korkeakoulun 100-vuotisjuhlaoopperaa Ihmiskunnan Rakastajat, johon toteutettiin virtuaalinen lavastus yhdessä taiteellisen ryhmän kanssa sekä virtuaalisen lavastuksen vaatima tekninen ympäristö. Virtuaalilavastuksen sekä tehosteiden onnistumista arvioitiin katsojakyselyllä ja ohjaajan haastattelulla. Myös teknisten ratkaisujen toimivuutta arvioitiin. Oopperan tuotantoprosessin ongelmien vuoksi vain osa tehosteista oli vuorovaikutteisia. Näyttelijöiden kasvoilta tosiaikaisesti tehty liikemallinnus ohjasi kahta avataria. Avatartehosteet eivät kuitenkaan tuoneet esitykseen taiteellista lisäarvoa, koska niiden toteutus ei vastannut laadullisia tavoitteita. Kahta muuta vuorovaikutteista tehostetta ohjasi tehostemies graafisen käyttöliittymän kautta. Tehostemies ajoitti ja sääti vettä esittävän tehosteen toimintaa, ja loppukohtauksessa hän valitsi sekä ajoitti kuvasarjoja kohtauksen tunnelmaan. Molempia tehosteita kehuttiin hienoiksi ja taiteellista lisäarvoa tuoviksi. Esitallennetut tehosteet keräsivät jonkin verran kritiikkiä ajoituksen rajoitteiden ja visuaalisen näyttävyyden osalta. Tutkimuksessa ilmeni tehosteiden vuorovaikutteisuudella olevan kysyntää sekä potentiaalia oopperatuotannossa, joskin tehostemiehen ohjaus olisi täyttänyt vuorovaikutustarpeen useimmissa produktioon visioiduissa tehosteissa.Effects have long been used in performing arts as a means to intensify the narrative and to create spectacle. Pre-recorded digital effects used in opera today do not adapt to the progression of music neither to the performers' actions. The objective of this master's thesis is to find methods to create effects that are a natural part of a performance. Real-time computer graphics can be used to create interactive effects. These effects can be controlled during the performance by an effects operator or automatic monitoring systems which follow the actors, props or features of the music. The effects can be used to augment the physical set or to form the whole set. Projected effects can be corrected with modern consumer-grade graphics accelerators to appear properly on almost any surface of the stage. The practical part of the thesis was realized as part of an opera for the 100th anniversary of Helsinki University of Technology. The opera implemented interactive virtual scenography in collaboration with the artistic crew made possible by a designed technical environment. The assessment of the artistic significance of the effects was based on polling the audience and interviewing the director. Technical solutions were evaluated by the author. Due to problems in the development process of the opera, only some of the effects were interactive. Real-time motion capture data of actors' facial gestures were used to control two avatar figures. The avatar effects did not bring any value to the opera because their quality was inadequate. Two other effects were controlled by the effects operator through a graphical interface. For a water-like effect the operator controlled the timing and rippling intensity to match the actors' movements. For the final scene, the operator selected and controlled the timing of image sequences to accommodate the changing mood of the scene. These two effects were successful in bringing some artistic value to the opera through interaction. The pre-recorded effects were criticized for dull looks and a lack of precise timing. The study revealed that there is potential and a definite call for interactive effects in the opera art. However, in many cases for visual effects, the operator would have been enough to make the effects conform to the performance

Remake of Chinese animation

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 115-123). Filmography: p. 124-125.This thesis attempts to look at how Chinese animation cinema has evolved over the years and how the Chinese nation is being constructed and contested through animation filmic texts and animation filmmaking practices as sites where national and transnational cultural and economic flows converge and contend. The unraveling of the intricate relations between animation cinema and nation is intended to shed light on the understanding of contemporary cultural, social and media scapes in China. The Introduction addresses motivations and goals, critical questions, and over-riding theoretical framework and methodology. Chapter One explores the origin of the pursuit of a national animation style by investigating early Chinese animation cinema of the pre-reform period. It also serves as a backdrop against which the present discourse of revitalizing national animation cinema is being articulated.(cont.) Chapter Two closely examines a commercial 3D feature-length animation production - Thru the Moebius Strip, as a case of "homemade" in the era of global capitalism, to look into modern nation-building both at the industry level and the filmic text level. Chapter Three closely examines another recent feature production, Little Soldier Zhang Ga, which can be read as a new type of "national" film that inherited the heritages of the socialist cinema, but aims at revolutionizing the animation cinema. The Conclusion comes back to the core question of the national and the creative, which contemporary animation cinema centers on. I try to disentangle the relations between Chinese animation filmmaking and the state discourse of national, taking into account the broader political, institutional, economic and cultural situations.by He Huang.S.M