Design as an Accompaniment to Performance Art: Incorporating Imagery to Amplify Emotional Impact

Design as an Accompaniment to Performance Art: Incorporating Imagery to Amplify Emotional Impact is an investigation of how graphic design can be used to increase the emotional impact of a performance art piece, such as spoken word or music. The research indicates that memory plays a significant role in informing the emotion felt. The felt emotion then allows the viewer to form a perspective on the artistic piece as a whole. However, it is important to note that an individual’s memory cannot be controlled by the artist. Therefore, it is necessary for the artist to place a direct focus on the characteristics of design and how they influence the emotional impact of the performance art piece. The design characteristics investigated include type, color, texture, shape, form, space, line, symbolism, iconography, anticipated motion, and layout

Eliciting Awe in the Spectator: The Case of a Dhrupad-Based Dance Performance

This paper describes “Kalos, eîdos, skopeîn,” an immersive Dhrupad-based dance installation designed to elicit feelings of awe in the spectators, in a real-life artistic context. This study used a mixed-methods approach in order to explore spectators’ awe experience (N=45), using specific scales and interpretative phenomenological analysis. Results suggested that “Kalos, eîdos, skopeîn,” with its combination of nature motifs and the slow dance-walk associated with the Dhrupad music in the choreography, was able to produce awe-related moments in some spectators and inspire a degree of positive emotions. Our qualitative results viewed awe explicitly as a positive emotion and showed that generally the spectator narratives, involving the whole performance, were based on modified states of consciousness. Three themes emerged: the main theme is “A rich experience of modified states of consciousness” involving the whole performance, and two interconnected sub-themes “Captivated by the slowness of the dancers” associated with the slow movement and “I can still hear the mantra in my head” in rapport with Dhrupad music. This study was carried out as part of the Canadian FRQSC/FCI Project (2019-RC2-260306)

Eliciting Awe in the Spectator: The Case of a Dhrupad-Based Dance Performance

This paper describes “Kalos, eîdos, skopeîn,” an immersive Dhrupad-based dance installation designed to elicit feelings of awe in the spectators, in a real-life artistic context. This study used a mixed-methods approach in order to explore spectators’ awe experience (N=45), using specific scales and interpretative phenomenological analysis. Results suggested that “Kalos, eîdos, skopeîn,” with its combination of nature motifs and the slow dance-walk associated with the Dhrupad music in the choreography, was able to produce awe-related moments in some spectators and inspire a degree of positive emotions. Our qualitative results viewed awe explicitly as a positive emotion and showed that generally the spectator narratives, involving the whole performance, were based on modified states of consciousness. Three themes emerged: the main theme is “A rich experience of modified states of consciousness” involving the whole performance, and two interconnected sub-themes “Captivated by the slowness of the dancers” associated with the slow movement and “I can still hear the mantra in my head” in rapport with Dhrupad music. This study was carried out as part of the Canadian FRQSC/FCI Project (2019-RC2-260306)

Taken back by the ballpark: The role of nostalgia in the Minor League Baseball spectator experience

The use of nostalgia has become a feature in baseball ballparks in recent years, with research showcasing the prevalence of nostalgic stimuli including bricks, steel beams, and old-fashioned scoreboards popular in the past. The impact of such stimuli on spectators’ emotions and behavior had yet to be explored, though. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to investigate the impact of nostalgia on minor league baseball spectator emotional and behavioral responses. Data collection occurred at three minor league baseball games during June 2017. Utilizing the SOR framework (Mehrabian & Russell, 1974) as the theoretical foundation, a 39-item instrument was constructed by adapting items from previously-constructed surveys in the contexts of sport and general consumer behavior. Using systematic random sampling, a total of 232 completed and usable surveys were collected. To investigate the impact of nostalgia on spectators’ emotional responses, structural equation modeling was utilized. The study sought to specifically examine whether nostalgia evoked through spectators’ senses (sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch) and social interaction impacted their pleasure. Results showed that only social interaction was a significant positive predictor of pleasure, with sight a significant negative predictor of pleasure. A significant, positive relationship between pleasure and spectator’s behavioral intentions was also found. Finally, the study explored whether spectators’ arousal moderated the relationship between pleasure and arousal. The results displayed that arousal did not significantly moderate this relationship, with pleasure and arousal maintaining a strong correlation. Results and implications of the study are discussed, with suggestions for future research provided

Can a piece of music with a positive emotional elicitation improve dream content and the phenomenological experience?

Dreams can be defined as a series of thoughts, ideas and sensations that occur involuntarily within our minds during the stages of sleep. As there is a current lack of research connecting music and its effects on dreams, this thesis will investigate if music can have a positive effect on dreaming. Longer lasting effects if music can positively alter our dreams, is a reduction in nightmares and stressful dreaming. Many of us dream or experience dreaming on a nightly basis whether it be wild, vivid experiences or just the recall of a sensation. First, five pieces of music across five different genres were assessed (using the BRECVEMA model of music psychology), and then presented to a group of participants to see how emotions were perceived across the five selected genres/pieces (scores attained from the Emotion Worksheets). It was found that the ‘Musical Theatre’ piece of music had the highest level of positive emotional elicitation within participants.Then, various aspects of dreaming including dream contents and various experiences of dreaming (PANAS, vividness, coherence, recall and sensory information) were examined for two weeks, one week where the participants listened to the selected piece of music and one where participants listened to no music. Participants were given a dream journal to complete throughout the two weeks which included; pre-sleep questionnaire, a space to record dreams and a post-sleep questionnaire. It was found that when the participants were listening to music, they experienced significantly more positive contents of their dreams, whereas dreaming experiences were not altered in accordance with the music. Although, further research within this field is needed to fully assess whether all music as a whole can alter our emotions strong enough to change our dream content and our phenomenological experience. Other pieces of music within other genres and the same genre could be deemed more powerful and have more of a lasting effect

The double characterization of the quixoteism motive and its link with the experience of awe-Q

Esta tesis tiene embargado el acceso al texto completo hasta el 18-04-2021Tesis doctoral inédita leída en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Facultad de Psicología, Departamento de Psicología Social y Metodología. Fecha de lectura: 18-10-201