The Reification of Hegemonic Masculinity via Heteronormativity, Sexual Objectification, and Masculine Performances in Tau Kappa Epsilon Recruitment Videos

Fraternity members constitute a large percentage of men who hold highly influential jobs in politics, large corporations, and the like. Since fraternities are limited to men-only, it is important to examine how masculinity is both rhetorically constructed and subsequently performed. Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE), the fraternity with the largest amount of chapters nationwide, is the focus of my analysis. Its popularity among college campuses signifies that its recruitment is successful and that, regardless of initiation into the fraternity, many men (and women) view TKE as an example of masculinity. In my analysis, I examine TKE recruitment videos from various universities that span the Northeastern, Southern, Midwestern, and Western regions of the United States. My analysis identified five markers that indicate an abidance to hegemonic masculinity, or the varying construction of the “ideal” man that is impossible to fully achieve: dominance (ascendency), sexual objectification of women, heteronormativity, alcohol use, and recreational movement of the body. These markers demonstrate how TKE’s sustainment of hegemonic masculine ideals is problematic to society as a whole given the influence of fraternities beyond campus borders

Vision, Voice, and Cinematic Presence

Anxieties around the appearance and audition of the female body and voice in Tamil cinema reveal a semiotic ideology of the image that does not fit neatly within the idea of cinema as representation. Instead, this ideology takes filmic images to be acts that performatively presence the actresses and singers who animate them, in other words morally charged acts for which such animators are held accountable. Drawing on linguistic anthropology and film theory, this article explores vision-image and sound-image as distinct modes of performative presence, noting the division of semiotic labor between them as well as their interaction and interdependence. The theoretical project, relevant to cinema and related media more generally, argues for the need to attend to those processes and factors that enable the performativity of images to be either elaborated and institutionalized or played down and attacked in any particular historical, cultural, or political context

Ruffled: Examining Feminism & Femininity Through Animation

The animated short film Ruffled confronts the subjects of Feminism and Femininity through the after-hour musings of a young seamstress. Sewing to patterns and working from their papered paradigms she discovers her unique voice that is both referential of the past while remaining distinctly modern. The struggle twenty-first century Feminists may encounter when determining their place within a history rich with prejudice, confrontation, and triumph is metaphorically represented in each of the character\u27s attempts at garment creation. Within the film, not only does this clothing harken back to vintage apparel but whimsically transforms her surroundings to reflect three visually distinct decades important to twentieth century Feminist theory. Finding herself in microcosms of the past she comes to realize they must be both integrated and expanded upon in order to fashion a future anew. Only in pulling elements from each vintage outfit, adding a few stitches of her own, and creating something altogether original is she satisfied and ready to leave the shop. Ruffled is a hybrid animation that utilizes both 2D and 3D techniques to contrast design aesthetics and symbolically divide the past and present. 2D planar props dress each dated era like that of a stage set and play into the notion of performative femininity; the juxtaposition between each perceived experience and the 3D physical realm are thus emphasized. Ruffled uses the medium of animation to address the notion that ingenuity and self-exploration are strengthened and made clear through examination of the past

Improving VIP viewer Gaze Estimation and Engagement Using Adaptive Dynamic Anamorphosis

Anamorphosis for 2D displays can provide viewer centric perspective viewing, enabling 3D appearance, eye contact and engagement, by adapting dynamically in real time to a single moving viewer’s viewpoint, but at the cost of distorted viewing for other viewers. We present a method for constructing non-linear projections as a combination of anamorphic rendering of selective objects whilst reverting to normal perspective rendering of the rest of the scene. Our study defines a scene consisting of five characters, with one of these characters selectively rendered in anamorphic perspective. We conducted an evaluation experiment and demonstrate that the tracked viewer-centric imagery for the selected character results in an improved gaze and engagement estimation. Critically, this is performed without sacrificing the other viewers’ viewing experience. In addition, we present findings on the perception of gaze direction for regularly viewed characters located off-center to the origin, where perceived gaze shifts from being aligned to misalignment increasingly as the distance between viewer and character increases. Finally, we discuss different viewpoints and the spatial relationship between objects

Look me in the eyes: A survey of eye and gaze animation for virtual agents and artificial systems

International audienceA person's emotions and state of mind are apparent in their face and eyes. As a Latin proverb states: "The face is the portrait of the mind; the eyes, its informers.". This presents a huge challenge for computer graphics researchers in the generation of artificial entities that aim to replicate the movement and appearance of the human eye, which is so important in human-human interactions. This State of the Art Report provides an overview of the efforts made on tackling this challenging task. As with many topics in Computer Graphics, a cross-disciplinary approach is required to fully understand the workings of the eye in the transmission of information to the user. We discuss the movement of the eyeballs, eyelids, and the head from a physiological perspective and how these movements can be modelled, rendered and animated in computer graphics applications. Further, we present recent research from psychology and sociology that seeks to understand higher level behaviours, such as attention and eye-gaze, during the expression of emotion or during conversation, and how they are synthesised in Computer Graphics and Robotics

Animating observed emotional behaviour: a practice-based investigation comparing three approaches to self-figurative animation

This research explores different animation approaches to rendering observed emotional behaviour, through the creation of an animated artefact. It opens with an introduction to the research and the methodology chosen before progressing to a review of academic and practitioner-based literature associated with observed emotional behaviour. Building upon this foundation of literature, the thesis outlines how the artifact was created with a practice based approach drawn from Haseman’s cycle of creation, feedback, reflection and then creation. The main research question is augmented by a series of contributory questions that explore the research through iterations of animation drawn from a base of live action footage of observed emotional behaviour. These exploratory iterations progress though motion capture, rotoscopy and finally freeform animation. The completed artifact and its findings are explored first though a perception study and then a production study. This thesis is based on the investigation and discourse of observed emotional behaviour surrounding the use of animation, specifically, the direct study of the observation of emotional behaviour through the application of animation as a tool of research. It aims to provide a basis of discussion and contribution to knowledge for animation practitioners, theorists and practitioner-researchers seeking to use less performative and exaggerated forms